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LaHood Gives the Green Light

19.04.10

I have no leniency with planners who would force Americans out of their cars. I have equally small patience with planners who have spent their working careers forcing us INTO them.

Truthful now, no one can speak coherently about what Americans want or would use, because their choices (auxiliary me the scare quotes, Purple) and the free buy have been trammelled by a transportation model at least as authoritarian as Ray LaHood. Thanks to Eisenhower-era societal-engineering fads, Procrustean zoning codes, NIMBY prime pleaders, and the corrupt land speculators and roadbuilders who comprise state DOTs, our in circulation method of getting Americans from point A to point B is redder than a baboon's fundament.

If you demand to take a whack at letting the free market dictate the plan and modes of transportation...well, we can try it, but don't pretend it'll be anything but a first in our lifetimes. The command's been telling us how and to where we can and can't commute for generations, and NOW TAS finally has a problem with it?

I acclimatized to live in the middle of the National Socialist People's Republic of Illinois. Ray LaHood was a congressman from the NSPRI. He was an idiot then and some things never interchange. As a matter of fact, if you get out a map of the NSPRI and look you'll see that the only real passable thing about this town's location was that whatever direction that you decided to run town you were leaving the NSPRI.

Did I mention that the NSPRI is a jack-booted, guidance thug police state?

The town that I lived in in the NSPRI had a big "Rails to Trails" fashion going back then, big left wing hippy, tree-hugger ingredient. This town had two universities and lots an lots of elites more than over the moon to 'splain to you how you should live your life. This was in the midst of Komrad Klinton's "government." I commented to my cop buddy that we were building a very convenient set of escape trunks all over city for window-peepers and burglers and vandals and bangers and the like. How superb, a trail that you can't get a cop car down. The cop buddy didn't agree at first, he's an avid diversion bicyclist. A year after the completion of the trails it was apparent to everyone with a thumping that the trails were being used by all manner of petty criminal for a mix of criminal activities as well as the local gang-bangers to move their wares about city without cop-car bourn interference.

So, based on the rip, rip, yippie-zip, roaring sensation of this fiasco in LaHood's own (former) constituency the only sane, sound thing to do is to make sure that everybody else in towns all across America get to get high on the same set of problems.

Remember folks, Forrest Gump's Mama said, "Mindless is as stupid does."

Source: American Spectator

For its anniversary, Infiniti gives us the gift of the G37x

18.04.10

Truly is, I write about cars the way most people buy them, often with as much emotion as expertise. The broad automobile industry is aware of that truth -- passion trumps expertise -- in the real world of retail markets.

But car companies historically have catered to "buff books," mostly magazines for self-proclaimed automotive "enthusiasts," often one young men long on lust for the exotic cars displayed on periodical covers but short of the cash to buy even a single wheel on one of those wonderful-fancy automobiles.

It is a business model that is fast fading in a area grown more practical but still desirous of a good drive in a crushed, accessible automobile, which is why I immediately turned toward the 2010 Infiniti G37x play sedan.

It is a pretty car, gifted with a sinewy, elegantly sculpted exterior. It catches the eye, plays with the crux, and offers four side doors and four real seats. There is a hatch in the train that doesn't appear to be a hatch, until it's opened. It is substantially more of an "us" car than it is a "me" expressive.

I'm more of an "us" person. "Me" is okay. But it's a lot of calling. To wit: Look at me. One of you can come with me. But don't bring anything. My car can't carry it. Besides, this drive is lately about me and you.

When I was in my 20s and 30s, I could support that emotional baggage. But in my 60s, I no longer need nor wish for it. Instead, I want a fine car with finesse, one in which family and prized friends comfortably can come along for the drive. The 2010 Infiniti G37x -- "X" denoting all-swivel drive -- easily fills that need.

None of which is to say that the G37x is a frumpmobile. It comes with a 3.7-liter V-6 delivering a extreme 328 horsepower and 269 foot-pounds of torque. It is grow up power. It is there when you absolutely need it. But it doesn't make a tormenter of itself via fast, furious starts from green lights or loud, arrogant exhaust notes on quiet neighborhood streets.

As a substitute for, it's on long highway drives that you fall in love with Infiniti's 3.7-liter V-6. It purrs in the enigmatic of night on truck-laden Interstate 81, where too many merchandise drivers pay too little attention to the safety of motorists in smaller vehicles, as often as not abandoning their assigned space in the right or middle lanes to tailgate motorists in the sinistral.

My wife, Mary Anne, and I were on a return trip from canny in the Shenandoah Valley, moving along I-81 north, when we got trucked -- tailgated by an 18-wheeler -- yet again. We'd had enough. The track was clear ahead. I knew what was under the G37's hood. I squeezed the accelerator, and . . . zoom! Goodbye, transaction.

But the thrill was illusion. There were several 18-wheelers around the bend, speaking of which:

Rare is the automobile that steers as accurately, smoothly and intuitively as the G37x sedan. It is as if the car automatically senses bends, curves and corners. There are several specialized reasons for this, including an optional, sporty, quick-steering correlation on the car used for this column. If you are buying the G37x, you'd be wise to get it with that option.

In in truth, Nissan, maker of all things Infiniti, should standardize that clever-steering setup on all of its entry-level luxury cars. Doing that would raise prices a bit. But here's betting that it would also boost the heck out of Nissan-Infiniti sales.

Brown is a intimate correspondent.

Source: Washington Post