When better cars are built, part 2

If the title above sounds familiar, it’s because I published a story with that title roughly six years ago. At that point in time, Buick sales in China exceeded sales in the United States, and had been doing so for at least three years. By the time of the publication of the article shown below, sales of Buicks in China were FOUR TIMES the sales of Buicks in the United States.

when better cars are built

Some time between 2009 and today, various proposals have been made to sell cars made in China in the United States. Until recently, though, none of those plans have come to fruition.

Until now.

At some point in 2016, a car made in China will be sold in America and it will bear a very familiar name.

Buick.

The vehicle will be a compact sport utility that will be called the Envision. Since Buick has seen sales fall for its “traditional “ vehicles, but sales have expanded in its SUV line, the introduction of a compact sport utility will help to increase Buick sales.

To be fair, this vehicle won’t be the first foreign made car that Buick has sold in America, since German-made Opels were introduced here in 1958, Today’s Buick Regal was assembled by Opel in Germany, starting in 2009, but production for the vehicle shifted to Oshawa, Canada in 2011.

Both Jaguar and Land Rover are owned by an Indian company, and Volvo has been owned by a Chinese company since its divesture from the Ford luxury division. SOME of those Chinese made Volvos have actually made it to our shores, but not in numbers large enough to make a dent in our domestic market.

As a group, Buick owners tend to be older and more conservative (precisely the situation that Cadillac finds itself in) which may have been one of the reasons that its sales have slipped in recent years.

Traditionally, Buicks have been large and heavy cars, and the picture below shows how “politically incorrect “ some of those older versions were:

This vehicle, incidentally, was 219 inches long, and weighed almost 5000 pounds. It’s 364 cubic inch engine got 12.2 miles per gallon.

take a test drive here

Wouldn’t you really rather have a Buick?

If you’re a young professional, looking for a compact SUV, you’ll probably say:

是的 (shi)

‘Twas the night before Christmas

“A Visit From Saint Nicholas”, also known as ”Twas The Night Before Christmas” was published anonymously in 1823. It was later attributed to Clement Clark Moore, who finally acknowledged his authorship about 15 years later.

Since it is one of the most famous Christmas poems ever published, it has been the subject of many parodies over the years, which I wrote about a couple of years ago:

politically correct Santa

It is indeed the HOLIDAY season, since there are numerous other holidays that are celebrated in December in addition to Christmas.

other December holidays

Contrary to what people hear on FOX “news”, there is no war on Christmas. The red coffee cups that Starbucks sells this time of the year have NEVER said “Merry Christmas” on them, and you can view past examples at the link below. Starbucks, in case you have forgotten, DOES sell Christmas blend coffee and Advent calendars.

Starbucks red cups over the years

If you have any doubts at all that the folks at FOX are truly deranged, bear in mind that one of the FOX news “analysts” recently stated his opinion that the recent shootings in San Bernadino were a “literal attack on Christmas”.

However, the birth of a child to an impoverished refuge family (are you listening, Republicans?) over 2000 years ago is unquestionably one of the most important events in the history of the world. The world has always been, and will always be, a troubled place. However, for one brief shining moment (in 1914) the lure of Christmas was strong enough that warring soldiers set aside their differences to celebrate Christmas together in the trenches of the first world war.

Little noticed by the world, of course, was the birth of a baby girl (their first child) to a young and struggling family in a brutally cold land known as Minnesota 66 years ago, on December 24. They named her Sharon Ann, and she was joined a few years later by two additional sisters, who they named Donna Jean and Victoria Lee.

She never graduated from college, or made a pile of money, but Sharon took on a more important role in 1972, which she became my wife, and (later) the mother of a son and a daughter.

Due to decreased income, and increased expenses, the Christmas season always seems to be a time of stress, but that stress quickly fades away when I’m reminded (once again) of the importance of couple of birthdays, both of which happened a long time in the past.

Happy birthday, Sharon, and Merry Christmas!

The wisdom of Doonesbury

I’ve long been a fan of Doonesbury, which Garry Trudeau has been publishing, almost continuously, for more than 45 years. Trudeau has received numerous rewards for the comic strip, including a Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1975. The Doonesbury strip was the very first comic strip cartoon to be so honored.

On occasion, the Doonesbury strip comes up with some facts that are so unbelievable that I feel compelled to conduct my own fact check, and this morning’s strip was one of those times:

today’s strip

When I read in today’s strip that 23,000,000 Republicans believe that Barack Obams is a Muslim, I found it hard to believe that THAT many people could be that stupid. As it turns out, that figure is actually pretty accurate, and possibly even conservative.

According to a recent CNN/ORC poll, 29% of the American population, and 43% of the members of the Republican Party believe that Obama is a Muslim. I couldn’t verify the 23 million figure, but I suspect that the 43% total would be a rough approximation of that, since there are 55 million registered Republicans in our country.

In addition to their belief that Obama is a Muslim, 20% of our population STILL believes that Obama was born outside the United States, and there are still a handful of people who believe that “Denali” is a Kenyan word for “black power”.

There are also a surprising number of people (including a few well known liberals) who are convinced that all Muslims are killers. Since there are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, that belief simply does not make sense. I don’t believe that for a minute, and I’m one of the few white Christians who have actually read the Koran, which I‘ve written a lengthy book report about.

Much has already been written about the recent attack in Paris by members of ISIS, and the final resolution of the crisis won’t be happening any time soon. The vast majority of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world have the same opinion of terrorism that the rest of us do, as demonstrated by the fact that the President of Iran, as well as the leaders of Qatar, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia has called the attacks “criminal", and have called for an end to the plague of terrorism. Indonesia, incidentally, has the highest percentage (12.7%) of the world’s Muslim population, with over 200,000.000 followers living within its borders.

Earlier this year, a University of Nevada political science major named Ivy Ziedrich confronted Jeb Bush at a town hall meeting in Reno, and accused his brother of creating ISIS.. To some folks, that may seem a little far fetched, but if you truly analyze our foreign policy decisions in Iraq, she is absolutely correct..

Like any writer, Garry Trudeau has generated NUMEROUS controversies over the years, but his comments about the shootings at Charlie Hebdo exhibit a wisdom that proves that even satire, if not handled carefully, can be a very dangerous thing.

don’t make fun of my dog, my truck, or my religion

This is the famous Budweiser beer

When I was in basic training in North Carolina in 1970, I was impressed by the fact that one of the guys in my platoon had memorized the entire beer slogan that is found on every bottle or can of Budweiser. If you’re not a Bud fan, it reads exactly like this:

“This is the famous Budweiser beer. We know of no brand produced by any other brewer which costs so much to brew and age. Our exclusive Beechwood Aging process produces a taste, a smoothness, and a drinkability that you will find in no other beer at any price”.

Over the years, I’ve enhanced my memory skills, partially due to the fact that I spent more than 25 years in Toastmasters memorizing speeches, but also due to the fact that I’ve taken numerous insurance courses AFTER my graduation from college. As a result, I can now recite the slogan shown above verbatim, which doesn’t mean that I’m smarter than any one else. It just means that I have done a better job at improving my memory skills than a lot of other people.

When I taught college level English in China, I was struck by the fact that a number of the native teachers still focused on rote memorization, a skill that was highly valued in this country when my parents were in elementary school a century ago. I even had a few students in my classes whose goal was to memorize an entire book. Although that is an admirable goal, it has little practical value.

The American educational system may not be the best in the world we are currently #17) but our system DOES do a good job of teaching problem solving skills, which has a lot more to do with THINKING than simply memorizing facts.

The other day, I was supervising a class at one of the local high schools, and noticed the following Albert Einstein quote on the wall:

“It is not so very important for a person to learn facts. For that he really does not really need a college. He can learn them from books. The value of an education in a liberal arts college is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think something that cannot be learned from textbooks."

One of my late relatives was opposed to college education for her children because “it put ideas in their head”, which is PRECISELY the purpose of higher education. Sadly, that attitude still exists today in the minds of the more conservative members of our society, especially those in Texas.

The following excerpt is taken directly from the Texas Republican Party Platform:

“Knowledge-based Education - We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Sills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a re-labeling of Outcome Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority. (emphasis mine)

In other words, the Republicans in Texas really don’t want voters to actually THINK. They would prefer that they keep watching FOX “news” and keep pulling the “R” lever when they vote.

Compounding the error of the Republican Party is the fact that Texas is considered to be one of the most religious states in the country (47% of its residents are considered to be “very religious”). As a result of their religious philosophy, a large number of folks in Texas no longer trust public schools, who they feel are “biased against Christian values“.

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, roughly 1.7 million children in our country are being educated at home, and Texas has (by far) the highest percentage of its students being home schooled. The Texas Home School coalition estimates the total is around 300,000.

The Texas Supreme Court is currently hearing the case of a family accused of not educating their children because they were waiting for the second coming of Jesus. The family says that the government is violating their constitutional rights. The mother of the children claims to have heard one of her children say they were “going to be raptured”.

Since the Texas Supreme Court is considered to be a conservative body, it’s anybody’s guess how this court case will come out. Most of us, however, are of the opinion that children who are in school should actually be EDUCATED.

Regardless of the outcome of the case is the fact that new Governor Greg Abbott recently appointed Donna Bahorich as chair of the Texas Board of Education in June. Critics objected to her lack of experience with the public school system, since she home schooled her three sons before sending them to private schools.

If I had a choice between having my children attend a public school in Texas or having a few Buds with them on the patio, I’d prefer the beers on the patio.

At least they would be a lot WISER.

Religion and politics

If you want to get into an argument, especially with someone you don’t know very well, the process is fairly simple.

All you have to do is bring up either one of the topics listed above, and you’re likely to get a lively, if short-lived, discussion. If you bring in some aspect of sex, which frequently involves one or both of the above topics, you’ve just raised the bar a little higher.

The History Channel just published an article the other day that got the wheels in my head turning again.

In 1505, Martin Luther was nearly killed by a bolt of lightning during a thunderstorm. He vowed that if he survived the storm, he would give up his study of law, and become a monk. Due to his piety and Spartan life style, he became a representative in Rome for the German Augustine monasteries in 1512, After receiving his doctorate, he became a professor of biblical studies, but gradually came to question some of the teachings of the Catholic church.

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of a church in Germany. His main criticism of the Catholic church was that the church was selling indulgences, largely in order to finance the renovation of the basilica of St. Peter in Rome.

Roughly a year later, the Pope condemned Luther’s writings as conflicting with the teachings of the Catholic church. In July of 1520, Pope Leo X issued a papal bull condemning Luther’s teachings, and gave him 120 days to recent them. When Luther refused to do so, he was excommunicated in January of 1521. The same year, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V of Germany issued the Edict of Worms, declared Luther an outlaw, and gave permission for anyone to kill him without consequence, eerily reminiscent of the fatwa that was issued against Salman Rushdie in 1989, after the publication of “The Satanic Verses”.

The Founding Fathers of our country wisely chose to separate church and state, but few people realize how far back the mingling of the two occurred.

Early in the 4th century, a man named Constantine was co-emperor of the western Roman Empire. His brother-in-law, Maxentius, was the co-emperor, and the two eventually became bitter rivals, which led to a war between their armies. Immediately prior to a battle in the year 312, Constantine had a vision of the sign of Christ in a dream, and adopted the sign of the cross before he and his army went into battle, where they prevailed.

When the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th Century, the Catholic Church became a prominent force in European politics, and religious wars raged for centuries. The Crusades themselves lasted for roughly 200 years, and sowed the seeds of animosity between Christians and Muslims that still exists today. “ The Crusades through Arab Eyes” is a book worth reading, but you can read a quick summary by clicking on the link below:

the CliffsNotes version

Some of today’s commentators are aghast that Pope Francis has issued a radical call for action on climate change, arguing that he is not a scientist (he IS, but that’s besides the point).

Centuries ago, the Catholic church got involved in discussions of science, when they disputed Galileo’s belief that the Earth revolved around the Sun. His teachings were investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which forced him to recant his views, and caused him to be placed under house arrest for the last 27 years of his life. It wasn’t until October 31, 1992, that the Catholic Church admitted its earlier errors, and Pope John Paul II expressed regret for how the Galileo affair was handled.

When colonists first came to America in the early 17th century to escape religious persecution in Europe, they brought their own prejudices with them. People were put to death simply because they disagreed with their pastors, or because they belonged to “the wrong faith”.

Although acknowledging that religion could be a positive force in people’s lives, the Founding Fathers were also well aware of the damage that could be done by incorporating religion into political life, and the separation of church and state was codified in the 1st amendment to the Constitution.

Very early in our county’s history, E pluribus Unum was adopted as the defacto motto of the United States, and it found its way onto the Great Seal of the United States and some early coins.

Over time, various references to religion crept back into public life. The phrase “in God we trust” found its way onto coins, when the Union Army determined that it could use all the help that it could get. The phrase gradually found its way onto other coins, and was first used on paper money in 1957.

The Red Scare of the 1950’s heightened a need for more religion in our society, and the phrase “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Two years later, “In God we Trust” was adopted as the official motto of the United States.

Due to a law suit filed in New York State in 1958, the Supreme Court issued a ruling in 1962 that prayer would no longer be allowed in public schools, and vast numbers of our society felt that America was certain to go straight to Hell.

Life would be a lot simpler if we could somehow truly separate religion from politics, but it’s not likely to happen anytime soon.

Waye LaPierre, the Executive Vice President of the NRA, has declared that owning a gun is a God given right, a “fact” that many theologians agree is more than a bit stupid.

Every election brings forth a few politicians who believe that somehow God had called them to run for office. For the 2016 Presidential race, SIX Republicans entered the race because God asked them to. Scott Walker, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum have since dropped out, but Ben Carson, John Kasich, and Mike Huckabee are still going strong. Carson, in fact, is now leading in a number of polls.

All this talk of religion and politics can get tiresome very quickly, so here’s my advise:

If someone brings up either topic in conversation, switch to a different topic. The Cubs, after all, nearly got into the World Series, and the Royals are only a game away from defeating the Mets.

There ARE things in life that are more important than either politics and religion. Since our time on Earth is relatively limited, enjoy them while you can, and you’ll be much, much happier.

Donald trump is a buffoon

I’m of the opinion that Donald Trump (pictured below with his real hair) is not qualified to be the President of the United States. My opinion of “the Donald” , however, has not hurt his popularity among Republican voters. According to the most recent political polls, Trump holds a commanding lead over the guy who is currently in 2nd place, Ben Carson.

Since Ted Cruz is not actually a United States citizen, I’m not sure why he is still in the race, but he is currently ranked 5th in the polls. Ultimately, of course, he’ll drop out, probably in a dramatic fashion, and he’ll be relegated to the dust bin of history.

I’m also of the opinion that all of us should be careful of how we voice our opinions, but I AM in agreement with Trump that sometimes political correctness can go too far.

In December of 2013, I published an article titled “politically correct Santa”, which took a light-hearted look at political correctness.

I also explored the more serious side of political correctness with the publication of “Niggers, Jews, and queers in February of 2014 and “Just the fact, ma’am - just the facts” in September of 2015.

Controversy has long simmered over the name of the Washington Redskins,who recently lost their federal trademark registration on the orders of a Federal judge.

Columbus Day has also generated controversy for a very long time, and further details can be found in the article posted below:

don’t shoot the messenger

In recent years, an increasing number of locations have been promoting “Indigenous People’s Day”.

4 states ( Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, and South Dakota) no longer celebrate Columbus Day, and neither do a number of cities in the United States. The city council of Minneapolis, Minnesota took a more creative approach in April of 2014, when they voted to recognize BOTH Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day.

One group that would NOT be in favor of eliminating Columbus Day is the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal service organization that was started in 1882. The KC’s were named in honor or Christopher Columbus, the mariner.

Columbus Day has been celebrate in America since 1792, and it is now celebrated in other countries as well. The first state to establish a holiday for Columbus Day was Colorado, in 1906. As a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, the day became a Federal holiday in 1934. (The group was also largely responsible for having the words “under God” added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954.)

There are a variety of reasons why some folks object to Columbus Day, but one of the most troubling reasons was that some people felt that Columbus Day was being used to expand Catholic influence. That same mindset still existed in 1960, when some of our fellow Americans voted against JFK because they were convinced that the Vatican was going to take over America.

To be honest, the celebration of Columbus Day is NOT a topic that I get very excited about. Eventually, I think that you’ll see more locations adopt the “dual holiday” method used by the city of Minneapolis, but I don’t think that you’ll ever see a time that it is eliminated as a Federal holiday.

For those folks who DO get excited by this topic, my advice is simple:

Take a deep breath, count to 10, and enjoy your day off.

Me and the President

Apart from the fact that we are both Democrats, and that I agree with a lot of his ideas, Barack Obama and I also have one other thing in common - we both got married during the first week of October.

Barack and Michelle got married on October 3, 1992, which means that TODAY is their 23rd anniversary. In view of the fact that 48% of the marriages in America last less than 20 years, that’s a pretty remarkable achievement.

According to Michelle, the secret to their longevity is not to sweat the small stuff, which seems to be pretty good advice for the rest of us as well.

If you’ve read “Why Men don’t listen, and Women Can’t read Maps” (Barbara and Alan Peace) or pretty much any other relationship book, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that men and women shouldn’t be able to live with each other at all.

If you’re interested in statistics, here’s a few facts that you might find interesting:

1) The more education that you have, the more likely you are to stay married

2) You’re far more likely to divorce if you live in a “red” state. All of the states in the top 10 for divorces are “red” states, and Nevada is on the top of the list.

3) The younger a person is when they get married, the more likely they are to get divorced

4) Iowa (the locale for the affair depicted in the “Bridges of Madison Country“ ) has the lowest divorce rate in the country

5) Arkansas has the highest rate of individuals who have been married 3 or more times, but 67% of the Republicans in America believe that gay marriage will destroy the “sanctity of marriage”. If you’ve been paying attention lately, though, you’ll know that Tide detergent can SAVE the sanctity of marriage:

leave it to Tide

Sharon and I got married on October 6, 1972, which means that we’ll be celebrating our 43rd anniversary this coming Tuesday, and a few of our friends are rapidly approaching their golden anniversary.

There really isn’t any magic formula for staying married a long time, but I still maintain that having a good belly laugh together on occasion seems to work as well as anything else.

I occasionally still fall asleep in a chair after having one too many glasses of wine, and Sharon occasionally goes shopping when she shouldn’t, but I totally agree with Michelle Obama - don’t sweat the small stuff, and you’ll get along just fine.