Cash For Clunkers

The Cash for Clunkers program has cleared out new cars from dealerships across the country.  That's a good thing, I suppose.  But the postings by a Facebook friend who works for a California dealership got me to thinking.  The utter waste that is involved in this program as hundreds and hundreds of perfectly good engines are destroyed with a chemical solution added to the engine.  As someone who believes in using things until their useful life is over, this just seems so wrong.  

How much energy in all its forms is used in building, transporting, and selling one new car?  If we take a perfectly good used car off the roads five years before its time, then are we really saving any energy with this program?  And we, the American taxpayers are paying $4,500 for every one of these transactions!  Now, I understand that if everyone was like me, the economy would slow and car production would be drastically reduced.  But still should we be really going all out like this to push people to discard perfectly good cars that could at least have been used by people who cannot afford new cars?

The Elitists look down on us

A friend who moved from Washington DC to New York 15 years ago is on Facebook and I am really learning first hand what a New York liberal elitist attitude is.  He recently met up with a "right-winger" on a golf course.  While the guy sounded rude, I think the biggest shock to the liberals was that this guy had conservative ("Right-Wing") views.  They probably never meet such neanderthals in their circles.

Here's a recent set of comments from him and his friends:

[MY OLD FRIEND] I was punished for cutting out of work early to play golf. I was paired with a right-wing pot smoking Brooklyn psycho who started yelling at me by the third hole. I'm sorry freelance gods, I'll work hard and be good today.

Yesterday at 8:43am 

[FRIEND #1]Sort of like my friends husband yelling at me comparing the Democratic Party to the Nazis in 1933 and thinks Glenn Beck is a genius. I don't know what I did to deserve that, but I better get painting too!

Yesterday at 8:48am

[MY OLD FRIEND] A third guy with us and I decided to egg him on with his rants in the hope he would wear himself out and shut the f*** up. We started saying stuff like, "Do you think Obama is really a citizen?"

He talked himself to exhaustion and lost the will to live by the 16th hole.

[FRIEND #2]Now that's a new tactic -- and I like it. Just rant back in little pecks and nits and hope for apoplectic shock! Don't spell check that!

Yesterday at 9:11am

[FRIEND #3]Ha, sure he loved golfing with Yang too! A dang fernner....

Yesterday at 10:45am

[ME]:Thank you for providing ANOTHER reason not to ever take up golf. And to think you had to PAY for that experience with that rude Brooklynite.

I was about to leave an additional comment, but then decided not to get into a fight:  "an alternative, crazy method: Simply be direct: Tell the guy that you're there to play golf and that the others in the foursome would appreciate it if he would keep his opinions to himself. A little less fun, perhaps, but a little more grown-up too."

And if you are asking, why do I consdier this guy a friend, well I'm wondering the same thing myself.  I enjoyed his company 15-20 years ago, but I don't know if I fit in with him any more.  What if I told him I LIKED Sarah Palin!  Oh the mocking and snarky comments they would make!

Nine Months Ago . . .

As I have become a Facebook user over the past month, I have been uncertain as to how to use the blogs that I have created.  There have been some political items I have brought up in Facebook, but I am now thinking that I would be happiest to keep politics and Facebook separate.  Kind of the way Michael Jordan never endorsed Democratic or Republican candidates because why would you want to alienate half of your audience.  

But this site is for politics and if you're here you know where I stand.  

I wanted to take note of the fact that the S & P 500 today reached 1000 again for the first time since Election Day 2008.  The beginning of what I earlier called  Obama's Crash of '08.  His election marked the beginning of a steepening downward fall for stock prices.  Over the last three months, stocks have finally recovered to their November 4, 2008 value, and it is only fair that we note that.

Why is this happening?  I do not know.  I am an inactive trader right now because I do not feel confident that I understand the market and the government's efforts to intervene.  Perhaps the fact that Obama is facing struggles to implement his agenda is buoying the market.  It is certainly making me more optimistic!