I just finished reading The Watchmen, a graphic novel by Alan Moore. Like Alan Moore's other works (V For Vendetta) it's very preachy, very deep and definitely adult. If this were a movie (which it is) it would be rated R. It is however the finest piece of fiction I've read in some time.


Aside: I don't usually read books straight through, honestly I don't read books very often. I will read a book only if it's recommended by a friend whose opinion on books I trust. Books are a substantial investment of time and energy for me and I want to be picky.

Watchmen is a deconstructionist story about heroes and superheroes in the 1980's. I don't want to spoil any of the story but I will mention that one of the heroes wears a white mask that continuously changes into different Rorschach ink blots.

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I think the current economic "crisis" is reflected in the automotive buying trends in the first world (i.e. USA, UK, Japan ...). Automatic transmissions are in my opinion the harbinger of poor decision making and lazy fiscal policy. Surrender your vehicles reliability, efficiency, performance and control to a system that is so complicated, costly and delicate that any issue will result in a serious repairs performed only by a skilled transmission tech. Replace some of the nouns in the previous sentence with financial terms and you'll see a striking phenomena.

It seems that not just Americans but most of the first world wants a system to do for them what they should be doing themselves. Now utilizing a machine to make work simple and more productive, such as a manual transmission or interest, is a smart thing to do. But surrendering control to a system put together by others who are only seeking there self interest is naive. This is mirrored in the fact that Chrysler made the Charger and Avenger, both muscle cars, and they only come with auto transmissions. So any grandma can drive a Charger. I'll let that sink in.

The number one pragmatic rule of living in this present world is that you have to look out for yourself and your own. When the feces hits the fan it's your wife you'll be pulling from the burning car first, not your friends. When a real economic crisis hits, it'll be your kids you'll struggle to put through college; not someone elses. If you want to surrender your decision making and control to the government or giant banks then you have no right to complain when they wholesale screw it up. If you read the bold print you'll see all the heads on the media telling you that you really should have been saving your money and keeping it in a local bank and living at or beneath your means and not putting everything on credit; basically that you should have been a steward of your own money the whole time... Dumbass.

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Here is a 65 MPG vehicle made by Ford that won't be sold in America because Americans don't like diesel for no quantifiable reason.

Music of the Day is N.E.R.D. Show of the week is Q.I.