Car
What’s going on here? An overnight transfer for Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari? Not at all. It was just that Lewis went out on track this Saturday wearing a red racing overall designed by a fan for his sponsor. What does Lewis think about it? “Felipe told me that I belonged to Ferrari now,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s cool. You don’t often see other teams doing anything as cool as this.”
While Chairman of the Daimler Board Dieter Zetsche was touring the starting line-up on the Shanghai grid, he not only exchanged pleasantries with the Mercedes drivers but also strolled over to Sebastian Vettel and wished him the best of luck. There is no harm in cultivating good relationships. After all, who knows what the future may bring?
:: On January 30, Mike Huckabee will make his 13th pilgrimage to Israel – in the genre of the Southern Baptist Convention, the Promised Land. Thirteen trips, and he still has no clue.
Mike Huckabee is and likely will always be a Christian Zionist because “it says so right here,” here being God’s promise to the Patriarch Abraham, as though there has been nothing said since.
I first wrote about Huckabee’s apartheid, pro-slavery agenda on December 20, 2007, in the vain hope that he would wise up before we were saddled with him as President. He now stands as the slight frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012. His current trip is sponsored by Ateret Cohanim/Jewish Reclamation Project, an organization formed to “buy” property for Jewish homes in East Jerusalem, heretofore exclusively owned by and settled by Palestinians. Let’s say that the word “buy” has less to do with fair market value than about the value of occupied territory.
Thus, Huckabee will be lending his support to the building of illegal settlements. However you define the Promised Land, Palestinian residents on the West Bank and East Jerusalem are in the way. The most facile means of solving the pesky problem of the rights of aborigines to remain in their homeland is to build walls around them, install armed guards and move your people in under protection. America’s expertise in such endeavors was honed with the plains Native Americans and slavery in the South.
The last time America was soon to be relieved of the prospect of Mike Huckabee for President, he said in New Hampshire that he supports a Palestinian state but somewhere outside Israel. He named Egypt and Saudi Arabia as possible alternatives, noting that the Arabs have far more land than the Israelis and that it would be only fair for other Arab nations to give the Palestinians land for a state, rather than carving it out of the tiny Israeli state. Welcome to the simple world of “Them vs. Us.”
In all due respect to Mike Huckabee, this proposal of sorts was trotted out unsuccessfully, thank God, by President Lincoln as the black solution – send them to another place they could call their own country. Huckabee has refined that solution slightly by averring that the Palestinians should not be settled within the boundaries of territory currently controlled (i.e. stolen) by Israel. “The point is that if you try to layer two governments on top of each other, (it would be the same as designating) two owners of the same car.”
Huckabee’s version of Manifest Destiny, ultimately intended to push Native Palestinians into the Jordan River or the Mediterranean Sea, should resonate with the average pickup owner in Arkansas!
There are a number of Christian Native Palestinians on the West Bank, however, who would take exception to such a notion.
Zougbhi Zoughbi, founder and Director of Wi’am, the Palestinian Center for Conflict Resolution and a committed Christian who has been jailed 18 times, is one. “Pack your bags, Zougbhi, you’re headed for the Saudi desert so that Christian America can complete Israel’s prophetic mission and applaud while God destroys them at Armageddon.”
To gentle, forgiving George Sa’adeh, Deputy Mayor of Bethlehem and Principal of a Greek Orthodox high school, “Your story began with a simple shopping trip with your wife and two daughters on March 23, 2003, and ended with 400 bullet holes in your car, your 12-year old daughter Christine dead, and you and her sister Marianna severely wounded, courtesy of exploding bullets from the guns of IDF (Israeli Defense Force) soldiers deployed to protect illegal Israeli settlers. America has its eye on your future!” How long can you tread water?
To Dr. Bishara Awad, founder and President of Bethlehem Bible College, “You have fought a good fight, but you stand in the way of Mike Huckabee’s biblical prophecy and are squatting on God’s and Mike’s Promised Land. Henceforth there is laid up for you an oasis in the Saudi desert.”
To Dr. Mitri Raheb who miraculously survived the Israeli shelling of Manger Square 2 days after Easter, 2002, “Thank you for the Christian International Center and for your good deeds. It will make a great place from which American Christian Zionists can prepare for the Second Coming.”
To the Magi from Persia (Iran) come to see the place where the Christ-child lay, “We are sorry, but there is no place for you in the inn. Please report back to King Herod.”
May God spare America from the simplistic, self-righteous dogma of Mike Huckabee.
Source: http://www.submityourarticle.com/articles/Stan-Moody-7626/Prison-reform-160180.php
It has been about two years since the recent recession that caused a lot of suffering to countless of residents of the US. America has shown great progress during this time especially on how they were able to handle the situation. Economically, the American people survived this challenge and are now beginning to recover from this situation. However, many people are still worried about their financial situation in the country.
According to a survey made by Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc about three-fourths of Americans are still worried about their employment and still show signs of struggling. This only shows that most Americans they have not yet fully recovered and are still having difficulty making ends meet. They have also found that this has forced most of the Americans to increase their workload, take money from their savings and retirement funds. The study also showed that most Americans categorize themselves as “moderately stressed” with a few who answered “very” and “extremely” stressed.
It appears according to their study, the recession affected not only their financial situations but also their work relationships. They admitted to be more irritable with their workmates and take more time to finish their work. They also found it necessary to bring home work with them just to finish it. Basically, their overall productivity has decreased as the result of the recession period.
The past two years have greatly changed even the way Americans view their money and how they should go about using it. They have become more aware of the way that they use their money and the quality of the services that they purchase. Gone are the days when the people are satisfied simply with promises especially when it comes to insurance. They better scrutinize policies and are more active looking for better deals that they will get into.
The more active consumer groups show a great improvement in the way the Americans manage their resources. it shows that they are now more participative in the market in which they now actually make sure that they get more value for the money. They now look, negotiate, and ask questions about the transactions that they plan to enter.
This also affected the auto insurance industry. They (car insurance companies) have got lower overall satisfaction ratings from their customers. it appears that customers are now more discriminating than before. Companies should now begin to realize that the customers have become much more difficult to satisfy. They show that the people have become more difficult to please than before the recession.
There are many studies that show the same result. This is a national phenomenon that has been observed throughout the US. This only shows that the people in the country have become more discriminating judges of quality, service and price. If companies refuse to change the way they view of their customers and fit it to the profile that the customers currently have , they might find it difficult to succeed. The people need to be satisfied and doing this job has become much more difficult.
We have here a philosophical issue rooted in semantics.
Webster’s New World tells us that “mini” refers to “something that is very small in size . . . especially as compared to others of the same kind.” The Clubman is the largest car ever to wear Mini logos, and it raises questions, such as: When does a Mini cease to be a Mini and become something else—a Midi, maybe? And what limits, if any, does a brand name impose on its products?
Mini faithful might argue that “compared to others of the same kind” is not possible because Minis are a breed apart, and in any case, the Clubman still ranks near the bottom of the dimension charts of cars for sale in the U.S.—only the
is distinctly smaller. Still, there are many excellent subcompact hatchbacks that are similar in size and offer more room, some with a surprisingly high fun-to-drive index, all with much lower price tags (the
, for one).
To this, the faithful might respond, “Yeah, but the Clubman will blow their doors off.” No argument there. At 2856 pounds, the Clubman S is 234 pounds heavier than the last
we tested [“ ,”
], but it’s still capable of scooting to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds. That’s 0.6 second slower than the standard Cooper S, but a Honda Fit requires almost nine seconds to achieve mile-a-minute velocity. We anticipate that the naturally aspirated Cooper Clubman would deliver similar results: not quite as quick as the three-door Cooper, but quicker than the Fit or other subcompacts.
So, it’s about quickness, with added cargo or people capacity. As well as agility. But if the idea is expanded interior volume with a respectable power punch and the moves of a world-class welterweight, there are rides that will get those extra passengers and/or cargo from A to B with more room, and in more haste, for about the same money. The
(base price $22,975, 0 to 60 in 5.4 seconds, max cargo of 43 cubic feet) comes to mind.
What the Mazdaspeed 3 and others— ,
, for example—lack, though, is cuteness. Make that cuteness with attitude. It’s the character trait that made the original British Mini—particularly the Cooper and Cooper S—a hit back in the go-go Sixties, and it’s also at the core of BMW’s successful Mini resurrection. The question is: Just how big can something get before cuteness fades? (If you know the answer to this question, Macaulay Culkin would like to hear from you.)
This expansion—call it the elastic Mini phenomenon—is not without precedent. In the heyday of the original, there were several variants: the Austin Mini Seven Countryman, the Morris Mini Traveller, and the Jeep-like Mini Moke. In 1961, a quarter-ton pickup joined the lineup, followed a year later by a Mini Van, a panel van with Morris badges.
And, of course, there was a Clubman, from 1969 to 1980—you didn’t really think that name sprang from the brow of someone named Wolfgang, right?—and a Clubman Estate. Its maker, BMC, sought to elevate the Estate above the other variants with the option of genuine wood trim on the exterior, though the execution left a bit to be desired as the wood was simply glued to the body panels.
What almost all those variations had in common was the brilliant front-drive architecture of the original 1959 Mini, on a wheelbase stretched by about four inches and with a body shell lengthened by about 10 inches. In the spirit of repetitive history, these are very similar to the increases that went into the creation of the modern Mini Clubman. So, with that precedent, you may wonder why we’re skeptical about this latter-day stretch job.
Just this: Even with an extra 10 inches of sheetmetal, a first-generation Mini Clubman was only some 130 inches long, which still seems to be within
Webster’s definition of mini. But the new one is something else.
Dimensions. Creating this “unique shooting brake,” as it’s called in the company literature, entailed lengthening the wheelbase 3.2 inches, to 100.3, and a 155.8-inch wagon body, 10.2 inches longer than the standard Mini, according to the manufacturer, and at 56.4 inches, the Cooper S Clubman is also an inch taller than its three-door counterpart.
From the front bumper to the B-pillar, the Clubman’s sheetmetal is the same as the standard Mini’s. The new bodywork was added from that point aft, culminating in a squared-off stern. You don’t need a tape measure to perceive the benefits of the expansion, in part because the design team thoughtfully installed a rear-hinged demi-door, officially, the “Clubdoor”—replete with a seatbelt, on the right side of the car (remember the old Saturn coupe?)—the better to eyeball the rear-seat space and, if so inclined, climb right in there.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/car/08q3/2008_mini_cooper_s_clubman-road_test