Mountain Sage

I really wonder what happened with Toyota that it would go from having some of the most maintenance free, high trade in value cars, to having so many recalls and so many problems.  I’d love to know if the recalled vehicles are from particular plants.   Is there any correlation to the problems Toyota was having with training workers detailed in this post: Toyota Reveals Limits of Great Southern Jobs Scam

TOKYO — Toyota on Tuesday announced another global recall — this time, more than 400,000 Prius and other hybrid cars with braking problems, as a quality crisis continues to curse the carmaker that built its global reputation on quality.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda used extraordinary language at a press conference here to apologize for quality and safety issues that have led to the recall of more than 7 million vehicles in recent months.

He repeated three times that Toyota was neither failure-proof nor “omnipotent,” and he said that his company would now “redouble our commitment to quality as the lifeline of our company.”

The recall will fix a software glitch in the brakes of the Prius and three other hybrid models. It has caused brief and sometimes frightening delays in perceived braking capacity on icy or bumpy roads.

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What next?  Are they going to go all the way and pull a 1984 and put cameras in all of our houses to make sure we aren’t breaking the law?

WASHINGTON–The FBI is pressing Internet service providers to record which Web sites customers visit and retain those logs for two years, a requirement that law enforcement believes could help it in investigations of child pornography and other serious crimes.

FBI Director Robert Mueller supports storing Internet users’ “origin and destination information,” a bureau attorney said at a federal task force meeting on Thursday.

As far back as a 2006 speech, Mueller had called for data retention on the part of Internet providers, and emphasized the point two years later when explicitly asking Congress to enact a law making it mandatory. But it had not been clear before that the FBI was asking companies to begin to keep logs of what Web sites are visited, which few if any currently do.

The FBI is not alone in renewing its push for data retention. As CNET reported earlier this week, a survey of state computer crime investigators found them to be nearly unanimous in supporting the idea. Matt Dunn, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in the Department of Homeland Security, also expressed support for the idea during the task force meeting.

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The New Orleans Stains beat the favored Indianapolis Colts in a 31 – 17 win. It’s going to be a hot time in New Orleans tonight.

Woo Hoo

What a hypocrite and an idiot. Really? Crib notes written on your palm? Seriously? She needed notes to remember Energy, Tax, Cuts, Lift American Spirits for heaven’s sake. Her hand has been declared on the Internet to be the new iPalm.

Closer inspection of a photo of Sarah Palin, during a speech in which she mocked President Obama for his use of a teleprompter, reveals several notes written on her left hand. The words “Energy”, “Tax” and “Lift American Spirits” are clearly visible. There’s also what appears to read as “Budget cuts” with the word Budget crossed out.

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I  just got my power back a few minutes ago after being without it for 15 hours.  We are on a well so when we lose electricity we also lose water and after about a foot of snow the electric lines evidently couldn’t handle the weight.

I have come to the conclusion that I wouldn’t  have made a very good pioneer.  I like hot water on tap and flush toilets.  I like microwaves ovens, coffee makers, television sets and computers.  I like being able to turn on my lamp and read when I can’t sleep.  I like hair dryers and flat irons.

Here’s the weird party of this little story.  This afternoon about 2:00 my husband decided he had enough and was ready to go to a motel.  I got a few things packed, my laptop in it’s case and we packed up his little truck to head out.  We pulled out into the driveway and he went back into the house to lock the garage doors from the inside.

After a minute or two he showed up at the truck grinning and said “guess what.”  Guess what….the electricity came on in the two minutes we were out of the house.

I just had my cup of coffee and a shower…..nothing makes me feel grubbier than not being able to wash my hands.

So, here is to technology!!!!  I love it.

Now, it’s time for a nap.  Everyone stay safe and stay warm.

How decent of them to offer to stay if employees took a $4 an hour pay cut.  Wow, we are all in this together, right?  Has it ever once occurred to CEO’s that their companies need to make some sacrifices during a time of recession in order to keep people working?

It wasn’t very long ago that every time you looked at a clothing label you would see “Made in the USA.”  Not only was it made in the USA but it probably also had some sort of connection to a thriving garment industry in the Cleveland area.  Names like Joseph & Feiss Co, Bobbie Brooks, Printz-Biederman, Lion Knitting Mills, and Cleveland Worsted Mill dominated the industry and union cards kept people gainfully employed.

But this good thing has come to an end.  Now Hugo Boss, the last clothing manufacturer in Cleveland, has given notice of their intent to shutter their plant and permanently lay off 400 workers at the end of April.

Hugo is closing because they want to ship the jobs to a plant in Turkey where they can pay much less than the average current rate of $12 per hour they pay Cleveland employees.

Hugo management offered to stay if the employees were willing to cut pay to $8 an hour.

[snip]

Maybe we could understand this if the Hugo Boss label was going out of business and closing the plant because they could no longer pay their employees, but this isn’t the case.  Hugo spends millions of dollars sponsoring all sorts of sporting events:  Formula 1 racing, tennis tournaments, golf, and sailing.  So we’re telling Hugo to keep Cleveland working—forget the Formula 1 and invest in the families who have invested in you!

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It really is simple for me.  A woman’s right to choose is about respect for women as mature, intelligent people who can make the right decisions for their lives.

Well, the good news for the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts is that probably more women know when the Super Bowl is this year than in decades … who would have dreamed that the hottest topic in the women’s health community would be a television ad to run in prime time during the biggest football game of the year?

By now, you’ve probably heard all about the ad that Focus on the Family, the ultimate far-right political group, is spending millions to run during the game. It apparently will feature college football player Tim Tebow and his mom talking about a deeply personal medical decision she made years ago: she decided to carry her high-risk pregnancy to term against medical advice, resulting in the birth of her Heisman Trophy-winning son, Tim.

People have been asking us at Planned Parenthood what we think about the ad and about Mrs. Tebow’s decision. Though I haven’t seen the ad, based on what we’ve heard, our answer is simple. Planned Parenthood respects the right of every woman to make medical decisions for herself.

[snip]
A couple of great friends of Planned Parenthood — two terrific athletes — have something to say about sports, families, and the importance of personal decision making. Take a look HERE as former college and professional football player Sean James and Olympic gold medalist Al Joyner respond to the Tebow Super Bowl ad.

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Sometimes I just don’t know about people.  Why would anyone desecrate the place of worship of another religion?  Are people so insecure in their own faith that the idea of someone having a different faith is intolerable?

Maybe the Air Force needs to get out of the religion business altogether.

The opening of the worship area at the Colorado Springs academy had been hailed as a step for religious tolerance -
By DeeDee Correll—Reporting from Denver – The Air Force Academy, stung several years ago by accusations of Christian bias, has built a new outdoor worship area for pagans and other practitioners of Earth-based religions.

But its opening, heralded as a sign of a more tolerant religious climate at the academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., was marred by the discovery two weeks ago of a large wooden cross placed there.

‘We’ve been making great progress at the Air Force Academy. This is clearly a setback,’ said Mikey Weinstein, a 1977 graduate of the academy. He is founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and has often tangled with the academy over such issues.

Although he credits the academy’s superintendent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Gould, with an improved climate of religious tolerance, Weinstein criticized other academy officials as trivializing the incident, which he said was not revealed to cadets.

Rhetorically addressing academy officials, Weinstein said Tuesday, ‘It’s been two weeks — were you going to get around to telling them about this horrible thing that happened, and why haven’t you?’

Academy spokesman John Van Winkle said officials reported the situation to those on base and issued a message reiterating the school’s policy of religious tolerance and respect.

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This move would almost be admirable if the decision was made because of a firm belief that mandatory insurance is a bad thing for Virginians.  After all that is what we have state government for.  But, this is really just a political move because of fear of losing a re-election by supporting the federal health reform.

Va. Senate bans health insurance mandate

The Democratic-led Virginia Senate sent a strong message about health care reform efforts in Washington, D.C., on Monday (Feb. 1), passing a bill that makes it illegal for Virginians to be required to buy health insurance.

With Republicans in control of the state’s House of Delegates and governor’s mansion, the bill could become law, The Washington Post reported. The effort would throw another wrench into congressional Democrats’ plans to revamp the nation’s health care system in the wake of a special election in Massachusetts that stripped the party of its 60-vote, filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate.

An “individual mandate” that requires Americans to buy health insurance is a centerpiece of federal health care legislation. Virginia’s move could suggest that President Obama — who reiterated his support for reform during his State of the Union address last week — “is failing to reassure members of his own party that current reform efforts remain worthwhile,” The Post said.

A groundswell of opposition to the federal effort is emerging in statehouses around the country, The Associated Press reported today. Bills similar to the legislation cleared by the Virginia Senate are being considered in 35 states, with some lawmakers seeking constitutional amendments to prohibit mandatory health insurance. An Idaho legislative committee has approved a bill similar to Virginia’s, and in Missouri, an overflow crowd showed up at a hearing room when that state’s constitutional amendment was being debated, the AP reported.

What is notable about Monday’s action in the Virginia Senate, however, is that Democrats joined the effort, which has been led by conservatives in most states. Five Democrats joined all 18 Republicans in opposition to a health care mandate. The votes “suggest that Democrats on the state level fear that supporting health care reform could be politically damaging,” The Post said.
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Ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the right thing to do in my opinion.  If our troops are mature enough to endure the horrors of war, they are certainly mature enough to handle fighting beside a gay person.   A homosexual who is willing to put his/her life on the line for the country deserves the same respect we give all military personnel.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top two Defense officials called on Tuesday for an end to the 16-year-old “don’t ask, don’t tell” law, a major step toward allowing openly gay men and women to serve in the United States military for the first time in its history.

“No matter how I look at the issue, I cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy which forces young men and women to lie about who they are in order to defend their fellow citizens,” Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said it was his personal belief that “allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly would be the right thing to do.”

But both Admiral Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told the committee they needed more time to review how to carry out the change in policy, which requires an act of Congress, and predicted some disruption to the armed forces.

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