Thursday, March 20, 2008

Car and House and Politics:

So I've been working on the car recently, here are the details that I'm sure you'll be soo interested to know about.

1. GY F1GSD3's 91Y's are mounted and balanced.

2. Lower pan removed, shaved, replaced gasket. Upper pan removed and gasket replaced. New filter, 7 QT's of MOBIL1 0W-40 Synthetic in.

3. Cam Tensioner gasket and plug removed and replaced.

4. New HITACHI Mass Air-flow sensor on order and will be in by this Friday for replacement. The new sensor should cure the Requested vs. Actual boost surge issue.

5. New N75 2 Bar wastegate controller on order and also should be in tomorrow. This should finally cure the pressure/boost bleed and premature actuation issue.

6. Appointment today to get my Air-Con recharged. Hope there isn't a pressure leak in the compressor housing.

And the car should be ready for the long drive south to LA. To tell you the truth, these issues could have been resolved later and none of them would have, even in the most minute way impact the S's ability to survive the trip....so for me, its about the car being in tip-top shape. It's been a long road and I'm really happy to get these nagging issues behind me.

I still have a clunking in the steering that according to my mechanic, at this point at least, is at best an irritating yet not major (or life-threatening) issue.

Wish List:
1. AWE Intercoolers and shrouds
2. APR Silicone Intercooler hoses and clamps
3. Stop-Tec BBK 335 MM front caliper and Stop-Tec hatted cross-drilled rotors, front
4. Superlaggera's 18x8's
5. Stasis Track-sport Coil-overs, 750/650 F/R spring rates

Got to do some tree-trimming this past weekend. The crab apple trees are blossoming beautifully...hated to trim them but it really needed to be done. We purchased a gorgeous new dining table with matching chair and bench set. Has a built in leaf and can expand to 84'. It really fills up the space even without the leaf and will be perfect for gaming.

I've contacted the Warden and he'll be building us a new computer in a couple of months. Talking to the Warden about building a computer is like talking to me about tweaking a motor...I have no idea what he's saying and nearly everything he's recommending is complete overkill IMO. But the good news is that the computer won't crash everytime we ask is to do more than three things at one time!

As for Politics:

BTW, you know when you've chosen the right candidate when he's receiving flak from both ends of the political spectrum...such is the degree of outright desperation from the established political camps when they see a candidate that reject extremism of all kinds and from BOTH ends. I appreciated his candor in his response to Rev. Wright's outrageous comments, and more so I believed it was THE defining speech in his campaign; he absorbed the criticism, validated our concerns, denied he shared the Rev's views, never side-stepped or spun, but in fact CHALLENGED us to talk about RACE in a meaningful way. His candor about his own experience was refreshing, and what I appreciated most was that his speech was delivered with the expectation that those who were listening were intelligent adults...a far cry from our current President who speaks to Americans as if we were bunch of morons. He laid out Race in a way that no other legitimate presidential candidate has in quite some time...and he bursted our little bubbles about our belief that discontent and resentment no longer exist.

And re. the Rev.'s beliefs, here's a little hint: these beliefs are neither NEW or localized...they are prevalent especially among that generation, and according to the dozens of articles and interviews of black ministers following the release of the video, it is a resentment that sprang from generations of slavery, exploitation, and segregation. This kind of resentment EXISTS as much as the resentment on the other side which sprang from race-quota policies, affirmative action policies, and the assumption and accusation of a "white privilege" that seem completely unfounded to soo many struggling white people. You want to talk about race, then lets bring the discussion out into the open as he did. Are people so naive as to think these feelings aren't held by a good number of good people...even his own grandmother, or our grandfather, or our father, or our Pastor, or Priest, or even OURSELVES. Are we so naive as to think that our own hearts aren't in the slightest bit stained by resentment, fear, and anger.

And in the end, he concluded with an undeniable fact...that even if you were to accept the hateful World as described by his own Pastor, you cannot deny that within his Pastor's OWN congregation, a Black man has come forward to rise as Candidate to the Presidency...that his own existence is, in and of itself, a DENIAL of Rev. Wright's beliefs; and that despite our shameful past, we as a nation have come this far; that this Candidate represents the fruit of the labors of the generations that followed Lincoln and Martin Luther King; and that we can simultaneously acknowledge how far we need to go and celebrate how far we have come.

2 Comments:

Blogger Steve T. said...

I too was proud of that speech. It wasn't a "I did not have sexual relations with that woman" kind of speech it was an admission of association...yes I know him, but I don't abide by what he says...I don't subscribe to his every word like it was Gospel. This to me is the sign of a great leader. The ability to say "yes I screwed up....honestly I'm doing the best that I can but I'm only human and I make mistakes. I'm really trying to minimize my fuck ups as much as possible."

5:48 AM  
Blogger supergoober said...

True. It can be said that conservatives have it HALF right; YES, given that we no longer have the KKK, lynching, and Jim Crow laws, we have come a long way. And I agree, that that kind of institutionalized racism has lost its prevalence and that the very few that practice that form of hatred and prejudice are seen as lunatics and dismissed from any legitimate debate and/or argument.

But what Obama mentions is a sort of quiet discontent, a silent resentment...and the accompanying set of beliefs that do not come to meet the criteria of full-blown race-hatred, and don't resemble racism as we have come to see it historically. It is the kind of prejudice that never rears its head in polite conversation...it's the kind of prejudice that bubbles up in segregated groups, quietly at home, with your family or amongst friends, in the barber shop or in front of the TV at home, on conservative entertainment shows, and around the kitchen table. And it's fueled by REAL concerns and not by some vile genetic inferiority/superiority garbage that we saw in past generations.

That's the point he's making. And the sooner we acknowledge it, the closer we are to solving our common problems. But I fear that now the Right has some real ammunition to fire at Obama. They've been trying to find a chink in his armor and now they're going to march single-file to the beat of Fox New's drum with this one...but Obama has the uncanny abiltiy to rise above the din, to make fools out of those who attempt to diminish him. He is soo feared by the status quo, both Left and Right, that I believe we'll be seeing all sorts of crazy hyperbole in the upcoming months.

I hope he can weather the storm and that the independent minded on both sides and the middle rise to stand beside him. If not, then my candidate is lost, and we'll have FOUR more years of status quo, infighting, deviseness, partisanship, right-vs-left garbage...and again, the middle and all the millions of pragmatic non-idealogical Americans will have no voice, and nothing will change.

10:29 AM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home