Cars and features that Detroit ought to offer.

Firstly, Detroit should not be abandoning the market for sedans.  That's just turning a huge slice of the market over to Japanese and Korean companies.  Granted, there is more mark up in big SUV's and pickup trucks, which makes it easier to turn a profit.  But there are a helova lotta people who just want something to drive to work.  Most families have both husband and wife working outside the home, which means they need two cars.  One car only needs to get a single individual to and from work.  A small four door econobox is plenty.   The other car can be a SUV big enough to hold the entire family, kids, luggage, skis, lunch.  One key to a competitive sedan is distinctive styling.  The old VW Beetle was distinctive , not especially handsome, but nobody would ever confuse it with a Toyota.  
   Another small sedan that would sell is one that could bring sheet goods home from the lumber yard and furniture home from the auction.  Perhaps a lift off top?  A really stout factory roof rack?  A hatchback with a lift off top?  As a hauler, it only needs to work in good weather and short range, on secondary roads.  Interstate performance with a load is not required.
   Features I would like to see:  Power windows with a master "Close them all" switch.  Switch to just work, and not require putting the key in the ignition.  Even better would be a button on the key remote that would close all the windows while you are sitting on the deck.  In summer I like to leave the car windows open to prevent the car from becoming an oven when the sun shines on it.  It would be nice not to have to put one shoes, find the keys and go out to the driveway to roll the windows up in the evening. 
  An outside thermometer.  Up here we want to know if that black patch up ahead on the road is just a puddle or black ice. 
  A plug to let your Ipod play back on the car's speakers. 

Bathing Suit. At a teen age house party?

Kinda strange, but that's what Dr. Christine Ford said she was wearing at that infamous party 35 years ago.  I can remember a goodly number of parties back in my teen age years.  I don't ever remember a girl showing up in a bathing suit, other than summertime beach parties.  They wore jeans, tight fitting jeans, even low cut tight fitting stretch jeans.  Short shorts.  Short skirts.  Tight sweaters.  Halter tops.  No bathing suits. 
   Makes me wonder. 

AVG Antivirus. Thumbs Down

The Microsoft Scammer called again.  This time he claimed my computer was issuing improper messages over the internet.  I recognized his voice, he calls regularly, and I had some fun calling him names.  After the scammer went away, it did occur to me that it had been a while since I ran a virus scan on Trusty Desktop.  Next I found that good old Malwarebytes, my anti virus of choice, no longer supports Windows XP.  Arghh.  Some net cruising brought me to AVG antivirus.  It downloaded, it scanned, it didn't find anything.  After the scan run, things seemed a little slower.  Task Manager showed three or four new tasks, sucking up RAM and CPU time. 
   Worse was to come.  I booted up next morning and clicking on desktop icons no longer  worked.  Task manager showed some AVG component hogging all the CPU time. Task Manager could no kill the offending AVG process.
Install and Remove Programs from Control Panel didn't work.  Deleting the AVG file directory in Program Files didn't work.  Deleting from MS-DOS didn't work either. 
    A little web searching with Duck Duck Go showed me that I was not alone.  It did point me to a special AVG remover program, written by AVG themselves.  That worked.  Good riddance to AVG.  It is a RAM hog and a CPU hog that is active and slowing my machine all the time.  At times slowing to the point I thought it was broken. 

He said She said

The last minute smear on Judge Kavanaugh is showing legs, at least for the TV newsies.  There ought to be a statute of limitations, 35 years ago is a long time.  Me, I cannot even remember where I was living in 1983, or was it 1984.  The accusation of attempted rape comes from a lefty California college professor, of whom I never heard of before.  Kavanaugh has been in public life for 30 years, he has been back ground checked and found clean, he has a lot of testimonials from women who worked for him or went to high school with him.  So when Kavanaugh denies the attempted rape ever happened, I find him believable. 

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012

Some how I missed this one back in 2012 when it came out. Netflix brought it to me last night.  I should not have bothered.  What little plot the movies might have had was never shown to us in the audience.  In fact there was almost no dialogue for any of the characters.  No one addressed another character by name, making it hard to keep every one straight.  If the Huntsman had any romantic feelings for Snow White he never showed them.  Likewise Snow White doesn't display any romantic interest in anyone.  She falls in with a band of forest bandits, like Robin Hood's men, all of whom are over age, overweight, and balding.  It is never clear just what they expect from Snow White, or what Snow White expects from them.  A long scene has Snow White fleeing the Evil Queen's troops, on foot, thru the forest, while wearing a full length ball gown.  Would have been core convincing if the long skirt had got torn off on thorns,
   This flick is two hours, too long for the material to carry it.  Cameraman does alright, manages to turn the lights on before filming.  Puts the camera on a tripod. 
   Too bad.  With a decent scriptwriter this could have been a fun medieval fantasy romance. 

Rape is a serious crime

And should be dealt with by the police and the courts.  Not college kangaroo courts.  The college kangaroo courts have a nearly perfect failure rate.  Most students condemned by such bodies sue the college.  And a lot of 'em are winning.  Colleges would be ahead if the real criminal justice system handled cases of rape and "sexual assault" on campus, at least they won't get sued over the decisions of a real judge.  For students, the regular criminal justice system is fairer than anything a bunch of "college administrators" can do. 

Your Congress at work

Congress is voting to outlaw the selling of meat from cats or dogs.  We really really need this.  Every grocery store in the land has a meat case just stuffed full of dog and cat steaks.  People grill them every weekend.  Serious problem here, deserving of Congressional attention.
   Some how the nation has endured since 1789 without this absolutely vital law.  In actual fact nobody feels good about eating beloved house pets, and so it just doesn't happen.  No law required. 
   Just another reason to throw the bums out in the coming November elections.