I've had a visitor to this page from Switzerland, somewhere north of Berne! Now I can say that my page is internationally read!
Buy nothing day. Some wise man whose name I cannot remember said, "Americans will start killing themselves when they realize there is nothing left to buy." Thats all that needs to be said about that.
Also whats the deal with America's obsession with watching others get humiliated. It seems to be the underlying theme in virtually all talk shows, reality shows and often even in the news. Americans really love to watch others get humiliated and the best part, they know how to make money with it. I guess exploitation of painful human emotions is like mining gold.
Its not really scary that the petition to change the name of LOTR: Two Towers is out there. Whats really scary is 3,598 idiots signed it!
So I was thinking the other day about speed limits and traffic regulations on a drive back from Dallas. Its weird how in America car manufacturers totally sell their vehicles on the virtues of power and performance; cars with over 300HP and top speeds well over 150. Then in the real world, only one state doesn't enforce a speed limit on its highways and the speed limit mostly everywhere in 55-75, enforced limit would be around 60-80. None the less I don't understand why people continue to buy these tremendously overpowered cars when really there is no way to use the car's full potential save for some very limited parts of the roadway. Elsewhere there are usually steep penalties for driving fast or as if in a race of any sort.
With each years new models the engine performance is touted and then maybe some piddly comments on the luxury and safety. This engine performance isn't even anything drastic like ultra-quiet operation or amazing mileage. Its usually a 5-10HP improvement. What about useful innovations like cheaply replaced body panels or easy to maintain headlights and brakelights and other actually useful conveniences. All the focus is deliberately kept on the power and luxury. If the people are too busy showing off the fake wood in their paneling and other "gee golly!" things they'll surely forget that their shiny new car pumps out sad amounts of nasties from the tailpipe.
And with the type of penalties that are exacted one would think that police enforcement on roadways was solely to benefit insurance companies. Take for example what happens when one is involved in a second party fault accident. The second party's insurance coverage goes up no doubt, but your insurance goes up as well because someone else made a poor decision. How is this logical? You make payments year on end and then you get in a single accident which isn't even your fault and you have to pay more to maintain the same level of coverage prior to the accident.
"Why don't you write to your Congressman?", you ask? Well you see my friend, sadly Keyur Parekh Inc. can't afford to hire lobbyists to go convince some, piss in his pants without campaign money, congreeman to not listen to the car and insurance companies' army of lobbyist concerned solely with maintaining the profitability of their clients while the rest of America is worried about how long it takes J.Lo to take a shit and what some Canadian called their President. The other main reason is that America as a society doesn't really like to fix any problems, as long everything can be made to appear shiny and smily on the surface it doesn't really matter. Its all about the apperance it doesn't matter if under the hood its just a bunch of squirrels wearing beanies running on hamster wheels.
Linkses:
Its not about the oil with Iraq. Bush cares about the Iraqi people.
Why not just make tanks into SUVs?! They are all terrain afterall.
Hooray for corporate funding and influence!
Humans are programmed to get fat.
Canadians are right. He is a moron.
The first one is on the hoUSe.
This is painful to read.
Calling all Hinjews.
P.S. If you're missing one sock out of a pair, throwing the one leftover with the wash doesn't mean the lost one will magically reappear when you get your wash back.
Posted by Mr. Keyur at November 27, 2002 03:21 AM