Will the real John McCain please stand up?

Amidst housing prices in free fall and the rising tide of foreclosures, Washington is on the brink of yet another policy disaster. And the one man who has shown clarity and restraint is beginning to crumble.

For the last two months, proposals to bailout the subprime mortgage market have become the new political football in the upcoming presidential election.

As a result, we are in danger of ignoring the moral imperative which lead people into this mess in the first place.

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.

Holy foregone conclusion, Batman!

Apologies for not posting recently; life gets in the way every so often.

At any rate, as I was making my usual rounds through the blogosphere, I ran across a post at MotorAuthority  that blew me away with it’s stunning obviousness.

In a nutshell, the National Center for Public Policy Research  recently released a study where consumers were asked if they would support an increase in gasoline taxes to support initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Time for the backstory…

Some of you know me from Mr Murdoch’s insidious empire (whose grasp I resisted for years), others from facebook and yet more from CSUN and parts elsewhere. As a journalist by trade, I’ve been eager to get back into the pattern of writing on a daily basis while making the transition back into the working world full-time.

So why not start earlier? In a nutshell, it all came down to my finickiness in finding a host.

MySpace had an enviable captive audience three years ago, but ever since Moneybags Murdoch showed up, any motiation to improve the site evaporated. Reluctanly, I joined last fall only to confirm my worst suspicions. An awful interface filled with spambots and phishers was just the start.

Facebook is starting down the same path. It’s the chain-letter apps that force you to spam your friends in the pursuit of amazing discoveries like a movie clip message or bumper stickers (when there aren’t even any damn bumpers). Or – joy of joys – what hallucinogenic drug I most resemble. At least the UI is decent.

So anyway, I’ve spent the winter searching for a decent place to write and here we are.

As time goes by, I’ll be throwing out my two cents on life in the 818, making the move from college to career and all sorts of shit relevant at some distance to either.

Oh and the title? It’ll explain itself.