Archive for June 11, 2024

Baby, you can drive my car

Posted: June 11, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
Tags: ,

By Christopher Harper

I bought my last new car the day after the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series.

For those not Philadelphia fans or baseball enthusiasts, that was 16 years ago.

Today, my Saturn Aura is no longer being made. The electronic gauges have mostly failed, and I’ve had to search for competent mechanics to keep the old car running.

A recent Wall Street Journal article confirmed that I was not alone in my lack of desire to buy a new car.

“It’s not just the political class. America’s fleet of cars and trucks is also getting long in the tooth. Last month a study by S&P Global Mobility reported the average age of vehicles in the U.S. was 12.6 years, up more than 14 months since 2014. Singling out passenger cars, the number jumps to a geriatric 14 years,” Dan Neil wrote recently.

“In the past, the average-age statistic was taken as a sign of transportation’s burden on household budgets. Those burdens remain near all-time highs. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is currently hovering around $47,000. While inflation and interest rates are backing away from recent highs, insurance premiums have soared by double digits in the past year,” Neil added.

Moreover, Neil reported that many buyers don’t like designs that include more technology, particularly electric vehicles. “But lately another, stranger element is showing up in the numbers: a motivated belief among consumers that automakers’ latest and greatest offerings—whether powered by gasoline, batteries or a hybrid system—are inferior to the products they are replacing,” Neil wrote. “I cast a wide net on social media last month, posing this question: Name a new car/truck/SUV that is not as desirable as the design it replaces. I got back a long and distinguished list, a roll call of the compromised: Toyota Land Cruiser; Mini Cooper; Ford Mustang; Toyota Crown (née Avalon); Ford F-150; just about every model of BMW you can think of.”

Under the Fedora: As Even as You Get, The Greatest Show in DC, The Radio Oracle, As Uneven as You Get and Clark and Olympic Sized Pressure

Posted: June 11, 2024 by datechguy in under the fedora
Tags: , , , , ,

Thinking of the Boston Red Sox, after watching this version of the team play I’ve decided that they are one of the most interesting teams in the league for two simple reasons:

  1. They have a lot of young players with great futures ahead of them.
  2. They are good enough to beat the best teams on any given day, and also bad enough to lose to the worst team on any given day (They split series with the Braves AND the White Sox who had lost 14 straight.

That means it’s always worth watching because you never know what’s coming up on any given day.

Watching the left go absolutely ape-shit over Israel rescuing four of their hostages has been one of the most interesting spectacles I’ve ever seen. I suspect it has been an eye opener to a lot of folks who didn’t recognize what they had become.

The Obama (oops I mean Biden) administration’s determination to not only save Hamas but to avoid any credit on this point is rather astounding, well given as I said the fact that it’s the Obama team running the show perhaps it’s not.

But all of this makes a great backdrop to Bibi’s speech before congress coming up.

That will be quite a spectacle complete with insurrectioney leftists outside and perhaps inside, who will of course not be prosecuted.

Unexpectedly of course

A long time ago my former radio co-host John Weston told a story about Obama that I won’t repeat without evidence but I will say two things:

  1. All of the actions of this and the first Obama terms are consistent with said story
  2. Just about unthinkable things that has happened in our culture over the last 10 years was predicted by John 15 years ago

If he knew stock futures like he knew America’s future he’d be rich today

Unlike the Redsox the Celtics have been less interesting to watch as they have pretty much rolled over everyone they have played lately.

So far the Boston Celtics have been unstoppable in the finals. Dallas is going to need to go 4-1 against the Celtics over the next five games to take this title.

While this is possible in theory the Celtics have not gone 1-4 or even 2-3 over any five game period this entire season.

At this point the only real danger to the Celtics are themselves and you can see that both Tatum and Brown have bad memories of their last trip to the finals and are determined not to repeat it.

That’s a good sign for the team but bad for talk radio who are running out of things to say.

The fuss about Catlyn Clarke being left off the US Olympic teams has made for an interesting dynamic.

The US woman’s team has won seven straight goal medals at the Olympics in fact their winning streak is seven years older then my 1999 LeSabre. They have not lost a game in the lifetime of my youngest son who was born in 1993.

Given these facts it’s safe to say they are a better bet to win the Gold then the Celtics are to win the NBA title up 2-0 already. The team doesn’t need Clarke to win and I suspect not a woman on that team wants her straight white untattooed ass on the court with them. But Clarke’s omission does create one problem for their team.

With the length of this 32 year winning streak it would be only natural that sooner or later they would drop a game as the rest of the world slowly catches up. Under normal circumstances such a loss on the road to Gold would be no big deal.

But can you imagine what the reaction will be if they finally lose a game the year Clarke is left off the team?

I think the reaction of fans would be humiliating for the team and the coaches and this is going to mean extra pressure for that team to win and win big.

Well you asked for it.