tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82042793271186433042024-03-04T23:05:04.923-08:00OpinionBrooklynRobeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-5613244073006098542010-02-26T06:40:00.000-08:002010-03-01T18:16:25.811-08:00Snow day rumination on newspapers and adulthoodIt's been many months since I have posted here but when I turned 47 in early February and at the same time ran smack dab into the Rupert Murdoch juggernaut, it inspired me to consider some of the things that make us adults. Indeed, it is that very adulthood that keeps me from writing on these pages. More on that later.<br /><br />With apologies to Mom and Dad, I owe as much to <a href="http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/culture/2009-07-09/gavin-mcinnes/">Gavin McInnes</a> as anyone in my approach to adulthood. Believe me, the older I get the more I want to rock a faux hawk, grow a beard, get stupidly expensive headphones for the subway and ride one of those ten foot tall bikes. Vice's Do's and Dont's helped me to see how desperate and downright creepy that is. It's not just that you look like a loser unable to face the reality of adulthood, it's also that somebody needs to be paying attention. I mean this in both the broadest sense and the narrowest. We need people to pay attention to the scumbags on the A train as well as the idiots in Congress. So how do you do this and what does it have to do with Rupert Murdoch? I'm glad you asked.<br /><br />Start by taking off your ridiculous headphones asshole. Yes, New York City is loud and sure, <a href="http://www.ironandwine.com/">Iron and Wine</a> is slightly more pleasant than that crying baby or screaching train brakes but guess what, you can't always be comfortable. I know you want to avoid confrontation and interaction at all costs but leaving the responsibilities of society to others just makes you a pussy. This incessant primacy of comfort in all aspects of our lives is nowhere more evident than in airport concourses where parades of Cinabon eating, Pumpkin Spice Latte drinking lardasses promenade past in their pajamas, pillows under their arms and flip flops on their disgusting fat feet. Or in Williamsburg where thousands of hipsters are snowed-in today because it wouldn't occur to them to maybe buy a snow shovel. Hey, that's the landlord's job isn't it? I hope you run out of cheese.<br /><br />So all of this was going through my mind on my birthday as I cursed Uncle Rupert, media magnate, owner of the Wall Street Journal and old time newspaperman, for having the temerity to now want me to pay to read WSJ editorials. They have long restricted their web site news stories to paying subscribers but the opinion pages were free. And isn't it my God given right to get free content on the internet? After all, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Paul Gigot, Sam Sifton and Jane Perlez (note: these last two dodge waiters and bullets for the Times) all do this for free, right? Wrong. I suddenly realized that I could not in good conscience complain about the demise of newspapers if I wasn't willing to step up and be an adult. In this case, it meant simply adding a WSJ subscription to the one I have for the NYT. It works out to the embarrassingly paltry sum of $10 a month. So for all of you who mourn the loss of a vibrant local free press but who get all of their content for free on the internet, you are part of the problem. Grow up.<br /><br />I was travelling with a colleague this past week and she off handedly mentioned that she had given up baked goods like cookies and bagels for lent. When I pointed out that she wasn't Catholic she just shrugged. She didn't need to elaborate. As I stuffed my face with a banana nut muffin I realized just how good we, as a society, have it. I'm not saying that having a sensible haircut and a subscription to the Journal makes me a saint or even an adult. Nor am I saying we all need to wear hair shirts. Deprivation and discomfort, in and of themselves, aren't what build character. What builds character and makes us adults (and keeps newspapers open) is our willingness to face up to responsibilities that might just force us off the path of least resistance. Practicing these principles in small ways in our everyday life can help us when the time comes and you really need to suck it up and drive on. <br /><br />Am I a pompous ass? You know it. I'm also sorry that it took a snow day to get me back to the keyboard. There are just so many important people and things to do in my life that these on-line derangements seem like a luxury. If anybody's out there I would love to hear your comments.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-43703399577717713432009-08-02T19:44:00.000-07:002009-08-02T20:05:08.762-07:00Inside Baseball - So You Wanna be a Journalist?Holy Crap, I just read the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/opinion/02pubed.html?_r=1&ref=opinion">Op-Ed</a> in today's NY Times by their Public Editor Clark Hoyt (the position they created after the fiasco a few years ago) about the train wreck of errors in the recent Cronkite obituary. As much as I like to see the smug liberal Times stumble ocassionally, this piece really demonstrates how hard it is to be a real live journalist - working multiple stories, on deadline - and to be a real newspaper with fact checkers, copy editors, deputy culture editors, late shift editors, etc. It is an amazing look at the inner workings of a major newspaper and a reminder that blogging is not reporting, or at least not the blogging I do. Being the paper of record is a responsibility the Times takes very seriously. Which is why I read it every day.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-54777152619068070532009-04-08T06:36:00.000-07:002009-04-08T09:05:17.736-07:00My New Second Favorite CountryI'm not entirely sure what my old second favorite country was. Sadly, it is sports more than anything that informs these opinions (i.e. English Football, Tour de France, Italian Grand Prix at Monza, etc.). So with that in mind, my 13 year old and I were watching the new Travis Pastrana retard show "Nitro Circus" where they do insane things so that we won't turn off the TV and read. For those of you not in the know, Travis Pastrana is the bane of parents everywhere. His God given talents and nearly complete absence of fear have allowed him to achieve Nobel level exploits on a dirt bike including being the first to successfully complete a back flip and double back flip in the near sport of Freestyle Moto-Cross. Not satisfied with that he got into a rally car at the X-Games a couple of years ago, won the event and hasn't looked back. The man has cojones and a creative mind. And an attractive wife and co-star who just happens to be the first woman to back flip a motorbike. Their show, "Nitro Circus" is a more accomplishment driven but also more daring version of Jackass but without the ass piercing. <br /><br />They travelled to the country of Panama in this latest episode and I thought, "Hey, I know a dude that lives there. Let's see what all the fuss is about." In the opening sequence Travis's posse shows up at a construction site. Not just any construction site, this is the tallest building in Latin America which is going up in Panama City. So the posse asks the boss if it would be alright if a couple of them BASE jumped off the crane on the top of this soon to be building. And the guy says (in Spanish), "Sure, don't land on anybody." That was that. They jumped, everybody had a good time and nobody got hurt. Then they rode their dirt bikes through the swimming pool at the hotel. Immature, extremely dangerous to riders and swimmers alike but wildly cool. Finally, to top it off, they set up a dirtbike jump in Panama City's equivalent of Central Park. Nobody got arrested. I suspect Mayor Bloomberg would have a baby if anyone tried that here. I realize that I am extrapolating a lot from these couple of encounters so I will ask others to confirm but I think Panama and its people have got it just about right. Nannies are for babies. Adults (even immature American ones like Pastrana's Dad who jumps out of a speedboat at 70 knots and breaks his pelvis) should be able to make stupid decisions. Especially when it entertains us couch potatoes. So, in a sense, sports is still informing the opinion but in a slightly more philosophical way. Go Panama!Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-17979900714164687622009-03-03T10:43:00.000-08:002009-03-05T11:30:34.614-08:00Taking a page from Rummy's playbookThe latest market travails and inability to stem job losses reminded me that one of the things that was so frustrating for me in the chaotic aftermath of the Iraq invasion was that it didn't have to be that way. A carefully thought out occupation and integration plan would have gone a long way towards producing the outcome that Mr. Bush had envisioned. The problem was that Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld saw the Iraq War as an opportunity to promote his agenda of transforming a long moribound military into a 21st Century fighting force. Transforming the military was and is a laudable goal. Focusing resources on light, rapidly deploying forces with a heavy reliance on emerging technologies was the logical next step after the end of the Cold War. Unfortunately, Mr. Rumsfeld's rigid adherence to transformative strategies left us with too few boots on the ground and too many ad-hoc decisions on the fly. We had attempted to get inside the enemy's decision cycle and instead had found them inside of ours and without the means to defeat them. It wasn't until we dispensed with "fighting the war with the Army you have" and replaced it with fighting with the Army you need to win (i.e. the surge) that the fortunes of the Iraqi people turned around. One might argue that this (long overdue) flexibility was the most transformational measure of all.<br /><br />So how is the bungled Iraq war like our faltering economy? Simply, it is the most important task before us but agenda driven politicians are using it as an opportunity to transform government institutions in ways that might be laudable but are hardly stimulative. It is possible, even likely in a Keynesian world, that transformative measures can be stimulative. However, when they are used, at best, to re-create obsolete institutions or, at worst, to simply further a political agenda, without regard for job creation or economic stimulus they serve only to distract from those vital goals. The Democrats in Congress have larded up the Stimulation Package with so many of these "progressive" ideas that have been sitting on their desks for 20 years that the bill cannot possibly fulfill it's mandate: saving our economy. Ms. Pelosi, meet Mr. Rumsfeld. You have both hijacked worthy causes to promote your pet causes.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-19701798179140358512009-02-05T10:38:00.000-08:002009-02-05T20:05:13.111-08:00You're asking the wrong question!I was inspired to write this after reading the excellent new blog <a href="http://msk-thegrayarea.blogspot.com/">The Gray Area</a> by the mysterious MSK. By the way, I have been saying for years that the agenda of our Nation has been driven by the fringes on the left and right. People with passion get the most attention and tend to spend the most money getting their candidates elected. As many of you know, I am a fanatical gun nut. So it's hard for me to see the gray area on that issue but it's important to try. Otherwise the intellect shuts down and only shouting remains. The Gray Area is a great concept for a blog and is (so far) really well executed. <br /><br />But that wasn't what I wanted to write about. MSK posts on the issue of executive compensation and this is a topic that makes me scream (and normal people yawn). Did it bother me when the Chairman of my old company made $6,000,000 in the same year that they eliminated the profit sharing plan? Sure it did. It was politically insensitive and severely hurt morale. Yet, that company was (and remains to this day) profitable as a result of some very smart decisions made at his level. That is worth compensating. It also would have been a blow to the company if he had left for greener pastures elsewhere. I also believe that incentivising employees to succeed at all levels is the best model going. If you generate revenue for the company, you get rewarded. Period. If you don't, you lose your job. um, also Period. Sounds tough, and it is. In fact, it keeps me awake at night. But it also keeps me motivated between 9:30 and 11:30 and then from 2:00 to 4:00 (that was a joke, boss!). It kills me that the media doesn't get the fact that the Wells Fargo employees who were going to be honored for their successful year with a trip to Vegas were part of the solution, not the problem. And what about the employees at the hotel? Don't they have families and bills to pay? So when the CNBC guy asked Matt Lauer on the Today Show this morning(in jest, of course) if he would take a pay cut if Today's ratings "went to zero" I screamed, "You're asking the wrong question!" Because what they should ask Matt, Meredith, Ann and Al is this. What if the Today Show's ratings were through the roof, generating tens of millions in ad revenue and was the only brightspot at NBC who was otherwise hemorraging money, would you agree to take only $500,000 a year? Hell no, you'd go to ABC in a heartbeat. This is why you shouldn't limit the pay of your top producers. A trip to Vegas would be nice too.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-2863897543152536072009-01-27T12:03:00.000-08:002009-01-27T18:00:33.243-08:00There they go againThe .<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/business/27fuel.html?_r=1&ref=business">NY Times</a> reports today that, <blockquote>Automakers said Monday that they were working toward President Obama’s goal of reducing fuel consumption, but rapid imposition of stricter emissions standards could force them to drastically cut production of larger, more profitable vehicles, adding to their financial duress.<br /></blockquote><br />Adding to their financial duress? I thought "Job One" was to repair the ailing economy. This seems like a harebrained way to do it. The Government continues to bury the auto industry in new regulations with one hand while trying to bail them out with the other. Workers lose, consumers lose, communities lose. The only winner? Government bureaucracy, of course. Mark my words, if the new emissions and fuel economy standards go into effect, the only way the auto industry will be able to sell these cars will be at drastically higher gas prices. Steven Cho has already said he'd like to see a punitive gas tax and with Carole browner leading the way will anyone be able to stop them? Tim Geithner? John Dingell? Not a chance. But hey, they're doing it for our own good. We'll only have to wait a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/27/science/earth/27carbon.html?ref=science">thousand years</a> to see the benefits!Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-86347475218136292042009-01-17T10:46:00.000-08:002009-01-17T17:08:58.640-08:00Facadism!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHTGeXEyryp1bfnlDoHdFdZFmlPRH4MGHbHtxPTCwD2CrIiAmh_H5aE-7N43ifqiQmf8g7YSfn5BOv_LfUT1nHGezf7c-XRW464BmcCMuFKhyYZfyJA8CIb3qy_abYvx_2U_AeMBxirko/s1600-h/Church+Front.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292431130698614514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHTGeXEyryp1bfnlDoHdFdZFmlPRH4MGHbHtxPTCwD2CrIiAmh_H5aE-7N43ifqiQmf8g7YSfn5BOv_LfUT1nHGezf7c-XRW464BmcCMuFKhyYZfyJA8CIb3qy_abYvx_2U_AeMBxirko/s320/Church+Front.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />I had just dropped Lola and Isabela at Bowl-Mor lanes (gosh I could do a whole post on that place) and was driving down 12th Street when I passed this church. Or what remains of this church. You see, it's just a facade behind which looms a towering new condo building or NYU dorm or some such glass and metal monolith. I'm not sure how I feel about facadism which I vaguely remember reading about in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Gill">Brendan Gill</a> New Yorker article in the early '90's. I love small scale historic districts where the buildings interact with the street and don't overwhelm passersby and so facadism offers a way to maintain this feel while allowing for necessary development. But this thing is an atrocity. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHKr6YYorxHgcZyRX-3KFz1kAT7qPcuJO7O5AB-Hg76J4-BWQRNCvReC9KW9UTT4HKcKhc5S4W2FkzVYqIZFqkMvneZYP6fvr6onxBqg5ANeV_vlkCxK0j4npnvhAt-RYPvM1ibZ13-74/s1600-h/Church+Side.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292431368873551426" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHKr6YYorxHgcZyRX-3KFz1kAT7qPcuJO7O5AB-Hg76J4-BWQRNCvReC9KW9UTT4HKcKhc5S4W2FkzVYqIZFqkMvneZYP6fvr6onxBqg5ANeV_vlkCxK0j4npnvhAt-RYPvM1ibZ13-74/s320/Church+Side.jpg" border="0" /></a>My friend <a href="http://bergenstreetstudio.com/">Clay Miller </a>designs beautiful modern buildings that deserve to be seen and appreciated. Here in Brooklyn that often means having to take down an older building. So be it. Don't get me wrong, I almost cried when they tore down the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigstimuli/sets/1766308/">Old Dutch Mustard Building</a> in Williamsburg. We need to preserve our city's heritage but we're a dynamic city not a museum. We need to find a way to allow for vibrant, creative architects to make their marks here. Not that there's been any shortage of that lately, I'm just saying. But is facadism the way to do it? I mean, this church thing is a fucking farce. It's an abortion for Chrissakes (sorry, I couldn't help myself). Look no further than the goddam Christmas wreath on the door. You're joking right? Is this a joke? You want to build a big ass building? Have some balls. Tear the church down. So, while I am of (at least) two minds on the concept of facadism, I tend to agree with this 1985 <a href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E6DD1438F936A25754C0A963948260">NY Times</a> article:<br /><br /><blockquote><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQsN8fF2fm7OJvdbrhy_83JB4O4mfugfAcz2YHSOy0wqdLR1-cjMWvF4RYpD9LxCn-EejGfyuwws6pUrY5nMmt5XAzQ3CngmRznU5bFbseuU-IiYzSXpwTtxHHRmKT7MHAWgOxB0W8-U/s1600-h/Church+Back.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292431656764409090" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEQsN8fF2fm7OJvdbrhy_83JB4O4mfugfAcz2YHSOy0wqdLR1-cjMWvF4RYpD9LxCn-EejGfyuwws6pUrY5nMmt5XAzQ3CngmRznU5bFbseuU-IiYzSXpwTtxHHRmKT7MHAWgOxB0W8-U/s320/Church+Back.jpg" border="0" /></a>To save only the facade of a building is not to save its essence; it is to turn the building into a stage set, into a cute toy intended to make a skyscraper more palatable. And the street becomes a kind of Disneyland of false fronts.<br /></blockquote><br /><br />What do you think?Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-72789507213982232582009-01-12T11:29:00.001-08:002009-01-12T11:43:48.951-08:00Modern!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTYK-1yixhoVOiE8iV-ED5i13azCrfhy-sc38J9BIyPw7tB0hgPSxcipTMVyxJSgbCIU9XGQunsLffnrgBEVrVTB3T-Uj-nvJMY05sIEkQc7PCwnIYIOK-BxnmRgZl00_uWEIZ62K4cY/s1600-h/modern.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFTYK-1yixhoVOiE8iV-ED5i13azCrfhy-sc38J9BIyPw7tB0hgPSxcipTMVyxJSgbCIU9XGQunsLffnrgBEVrVTB3T-Uj-nvJMY05sIEkQc7PCwnIYIOK-BxnmRgZl00_uWEIZ62K4cY/s320/modern.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5290491908610834338" /></a><br />I was just re-reading my very first post here and I see that I promised to write about architecture. As if I knew anything about it. Still, I did see an amazing documentary over the Holidays on the design and construction of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadao_Ando">Tadao Ando's</a> Modern Museum of Art in Fort Worth, Texas. Since I was there this past weekend, my kind host, Dwain Cannon, made a gracious detour on our way out West for the annual Coleman County Quail Hunt in order that I might take this atrocious cell phone photo (too much parking lot, not enough sky or building).Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-83968978091363457282008-12-18T06:14:00.000-08:002008-12-18T08:11:47.103-08:00Mr. Obama, Read a Newspaper!If you've run into me between Monday and Friday anytime in the last 25 years, there's a very good chance that there was a newspaper tucked under my arm, sticking out of my briefcase, or shielding me from the world on the IRT. Sometimes all of the above. Indeed, I rejoiced last year when the NY Times in a cost saving measure followed the lead of the Wall Street Journal and re-sized so that for the first time in my adult life the two papers were the same width and could be folded and read as one. This could be a metaphor for the life of any critical thinker - welcoming all points of view and attempting to sort through them in search of a personal version of the truth. It goes without saying that a newspaper reader has a broader world view and more informed opinions than most others. This can verge on the ridiculous as I found this morning when a TV news story on the problems in the Congo got me started on Laurent Kabila and his mis-rule in the '90's. Still, I think the world would be a better place and a Republican would be entering the White House had President Bush read a newspaper every once in a while. It may be too much of a stretch to say that this was his biggest failing but it certainly contributed in some way to many of them. Don't get me wrong, a President should not be deciding our fate based on what Gail Collins (NYT) or Paul Gigot (WSJ) think he should do. Nor should he ignore what his advisors say in favor of the latest (and undoubtedly biased) Reuters dispatch. But a blind over-reliance on agenda driven staffers gets us into quagmires. Damn, I'm really digressing.<br /><br />The point here is that the newspaper industry is in truly dire straits. As I rode the aforementioned IRT this morning I read that Cox Newspapers (Atlanta Consitution, Austin Statesmen) and Advance Publishing (Newark Star-Ledger, Cleveland Plain Dealer)were both closing their Washington D.C. bureaus. Are you kidding me? But then I looked around me. Whereas 20, or even 10 years ago the Lexington Ave. Line would be a cacophony of Posts, and Daily News, and NYT's and WSJ's, it is now a melange of iPods, people watching movies on PSP's (!) and playing video games on their cell phones. I truly worry about our society. Do people really know what's going on in the world? Can they think critically? Do they know that the new Bouley restaurant is only "satisfactory"? I bet more people based their votes on SNL and the creepy Shepard Fairey "Hope" poster (which, in a final insult, now haunts me from the cover of Time magazine) than did from editorial page endorsements. Not that the outcome would have been any different. And I wish our new President all possible success because, after all, I am an American. As a society, we can also put some of this sickening idolatry to good use. For instance, I have never had much success convincing my children that they should turn out lights and turn off the TV when they leave a room. However, a single invocation of the President-elect's directive to conserve energy and, voila, complete darkness. Sometimes while they are still in the room! So here is my semi-serious solution to a very serious problem. Barack Obama's positive influence on young people is well documented and truly inspirational. Even I am guilty of being a little inspired. So, if you want people to put down their iPhones and begin reading newspapers again, hand the new President a paper. Let's see a photo of him in the Oval Office with a Washington Post or striding to the waiting Marine One helicpoter with a sharply folded Wall Street Journal under his arm or surrounded by his beautiful family on a Sunday morning at Camp David with the NY Times Magazine Section laying in his lap while he dozes before the Redskins game. If only the housing crisis were so easy to solve.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-7057682541355426792008-11-23T10:47:00.000-08:002008-11-23T18:00:43.414-08:00Let Ford be FordMany thanks to <a href="http://nancyrommelmann.typepad.com">Nancy Rommelmann</a> for hosting the lively dialogue that inspired this post. Full disclosure, I drive a Ford Explorer but I wish I drove an Audi. And a Maserati. I have three kids, two of whom play travel soccer. Not a week goes by when we don't have at least one sortie where all seven seats are filled. Guess what? Ford made a great vehicle I wanted at a price I could afford. This is how the free market works. I own a Ducati motorcyle and drove a Triumph TR6 when I met Lola. Both of those vehicles have about as much utility to me as a Prius. Which is to say, almost none.<br /><br />A lot has been written about bailing out the big three, forcing them to re-structure, build green cars and become viable companies. Here's the problem with that argument. You can't build green cars AND be a viable company without enormous taxpayer subsidies or artificially high gasoline prices. Why, because people don't want or can't afford green cars as they exist today. The problem with tieing federal funds to manufacturing mandates is that they force companies to respond not to public demand but to the EPA and their flunkies in Congress. Wait a minute, you say. Priui were flying out of the dealerships last year. Yes, but so were Toll Brothers houses. Both were an anomoly driven by an overheated global economy. C'mon, did oil suddenly become scarce in 2006? Was everybody in China really going to have two cars in the garage? I don't think so. Well, you ask, now that gas is $1.77 in New Jersey why aren't F-150's flying out of the dealerships? You ask a lot of questions but that one is easy. Because almost no one can get financing and those that can are waiting for prices to come down further (ah, deflation knocks at the door). Sure, gasoline prices will probably go up a little when demand increases (let us pray) but it won't breach $4.00 a gallon anytime soon unless the do-gooders in Congress decide to "fix" it. More on that later.<br /><br />De-regulation has taken its hits lately. Ironically, the financial industry is one of the most regulated businesses in America. The other one is the auto industry. OK, I think cars should have seat belts. In fact, I wouldn't buy one that didn't. But that's the point. We didn't need the government or Ralph Nader to tell us to put seat belts in cars. Remember when everyone said we needed airbags in every car right now? The car companies did a great job responding to the public clamor and congressional mandate creating more complex and expensive cars for the public. Then we found out that airbags kill small people. Oops. But safety features and personal choice can co-exist and I point to side airbags as an example. They are not mandated but people who want them and can afford them buy cars with them as an option. But let us set aside safety for a moment (as I am often wont to do) and talk about one of the more insidious government intrusions that has hamstrung the auto makers for 30 years. Yes, the dreaded CAFE standards. Corporate Average Fuel Economy as mandated by Congress in 1975 prevented auto makers from making only the highly profitable vehicles that Americans wanted to buy, SUV's and Mustangs because the standards required a fleet average fuel economy well above those of the desirable vehicles. In order to maintain a high domestic fleet average (the UAW insisted that foreign Fords could not be used in the harmonic mean calculation)the automaker had to offset the gas guzzlers with unprofitable Escorts and Fiestas. Remember that wages, healthcare costs, real estate, robots and all the other inputs cost the same whether you're building a high profit vehicle or a loss leader. Sure, the automakers might have been caught out when oil skyrocketed, but if they had been unfettered by Congressional mandates they would have had half the number of facilities (because the UAW won't let you build Explorers and Escorts in the same plant) and been sitting on a pile of cash. Now I'm not here to bash the UAW, they are looking out for their members and, let's face it, American workers are the most productive in the world. They've taken their licks and are going to have to play ball for the survival of the auto industry. I have faith that they will. But when I hear that any bailout will be contingent on yet more Congressional mandates for "greenness" I want to scream. That's how we got here in the first place. If Congress insists on dictating the way cars are built then they need to stop bitching about paying for it and just pony up the cash. Because the only way green cars can be "sustainable" is to artificially inflate the price of gas to European levels and the only way that could happen is with a filibuster-proof Democratic Congress, a Democrat President and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Waxman">Henry Waxman</a> as head of the Energy and Commerce committee. Uh oh.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-69508751346886299872008-11-11T20:07:00.001-08:002008-11-11T20:27:41.587-08:00My HeroLast Saturday, after months of dedicated training and a hellish week of cutting weight, my lovely wife Lola took the Gold Medal in the Women's Masters Division at the North American Grappling Association Tournament in Newark, NJ. She's a great Mom and a great wife and she can adapt and overcome better than anyone I have ever met. Lola's in the white Gi and check out her wicked arm bar!<br /><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/kEnEkNGlEJw"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/kEnEkNGlEJw" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object> <br /><br />Lola, you rock and I love you more than ever!Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-72471093185230770362008-11-11T07:43:00.000-08:002008-11-11T07:51:42.325-08:00Thank You For Your ServiceI just wanted to take a moment to thank those Veterans, young and old, who have answered the call to serve their Country. They performed this service without political agenda and without Democrat or Republican partisanship. So I write today in that spirit, with only gratitude in my heart and the hope that those currently serving will return safely to their families when their job is done. I am humbled by their sacrifice.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-8997299222557951802008-11-10T08:23:00.000-08:002008-11-10T08:44:09.169-08:00Have you looked in the mirror latelyOK, I think I have the name thing squared away so now I can actually opine. Given that this is my first genuine content driven post I wanted to make certain that I tackled a subject of universal importance that would leave audiences awestruck with its profundity and generate an Obama-like following.<br /><br />So I've settled on facial hair. Not just any facial hair mind you, but the dreaded goatee. Yes you Mr. Businessman on 45th Street this morning with your neatly trimmed va-jay-jay mouth. Do you think it makes you young? Hip? Devil-may-care? A nutty professor? No! It makes you look like a truck driver or worse, a Jets fan. Now don't get me wrong, I drove a dump truck (in Manhattan no less) for two years and left a trail of broken sideview mirrors and terrified pedestrians in my wake as evidence. I also applaud the Jets overwhelming victory at the expense of the hapless Rams yesterday. But why would you purposely try to look like an idiot? Irony? I don't think so.<br /><br />Goatees had their time in the sun about fifteen years ago and even then they could go horribly wrong. In fact I almost grew one myself back in '94 but then I saw something like 1,000 of them in one day in the East Village and realized it was already too late. So look around you, who is still sporting a flavor saver? Is it you?Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-42484707812788090922008-11-10T08:11:00.000-08:002008-11-10T08:13:36.284-08:00Deep In the Heart of PlagiarismAgain, reprinted from my old blog, Deep In the Heart of Brooklyn which, as you can see below, was not half as ingenious as I thought it was:<br /><br />It's been less than 12 hours since I started this blog and I've already encountered my first problem. You see, I started this blog as a lark and it is intended to be whimsical. But it is also intended to be original (or as original as is possible with 30,000,000,000 blogs already out there). So when I was setting up the blog last night I had to come up with a name on the spur of the moment and Deep in the Heart of Brooklyn seemed the right choice given my 32 years here and my family's Texas roots. However, when I googled DITHOB this morning, lo and behold there is already a blog by that name and it is, coincidentally, written by a Dad with a kid going through the NYC High School admissions process. There is probably room in the ether for two blogs with the same name but he thought of it first so he should have sole possession of it. And he can probably spell better. So I will resolve to come up with another name today and will advise both of my loyal readers when I have done so.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204279327118643304.post-42865691093094553732008-11-10T08:03:00.000-08:002008-11-10T08:11:01.126-08:00Because Brad Said I Wouldn'tPlease note that this post was published on my old blog yesterday and is reprinted here because I can do basically whatever I want:<br /><br />Brad said I should start writing a blog but that I wouldn't. He also called me smart and opinionated. He's only half right. I'm sure there have been stupider reasons for starting a blog but probably not many. So in spite of having an actual job that requires me to shave and wear clothes that I didn't sleep in the night before I am starting this blog. Because Brad said I wouldn't.For those of you who haven't been following, I have tried to maintain a blog by hijacking the comments section of Brad's excellent blog, Bone in the Fan. Until I learn how to embed links you'll just have to add a dot com to Bone in the Fan and you can read Brad's hilarious take on the world. Be forewarned, half of his posts are about Carrot Top. I think he doth protest too much.Also, the three of you who are reading this that don't already read it, please check out Nancy Rommelmann's amazing commentary at <a href="http://nancyrommelmann.typepad.com/">http://nancyrommelmann.typepad.com/</a> . OK, that looks like a link.Now, the name. I live in Brooklyn. I love Brooklyn. I wouldn't live anyplace else. I am one of those gun toting, quail hunting Republicans who also likes to ride fixed gear bicycles, drink espresso, kickbox, listen to college radio and NPR (gasp!) and work in a community garden. There aren't many of us, but Brooklyn is our ancestral home. Expect commentary on politics, architecture, Jersey drivers, soccer, coffee, Mixed Martial Arts and my amazing wife, Lola. Also, expect something like one post a month. So don't check back often. Remember, I'm only doing this to make Brad wrong. Something he's used to.Robeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11651380880536787425noreply@blogger.com0