At Random: Things I Will Never Be Old Enough to Understand

By Paul Clark
(aka motomynd)

Tailgating

Other than driving the wrong way on an interstate, tailgating is probably the most dangerous move a driver can make. Yet, if anything rivals the American obsession with sports in general, and football in particular, it’s tailgating. Let’s lay our lives on the line to get there one car length faster: good logic.
    Are you familiar with the NASCAR tactic of drafting, where cars run inches away from each other because a closely meshed pack of cars can go faster than a car running solo? Back in the 1980s, bumper stickers that read “I’m Not Tailgating, I’m Drafting” began adorning cars driven by people pushing the limits on the frenetic highways of Eastern Virginia. They weren’t kidding; it became a thing.
    Imagine this scenario: you’re driving in the right lane at 75 miles per hour, death grip on the wheel, afraid to slow down to anywhere near the speed limit because you know you will create chaos and ultimately carnage, when a line of cars running upwards of 100 mph screams by on your left. As these cars blast past you realize they are almost touching, their bumpers literally within inches of each other.
    Wtf?
    Then you spy the “I’m Not Tailgating, I’m Drafting” bumper sticker on the back of the last car in the pack, and you think: no worries. They’re all in on the joke, and they probably do this every morning and afternoon, so they’re probably safer than you are. And you start thinking, where do I get my bumper sticker and how do I join the club?
    And that’s when you realize the pace of life in Eastern Virginia is making you psychotic, and you move back to a slower moving part of the state, and life is sort of chill. But you occasionally have to venture onto I-81, and every time you do, you start having PTSD flashbacks to those frantic days of death-defying driving. And you find yourself grimly wishing James Bond style smokescreens and machine guns were among the options available on your car. If only.

The Modern Conservative

When I was a kid, a conservative was thought of as someone who championed smaller government, minimal government intrusion into citizens’ lives, lower taxes, a balanced budget, and sink-or-swim capitalism where business success or failure was determined by work ethic, business savvy, and free enterprise.
    Looking at today’s “conservatives” that seems hard to imagine, doesn’t it?
    Yes, today’s conservatives are against “big government” interfering in business by way of EPA and OSHA – two holdovers from the era of that infamous “liberal” president Richard M. Nixon – yet they want crop subsidies for farmers and foreign tariffs and trade regulations to protect American businesses.
    Yes, today’s conservatives want the government to say they have unfettered rights to carry guns wherever they wish, but if someone’s 12-year-old daughter is forcibly raped and becomes pregnant, they want that same government to tell her she has to put her planned life on hold and have the baby that results from that traumatic ordeal.
    As for free enterprise, the expression “capitalism on the way up and welfare on the way down” is not just a sarcastic comment, it accurately describes the modern conservative view of how government should involve itself in maintaining business equilibrium. If the government has to run up trillion-dollar deficits to accomplish all this, that’s fine with modern conservatives – as long as that same government doesn’t waste any of that money on school lunch programs. It’s confusing, eh?

Front Wheel Drive

There’s a simple reason why most of the manufacturers of the greatest cars in the world – Ferrari, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Audi, to name a few – almost exclusively make rear wheel drive (RWD) vehicles. And there’s a simple reason most of the cars regarded as singularly great American creations – Cadillac, Chevrolet’s Corvette and Camaro, the Ford Mustang and F150 pickup truck, and the Dodge Challenger, Charger and Viper – are rear wheel drive.
    And what is that simple reason? Front wheel drive sucks.
    How did the farce of front wheel drive (FWD) get foisted on an unsuspecting public? The common excuse is that FWD gives better traction in snow, because the weight of the engine is centered over the FWD unit that delivers power to the front tires. And how many people drive in snow often enough to let that make their car-buying decision?
    While FWD may indeed help you get moving in snow, or on a rain-soaked hill, what about when you have to stop? Good luck with that. I’ve driven thousands of miles in snow, some of it serious Upstate New York snow, and I’ve had issues twice – in FWD vehicles.
    With RWD, the engine is in front – over the steering – and the power goes to the rear wheels. There may be less traction, but there’s better balance. Lose rear wheel traction in a RWD vehicle – in snow or rain – and you can cut into the skid, hit the throttle, and power your way out of it. What do you do if you lose rear wheel traction with FWD? Not much, you basically hang on and hope.
    RWD also provides a bonus in normal, day-to-day driving conditions on dry roads that most of us drive on most of the time: it tracks straight down the road, instead of trying to veer side to side when you step on the throttle, or ease up on the throttle, as is common with FWD vehicles.
    The real reason the unsuspecting public got stuck with FWD? It’s cheaper to build than RWD, which means more profit to manufacturers, and it yields marginally better fuel mileage, thereby helping manufacturers meet government fuel mileage and pollution standards without having to build better engines and develop other innovative fuel-saving concepts that require pricey research and development.
    Want to drive an adequate “econobox” that will provide a driving thrill that is at least the equal to boil-bag or microwave cooking? Go with FWD. Want to drive a vehicle that has a secure feel to it and seems to follow the road almost by itself? Go with RWD.

Irrational Voters

When most folks talk politics, they want to rage about the “idiot” politicians and their “stupid” decisions. What they should be doing is looking in a mirror and asking themselves why they are such “idiot” voters. Yes, politicians have their flaws, and some act very strange, but who pushed them over the edge? The voters.
    Roy Moore is a lawyer turned politician turned jurist – who twice served as the chief justice on the Alabama Supreme Court, and was twice removed from office for judicial misconduct. Logic might indicate that should be enough to end a political career, but in 2011 Moore added to his reputation by saying that getting rid of constitutional amendments after the original ten contained in the Bill of Rights, would solve many issues with the way the US government is structured.
    The amendments Moore wanted to get rid of included the 13th, which banned slavery, and the 19th, which gave women the right to vote. Again, logic might indicate that would be the end of a political career, and it would certainly seem to assure Moore would never again get a vote from a woman or a person of color.
    But no, despite the furor stirred over his amendments comments, and despite being previously removed from office, and Moore was again elected as chief justice in 2013. And in 2017 he won the Republican primary to run against Democrat Doug Jones for a U.S. Senate seat. Despite being saddled with a spate of sexual misconduct allegations and questions about corrupt business practices, Moore barely lost to Jones: 48.4% to 49.9%.
    For the vote to be that close, we have to assume that more than a few women voted for Moore, and very possibly a few people of color.
    And you wonder why politicians say the things they do, and sometimes act as irrationally as they do? What were the voters thinking?
    Moore is only one example, of course, and there are no doubt plenty of elections where politicians and voters act fairly normal and sane, but we are on the verge of a situation that Moore’s near miss might not begin to hold a candle to.
    Liz Cheney. Need I say more?
    Yes, of course I do.
    Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only Republicans on the select committee investigating the January 6, 2020 attack on the U.S. Capitol, have been resolute in fighting against the “Trump tide” that has swamped the republican party. The fact they dared oppose Donald Trump has cost them their elected offices and may have ended their political careers.
    The country owes them its gratitude, but do we owe them our votes?
    Liz Cheney may give us opportunity to answer that question, because as of August, 2022, she is saying she is still focused on making sure Donald Trump is never again president of this country.
    Seems simple enough, right? If Trump is the republican nominee in 2024, and if Cheney runs as an independent, that should split the republican vote, and assure that Joe Biden – or any other democratic candidate – would win.
    Problem is, early polling indicates that a Cheney candidacy would actually yield the opposite outcome: she would take more votes from Biden than from Trump, and assure Trump of a win.
    Yes, you read that correctly, democrats desperately want to keep Trump out of office, yet enough of them would vote for Cheney instead of Biden that they would put Trump back into office.
    Bear in mind this is the same Liz Cheney who voted with Trump 93% of the time, and who is the daughter of Dick Cheney, a career stalwart republican who was vice-president under George W. Bush when the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, and who helped talk everyone into what became a 20-years-long war in Afghanistan, and into attacking Iraq over weapons of mass destruction which turned out not to exist.
    Yes, that Liz Cheney.
    And yet, a notable percentage of democratic voters would support her – and her 93% Trump supporter track record – over Joe Biden, a man who is at worst maybe 7% in line with Trump.
    Again, what are voters thinking, and no wonder politicians act as they do.

The Boomers

Explain to me, please, the boomers.
    How is it possible the group of people who established the counterculture of the 1960s, who effectively protested America out of the Vietnam war, who established social and environmental landmarks from abortion rights to Earth Day, became the same group of people who staunchly supported Donald Trump in his 2016 presidential victory, and became the only age group he won in 2020?
    From counterculture to Trump supporter: explanation, anyone?

Copyright © 2022 by Paul Clark