End of the Crown Vic and Other Auto News

Ford has announced the end of the Crown Victoria by 2011. While not available for you and me, the Vic is still made for most police departments across the US. According to the Detroit News, 85% of police cars are the Vic. Ninety percent of the Michigan State Police cars are Vics, and the LAPD almost exclusively uses the Crown Vic.

The impact this will have is not understood to its fullest extent until you realize that almost all police aftermarket add-ons are made for the Crown Vic, from cages to computers, shotgun racks to radios. This means that aftermarket companies will have to retool big time to accommodate whatever car takes over the popularity of the Crown Vic, most likely to be the Chevy Impala.

For the LAPD this is not good news, they love their Vics. Body panels are easier to replace, the Vics have more room than any current police car, and have a proven record for reliability. Ford is thinking about replacing the Vic patrol car with the Taurus, which has less room and the body panels cannot be replaced like the Vic’s can. Dodge has a police version of the Charger, but it has proven unreliable.

So here comes the end of another era in auto history. We’ve seen many, and some we just sit back and wonder, why? Like when Ford announced the end of the Taurus, what were they thinking? The Taurus was Ford’s best selling car and they simply quit making it. No wonder they lost money. What kind of company takes one of it’s best selling products and stops making it? One with no brains. Buick has another example, the LeSabre. A great selling car and GM stopped making it. Sometimes you wonder if these decisions were made by politicians rather than the automakers.

Question, who has heard of the Think electric car? Yeah, neither have I. Think has recently come out of bankruptcy and would like to build and sell their cars here in the US.

Norwegian Automaker Think Global will be selling its Think electric car in the US. For the uninitiated, the Think is able to travel up to 110 miles without the need to recharge its batteries, hitting a top speed of 65mph and is 95% recyclable. Two venture capital firms have already been targeted by Think to build the cars in Southern California, hoping to sell around 30,000 to 50,000 of such vehicles annually at $25, 000 each. –Ubergizmo.com

While it sounds great and is bound to make the greenies clap with glee, like all electric cars, there are limits to the Think. The biggest is always range. These cars are meant for city driving only, no vacations in this tiny pregnant rollerskate. To date, electric car sales have not been good in the US, simply because most people in America are not going to buy a car just for city driving. Most Americans want a car they can also drive on vacations as well as take to work. Spending the extra money to have a single purpose vehicle is also not an option, even though the Think is slated to sell for $25,000, US.

It isn’t just the Big 3 having financial issues in America. Toyota has announced that they will be closing a plant in California. I guess those Toyotas aren’t so popular after all as sales are down and Toyota has built more cars than they can sell. Sound familiar? Excess kills, especially during these economic troubling times. Making so much of a product that you can’t sell them all has been a problem for all the major automakers. Guess they just don’t learn. But then again, they may have been listening to the Obama Administration which has been telling us that we have reached the bottom and things are getting better.

But we know better, we have been lied to. Again.

Sources: Detroit News, Michigan State Police, Ubergizmo.com, Ford Motor Company.

Fear the Night Critters

This is my adventure from last night at 1:00 am.

It was a cool night last night. Low 60s. A cloudless sky reveal billions of bright stars. It was breath taking. Being August, I counted several of meteors streaking across the sky, the end of the annual meteor show brought to us, courtesy of God. Brief lights, lighting fast across my vision, then gone. Barely a of whisper of sound on this road. Crickets, and fireflies, and stars. Not a single car, not another human being to break the silence. Not even a breeze.

I am almost home. Walking slowly I enjoy God’s creation. I near the treeline next to my house. The silence is fractured by a cacophony of snorting and breaking branches. I’m startled only by the sudden noise, but not by the source. I’ve heard this before. I’ve flushed some deer out of their sleep in the treeline. They rush away through the bean field, my flashlight barely catching a glimpse of them as they swiftly bound towards safety.

Another noise in the bean field. The rustling of some night creature moving swiftly. It is low, but coming fast. Can’t be a raccoon or a possum, moving too fast for either of those. Maybe a coyote or a fox startled by the deer. Both creatures are small and swift and can move unseen by human eye. They are sneaky that way. It, whatever it is, is headed straight for me.

I pick up my pace for home. If it is a fox or coyote, I don’t want to be in it’s path. They can attack if startled by human presence. The critter turns and follows, homing in on me. I jog. It follows. I get to the house and cut through the ditch and across the lawn. It is now right behind me moving swiftly. I turn to see what it is when I feel sharp daggers dig into the back of my legs. Sharp pain. Not debilitating or harmful, just lots of sharp pain. As I try to see what is in back of me it starts climbing me like I’m a tree. I can’t turn or move fast enough to see it, or reach behind me and knock it off.

It’s on my back. It’s on my left shoulder! I turn my head to the left and stare into a pair of large, wild, round eyes! Instant fear. Chills run down my spine, hairs stand on end, goosebumps ripple across my body, sudden intake of breath. The highest point of fear strikes swiftly, and for a brief moment I am frozen, terrified, witless, and unable to think or react. I can’t even scream. Fear happens in nanoseconds. My heart beats furiously, hammering away at my chest. Then slowly, the adrenaline rush goes away. The fear is displaced. I breath. Recognition comes.

“You crazy cat! You nearly made me pee my pants!”

Did You Vote?

Revisiting My Very First Post

From September 2005, This Really Scares Me. Take note of the one comment for this post. Some things haven’t changed.

From Bush Bashing to Constituent Clobbering

There is one local columnist here in Michigan that constantly ripped on George W. Bush while Bush was POTUS. Lies were perpetuated nearly weekly and the hate oozed from this man’s column. Now that Obama is POTUS, it is the people who oppose The One that have become the target of his hostile expression. I would say that Keith Olberman and Chris Matthews are his inspiration and his idols.

Now our politicians are in on bashing the people. Instead of listening to their constituents, the politicians have resorted to name calling (Nazis, Racists, etc.). They have also refused to answer calls, refused to participate in “Town Hall” meetings if there are people present with an opposing view, tried shutting down opposing views, and have literally run from their constituents who have opposing views. They have locked their doors and drawn their shades and are literally hiding from those who have circled themselves around them and want their opinions heard.

Some have made themselves to be complete idiots with their chastising, in public, of people who “dare” ask them questions, as noted on yesterday’s news coverage of Arlen Specter and Hillary Clinton, both of whom who made complete morons of themselves. These “politicians” have no respect for the system our founding fathers set up. They have no respect for you and me and our opposing viewpoints. They don’t want to hear us. They don’t want to see things our way in any form. They only want what they want for us.

I am tired of being constantly clobbered by the left for my conservative views. I have been called a Nazi and a racist. I have been called un-American and have been labeled by my government as an extremist and a threat to my country. All this from the very people elected by the people, not just the main stream media. Our politicians are literally saying we have no right to our opinions and that we are being organized by lobbyists.

From the Cap and Trade “Energy” plan to Obama’s “Health Plan”, our politicians are acting worse than spoiled school children, they are the ones who are un-American, anti-American, anti-Constitution, anti-Liberty, and anti-you and me having a free voice. Now our White House has an email address that people like me can be reported at by anybody who doesn’t like what I have to say. This is illegal, but our “President” doesn’t care. He wants what he wants for us and even the Constitution isn’t going to stand in the way.

I am proud to be among those that fall under the category of those who need to be reported to my government for dissent. It means that I am doing something for my country, that my small part has caught somebody’s eye and one person at a time I am making a difference. One person at a time you can make a difference and that adds up.

Do not be afraid of the politicians who clobber us with words of hate. Wield your power of the vote and replace them with those who will work for us not against us. Get angry at the brainwashed politicians who mock us and call us Nazis and racists, then continue to speak out and tell the truth. The truth can never be stopped from leaving our lips. Only we can prevent ourselves from sharing the truth.

It Is Alive

Hooked my dead MacBook up to my external RAID system and was able to boot it up. Just as I suspected, the issue was with Apple’s latest OS update. I was able to reinstall the update and now all is well.

Moral of story; always back up daily! External bootable hard drives are very inexpensive and RAID systems are very easy to set up on today’s computers. So back up!

The People’s Cube Comes Up with New Posters for Obama’s Reich

Link to story is at Mike’s America

Published via WordPress for iPhone.

MacDeath

My MacBook died an untimely MacDeath. I have been a Mac user since 1987 and this is a first for me. Thank goodness I use Time Machine to make daily backups. Until I find out if it is repairable or needs replacing I will be using my iPhone to surf and post.

Photos

More galleries added on 8-8-2009

After spending too much time on other things since November of last year, I finally got around to getting my photos back up, other than those on Flickr. Link is here.