My Morning Commute.

I have two trains of thought this morning. It promises to be a productive day. I have figured out how to enjoy my morning commute. I have learned that if I leave my house a half an hour later the traffic is so much better that I can drive all the way to work at highway speeds. This morning was even better than usual because spring is here in AZ and I have the top off the car. Trust me when I say there is nothing like driving with the top off, sun shining in your face, breeze blowing through a nice silk shirt, listening to rock music as loud as you can stand. I have actually found a way to really enjoy my drive to work. I relax and get totally lost in how much I enjoy driving my car. Which brings me to my second train of thought.

I think we should outlaw mini-vans. Just think about this for a minute, I think the invention of the mini-van is close to the invention of all evil. They are too big, and propagating adults try and fill them up. The only mini-van type vehicle available to the general public when I grew up was the V.W. bus, and they were so undependable and ugly that nobody really bought them anyway. Except the hippies and surfers in CA and that is a subject all of it's own. Of course full size vans were available, but they were mainly bought by retirees and they didn't use them as daily drivers. I think the mini-van is responsible for most discipline problems today also. Most of us grew up riding in the back seat of a car, my mother could slap me into submission no matter where I was sitting. You can't reach the screaming brat in the back of the mini-van, they are just out of reach. So they fill the mini-van with kids, their stress level goes up because of all the bills, they aren't having any fun because even the best mini-van has terrible driving dynamics, the kids are out of control because of the lack of beatings, and they get all stressed out and depressed, which makes them less productive at work. They have fallen into this mundane trap all because Chrysler invented the mini-van. Chrysler deserves to be owned by Fiat.

You may think I'm nuts, but in some small way you think I might just be right too.

Decency and Common Sense in a Changing and Tolerant World

I was asked a question yesterday that I am going to share with the rest of you because it seems to have a good deal of relevance to the time's that we are living in. The question was. Should a gay high school student be allowed to use the same sex locker room, and why is that any different than a straight student being allowed into the locker room of the opposite sex. I don't know what the correct answer is, and most of you probably won't like the one I'm going to give but you know me, I've never been short on opinions.

I don't see this as strictly a gay rights issue. Not any more. It is the year 2011 and everybody in the world knows at least one gay person and like it or not I don't see the gay population getting any smaller. I see this more as a common sense and decency issue. Gay or straight, the behavior of todays young adults has deteriorated to a completely unacceptable level. I can remember when it was unacceptable to hold hands while walking down the hallway between classes. No kissing, making out etc. I truly think nobody cares whether your gay or not, but I'm pretty sure that they don't want to have to witness your sexual behavior on display in public. Much the same as the parents and grandparents of the 50's were appalled by the promiscuity of the younger generation of the sixties. Some things are best left to the imagination, or unimagined.

I think it's time we started to set a better example for our young adults, treat them with common decency, and demand that they treat others with the respect that they, and each other deserve. We need to start holding them to a higher standard. I'm not saying beat them with bibles or send them to military school at the first sign of deviant behavior, but paying a little more attention to them and spending a little more time on the difference between right and wrong, and how men should treat women. Regardless of the relationship I had with my mother whether we agreed on things or not. One of the clearest things that my dad taught me is that women should always be treated like ladies with respect and a man should never lay a hand on a woman in a violent way. If we were to instill these values in the youth of today. Just maybe the gay, straight behavior issue wouldn't be such an issue after all.

The Valley of the Sun

For those of you who don't have the pleasure of living here, this is the time of the year that makes Phoenix, Scottsdale, and the surrounding area so special. I'm waiting on a business dinner at the Valley Ho resort in downtown Scottsdale and the weather is incredible. 85 degrees, no wind, no humidity, sunshine and skies as clear as you can possibly imagine. This is the Scottsdale that I fell in love with while attending horse shows here 20 some years ago. I vowed then, that someday I would live here. I've also attended conventions here in the heat of August and still find it just about the best place on earth. The valley has changed dramatically over the past 20 years but the weather and most of the things that make Scottsdale special are still here, along with some new and better reasons to come for a visit. Notice I didn't say come and live here. I'd like some of the people to just visit and not come here to stay. Pure selfishness. The 90 days a year that we have that are in the extreme heat range are easily worth the price to pay to enjoy the rest of the year. Top off the car, sunglasses and one of my favorite Tommy Bahama shirts on and I'm set for a great evening.

Now to be a bummer. The last weekend I attended an event at Firebird International Raceway that I found out about merely by chance. It was the Redline time attack challenge. Nationally know race car drivers dueling it out on the fast main track at Firebird. Sports cars from BMW, Corvette, Lotus, Porsche, and Nissan, and Street tuner cars from several manufacturers. The sad part is the only people in attendance it seems were the contestants and their crews. It is such a shame.

There are many more sports car events in this country besides Nascar. Just last weekend alone besides Nascar, we had the IRL, and Rolex and Continental Tire series racing at Barber Motorsports Park. Not to mention all of the club racing events that happen on any given weekend around the U.S. This Saturday is the American LeMans series Races at Long Beach. Part of what makes this country great is our love of the automobile. WE are a mobile society. We purchase the majority of the cars in the world. Most of the foreign car companies are so in tune with the American car buying public that they have proving grounds and design studio right here in Arizona and Southern California. They use our roads, mountains, deserts, commuter rush hours, and wide open spaces to test their cars before they reach production. Weekly we are lucky enough to see camouflaged engineering mules driving around the valley of the sun. I've personally saw both the new Porsche Panamera and the Lincoln MKX here all camoed up at least a year before they went into production.

We need to take back the auto industry. WE make GREAT cars here in America. I am highly competitive in my mostly stock. I have removed weight and changed my shocks and added aero body parts, but my car is pretty much the same basic C5 Corvette that you can go and buy at any Chevrolet dealer in the country. Just today I had the privilege of spanking a Ferrari 360 convertible while making calls in Scottsdale. Don't pick on the Vette unless you have the balls to back it up. Mustangs are beating BMW's in the Grand Am series, and Chevy and Ford powered Rolex LMP cars are beating the best of Europe and Japan every weekend. Mercedes doesn't even bother to race here and except for the F1 series, they stick mainly to the German Touring Car series in Europe, where only Mercedes and Audi are allowed to play. Club racers all over the globe are buying small block GM V8's to install in their BMW's because they are light, powerful, cheap and reliable as hell. If you want to see some fantastic road racing. Stay up late and watch Australian Supercars compete on SpeedTV. They are basically Ford and Chevy sedans all dressed up to race and competing on road courses throughout Australia and provide some great racing entertainment.

Not too mention the millions of car exhibition clubs all across the country.

We need to promote our car industry, our racing industry, our automotive engineering and our automotive heritage before the government and the liberal tree huggers beat it into a position that it can't recover from.!!!

the government shutdown.

Ok hold on to your panties this is going to piss some of you off. I think we need a government shut down. A systematic planned stopping of government programs. I think everybody on welfare should grab a broom and head to one of the national parks and get to work. We have plenty of highways that need to be cleaned up as well as the inner cities. If they get a check they need to be working. No more volunteers needed to man the parks and welcome visitors. Put the welfare recipients to work. I want to know why we pay for their health care, give them a bigger check each time they get pregnant. There are some families in the inner cities who have never had anyone in their family work. They have been on welfare for generations. Their kids need to go to school get good grades and get jobs. There are plenty of jobs out there all they have to do is look in the paper and pick one. We need farm laborers, trash collectors, hourly skilled laborers, daycare workers, you name it. There are jobs out there if people want to work. If we put all the welfare recipients to work we wouldn't have an immigration problem because there wouldn't be any jobs for them. This is kind of an incomplete thought, but I'm tired of hearing about all the things we will have to do without when the government shuts down. I'm pretty sure that most of the salaried government workers shut down years ago. Have you tried to get good service at the post office lately.

Next issue. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. I think he has some very valid points. Especially when it comes to teachers. I was an Ag Ed major in college, and have spent most of my adult life teaching in some form or another. I've been taking a poll lately and asking my co workers and friends how many good teachers they had while they were in school. The average answer is 2. 2 good teachers for at least 12 years of schooling including higher education. I have teachers as friends and I can tell you which ones are any good and which ones suck. I don't think any teacher in any capacity deserves tenure. They should all be judged on their results. I get paid on producing results as well as most of the workforce.

Don't get me wrong I think that parents need to do their part too. Kids need to go to school and treat teachers with the proper respect and not be a discipline problem. In turn the government needs to stay out of raising our children. I am almost positive that the kid the police sprayed with pepper spray needed it. Obviously talking to him doesn't work. If he felt some consistent pain on his ass from getting it whipped for misbehaving, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be a problem.