Recent Rental Cars – Hot American Iron: Hertz Ford Mustang Shelby GT-H

Posted on by

Preparing for some travel recently, I recalled reading a snippet of information somewhere that Hertz was bringing back their famed Mustang Shelby GT-H (called the Mustang GT350H in the 1960’s). Carrol Shelby’s Shelby Automobiles modified 500 Ford Mustangs [Shelby GT-H] and shipped them off to Hertz where they can be rented through the end of the year.

Following are photos and notes from a recent rental:

The journey began at the Hertz rental center where a “manager” must review the car and complete an extensive checklist with the prospective renter. The vehicle check includes the engine seal, placed to make sure that there are no repeats of the 1960’s practice of renting a GT350H and swapping engines (removing the powerful Shelby engine and replacing it with a lesser standard Ford motor). A nearby young father with babies in tow genuflected repeatedly as the manager checked over the 350 GT-H for me.

That the ‘stang is shipped with no transmission options [a slushbox (5 speed automatic transmission) is standard] is perhaps one of it’s only failures.

(more…)

Forgiveness

Posted on by

Donald B. Kraybill:

The blood was hardly dry on the bare, board floor of the West Nickel Mines School when Amish parents sent words of forgiveness to the family of the killer who had executed their children.

Forgiveness? So quickly, and for such a heinous crime? Out of the hundreds of media queries I’ve received in the last week, the forgiveness question rose to the top. Why and how could they do such a thing so quickly? Was it a genuine gesture or just an Amish gimmick?

The world was outraged by the senseless assault on 10 Amish girls in the one-room West Nickel Mines School. Why would a killer turn his gun on the most innocent of the innocent? Questions first focused on the killer’s motivations: Why did he unleash his anger on the Amish? Then questions shifted to the Amish: How would they cope with such an unprecedented tragedy?

Via Gulker.

Our Federal Tax Dollars (and politicians) at Work: Intrastate Internet Gambling OK, but other Internet Gambling is Not

Posted on by

Cringely:

Last Saturday the United States Congress passed a port security bill that carried an amendment banning Internet gambling. This was a huge mistake, not because Internet gambling is a good thing (it was already illegal, in fact), but because the new law is either unenforceable or — if it can be enforced — will tear away the last shreds of financial privacy enjoyed by U.S. citizens. The stocks of Internet gambling companies, primarily traded in the UK, went into free-fall as their largest market was effectively taken away. I don’t own any of those shares, but I guarantee you they will fully recover, which is part of what makes this situation so pathetically stupid.

Ironically, many of the senators who voted for this legislation may not have even known the gambling bill was attached, since it didn’t appear in the officially published version of the port bill. But such ignorance is common in Congress, along with a smug confidence that people and institutions can be compelled to comply with laws, no matter how complex and arcane. The amendment was a surprise late addition, pushed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has presidential ambitions and reportedly sees this battle against Internet gambling as part of his eventual campaign platform.

Only the new law isn’t really against Internet gambling at all, since it specifically authorizes intrastate Internet gambling, imposing on the net the artificial constraint of state boundaries. So the law that is supposed to end Internet gambling for good will actually make the practice more common, though evidently out of the hands of foreigners, which in this case includes not just operators from the UK but, if you live in South Carolina as I do, it also includes people from Florida and New York. Let a million local poker hands be dealt.

What the new law actually tries to control is the payment of gambling debts through the U.S. banking system, making such practices illegal (except, of course, for intrastate gambling, which probably means your state lottery). Once President Bush signs the bill, your bank and credit card companies will have 270 days to come up with a way to prohibit you from using your own money to pay for gambling debts or — though far less likely– to keep you from receiving your gambling profits. The law covers not just credit card payments but also checks and electronic funds transfers.

Congressional and Senate votes here. Tammy Baldwin voted yes as did Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl. It would be interesting to know if any of them were aware of what was in this bill.

Miller Park Economics, or Your Tax Dollars at Work

Posted on by

Tom Haudricourt and Don Walker:

In the three years after moving into Miller Park in 2001, the Milwaukee Brewers made a yearly economic impact of $327.3 million on the five-county area that was taxed to build the ballpark, according to a study by the Institute for Survey and Policy Research at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

The director of the UWM Center for Economic Development offered a different view, saying the study was a “standard nonsensical sports study that inflates the impact of spending on baseball.”

The study, which local public relations firm Mueller Communications Inc. commissioned on behalf of Major League Baseball and the Brewers, was completed in January 2005. It is to be made public for the first time Monday, when baseball Commissioner Bud Selig addresses a meeting of the Greater Milwaukee Committee at Miller Park.

Much more on Miller Park and Bud Selig here. The mosting interesting link is a June, 2004 article in the Washington Post of all places where Bud Selig’s hardball tactics were discussed and we learned that former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson won’t set foot in the place. Clearly, the opportunity to place the park downtown was a major miss.

The Daily Show is as Substantive as the “real” news

Posted on by

Eric Bangeman:

The Daily Show is much funnier than traditional newscasts, but a new study from Indiana University says it has the same amount of meat on its bones when it comes to coverage of the news. The brand of news coverage Jon Stewart and the rest of The Daily Show’s staff brings to the airwaves is just as substantive as traditional news programs like World News Tonight and the CBS Evening News, according to the study conducted by IU assistant professor of telecommunications Julia R. Fox and a couple of graduate students.

The researchers looked at coverage of the 2004 Democratic and Republican national conventions and the first presidential debate of the fall campaign, all of which were covered by the mainstream broadcast news outlets and The Daily Show. Individual broadcasts of the nightly news and corresponding episodes of The Daily Show were analyzed by the researchers, who found that the “average amounts of video and audio substance in the broadcast network news stories” were no different from The Daily Show. Perhaps more telling, The Daily Show delivered longer stories on the topic.

Good News for Inexpensive Flights to Europe

Posted on by

IAG:

In a move bound to drive British Airways and its Irish CEO nuts, Ryanair has launched a surprise takeover bid for Aer Lingus. The deal values Aer Lingus at 1.48bn euros (1.9bn dollars). Predictably, the spin started immediately. “This offer represents a unique opportunity to form one strong airline group for Ireland and for European consumers. We will expand, enhance and upgrade the Aer Lingus operations,” said Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O’Leary in a statement. “This offer, if successful,means both companies will continue to operate separately and compete vigorously in the small number of routes on which we both operate, currently around 17 of the approximately 500 routes operated by the two airlines,” he added.

Requiem for Johnny Apple

Posted on by

Todd Purdum:

With his Dickensian byline, Churchillian brio and Falstaffian appetites, Mr. Apple, who was known as Johnny, was a singular presence at The Times almost from the moment he joined the metropolitan staff in 1963. He remained a colorful figure as new generations of journalists around him grew more pallid, and his encyclopedic knowledge, grace of expression — and above all his expense account — were the envy of his competitors, imitators and peers.

Mr. Apple enjoyed a career like no other in the modern era of The Times. He was the paper’s bureau chief in Albany, Lagos, Nairobi, Saigon, Moscow, London and Washington. He covered 10 presidential elections and more than 20 national nominating conventions. He led The Times’s coverage of the Vietnam war for two and a half years in the 1960’s and of the Persian Gulf war a generation later, chronicling the Iranian revolution in between.

Apple’s cuisine articles over the years were a treat – particularly when he sampled things I’d never touch. Apple visited Sheboygan in 2002 to write about brats.