Good morning.

I'm about to head down the street to Tom Lyons tire with my ride for our annual shakedown from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Yep...time for my vehicle inspection.

Funny thing, that. You and I pay a mountain of fees just to drive a car. I've got License, Registration, Inspections...and of course I paid a sales tax when I bought it, and often drive on a toll road to get to work.

I haven't heard the teabaggers whining about that level of government intrusion on our god-given right to take to the open road!

But what happens when there isn't any automotive regulation?



The Ford Pinto.





The Chevy Corvair.

Libertarians would argue that regulation isn't needed; the market would 'self-adjust' and put the companies making unsafe products out of business.

It's true that the Pinto and the Corvair are no longer manufactured, but I just looked out my front window and counted 3 Fords and a Chevy within eyeshot, so that didn't work. Never mind the cost in lives for the manufacturers to actually stop making the cars.

Of course, it's not just the automotive industry. Has everyone read Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle"? Trust me, you will never look at processed meats the same way again. It should come as no surprise to anyone that those lessons weren't learned either.

I've read and heard more than once that a definition of insanity is the endless repeating of certain actions, hoping for a different outcome for once.

I guess that's the only explanation for this:


 
2 comments (Latest Comment: 06/19/2010 18:23:05 by trojanrabbit)

Yesterday I wrote in the comments of the blog the following: There is a difference between constructive and destructive criticism. The 2 are not mutually exclusive to one another. There are legitimate concerns to be had with this President, but I have found in the past year and a half, that when I hear something on the radio or TV that sounds just awful, a little research goes a long way. Many times I find that what I heard and reality are two very different things.
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62 comments (Latest Comment: 06/18/2010 02:40:38 by Raine)

Good Morning.

Today is our 2,645th day in Iraq and our 3,173rd day in Afghanistan.

We'll start this morning as we always do, with the latest casualty figures from our ongoing wars, courtesy of Antiwar.com:

American Deaths
Since war began (3/19/03): 4405
Since "Mission Accomplished" (5/1/03): 4266
Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3944
Since Handover (6/29/04): 3546
Since Obama Inauguration (1/20/09): 177

Other Coalition Troops - Iraq: 318
US Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 1,114
Other Military Deaths - Afghanistan: 712
Contractor Employee Deaths - Iraq: 1,457
Journalists - Iraq: 338
Academics Killed - Iraq: 437

We find this morning's cost of war passing through:

$ 1, 005, 936, 600, 000 .00


We've got a bunch of things to look at today, so we'll dive right in. Have you been keeping up with the news out of Afghanistan? It's 10,000 miles away and there is no clear "bogeyman" (Like Saddam), so it's easy to miss what's happening there. Of course, the MSM is doing us no favors with their coverage, either.

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64 comments (Latest Comment: 06/16/2010 00:53:34 by Raine)

Is the Tea Party showing signs of fatigue? Are they packing up their party hats, table cloths and misspelled signs and going home? I think so.

It all began harmless enough. Let’s gather some frustrated, slightly racist, slightly under-educated people and put them with some hate-filled, rabidly racist, well-spoken and well-read people and stir the pot. Voilá! A Tea Party movement - all very “grassroots”. Even though FOX “news” and other partisan groups pushed and organized from behind the scenes.

I’m all for grassroots. Boycotting BP, for example, seems like a natural thing to do when one is frustrated with something or someone that has power over us. I’m doing it and many of my friends are as well. That would be grassroots. Seems many people just naturally started boycotting BP.

The Tea Party movement has problems in that area. There are so many issues to protest/hate that the Party cannot seem to stick to one idea. Government = bad is to be the main theme, but some of the Party members like the Government when they it comes to Prolife causes or kicking Gay people out of the military. It conflicts with those that just want their personal freedom (even, I suppose, if it infringes on YOUR personal freedom).
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6 comments (Latest Comment: 06/14/2010 00:05:51 by Scoopster)

First off - apologies in advance for a lame blog today. I was extremely busy at work yesterday, and then a ball game last night has left me feeling completely out of touch with the "outside world" this morning. As such, I will do the lazy thing and provide you with a "wacky news Friday"....
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71 comments (Latest Comment: 06/12/2010 00:25:23 by Scoopster)