It's Time

It's Time For NASCAR to Go Back to the Future

    NASCAR is facing tough financial times, television ratings are flat to down; teams are losing sponsors, and they have had to form alliances to make it through. The economy isn’t going to improve any time soon, so NASCAR needs to looks to how they got here, and how they’re going to climb out.

     NASCAR, like all racing series are working towards becoming a spec series, they keep tightening the regulations, and everything is geared towards equality. The cars are exactly alike except for the decals and the engines manufacture. This seems wrong to me. People don’t go to races to watch drivers drive around in a line behind each other. Sports have always had dynasties, and the fans have flocked to see these dynasties play, watching and hoping to be part of history, when the mighty are vanquished. Remember the McLarens in Can Am, the Penske Javelins in Trans Am, the Petty juggernaut in NASCAR? Everyone knew these teams were favorites to win, but the crowds bought tickets to back their favorite, or in hopes of seeing them humbled. Let the teams control their own destiny through engineering and creativity.

           We all remember the win on Sunday, sell on Monday philosophy. Remember the Plymouth Superbird, Dodge Daytona, Ford Gran Torino, and Mercury Marauder? These cars were distinctive, and the models that you could buy from a show room looked just like the racer. Those cars were the cars that built NASCAR. You can’t buy a car that looks anything like the racing model today. The car companies are in deep financial trouble, and they’re looking at their involvement. The automakers are backing the teams because of entertainment value, not to directly sell cars anymore. The automakers and NASCAR need to get together and build cars that they can race on Sunday, and sell on Monday, again.NASCAR needs to loosen up on the rules and let the teams experiment. There should be guidelines that need to be followed, but the cars should allow some creativity.

                The battles between the Allison and Yarborough, Elliot and Earnhardt were the shows that everyone came to see. Who would win, what would happen after the race? The papers wrote about the rivalries, andthat sold the tickets. These drivers were passionate about the sport, passionate about the teams, and wore their feelings on their sleeves. Everyone loved it. Today, any passion is punished. The sponsors hire PR handlers to keep the drivers in hand, NASCAR warns the drivers beforehand not to show emotion, and hauls them in to the trailer afterwards if they do show emotion. Everyone needs to let the drivers be themselves, show their emotions and be competitive. People will react and enjoy the sport more if this happens.

                It’s time to stop trying to level the field, it’s time to set up the guidelines and step back, and let the teams and drivers do their thing and entertain the public. I bet the sport grows to new heights under this system.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time to Help the Automakers

Let’s face it; we need to save the auto industry. Autos are probably our largest manufacturing base, as well as the buyer of products from other manufacturers. Steel, tires, electronics, as well as a number of other areas are dependent on autos makers for their work. We then get down to the local economy, the auto dealers are probably the biggest single source for sales tax in any community, as well as an employer in the community. If all businesses face layoffs from the loss of the auto business, guess how much this will cost the government. I’m not an economist, but I’m guessing that the costs of losing the U.S. auto producers will cost more than keeping them afloat will cost. That’s if we can actually make this a bridge loan, to help them get back in shape.

                The auto companies have been hurt by a double tap, the energy crisis made all the car designs that were selling gangbusters before gas went close to $5.00 per gallon an anchor around the dealer's neck. They had few energy efficient cars in the pipeline, and a bunch of big gas guzzlers sitting on their lots. They started giving rebates, and other incentives to move the vehicles, this cost them a ton of money. Then the credit markets froze up, and they couldn’t get any more money to keep their business running, and their customers couldn’t get a loan to buy a car anyway. Car sales were almost cut in half in a very short timeframe. Did the carmakers make mistakes? They sure did, but normally they would be able to borrow money, make the necessary changes and work their way out of trouble. A few bad quarters, the stockholders take a hit, and the world moves on. Not this time.

                Of course, when the automakers came to Washington, they sure weren’t thinking, private planes, Mercedes limos at the airport, no need to explain what they were going to change, no mea culpa for how they got to where they are. What were these guys thinking? They should all be fired for gross stupidity, just for this performance, if nothing else.

                Before we give the auto companies a penny, we should demand a new business plan. If I’m going to open a new business, I need to present a business plan before I can get a loan, why should the auto companies be different? It’s obvious that the auto company’s   current business plan is broken; they need to revamp things before they get on the right track. Of course, we set a precedent of giving money without conditions when we gave the financial institutions money with no real strings, and that worked out so well, but let’s learn and ask for a business plan this time.

                As with any investor in a company, we can make demands as a condition of the loan. We are worried about the energy of the future and we can demand that the auto companies follow the government’s plans for energy independence, and that new and different cars be built, let’s face it, they’re using our money, so they should do it our way.  The money needs to be a loan, like any other, with terms and conditions that make sense.  The automakers need to make changes, and they need to move forward trying to meet the challenges of a new world.

GOOD LUCK

 

               

It's Time for a new Bond

O.K., I have to admit it, when I was 12 years old, I wanted to be James Bond. My first grownup movie experience was “Goldfinger.” I was amazed by the story and special effects, and I loved that movie. I then began to read all of the Ian Fleming novels, and short stories. They were great stories, and I loved them. As I continued to watch each succeeding movie, they strayed further and further from the books that I had read. Nothing wrong with that, they were fun to watch, and they all had style, but they weren’t the stories that we had read.

When they said Daniel Craig was going to be the next Bond, I was totally depressed. I still had Sean Connery in my head, and that was my Bond. Sure Roger Moore carried the flame, but he wasn’t really James Bond. He was the actor in movies that lived and died by double entendre, and special effects. Harmless pieces of fluff, fun to watch, great date night movies, but not Ian Fleming’s Bond. We aren’t even going to discuss George Lazenby, he’s in the same league as Peter Niven, footnotes in the Bond timeline.

Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan came much closer to the Fleming character, but still too suave and debonair, not the cold hearted, slightly unbalanced, tortured, blunt instrument of the books. I never bonded with these Bonds. They were overcome by special effects and easy quips; they were a sanitized version of the real Bond.

Daniel Craig is the real deal. I don’t care about the blond hair, or blue eyes, I don’t even miss the “comma of black hair that hung over his forehead”, according to Fleming. Craig sends the cold, heartless romantic cripple that Fleming wrote out on the screen. I forgot he is an actor, and I see him as the character without any problem. The writers have gotten rid of the bloated scripts based on effects and have given the actors real stories to work with. Craig has brought a lethal feeling to the role, he’s rough, he’s troubled, and he’s the blunt instrument of Fleming’s novels.

Judi Dench has also nailed “M”, I realize that “M” in the books, was “the old man,” a beloved Admiral of the Royal Navy. But the words and actions of Dench, match the writings of Fleming. Of course, I’m a great believer in the fact that great casting can overcome a less than stellar script, and I believe that the last two Bond scripts were much more complicated, and convoluted than they needed to be. Paul Haggis always seems to want to impress people with how intelligent he is, and he tends to overwrite his scripts, in my opinion. But, as I said, the casting of Bond, ”M”, and even Felix Leiter are pitch perfect, and  they leap off the screen and take the audience by the hand on the journey. The last two movies are good movies that happen to be about James Bond, not James Bond movies that happen to be good. There is a real difference between the two types of movies.

As I said, I realize that the Roger Moore, Bond fans will never buy Daniel Craig, but that’s O.K. I believe that these movies will stand on their own because of great actors and a good script.

GOOD LUCK

It's Time for Us to Know the Future

The Obama team needs to step up and start laying out their plans for the future. The stock market drops each day that they feel that no one is minding the store. It’s obvious that the Bush team is leaving the field. They’re not going to start anything new, as they know that whatever they start, they won’t be there to see it through, and they feel that they Obama Administration will probably undo, whatever they start.

                I know it’s unusual, but it seems important that the Obama Cabinet be announced right away, vetted, and approved ASAP, they then need to move in to the office with their Bush counterpart, and begin to discuss the changeover. They should then decide on moving forward, and announce that to the public. The public deserves to know what’s going to happen so they can begin to feel comfortable about the future.

                It seems that the biggest thing hurting this economy presently is uncertainty. Businesses are cutting back; for fear that the economy is going south. People are afraid to spend money because they, or someone in their family are afraid they might not have a job. We need to all understand that the sky isn’t falling, that we’ll go through a correction, and it will be worse if we all fear that it’ll be worse. Consumer confidence runs the economy and we need to all understand that what we do is more important than what the government does.

                As a country we need to continue to explore alternative energy sources. As we work through the science needed for these sources, we’ll spend money on research and construction, which will help the economy. We need to put government funds in to infrastructure improvements; again, this will lead to employment and money being leveraged through the economy. It seems better to put the money closer to the people, rather than giving the money to multinational corporations and Wall Street.

                Let’s all calm down and believe the future will improve. Yes, we need to be conservative, many of the credit problems that put us here were based on unbridled consumerism, but if we all keep our credit purchases in control, don’t go out on a limb, and remain in the market, we’ll come through it in great shape. It’ll take time, but the sky won’t fall, and we’ll get back to normal, whatever that may be.

GOOD LUCK

               

               

It's Time to Look to The future

All right, the election is over, the issues have been decided, and all in all, it was an easy election. No real drama, other than Proposition 8 here in California. The public has spoken pretty convincingly as to who they want to lead our country for the next four years. Let’s move on, give the guy a chance to put together his cabinet, and see how he does.

                I always love listening to conservative radio; it always helps to know what the opposition is saying. Today they are all congratulating Obama, espousing the beauty of the American system, BUT, they then go through the litany of things they don’t like Obama for saying and doing. The common grounds seems to be that they’re all going in to exile, working underground, waiting for Obama to come take the microphone from their cold, dead, hands. I really don’t think Obama is that petty or that worried about what they are going to say. He only did one interview with Conservatives all campaign long, and that was O’Reilly, the crazy.

                As Americans we need to support the guy and give him a chance to show us how he’ll solve the issues facing our world. The economy is presently in a recession that is based largely on fear. If Obama comes out with a coherent, comprehensive policy that people understand, I think that’ll go a long way towards helping fix the economy. Let’s face it, he can’t be more socialist in his leanings than the current administration that is picking who should win and who should lose in business. They’re taking an ownership position in the companies that they deem should survive, and they’re telling them what to do with the money that they invest. Never thought we’d see that in America.

                The Republicans are pretty close to being irrelevant in the upcoming Congress and I guess they need to decide if they’re going to be obstructions to the programs, or be part of the solution. I would think that they would support stuff, even if they think it’s wrong, let the Democrats hang themselves, they might be better than the gridlock that has been prevalent for the last eight years.

                Well; here I am, at the end of the campaign, I guess the lady that is rumbling around the house is the same lady I married all those years ago. She isn’t a fan of politics, so I watched TV in one room for the last 18 months, while she was watching reality TV in the other room. Thank goodness for TIVO, now I can catch up on the world I missed. Hope all of the junkies can stand the detox of no presidential politics for a couple of years. Here comes Palin 2012,I know Tina Fey’s ready, are you?
GOOD LUCK

It's Time to Make the Decision

It seems that as the Presidential campaign is winding down, the personalities of both campaigners are coming to the forefront. Obama is pounding on his policies and talking about the country coming together behind the next President. McCain is talking about his opponent and trying to scare the public by representing, and misrepresenting what Obama’s policies will be. McCain is also talking about the fears of a Congress and Presidency held by the same party. Of course, the Republicans have been in that position in the past, and they weren’t really able to take advantage of that.

I continue to be sorely disappointed by the way the McCain camp has run their campaign. The McCain of 2000 was a maverick, the McCain of 2000 wasn’t afraid to go up against his own or the other party, he wasn’t afraid to tell the public what he thought. This was a man that I could vote for; I felt that he was actually putting his country first. What happened to that candidate? It seems that he had to sell his soul to get the nomination, and once he had the nomination, he needed to please so many segments of the country to even have a chance at victory, that he was hamstrung as far as being a real maverick. He had to nominate a VP candidate that wasn’t on any short list that had been put together, he wanted to nominate people that were closer to the middle, but then the Conservatives wouldn’t let that go down. This is obviously his last chance for the gold ring, and it’s a shame to see him fold to pressure rather than remaining his own man.

I really don’t believe, or hope that Palin is the future of the party. She seems poorly prepared and she seems very much the hard-line Conservative. I have to believe that as we move in to the future, the parties are going to be forced more to the middle, where they can reach across the aisle, and address the country’s problems. Palin wants to keep the party very much to the right, we’ll see how that works out in the future.

Obama may not be the greatest manager elected to the office of President, but I really feel that he has the temperament and the advisors that will help him to govern effectively. He seems more than willing to take a breath, listen to his advisors, and then come forward with a plan. That is totally different than the cowboy currently in power, and also different than McCain, who seems to continually want to show leadership, but then lurches from one side to the other as he reassesses the issue and tries to adjust his policies as the problem unfolds.

It seems that Biden will be in the background and probably helping with foreign policy. He may be a Cheney type VP, working in the administration giving advice, and staying out of the spotlight. We’ll see.

Tuesday will be interesting, and hopefully, a new President and administration will help the public be less fearful of the future.

GOOD LUCK