Myths Abound

The picture above, of course, shows my wonderful wife’s Corvette. On our 13.7 mile, 22 minute drive to breakfast this morning what gas mileage did the car make?

A. 21.7

B. 24.7

C. 27.7

The real answer is none of the above. Her Corvette made 34.7 MPG on our drive to the deli. Yes, we were lucky in that all of the lights were green (we also don’t have a lot of lights on this route) and traffic was light. However, it is a myth that all performance cars are gas guzzlers all the time. By the way, my wife drove at or slightly above the posted speed limit, like 53 MPH in a 50 MPH zone.

How often a person has to stop at red lights and stop signs plays a major role in fuel economy. At idle a car gets 0 MPG. I am NOT advocating running red lights and stop signs. Still, when one lives in a place without a lot of red lights and stop signs, like where we live, fuel economy can be surprisingly good and easily exceed EPA estimates. The “official” EPA estimate for gas mileage for her 2018 Corvette is 18 MPG combined, 15 city and 25 highway. Since she has owned the car, my wonderful wife’s Corvette’s overall gas mileage is more than 22 MPG and that’s in about 24,000 miles of driving.

I made about 19 MPG in my 2016 Z06 and for part of that time the engine was tuned to produce more power than stock. Its “official” EPA estimate was 16 MPG combined. My 2022 Mustang GT is “rated” at 19 MPG combined, but I am getting 22 MPG. Tomorrow will be six months I have had the car (!) and I have driven it a little more than 3,000 miles.

I would not be surprised if a systematic bias exists against performance cars in EPA testing. The government is trying to push us to electric vehicles. Underestimating fuel economy for performance cars is one way to force the transition. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. #DeathBeforeEV

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My brilliant high school classmate, TI, sent me the link to this piece titled, “Sense prevails. We’re giving censors the boot.” Here is an excerpt from Hadley Freeman’s article:

“New York Magazine defined a vibe shift as when “a once-dominant social wavelength starts to feel dated”, and the hyper-vigilant, hyper-right-on social wavelength that has dominated progressive culture spheres for the past six or so years is feeling tapped out. Where once suppressing views considered by some to be objectionable — censorship, in other words — was accepted as a moral obligation, now it looks infantile, absurd and deranged.”

I’m not sure I agree, ~~woke~~ seems as prevalent to me as ever if not more, but we can only hope.

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Philip Maynard sent me this link to a piece about the role of Earth’s orbit in Ice Ages. It is worth reading.

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I am going to “re-print” the beginning of this Why Evolution Is True post titled, “The sex binary in animals: a defense by Colin Wright.”

“It is a constant uphill battle for biologists to keep defending the truth that animals have but two sexes, defined by whether they have the reproductive apparatus to produce small, mobile gametes (the males) or large immobile gametes (the females). I’m not going to go into this again as you can read my explanation here. I have a longer and more popular explanation coming out in a big paper in June (stay tuned).

There are just two sexes in animals (and in nearly all vascular plants): male and female. Clownfish are not a third sex (they change from male to female.) Seahorse males are not a third sex (they are males who produce sperm and carry the fertilized eggs of females around in a pouch). Hermaphrodites are not a third sex (they combine aspects of male and female sex), and I’m aware of only one case in which a human hermaphrodite, whose male parts produced sperm, fathered an offspring. Hermaphroditic plants are not a third sex; they are simply hermaphrodites that contain male tissue and female tissue (producing small sperm and big eggs, respectively). There is no individual in animals or vascular plants that produce a third type of gamete. Ergo, sex is binary.

This assertion, accepted for decades by biologists, is offensive to ideological Pecksniffs because they want sex to be a spectrum, as gender is. (Gender and sex are different, and gender really isn’t a spectrum, but bimodal, with the distribution looking like the back of a two-humped camel, with one hump being those identifying as the male gender and the other identifying as the female.)

Under woke ideology, what you think is good in society must be seen as true in nature, an inversion of the “appeal to nature” that argues that something that’s natural is perceived to be good. In this new fallacy, which is still a fallacy, something that’s good is perceived to be natural.”

This is one of the most cogent criticisms of the absurdly false Pecksniff/~~woke~~ agenda. Once again, Jerry Coyne–the author of Why Evolution Is True–self-identifies as a liberal, although I suspect the Lunatic Left would like to hang him for many of his writings.

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This recent Hagerty piece is notable, in my opinion, for two bits of news: NHTSA is opening a preliminary investigation into 120,000 2023 Tesla Model Y vehicles after two reports of steering wheels that fell off while driving and Porsche and Ferrari are fighting the adoption of a European Union ban on Internal Combustion Engines. They want to exempt engines that run on synthetic fuel. Porsche has declared that its iconic 911 model will never have an electric option.

I will still never own a Porsche, but I applaud their efforts at fighting the ill-conceived push to all electric vehicles. They have begun to manufacture synthetic fuels at a plant in Chile.

#MythsAbound

#DeathBeforeEV

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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All’s Well That Ends Well?

I was going to title today’s post “The Sixth Time Is The Charm” or “By The End, I Hated That House.” Obviously, the house to which I refer in the latter is the first Arizona house in which we lived. The former almost title refers to the fact that the Goose Bumps house is the sixth house that my wonderful wife and I have purchased, two each in three different states. We sincerely hope it is the last.

I must have known something…last Sunday I saved this link to an article titled, “Does elevation affect temperature? It sure does.” What am I talking about? Look at this:

I shot this brief video of our courtyard last night. The Goose Bumps house is about 2,950 feet above sea level whereas our previous house was about 2,100 feet in elevation. Our friend and now former neighbor Emily confirmed it did not snow at our previous location. Yes, I opened the front door and let the cold air in so I could shoot the video unobstructed. Actually, the published video is just one of three I recorded last night.

While, of course, we have many boxes to unpack and many calls to vendors to make, we are very happy to be in this beautiful house. I hope that the end of the ultimately successful quest for an “upper-end” house marks the beginning of a new chapter of better things ahead. However, I am not so vain that I am going to publish countless photos. Maybe a few here and there…

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I have been writing that I strongly believe ~~woke~~ is a cult. This piece is called “The Cult Dynamics Of ~~Wokeness~~.” [my mark]

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To call Snan Dyder (what I call the owner of Washington’s NFL team) an asshole is an insult to assholes. This ESPN article is about how he (allegedly) took out a $55 million credit line without the knowledge and required approval of his minority partners.

One source who supposedly has insider knowledge said this, “Three billionaires — not a few whistleblowers — alleged to the NFL arbitrator that their partner had possibly committed bank fraud. This is jail time type of fraud.”

This piece from Associated Press reports that NFL owners will discuss Dyder at their upcoming meetings. NFL bylaws do allow for the removal of an owner by a three-quarters vote. Dyder would probably sue if forced to sell; rumor has it that the owner of the Dallas Cowyucks (another piece of work) is trying to broker a deal where Dyder sells the team.

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Automotive American has been publishing pieces called “A Brief History Of…” The histories are very brief, too brief, in my opinion. However, I will publish the links to the last three: Packard, Studebaker and American Motors.

Here are pictures of my favorite cars from each of the three defunct American makes. For Packard the choice is difficult.

Maybe, just maybe, I will own one of these someday.

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Since I have been away for a little while, I am going to publish links to four posts from Why Evolution Is True.

Creationism is back: a pro-ID bill passes the West Virginia senate

In which I push atheism on Bored Panda

The decline and fall of academic probity

When does DEI supercede academic freedom

I can’t resist writing that my answer to the last title would be “IT NEVER SHOULD!” because to me DEI = Deny Excellent Individuals.

Glad to be posting again. Thanks for reading.

#All’sWellThatEndsWell?

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#DefunctAmericanCarMakes

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Automobile Events Are Good For You

OK, today’s post title is a little tongue-in-cheek and some people wouldn’t be caught dead at any type of car show. That’s their prerogative. However, I do have a small amount of empirical evidence to back the claim made in the post title.

Not counting my treadmill workouts I average between 5,000 and 6,000 steps a day walking, according to my iPhone. (My phone is not on my person while I’m on the treadmill.) For example, in 2022 I averaged about 5,300 steps a day.

My wonderful wife and I have attended automobile events the last three days: Sunday at the Arizona Concours and Monday-Tuesday at the Barrett-Jackson auction. I averaged 9,300 steps a day for those three days, despite the fact that I did not feel well on Sunday. Yes, I did also workout on Monday and plan to do so today starting in about 90 minutes.

On average, adult Americans walk only about half as much as citizens of other developed nations. It’s not a coincidence that the US also has the highest rate of overweight and obese adults in that group of countries.

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Before I show some pictures from the past three days, it’s time to show some links to Why Evolution Is True.

Matthew Yglesias: ~~Woke~~ [my mark] language isn’t meant to improve society, but to increase inequality.

Ira Glasser: Why we need free speech, even if it’s offensive and hateful

From the second post: “Glasser has just published a very good piece in Spiked that I highlighted above (naturally it’s on a right-leaning site, for the Progressive Left is not so keen on free speech because it can include “hate speech”). It’s hard to get a defense of free speech published in a liberal place.” Oh, Glasser was head of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for more than two decades. The ACLU has become among the worst offenders in trying to suppress free speech when it doesn’t adhere to the idiocy of ~~woke~~.

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My wonderful wife sent me this picture:

OK, the source is not objective, but Buffett did say this, perhaps a little tongue-in-cheek, to CNBC’s Becky Quick in 2011. Of course, Congress would never pass such a law and I do think that on very rare occasions, the federal government may have to incur a deficit of more than three percent of GDP. From 1942 through 1945, inclusive, the US government deficit was about 11 percent of GDP. Since we were fighting in World War II I think that was OK, right? <end sarcasm>

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Time for (mainly) car photos:

The photo immediately above is a 1967 Corvette restomod. Everything about this car just looked right to me. Oh, I saw a person (but only one) wearing a “Save The Manuals” T-shirt. Like the vast majority of restomods for sale here, the Corvette above has an automatic transmission. Just like devotees of stick shifts are probably tired of seeing me write about the demise of the standard manual, I am tired of hearing people like Steve Magnante and even Bill Stephens drone on about how we need to save manual transmissions. In the US, the standard manual transmission is already dead, but no one has the decency to knock it over and give it a proper burial. The market share of new vehicles sold in the US with a traditional manual transmission is now less than one percent.

I have no idea if the item above, for sale by one of the many vendors in the Exhibitors Hall, is really an old radio or a reproduction. However, I have always been fascinated by very old electronic devices and we were very loyal to the Zenith brand in our house when I was young. “The quality goes in before the name goes on.”

One of the delights in attending car events is the experience of seeing and learning about cars that were previously unknown to me, such as the car shown below.

As shown on the car card, this is a 1989 Nissan Silvia convertible. Other than what’s on the card, I know nothing about this automobile and had never heard of it prior to yesterday. Like the title of a book by the late, great Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver read, it’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.

#AutomobileEventsAreGoodForYou

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#Barrett-JacksonScottsdale2023

#EarlWeaver

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Yes, It’s Friday The 13th

No scientific reason exists why Friday the 13th should be worse (or better, for that matter) than any other day. As far as I know, the combination of Friday and 13 was not considered to be unlucky before the 19th century.

I have written before about a particularly bad Friday the 13th I experienced (in 1991). Without getting into too many details, even though it’s before 6 AM, and even though this event technically occurred late yesterday, our day has already turned quite sour with notification of something very disappointing.

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I have to admit that the disappointment has taken the starch out of me. This Why Evolution Is True post is titled, “Stanford deep-sixes its list of “harmful” words and phrases.” From the post:

“The other day I was kvetching about ~~wokeness~~ [my mark] to two members of Team Duck, and moaning that the “movement” wouldn’t go away for years. Both of them assured me that I was wrong, but I didn’t think so. Now, with the publication of the article below from Inside Higher Ed (IHE), I think there may a smidgen of hope. That’s because widespread mockery has caused a university to eliminate a list of words considered harmful. Remember, mockery can be an effective weapon in the fight against the benighted.

First, a review. The Wall Street Journal first cited the Stanford “Elimination of Harmful Language Initiative,” which I mentioned in a Hili post. It was a guide to language that was supposed to be used at Stanford University’s IT group…about the words recommended by Stanford for erasure.

…Now, glory be, and after widespread mockery, Stanford has rescinded the entire list.”

~~Woke~~ is a cult, detached from reality. By the way, no one has a constitutional right never to be offended.

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I have written about this before, but please indulge me today. On this day in 1906 the American Motor Car Manufacturers Association held its first auto show. While this was not the first auto show held in the US, the AMCMA event was significant. It was the first opportunity for many Americans to see a large collection of vehicles built in America. I’m not sure if the following diagram was specifically for the 1906 show, but it’s interesting, nevertheless.

Of course, not all of these makes were manufactured in the US, but that made the AMCMA event even more significant.

After leading all US companies in automobile production from 1903 to 1905, inclusive, Oldsmobile dropped all the way to number six in 1906. Ford, two years before the introduction of the Model T, easily led all US makes producing about 8,700 units. Cadillac was a distant second with about 3,600. Well, that may be true. Other sources, including Ford itself, have also shown 1906 production at 2,800 units. Human record-keeping was, is, and always will be imperfect. Below is a picture of a 1906 Ford Model K, an upscale model that debuted that year and replaced the Model B.

1906 Ford Model K Touring Car

As I have written, I have no interest in brass era cars, but I appreciate their significance.

Have a great weekend; I doubt we will.

#YesIt’sFridayThe13th

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#FirstAutoShow

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

If you like this blog please tell your friends and share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.

PS, just realized that yesterday’s totals for blog views and visitors were the highest in the last 30 days. Many thanks.

Saturn Saturday

I only gave today’s post this title because I felt like showing this picture.

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Here are links to three posts from Why Evolution Is True:

A comment worth highlighting

Oberlin gives up fighting Gibson’s Bakery, starts coughing up dough

FIRE free-speech rankings again put Chicago on top, but Columbia at rock bottom

From the first post I did find the first part of the comment from a blog reader to be particularly on the mark:

“The Social Justice theocrats are almost impossible to debate, as they are fundamentalists who honestly believe they are the repository of all holy truth…”

Once again, ~~woke~~ is a cult.

The part about Columbia ranking last in free-speech hits home to me for a couple of reasons. The first is that a cousin of mine, but not someone with whom I communicate regularly, worked there for many years. The second is that when I was in high school a recruiter from Columbia chose me among five students with whom she wished to meet. My high school graduating class had 530 students. I have always joked that I was chosen because I was the Jewish student with the highest grade point average.

If I had attended Columbia, and assuming I would have survived because the school’s neighborhood was quite dangerous in those days, my life would have almost certainly turned out differently. As an Ivy League graduate I would have been considered among “the anointed” and I am not using that phrase as Thomas Sowell uses it.

I might not have pursued baseball as a career, but I would still be able to work at an interesting job if I wanted to. When I list the reasons I have been shunted into the employment backwater, my lack of an Ivy League degree is always among them.

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On this day in 1953 Swanson sold its first TV dinner. In April of 1955, the Campbell Soup Company acquired Swanson. By the next year annual sales of TV dinners reached 13 million.

I remember eating TV dinners not infrequently when I was young and usually I was not eating them while watching TV. I don’t remember the brand name, but I remember that I enjoyed a particular fried chicken TV dinner and probably ate it once or twice a month. Maybe this was it:

Swanson's TV dinner

The trend today is to subscribe to a service to have “fresh” dinners with “natural” ingredients delivered on a regular basis. We have never looked into subscribing, but I doubt those services are inexpensive. I did not grow up with money and frozen TV dinners were an economical way for my mother to feed us.

A tangent: I used to enjoy cooking, but have lost virtually all patience for it. Breakfast is almost always either cereal at home or dining out. Lunch is almost always eating something prepared by a restaurant. With my terrible GERD I don’t/can’t eat dinner. I snack on protein bars and dark chocolate, but I am almost always hungry–like as I am writing this. Time for breakfast…

#SaturnSaturday

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#BringBackFreedomOfSpeech

#RememberTVDinners?

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Broken Mooring Monday

Jerry Coyne, the author of Why Evolution Is True, published this post on Saturday titled, “Anne Frank had white privilege?” He admits, “This isn’t a huge kerfuffle, because the morons espousing the thesis in the title aren’t numerous.” Still, he later writes, “But as I’ve said before, there is no object, no concept, no organization, and no activity that cannot be demonized by some crazied Wokesters. Anne Frank, for crying out loud!”

People are entitled to their opinions, I guess, but I want to lobotomize those who hold such views. I mean, they’re not really using their brains, anyway.

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“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” is one of the few non-progressive jazz, non-instrumental rock songs that I like. This post from Why Evolution Is True is about Coyne’s affection for the song, the debate over the meaning of the lyrics and that “this is really a work of musical genius.”

I don’t think I was very familiar with the song until I watched the movie Real Genius. Everybody Wants To Rule The World is played at the end of the film and over the closing credits. In general, accompanying music–the soundtrack, if you will–can enhance or detract from the enjoyment of watching a TV show or a film.

The early seasons of House had some great music, much of which was composed for the show. Transplant also has some great accompanying music as does, believe it or not, Everyday Driver.

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From this Archon’s Den post:

A young Math PhD got a job at a research facility. His boss took him on a tour of the facility. Nearing lunchtime, he showed him to the cafeteria. As they entered, his boss yelled out, “47!” Everyone in the room laughed uproariously. Minutes later, another man entered, and shouted, “13!” Again, everyone laughed.

Curious, the newbie asked what was going on. His boss explained that most of the staff had worked together so long, that they had reduced their jokes to numbers, to save time. The next day, as he was entering the cafeteria, he bellowed, “Negative four.” The room dissolved in hilarity. He looked questioningly at his boss. “I was just kidding. Why all the mirth?” The boss replied, “They’ve never heard that one before.”

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Normally, after taking a day or two off from posting I am full of ideas and end up writing a longer than average post. Today, though, I’m just not feeling it. That’s why I am re-posting stuff from elsewhere. In that vein, here is a link to a Hagerty piece about five vehicles whose value has been increasing longer than any others that Hagerty has tracked. The first paragraph is worth reading and worth showing here:

“The collector car market is clearly having a moment. Consider that in early 2019 you could have bought a nice Nissan 300ZX for a bit more than $20,000; today that car is worth nearly $50K. More or less the same story holds true across a variety of price ranges and segments—unprecedented growth in a short time. Much ink has been spilled about what’s driving this appreciation, from pandemic-fueled boredom to the emergence of online auctions to the simple fact that in 2022 certain people will pay wild sums for anything (Bored Ape NFT, anyone?). There’s also been plenty of speculation about when this party might end and how bad the hangover could be.”

Two of the five vehicles are SUVs and, as such, are of no interest to me. Let me repeat myself for the nth to the n time: I DO NOT have to be interested in SUVs, pickup trucks, EVs, motorcycles or any other type of transportation. I like what I like and others can like different things.

The most interesting of the five to me is probably this, an Alfa Romeo GT 1300 Junior Zagato; this picture is not from the article:

See the source image

Obviously, the picture is from RM Sotheby’s. Maybe you can’t tell, but this is a very small car. Its overall length is just 153 inches, its wheelbase is 93 inches and its curb weight is a little over 2,100 pounds. The car, through mid-year 1972 (the car was built from 1969 to 1975), was powered by a 1.3 liter/79 cubic inch inline 4-cylinder engine producing 101 HP/101 LB-FT of torque (gross rating).

I think the design reminds me of a Saab Sonett 3 (pictured below) and is quite fetching. I am under no illusion the Alfa would be a practical car; I just really like the way it looks, just like I am a fan of the looks of the Sonett.

See the source image

I have to admit that I briefly considered the Alfa Romeo 4C as a car I might acquire if I decide I don’t want the Z06 after repairs are complete. The Alfa name just has too poor of a reputation for reliability, though. The last thing I want or need is another car that has to spend a lot of time in the shop. It was four months ago today that the Z06 first failed to start. I have only had the car in my possession for a couple of weeks since then and it never really ran right when I drove it.

As always, I welcome thoughtful comments. I also ask that you share the existence of this blog with friends and acquaintances and feel free to click on any ad in which you have genuine interest. Thanks.

#BrokenMooringMonday

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#EverybodyWantsToRuleTheWorld

#AlfaRomeoGTJuniorZagato

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Wandering Wednesday

Even though I have been out of baseball for more than a decade, the news of the death of Vin Scully is still sad to me. I had the privilege of speaking with him every now and then during my tenure with the San Diego Padres. He was always most gracious.

As some of you may know from firsthand experience (as I do), many famous people are most unpleasant. They are rude and dismissive of people they don’t know or those they perceive to be unimportant. I’ll pass along something taught to me by a high school English teacher: a truly great person will neither trample on a worm nor sneak to an emperor.

“And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

– John Donne

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This CNBC article reports that Russia is facing “economic oblivion.” If that’s true, imagine how much faster that would happen if most of Europe were not still buying huge amounts of natural gas from the Russian dictator. utem itud psin

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This post from Why Evolution Is True, the title of which is “Intellectual freedom in STEM: An interview with Anna Krylov,” is both interesting and disturbing. Krylov is a quantum chemist and the Gabilan Distinguished Professor in Science and Engineering and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California. Here is a passage from the first paragraph of the post:

“And we met her because she’s an opponent of the invasion of wokeness into STEM, and because she somehow got an anti-woke paper, “The perils of politicizing science” into the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. That paper got a lot of attention, most likely because it was congenial to all those who deplore the fulminating wokeness of science but are afraid to speak up. (Try getting an op-ed extolling merit over identity into a science journal these days!)”

I think much, if not most, of the world–especially the so-called developed world–is losing its mind.

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On this day in 1977, Radio Shack (remember them?) introduced the TRS-80 personal computer. Some users called them the “Trash 80.” My first PC experience (personal computer, not political correctness) was using a TRS-80 in my first job in radio. I had the title of Assistant Producer, but I was a call screener for a call-in sports talk show. I also called guests that were going to be interviewed as well as providing news to the show’s host.

The TRS-80 had a program that allowed me to input the name of a caller and the subject they wanted to talk about so the host could see that in advance. The program usually worked without a hitch. My experience with the “Trash 80” really fueled my desire to have a PC of my own, but one with much more computing power.

In one of the few times my father really stepped up for me, I bought a Tele-Video PC from a friend of his who owned a computer store and, technically, we leased it through my father’s gas station. He even made the first few payments. I purchased the PC after the expiration of the lease and then sold it to a friend of mine who, sadly, is no longer among the living. The first four or five PCs I owned more than paid for themselves because I usually was able to get consulting work in lieu of or in addition to a regular job. As I have now owned a PC for about 38 years I have lost track of just how many different ones I have had.

I still prefer using a PC over any mobile device like a phone or a tablet. PC prices have also plummeted, especially in real terms. The purchase price of my first computer was more than $3,000 in 1984. The computer on which I am writing this post cost me about $500. By the way, $3,000 1984 dollars converts to about $8,500 today. Of course, my current computer is orders of magnitude faster and more powerful than my first one. My first PC didn’t even have a hard drive.

#WanderingWednesday

#VinScully

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#MyFirstPC

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

If you like this blog please tell your friends and share the blog URL (https://disaffectedmusings.com). Thanks.

Munday Mosings

Wish me luck…my Z06 is at the Chevrolet dealer. Of course, getting the car on the flatbed did NOT go off without a hitch. Another kick in the shins…too tired and disgusted to get into details. Thanks to Tim for his yeoman efforts to make it work.

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The Mayo Clinic has, so far at least, lived up to its reputation. Although I was not able to get there until Friday afternoon, all testing results were sent to me before Noon on Saturday.

My inflammatory process is “purely” inflammatory as opposed to being secondary to something else like an infection. That, like everything else, is both good and bad. It means a progression to sepsis is almost certainly off the table, but treatment will be more difficult. Stress is not good for the body and can contribute to systemic inflammation. Hard to turn off the stress spigot right now, though.

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A couple of links to posts on Why Evolution Is True:

Yes, Virginia, the New York Times is ~~woke~~.

Haidt on the seemingly irreparable brokenness of American life

From the second post:

Haidt avers that “the warped ‘accountability’ of social media has also brought injustice—and political dysfunction in three ways.” I’ll give quotes:

1.) First, the dart guns of social media give more power to trolls and provocateurs while silencing good citizens. Research by the political scientists Alexander Bor and Michael Bang Petersen found that a small subset of people on social-media platforms are highly concerned with gaining status and are willing to use aggression to do so. . .

2.) Second, the dart guns of social media give more power and voice to the political extremes while reducing the power and voice of the moderate majority.

3.) Finally, by giving everyone a dart gun, social media deputizes everyone to administer justice with no due process. Platforms like Twitter devolve into the Wild West, with no accountability for vigilantes. A successful attack attracts a barrage of likes and follow-on strikes. Enhanced-virality platforms thereby facilitate massive collective punishment for small or imagined offenses, with real-world consequences, including innocent people losing their jobs and being shamed into suicide. When our public square is governed by mob dynamics unrestrained by due process, we don’t get justice and inclusion; we get a society that ignores context, proportionality, mercy, and truth.

All of this rings true, of course, but Haidt also cites a number of studies supporting his arguments. He sees “stupidity” on both the Right and Left that has been promoted by social media…

For the nth time, I am aware of the “inconsistency” of someone writing a blog and having a Twitter account being critical of so-called social media. I stick to my criticism, though. For the nth plus one time, in my opinion the only solution is dissolution. Oh, Zark Muckerberg should be jailed for treason.

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With the virtual certainty that repairs to the Z06 will be in four figures, at least, the probability of further tuning, either now or in the future, asymptotically approaches zero. I don’t really believe in “signs” or “karma,” but with so many negative events recently occurring involving all three cars that we have/had, I will just bow to fate and retreat.

However, I am still interested in acquiring something like a Saturn Sky Red Line in the next 12-18 months. With my feelings toward Cadillac still sour due to the treatment we received from the local dealer, as great as my “academic” interest is in the Allante and XLR, I just don’t think I could buy one in the near future.

One Sky Red Line in Forest Green (my preferred color) was available locally, but just sold over the weekend. I also wouldn’t mind Bluestone Metallic, only available on 2007 and 2008 model year cars and not even available for all of ’07. That color was also only ever used on the Sky among all GM cars ever built.

Once again, the Sky ALWAYS grabs my attention when I see one. The heart wants what it wants.

#MundayMosings

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#SocialMediaIsDangerous

#TheOnlySolutionIsDissolution

#SaturnSkyRedLine

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Wayfaring Wednesday

Don’t ask me to explain my penchant for alliteration. It’s part of the package, I guess.

Two links from Why Evolution Is True:

Science “studies” helping bring down science

The beginning of this piece:

“Those of us who want our science free of ideology can only stand by helplessly as we watch physics, chemistry, and biology crumble from within as the termites of Wokeism nibble away. I once thought that scientists, whom I presumed would be less concerned than humanities professors with ideological pollution (after all, we do have some objective facts to argue about), would be largely immune to Wokeism.

I was wrong, of course. It turns out that scientists are human beings after all, and with that goes the desire for the approbation of one’s peers and of society. And you don’t get that if you’re deemed a racist. You can even be criticized from holding yourself away from the fray, preferring to do science than engage in social engineering.”

Strange reporting of a terrorist attack that killed three Israelis

The last paragraph:

“There’s no doubt that anti-Semitism is on the rise in America, particularly among “progressive” liberals, who increasingly sympathize with Palestinians because they are seen as “people of color”. U.S. legislators like [The “Squad”–I refuse to mention those cretins by name] regularly laud Palestine and demonize Israel—also supporting the anti-Semitic BDS movement. And much of the U.S. media, increasingly populated by young journalists with “progressive” sentiments, echo this hatred. Is this the way liberals should behave: lauding those who kill civilians and then celebrating it?”

Remember that the author of Why Evolution Is True identifies as a liberal. While hatred of Jews is rampant among the neo-~~Nazi~~ segment of the far right in the US, it is growing much faster among the clueless so-called “progressives” who are actually nothing of the sort. My contempt for all of them burns with the heat of a million suns.

******************

From this piece comes this chart:

MODEL	Q1 22 / Q1 21	Q1 22	Q1 21	Q1 22 SHARE	Q1 21 SHARE
CHEVROLET CORVETTE	+33.28%	8,811	6,611	68%	52%
PORSCHE 911	-23.69%	2,123	2,782	17%	22%
MERCEDES-BENZ AMG GT	-22.28%	942	1,212	7%	10%
PORSCHE 718	-48.07%	782	1,506	6%	12%
AUDI R8	-54.04%	68	148	1%	1%
NISSAN GT-R	0.00%	50	50	0%	0%
ACURA NSX	+318.18%	46	11	0%	0%
FORD GT	+9.09%	36	33	0%	0%
BMW I8	-50.19%	4	8	0%	0%
MERCEDES-BENZ SL-CLASS	-99.35%	2	311	0%	0%
TOTAL	+1.52%	12,864	12,672

This chart shows sales in the “premium sports car” segment. Of course, one can argue that the Corvette is priced so much less than the other cars that any other result would be an indictment of it. I also would like to see a similar chart for the first years of the C7 Corvette as a comparison.

Still, it is interesting to see that the Corvette gained significant market share from 2021 to 2022. Where we live C8 Corvettes are quite common. It’s almost as if at least half of the C8s ever built are owned by people within a 20-mile radius of our house. One person whose front door can’t be more than 250 feet from ours has a C8.

See the source image

As much as I appreciate the bold move to a mid-engine architecture and the car’s performance, the more I see them the less I like the look. The rear end, in particular, is just ungainly. Yes, I have expressed these sentiments before. For the nth time, a mid-engine car almost always has certain design elements that move away from the classic long hood/short deck appearance.

I would like to read your thoughts on the C8 Corvette. Thanks.

#WayfaringWednesday

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#C8Corvette

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Two Two Two Two

I’ve heard the expression “It’s hard to drive straight down a crooked road.” I would add it’s hard to be intelligent in a stupid world. Bill Murray’s classic remark:

“It’s hard to win an argument with a smart person, but it’s damn near impossible to win an argument with a stupid person.”

Unfortunately, the propensity to argue is not correlated with intelligence.

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From this review of Woke Racism, a book by John McWhorter, who is black.

“The lens through which McWhorter views “wokeism” is as a religion: a real religion, not just a metaphor for religions that worship a God. Although I don’t think this trope is absolutely necessary for McWhorter to make his case, but it does add considerably to our understanding of the phenomenon. The “Elect” (his word for the “woke”) will brook no dissent, believe in an original sin (racism, of course), demonize those who are against them, cast them to a social-media hell (or worse: getting them fired or banned), have a common set of tenets that, as shown above, contradict each other (cf. Christianity: God is loving but if you don’t accept him you’ll burn forever), and have a set of inerrant prophets. [I have excluded the names of the people mentioned.] Their words are not to be questioned; the prophets are to be worshipped and evoked as often as possible.

The book is not intended for The Elect because, as McWhorter asserts, their minds aren’t open [emphasis mine]…his book was intended for either those on the fence, those with open minds or, in McWhorter’s case, for those who already dislike Wokeness but want a critical analysis of its flaws as well as some bucking up. Wokeism may, for instance, repel you for reasons you don’t understand, and McWhorter supplies those reasons.

…McWhorter’s suggestion includes not engaging the Elect (they won’t listen), do not apologize for your actions or views if you advance them in reason good faith, and, most important, stand up to the woke. Don’t buy their bullshit, don’t let them make you feel guilty, and, if you disagree, just say so and walk away.”

~~Woke~~ is a cult.

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Prior to 2022, no single collector car auction had exceeded $180 million in sales. In just the month of January, 2022, two auctions exceeded $200 million: Mecum Kissimmee grossed $217 million while Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale grossed $203 million.

I won’t weigh in on which result was more impressive because I don’t think it matters. What those results confirm is that the collector car market has exploded and I don’t mean self-destructed.

Just like it’s not a good time to buy a house in many parts of the country, this might not be a good time to buy a collector car. I guess it’s a good thing I have no place to put another car and, for the most part, I don’t have “champagne and caviar” tastes in automobiles.

As I wrote in a comment to David Banner (not his real name), that I have constructed and published an “Ultimate Garage” focuses my attention on a small group of cars as possible acquisitions. The fact that I really only “lusted” after one car on the block among the hundreds I saw at the Barrett-Jackson auction has to be due, in no small way, to the existence of an Ultimate Garage. What car did I really want to buy?

This is, of course, the 2004 Maserati convertible about which I wrote here. As I wrote then, seeing this car up close took my breath away. Speaking of desirable convertibles sold at auction:

This Aston Martin convertible was sold at the recently concluded Mecum auction in Kissimmee, Florida and is shown here parked on the street where my wonderful wife’s father lives. The fact that it is parked next to a Tesla is quintessential Scottsdale, Arizona. By the way, I sent this photo and a very brief exposition via text to Scott Hoke and John Kraman. Both replied within minutes and Scott agreed with my assessment that the car was well bought even at $55,000 all in.

I don’t pretend to know when the collector car market boom will stop, only that it will, eventually. It seems as if no market is immune from booms and busts.

#TwoTwoTwoTwo

#~~Woke~~IsACult

#CollectorCarMarketExplosion

#somanycarsjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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