An open letter to Congress: Don’t drink the oil man’s Kool-Aid.

Wrapping himself in the once-impermeable defense of “strengthening our national security”, President Bush delivered his magnum opus as a Texas oil man this morning, calling upon our legislature to lift the federal statute banning oil exploration off the nation’s coastline.

Bush implored Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve as well, myopically extolling the virtues of industry self-regulation. “Scientists have developed innovative techniques to reach Anwar’s oil with virtually no impact on the land or local wildlife,” Bush said. “I urge members of Congress to allow this remote region to bring enormous benefits to the American people.”

However, once the hyperbole has dissolved under the harsh light of reality, Bush’s proposal runs contrary to every vestige of logic in our new global energy economy.

2008: Beverly Hills P.D. and the Orwellian Era of Ticketing

Ready for your motoring close-up?

The Beverly Hills Police Department wants to use automated speed cameras to target speeders and raise revenue, opening a lucrative market to camera suppliers and local governments alike. But state law must be changed first.

Requiem for a machine bolt: Integra owners take note…

Normally, I love the meticulous craftsmanship and intricate engineering the Japanese bring to the craft of building an automobile.

However, when engineers design a window retaining system whereby the slider is held in solely by a machine bolt with a perfectly smooth head, you would expect adhesive to be applied during assembly, so that the bolt will stay threaded to the slider.

Sadly, this is not the case.
So to my Integra driving brethren, let my tale of woe serve as a warning.

Inspect the pin that holds the top corner of your side windows against the sash.

Left alone to its own devices, the god damned thing will fall off at speed, leaving you with no choice but to cough up $40 for a new slider assembly.

$3.51 and rising.

With little to no sign of retreating anytime soon, the average price of unleaded gasoline soared to a new state record this afternoon, according to the Daily Fuel Gauge report published by AAA.

With political instability in Venezuela affecting exports and with OPEC expressing no interest in boosting output, there’s little hope that today’s record will hold for long. Compared to a year ago, the price per gallon has increased by 58 cents per gallon.

To put things in a national perspective, check out this map provided by GasBuddy.

Squirrel commits grand self-sacrifice; insurance agents stymied.

During the months while I had yet to settle on a host,  I still gathered articles that caught my eye.

Hopefully,  I assumed,  some would have staying power as fuel for discussion.

Others are just too damned odd to pass up.

Last October in sunny Bayonne, New Jersey, the Millar family had a combustible experience of the rodent persuation. High above their driveway, a local squirrel decided that the high voltage line leading to a neighborhood transformer would make the consummate snack.

Inevitably, said squirrel goes a bite too far and lives out his last moments as a cathode for the power grid of rural Hudson County. Fully engulfed in flame, the electron-enamored rodent fell from the line onto the windscreen cowl of the Millar’s 2006 Toyota Camry.

Apparently, an incendiary squirrel must back some serious BTUs under it’s furry hide.

The fire was sufficiently robust that the plastic trim pieces melted, allowing the body of the squirrel to slide under the hood and burn through something containing a petroleum-based fluid. It was never clear whether the fuel line was severed or if Rocky burned through the brake fluid reservoir, but suffice to say that the car was declared a total loss shortly after firefighters doused the blaze.

The last report I could find mentioned nothing of either a complaint against or settlement from the local utility.

Despite this, there was a poignant footnote. As part of their Halloween decorations, the Jersey Journal reported that the Millar family had erected a small tombstone, presumably for their dearly departed firestarter.