Auto Bailout Alternative

The auto bailout. Ugh. Though I didn't care for the size, scope and unaccountability of the financial sector bailout, in principal I agreed with it, because a financial institution failure would have undermined the very infrastructure of our economy. I disagree with the current auto industry bailout, and I am none too pleased with the Bush administration's offering up of $17.4 billion to the Big Three to pull them out of their woes.

...because no amount of government money will pull them out of their woes. Alternatively, an organized, carefully executed Chapter 11 bankruptcy would address far more of the industry's fundamental problems. Aside from the facts that 1) the Big Three aren't making a product that people want to buy, and 2) the UAW costs have put the Big Three in an uncompetitive situation, the fundamental problem of the U.S. auto industry is that consumers just aren't buying cars.

THAT is what must be addressed. So here's my practical solution with Bush's "Christmas gift" of $17.4 billion. Still give them that money (and so much more), but in a different form. Effective immediately, the U.S. government will give a $3,000 downpayment for every new American car purchased. Consumers must otherwise qualify for a standard auto loan, and each household would be limited to just one purchase, and the $3,000 "gift" is not taxable. This would drive sales of 5.8 million American cars. Now THAT is a stimulus, and puts sales revenue in to the Big Three, not government handouts.

Am I crazy, or might just such a plan work??? At least in the short-term; the 1) and 2) items I list above must still be addressed (but the current $17.4 billion doesn't address that, either).

Twilight

OK, then... I'll be the first to admit that I'm a middle-aged male whom actually ENJOYED reading the Twilight novels. My wife read them and really loved them, and so to figure out what the deal was, I read all four of them. They're not my typical genre (I'm more of a Vince Flynn, John Grisham, the future-author-John-Goodale type of genre), but for what they were, they were OK, and "not unpleasant." And I could certainly understand the whole draw between Edward and Bella, yada yada yada.

So it wasn't necessarily with a whole lot of expectation that I went to see the movie (with my wife, of course). And ya' know what??? It was pretty good. I can say that I enjoyed it. I thought Edward and Bella were both way too serious, but overall, even the casting wasn't that bad.

But Twilight will certainly be a candidate for the Worst Technology Casting Oscar Award. Hear me out...

So here Bella is. An uncoordinated, intelligent "smartsy" type. The type of person we called while I was growing up, a "smack." She's not creative, nor artsy, nor athletic, nor none of those things. She's just a geek. So... why is it when you see her in the movie e-mailing her mother, she's using a Mac??? By Apple's own advertisements, the geeks of the world use PCs; NOT MACS!!! And in Forks, Washington, so close to Redmond, WA campus of Microsoft??? I'm sure the Redmondians would have thrown a fit!

Nope... never would have happened. That computer should have been cast as a PC. Shame on the production studio; the movie lost all realism to me by that casting choice! :-)