From the People Who Brought You Pearl Harbor, Toyota!

Let me stipulate that Toyota makes some good cars. Let me further stipulate that my Dad and two uncles retired from General Motors (AKA "Generous Motors" for their pay scale) so I am hardly unbiased.

Having said that, Toyota is having a quality problem with their vehicles. This is understandable - the people that design and make Toyotas put their pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. But please don't tell me how "all American cars are crap" and "all Japanese cars are wonderful." Both types of companies make vehicles good and bad.

Facts Matter, Part 2,534

Facts matter, even, or perhaps especially, in our political debate. So, here are some facts:

the Underpants Bomber is providing intelligence to authorities. Despite various Republican statements to the contrary, we are in fact getting intelligence out of this guy. In part, we're getting intelligence because his parents came to America to help out. Somehow, I don't think they'd be as helpful if we were busily waterboarding the SOB.

Global Warming The website surfacestations.org cataloged hundreds of US surface weather stations, with the goal of proving that microclimates (station too close to a parking lot, etc.) were causing a warming bias in temperature data. Apparently, there is a bias; the 'bad' stations skew cooler!

Don't Ask, Don't Tell When I was in the military, allowing gays to serve didn't seem like a good idea. But as I was reminded recently, that was decades ago. If I were still in, I would be Captain of a ship - the "Old Man" both figuratively and literally, at age 43. The attitude of today's youth is different. Even Colin Powell,the guy who invented Don't Ask Don't Tell gets it. So what's John McCain's problem?