I can’t keep my big yapper shut on this one, especially considering all the years that I’ve worked in and around the automotive industry.  The current (and sudden) government scrutiny of Toyota is a government payback for all the people who took their “Cash for Clunkers” (bad idea to begin with…) trades and bought Toyotas.  Toyota made out bigger than any other manufacturer from that deal, which was intended to be a sort of welfare arrangement for the “domestic” manufacturers – read UAW controlled- (who build more vehicles in Mexico, Canada and Brazil than they do in the US.)   When all is said and done the current hysteria over a rare defect in  certain Toyota accelerator pedal assemblies is going to be traceable right back to the UAW and their lackeys in Congress.   Of course CNN, et al, will white wash that and go right along with scaring the hell out of Toyota owners and trying to ruin their reputation over a VOLUNTARY  recall.  Remember that the “Big 3” do not do voluntary recalls.  They will only address a problem with vehicle design or function if it is widespread, blatantly obvious, and the government forces them to.  But the government owns two of the Big 3 now, so who is left for them to pick at?

There is no such thing as a 100% perfectly designed anything, let alone something as complex as a motor vehicle.  If vehicle safety were the prime concern of the government in all this why not require run-flat tires on every vehicle- a lot more people get killed in car crashes from tire failures than for an out of control throttle.  Then we could also go off on the way that most people do a piss-poor job of maintaining their cars which I would say is the number one reason for vehicles being unsafe .  But you get a few ambulance chasing (and Democrat contributing) lawyers going nuts over 1 or 2 catastrophic malfunctions out of millions and millions of cars.    The government could really give a rat’s ass less about vehicle safety.  They want to prop up the Big 3 in the hopes of remotely recouping some of the cash they dumped into them (with the exception of Ford) to bail them out, and this VOLUNTARY recall is giving them that excuse.  The idea here is if they make Toyotas look “less safe” then people will be more gullible and willing to buy UAW produced vehicles…but they aren’t going to come right out and say it.  It’s sickening.

Before I get too pissed off and too upset at how ignorant and gullible people can be,  (and pissed off at the idiots in Congress) I notice that the weather forecasters are still prognosticating that there will be White Death from above tomorrow and Saturday.   I will concede to this furor in one regard- I’m getting dog food tonight.  I was going to wait until tomorrow night but I don’t want to try to load up a boatload of dog food in a snow storm. 

Now that I have subscribed to the hype there will most likely not even be a snow storm at all which is fine with me.

I have to say I emphasize with Sisyphus- the dude in the Greek myth who had to roll a huge rock all the way up a huge hill every day as a punishment, then watch it roll right back down the hill.  Every day, the huge rock had to go up the huge hill.  Some days feel just like that, as if everything I did yesterday didn’t count.  That is a really sucky feeling.

I don’t see any road trips going on this weekend which again is fine with me- I can deal with the weather as long as I don’t have to go anywhere.