New Civic in My Future
The Civic gear box had a feature I've never encountered in my limited experience with five speed shifters. Upshifts from second to third and from fourth to fifth are a straight push, with no need to move the lever to the right in the middle. Very quick. Both cars had glorious synchromesh, compared to my old gear box. No hesitation at all downshifting to second or first.
# I bought Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince yesterday. I picked up a couple of pairs of pants at the local Wal-Mart, and decided to see if they had the book before going to Barnes and Noble. Yep. They had a large stack of them right in front of the cash registers, selling for only $16. That's a dollar less than Amazon and no shipping charge except the gas I burned driving there. My son became immediately attached to it. I'll have to read between his sessions or wait for him to finish. Shorter than book five, but still over six hundred pages.
# Patrick J. Buchanan at Creators Syndicate via The Militant Libertarian - Why Are They Killing Us? - because our military is trespassing in their countries, says Robert Pape in his book Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism. [militant]
What Pape is saying is that the neocons' "World War IV" -- our invading Islamic countries to overthrow regimes and convert them into democracies -- is suicidal, like stomping on an anthill so as not to be bitten by ants. It is the presence of U.S. troops in Islamic lands that is the progenitor of suicide terrorism.