To paraphrase an old commercial - I think it was GE?

"REGRESS IS OUR MOST IMPORTANT PRODUCT!"

Carefully study the picture - what's WRONG with it?

An OPTICAL ILLUSION - created by someone smarter than me!


Read on, MacDuff -

BRILLIANT !

© - Tom Hyland - 9-16-08


Rather than trying to present an Organized, Sensible Listing here, let us ponder a few phenomena, just off the top of my head, Okay?

AUTOMOBILES

At the end of WWII, there was: an Occupied Germany, an Occupied Japan, and an Occupied France, right? By the late Forties and early Fifties, many foreign imports began finding their way onto American soil. Somewhere around the mid-Fifties, television ads started showing the inimitable VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE. One particular advertisement showed a worker enter and start his little VW, and drive through deep snow, park it, and then get up on his HUGE SNOWPLOW! Powerful! How do YOU get to work?

The ‘BUG’ or ‘BEETLE’ was a rear-mounted, air-cooled engine that was advertised to be able to completely remove and replace this engine in about 60 MINUTES - quite a technology, huh? Only the Good Lord knows now what terrific gas mileage it got, way back then! Meanwhile, DETROIT was pumping out some of the biggest, gas-guzzling, six and eight cylinder BOATS, that they were able to dream up! Many had FINS - remember them? Around 1958 or 1959, the VW import only cost about $1,600 - Brand-Spanking NEW! However, the waiting list was for about six months or more, and I could not wait! A big regret, still today!

Another old ad was for the other inimitable vehicle, but from France, the RENAULT DAUPHIN. This also showed the little 4-cylinder car just cruising through deep snow, I think in a Winter Olympics scene?

At the time, many - many patriots would not buy any foreign import, or anything else that was not UNION-MADE! Yeah - the Good Ole Days! I fondly remember my Dad always saying:

“ I WON’T BUY ANY OF THAT JAPANESE JUNK!
He was a staunch UNION MAN!

Unsure, but I think it was later on, around the early Sixties maybe, that the JAPANESE DATSUN finally hit the scene. Somewhere around this same time period, another foreign import started becoming popular - the SWEDISH VOLVO - advertised as the SAFEST car on wheels, with features that far surpassed anything that the MAJOR THREE could imagine!

In the early Fifties, an AMERICAN manufacturer had the BRAZEN NERVE to produce a 4-cylinder little car known as the NASH METROPOLITAN - I missed the boat on that one too! I think that most were produced for the California crowd, and accordingly, had NO HEATERS! But, Lord - what a cute little car. I always wanted the little Convertible, with removable hardtop, and a Continental Wheel package on the back. In fact, to this very day, there are two pictures of one, taped on my bathroom mirrors, as a reminder - SOMEDAY - SOMEDAY! Unsure, but I think it got - like 40-50 MPG !

As years rapidly went by, at some point the greatest Consumer Advocate finally emerged - RALPH NADER! This solitary person did more to fight for SAFETY in vehicles, than any other person, before - or since! GOD - WHERE IS HE NOW?

Jumping ahead now, about thirty years or so, GENERAL MOTORS produced a limited number of experimental ELECTRIC CARS - although the drivers who LEASED them LOVED them, but GM would not sell them! In fact, after several months of their being test-driven by average citizens - GM PULLED THE PLUG - LITERALLY!

They were confiscated, locked up behind a guarded fence, and later - SQUASHED into oblivion! For details, rent the Documentary, “WHO KILLED THE ELCTRIC CAR?” Quite Illuminating!

I would bet my bottom dollar that the rich, powerful OIL INDUSTRY and LOBBY had nothing to do with this, right? NOT!

Don’t remember what year, but probably in the early to mid-Nineties, GM then produced what every red-blooded REDNECK always wanted, and deserved - an Armored Gas-Guzzling Tank, known as the inimitable HUMMER! BRILLIANT!

In addition, WOW - did they ever make a FORTUNE selling these babies to our MILITARY establishment - WAY OVER-PRICED, NATURALLY! This made it easier to set really high prices for the CONSUMER DUMMY!

Now that we have gone full circle, in about 50 years, all of a sudden - almost every manufacturer is CHAMPING AT THE BIT to pump out both HYBRIDS, and full ELECTRIC cars! Who’d a THUNK?

Methinks that those 50 years of buying out and BURYING PATENT RIGHTS from any and all Inventors is finally going to now PAY OFF - at a PREMIUM PRICE, no doubt!

The Technology has existed for decades, but just like good old YANKEE PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE - GREED and COVERTNESS has PREVAILED!

In closing this segment, let me ask a simple question - What happened to DETROIT?

Closed factories, closed assembly lines, lost jobs, plants and personnel moved to foreign soils, and even some lost PENSIONS and BENEFITS! It all started many years ago, when both the Manufacturers and the Dealerships WENT TO BED WITH JAPAN! TOYOTA - NISSAN - HONDA - SUZUKI - SUBARU - KAWASAKI - HYUNDAI - VOLKSWAGEN and MORE, MORE, MORE! IMPORTS NOW RULE!

Yes, my friends, we were SOLD OUT - and guess who reaps all those Profits, and Perks, and Umbrella Deals? THE CORRUPT CEO’s! GEE - wonder if they also receive some minor STIPEND from the Foreign Corporation? What a country!

Tune in next time, same time, same station, when we approach another subject near and dear to my heart - HEALTHCARE - a Prosperous Industry NOW!

CAIO! Tom - the DUM-DUM!

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