The Triumphant Return of the Least Exciting Car in the World

After a long hiatus from Production, in 2008 Ford's turnaround expert CEO, Alan Mulally, decided to bring back the Ford Taurus. Rather than create something scratch however, they simply re badged the slow selling Ford 500. Sales remained lackluster and a second 500 based Taurus was made. For 2010, Ford is now trying a 3rd variant to recapture market share, and for something wearing the Taurus badge it looks pretty damn good.

For me, the Taurus name conjures images of getting driven to soccer practice and sitting in plush back seats coated in Cheerios and cheese curl dust. Surprisingly at the time however, the car was recognized as Ford's great hope, and a legitimate head to head competitor with BMW's 5 series. For most Taurus buyers however, what it really represented was an American made option to buy instead of the Accord, Camry or Volvo 240. A car that showed America could build something reliable, comfortable and easy on the wallet.

Now the new Taurus... Less a BMW competitor than a chrome covered Luxo-barge the 2010 Taurus is about as subtle as a rapper's Escalade. Tech options reserved usually for Mercedes, Audi and Lexus are on tape, as are AWD and Ford's new 365HP dual turbocharged EcoBoost engine. For Christ's sake the thing now comes with paddle shifters, once a hallmark feature found only on Masers and Ferrari's.

It is all a bit unsettling to me, but I am glad to see Ford trying something out of the box thinking and applying it to something people might but.

My true hope though is that Volvo will launch a counter attack and make a tarted up version of the so-boxy-it's-cool 240 wagon.

Caitlin of a broken home.

This weekend came to town for a bday camping trip that was rained out. Instead we spent our time catching up, making food and wasting time.

I was afraid it would be a little weird to navigate the waters of keeping mutual friends and for Caitlin's part she seems to be handling things as well as she could be expected to. Making things that much more tense, I knew that Meg was picking her up on Sunday so they could spend time together.

When Caitlin showed up, I wanted to be able to feed her vegan friendly food, so I made a run to the grocery store to get as many veggies as I could fit in the fridges crisper. I got home and started whipping up a salad, of course I had forgotten lettuce, which I did not realize until she was at the door. (Strike 1) In addition to raining out camping, the hurricane also made my 3rd roommate postpone moving in. He is the one with all of the furniture. The result? Another weekend without furniture, and no real legitimate place for Caitlin to sleep. (Strike 2) Finally, and there is the awkward issue of Meg coming up in conversation. After three years together and 5 years as friends it's strange to have her excluded from conversation. The result was an elephant in the room that kept me more than a little on edge. (Strike 3)

I am to a small degree living every divorce cliche from the Wire to Liar, Liar. Short of being unable to assemble an Ikea bunk bed set or missing soccer practice I think I fit the role quite well.

Today was also the ceremonial exchanging of left behind goods. I got some T-Shirts and a book back, she got "Franz Ferdinand: Tonight" out of my CD player where it has lived since May. Seeing her for a second in my foyer was like a punch in the stomach. It is the only time I have ever missed someone completely and wanted them gone so badly at the same time.

In some ways I may be be doing better, but everything I do still has a giant, neon "WTF!?" hanging over it that leaves me wondering where things went so wrong and how they can ever get better.

Redacted

After 8 years of not really knowing fact from fiction when it came to CIA and military conduct, several things have come to light in the last weeks that show just how totally fucked things were in the prime years of the now renamed GWOT (these days it's the Overseas Contingency Operation).

The first story which broke two weeks ago, and which continues to evolve is regarding Blackwater USA (now Xe), which for the uninitiated is the private army hired by the Pentagon to protect diplomats in Iraq, as well as other security operations. These are no rent a cops though -- comprised largely of ex-military, led by ex-special forces and commanding it's own air force and APC's Blackwater is in all right a full fledged army. If you'll recall they have had a very bad record of killing Iraqi civillians, and as it has now emerged during depositions, the former CEO may have actually demanded this behavior. According to former employees, the CEO and founder Erik Prince, believed he was part of a holy war against Muslims and allegedly went so far as to kill individuals in the US who opposed his doctrine.

While the track record of Blackwater as a protection agency is almost unblemished, the idea of such an idealogically motivated force operating in this, and other sovreign nations terrifies me.

The other story which continues to break this week regards the torture during the Bush years at so called "Black Sites" conducted by the CIA. A highly redacted report released by the Attorney Generals office confirms that the methods used went far beyond water boarding. High lights of detainee abuse include:

-Threats with power tools
-Threat of rape
-Threat of murdering and raping families
-Mock executions of other detainees
-Beatings
-Constriction of blood flow resulting in loss of consciouness

While these things are in themselves extreme, much of the document is not yet available and appears to be secret to prevent public and international back lash.

As the final icing on the cake, Dick Cheney who as recently as last month was asking that interrogation documents be released specifically to show that extreme measures were effective has been proven wrong. The documents he was referring to have been released, and rather than showing Jack Bauer like success resulting from torture, they show that conventional methods were in fact more effective.

It might not be until a long time from now that we know most of what happened during the Bush years, but knowing this much makes me glad that the neoCons are out of office.

Prius Killer from BMW? Yes, Please: Udated

In a wild and far off place called Europe, most of the vehicles are run off a magical potion called diesel. While the diesel of yore was smelly, worked poorly in cold climates and mostly used on large trucks, the people of Euroland have remedied this over the last 30 years, to create refined products some of which get over 100MPG with careful driving. In fact, almost every car in Europe is available as a diesel version which get 30% or better fuel mileage and come with the small downside of slightly less HP, but the huge upside of loads more torque.

And now the icing on the cake... BMW which started exporting the 335d (diesel version) to the US last year has come out with a smaller engined 320d capable of (drum roll)69+MPG. Even with normal driving, this means that the BMW is getting mileage significantly better than the 45-55MPG attained by a Prius or the new Honda Insight.

Not that I have anything against the Insight or the Prius, but if MPG was my motivator, and I had a little extra money I'd take the BMW. In Black.

As of Aug-26-2009 BMW has announced that the 320d is not for American tastes. I beg to differ.

A Birthday Eve Ramble on the Nature of Maturity

Last night I had dinner/beverages and Hookah with a friend that I have known since she was a freshman. As a freshman she was like some kind of feral drunken freshman animal. Sober she made little sense and seemed prone to tantrums. When exposed to alcohol she was all screams and insanity.

While I have seen her mature over the last 3 years, seeing her now, as someone with interesting things to say, a career and a remarkable new sense of self respect, I was stunned. I guess looking back to my freshman year, I was not much (or any) better. It still blew me away though.

What it really made me wonder though, is how will I look back on me in 3 years? With envy? Embarrassment? Pride? Shame? The fact of the matter is that who I am in 3 years will be nothing more than the sum of what I do with regularity in the mean time. Short of being an astronaut, in theory pretty much every option is on the table.

Too bad it's harder to dream at 24 than it was at 18.

The Wild and Wooly Working World

Today marks one month on the dot as a full time employee of BSC, and right on cue at 11 this morning I got a call from a headhunter from a consulting firm asking what they could do to get me to leave. And it made me think, I am happy here. Pay aside, every day that I come into work I am challenged and I learn something. The people I work with are rational and professional, as well as being friendly. I get to the gym every day, and so far, I have not gotten assigned anything I would just call busy work. It's a pretty damn good feeling.

Last night was a bar night with Kroot and we went for some food and some darts at Brighton Beer Garden and then to Castle Bar. I was trying to get a hold of Kalah and she untypically did not call back. Turns out she put down her scooter coming back from work, in a skirt none the less. She seems like she is OK except for some lesions and contusions. That girl is a pint sized Canadian bad ass.

Kettlebell

Inspired by Jade's dedication to fitness (he is now thinking of opening his own gym after graduation) I went and got a kettlebell. If you have never seen it, it looks like a tea kettle and is made of iron. After about 15 minutes with it today my arms felt they way that they usually do after a 45 minute doing a weight circuit at the gym.

In other news, XKCD continues to make me extremely happy.

Up North

Spening time in vermont for a few days haspretty much been the shit. Friday I was in nh for a coworker's birthday, then saturday I went further north to burlington and was out on the boat within an hour of getting there. had an all nighter in town and saw a ton of friendly faces.

it is incredible how much seeing old friends, the lake, the stars and the sun rise have all brought me to a better place.

Wild Prognostication 1.

Cash for Clunkers and the Next Election.

Cash for Clunkers will replace about 1% of cars. By the next election gas will be $4 a gallon again. Here's the kicker. As people are making the choice of who they elect in three years, for the first time in American Politics, gas prices are going to have much less of an impact on the people they used to matter to most.

Will this win the election for Obama's second term? Maybe not. But if you think that the last 4 elections have been won or lost by less than 5%. If <1% of American voters got a new car from Obama and the evil demo congress, than maybe (Just fucking maybe) there will be less pouting about drilling in Alaska and more willingness to acknowledge that this somewhat stupid program has actually moved us away from our "oil addiction".

Additionally, this week saw the first gas powered, production ready car EVER get a preliminary EPA rating of 230/100 MPG, and it's being made in America.

The change we were promised is coming and in a sustainable way.

The Perks

On one hand I feel alone, and I will probably never find anyone ever again with the same appreciation I have for the world smallest dear.

On the other had:

My Netflix account has been emancipated from the tyranny of joint custody.

Hygiene standards after 7 on weeknights are lower.

I can enjoy stupid comedies without guilt or ridicule.

I can revel in my enjoyment of cars.

A bottle of kettle lasts me longer (sort of).

Hmm...

maybe other things.

Low.

After almost three years things are over with Meg. On the plus side, I do feel somewhat cut free. On the down side I have quickly realized that I am a 23 year old child. So far the road to recovery needs to involves spending more time with friends and (in this order) buying a breakfast sandwich, a suit and a pickup truck.

I'm halfway to a country song.