Why So Much

I wonder why in the world that now a days that it costs so much to buy a car. I was looking at some new cars the other day and wondering why they were so much. The price of cars has gone up dramatically over the past 10 years, but the quality has gone down. I guess that I just don't see the connection between the two. If the prices are going up then I want more features or something.

The thing that really gets me over all is the price. Not everyone can afford a new car. Many Americans strive everyday to make a living, yet cannot afford a decent car because of the price. I was looking at the Ford Focus the other day and even the plain Jane ones cost around 14 thousand dollars. Certainly they cannot cost that much to make. So I thought, What about used cars. I found that used cars cost almost as much as a new car. Even cars that are several years old. My question is why? What makes then so expensive. I went to my local Ford dealership, found the ugliest piece of junk that I could find and decided to see how much they wanted and here's what I found.

I found that on their used car lot they had a 2003 Ford F-150. You might think that being 2003 and a full size pickup it might cost a lot, but here are some specks that I figured would get this truck down to about $8000 dollars tops. This truck has 66,000+ miles on it, the paint was peeling in several locations, the bed was full of rust, it was manual transmission, no power locks, no power windows, vinyl floorboard, scratches all over the truck, damage to the bed such as dents, license plate had to be replace due to pulling a trailer and the trailer bashing the plate several times also meaning that there was stress on the engine, tires were almost bald, no tilt, V6, and a whole lot more. The ad in the local paper said that they wanted $12,900. What? $12,900. Are these people crazy? I'm not stupid and I know that this truck could not cost that much. So I did some digging.

I looked up the trucks value in the Kelly Blue Book and found that a truck like this is only worth about $11,745 in excellent shape. This truck was not in excellent shape, nor was it in great or even good shape. So I valued it at fair shape and came up with a value of about $8000. Just as I predicted. So I thought about talking to someone to see what type of deal that I could get.

When I went to the used car lot a woman named Cindy came to talk to me. I told her that I was interested in the truck and what type of deal that she would give me on it. I acted like I never saw the ad and asked her what the price of the truck was. After looking through some papers she looked up at me and said, "$13,900". What the...? That's $1000 more than the paper said. I asked her why so much and she proceeded to tell me that it was an STX. I asked her what exactly that meant and her response was, "Well, that means...um...it just means...um...well, it has cruise control." That's it? It just has cruise control. I said, "Cindy, that truck, according to the Kelly Blue Book, only has a value of $11,745 and that price is based on it being in excellent, top quality condition and we can both agree that it's seen better days." Once again she pushed the fact that it was an STX. I guess that I wasn't seeing the connection. Never the less, no matter what I told her, she would not budge on the price. Not one cent. She never even made the attempt to ask one person if they could lower the price. Never the less, I would say that Cindy is not a good car saleswoman.

But maybe it was just the Dealership. I went down to another my local Mitsubishi dealership, and to my amazement they had a 2002 Ford F-150 for sale. This truck was a year older but had 61,814 miles and was fully decked out. I'm talking tilt, cruise, power windows, power locks, remote key less entry, carpet, CD, and loads more. The only thing that it didn't have was automatic transmission. I called the next day and talked to Tim who said that it had a clean record, and a Carfax report would confirm that. What was the price? $10,500. Why so cheap? I looked up the value on the Kelly Blue Book for this car and it had a value of a little over $12,000. I talked to the Manager and he said that basically that they couldn't sell it because of the manual transmission. It had just about everything that you could ask for in a truck, just that the manual transmission was dent in the sale of the truck because people looking for that type of truck didn't want a manual. That's understandable and believable. I don't know too many people that want a fully loaded truck, or anything for that matter, without an automatic transmission. After bargaining with the manager, he said that he would give us me the truck for $9800. More than fair for an awesome looking truck.

In the end, I am still wondering why it costs so much for vehicles. I just happened to run into a great deal because of something that most people didn't want in a vehicle therefore making the truck sit there forever. I have no doubt that if it was an automatic transmission the cost would have been a lot higher. No matter what, I am still wondering why simple Americans cannot afford a good car for their families because of cost. We live in a day and age where only the rich can afford to have a good car and that it not right. Maybe someday we'll all live in a society where money in not that big of factor and we can all afford the nicer things in life.

Why Is Jackson Changing His Story

If there is anything that I don't understand is why people try to hide the truth when it comes to the police. If your in trouble with the law, just tell the truth.

When it comes to Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers, I wonder what he is thinking when he lies to police. He already has changed two details about what really happened outside the strip club where he got battered and fired at least 5 shots from a gun. What are the changes? Jackson first claims that he was punched in the mouth, giving him the obvious fat lip, but then changes it saying that he got the fat lip from being hit by a car. Jackson also claimed that he shot his gun in self defense after being hit by the car but the prosecutor in the case, Carl Brizzi, says that Jackson got his gun from his car before being hit by the car and fired it.

My question to Jackson would be "Why"? Why would you lie? That's what gets people into trouble. Self defense is one thing and I have no problem with that, but when you change your story that's when the public and especially the police start questioning your motives. Stick with your story. Tell the truth in the first place and your story will never, never change. If there is one thing that I have learned about liars it's that they cannot keep track of their original story. They try, but over time their story starts to change and that's when people start to question you. No matter how hard they try they just can't remember their first version of the story. People that tell the truth have no problem remembering what happened because they don't have to make up details. Their story stays the same every time.

If I had one thing to tell Jackson is no matter what happens from here on out, tell the truth. Tell what really happened. Your save yourself a ton of trouble, more than your already in.

My Mistake

With the NBA preseason underway, I have to give credit to Adam Morrison of the Charlotte Bobcats. While Adam is a rookie this year and only played in one game, he has already proven that he wants to be there. Scoring a whopping 19 points, Adam outscored every person on his team. This was the first game of the preseason and he's playing like it's the playoffs. If Adam keeps playing like this he'll be in the starting lineup for sure. Who cares if they lost the game by 19 points. Who really cares. Adam showed complete determination that he deserves to be there and that I respect.

I would like to also apologize to Adam for assuming that he wasn't all that he claimed to be. I remember making the remarks that he shouldn't be making claims that he would make people cry when he got to the NBA. If Adam keeps this up, he just may make people cry.

How Much Do You Want To Bet

I'm no celebrity. I never have been and most likely never will be, but I'll be willing to bet that I have more rights than most celebrities will ever have. There is none bigger than that of being photographed in public.

Celebrities are photographed more than any other thing in the world. National Geographic has nothing on the paparazzi. The paparazzi takes more photos in an entire day that film that Wal-Mart sells in an entire year. Hundreds of photographers can surround a single celebrity taking thousands of photos in a matter of minutes. This is perfectly legal because there is no law that says that you cannot take a photo of a person in a public place, therefore every celebrity is fair game.

So what makes me have more rights than celebrities? Easy. Even though it's perfectly legal to follow me around town, take pictures of me because I'm out in public, and so on, if you were to actually to do that to me I could call the police and have you arrested for stalking. It's just that simple. I can simply say that I feel threatened by you and have you arrested. It's just that simple.

So why is it so hard for a celebrity to do this same thing? Simple. It's because they are a celebrity. Nobody seems to believe that they can be victims of stalkers. They just say that they are being followed by the paparazzi, which is of coarse, is perfectly legal. Even though people like Princess Diana were killed due to activities of the paparazzi, nothing seems to be done to these people who take photos of celebrities for a living, even though they may be in fact putting these celebrities lives in danger.

Odd Behavior

What is it with us as human beings that makes us react in the strangest ways? What is it that makes us get upset at others when the blame lies within ourselves. We like to think that we are perfect, yet some of us seem to blame others when the fault is clearly ours. Why is that. Don't know what I'm talking about. Let's take a look at some common examples.

Let's say that you are the type of person that has to have everything perfect. Your car is always clean. Your house is always spotless. You keep your grass cut, even if you have to cut it several times a week to keep up that standard. Everything to you has to be just perfect. You dread having a piece of paper fall on the floor. If your this type of person, everything is kept in tip top shape. When people come over to your house Your more than happy to invite them in, drink a cup of tea or whatever. You may not think about it but your really proud of the way that you keep your house. Your happier when people come and visit you.

Now if you reverse that, you'll find that there is a very different type of you that comes out. Let's say that you were living like a pig. While you may feel completely comfortable in that situation, what happens to your mood when others come and visit you without prior warning. It's funny how most people get downright mad that they are there. They start saying things to the other person that might make the other person upset, like, "I wish that you had called before coming over." What's really going on is that you don't want that other person coming in your house to see just exactly how you really live. You get upset that they would even dare come over without calling. Even though deep down inside, you know that it's your fault you seem to put the blame on the other person. It's like driving in a car. You cut someone off of the road even though you know that they are there. When they honk the heck out of their horn at you, you get ticked at them because all of the sudden it becomes their fault. Even though you know for a fact that it's your fault you find reasons to blame the other person.

Why is that? Why is it that we treat each other poorly when we know that the actual blame lies within ourselves. What is inside of us that makes us react in the ways that we do and what in the world is it going to take for us to change?

Over Promoting

When ever your watching TV, and a program goes to commercial, don't you just love them? Today's commercials are hilarious. Not like the commercials of years past. Those were boring. You just wanted to change the channel. The commercials were programmed to be louder than the TV program that you were watching. Those were the days. Now days, commercials are hilarious. Some are so funny, you just can't wait to watch it again. If you have Tivo then your probably one of thousands that either keep rewinding it or record it for later. Either way, commercials are not like they used to be. Today you want to watch them rather than turn the channel.

There are several commercials that bother me though. The commercials that are promoting prescription drugs drives me insane. I have yet to see one segment of commercials go without at least one of them promoting a prescription. Not one. Are we buying into all of this? Some of the prescriptions are so stupid. Like the one about having "no tears". Have they got people convinced that thousands of people have no tears. Maybe it's true. Maybe thousands of people do have no tears, but the commercial makes it sounds like half the world is living with no tears.

I've seen prescription commercials of every type and sort that it just makes me sick. They have people fooled. They're making people feel as if they must have a certain drug if they feel bad. There are so many commercials for pescription drugs it's ridiculous. I would go as far as to say that it's getting out of control. There is no reason that there should be this much promoting of pescription drugs out there. These type of drugs should be prescribed by a doctor, not by the TV, Yet as millions watch, several hundreds of people flock to their doctor, convinced that they have a certain problem and would like to have the drug that was promoted of TV. Wake up America. Let's get real. If you have a problem or you think that you might have a problem, then you need to go and see a licensed doctor. Don't listen to the TV. Use a little bit more common sense and everything will be just fine.

Liars Unite

There's a battle going on in the States of Ohio and Arizona that you may have not have ever even heard of. It's not a battle with guns. It's not a boxing match. You may have participated in it without even knowing it, yet this battle is sure to spread across this nation effecting every state in the near future.

The battle has to do with smoking, but just not any smoking. It's smoking in public places. Some people want there to be smoking in public places, while others do not want this to happen. The non-smoking groups have started petitions to let people know that they don't want there to be smoking in public places. They want to ban smoking in almost every place possible that is on public property. The smoking parties are totally against this so they have started their own petition to keep smokers rights protected and keep smoking in public places.

Here's the problem. Because it's a petition, the title of the petition does not have to go along with the text that it is imposing. For example, in Arizona the smokers group is passing around a petition that is being called the Non-Smokers Protection Act. While the title sounds like it is for non smoking Americans, the text that it is implying is to actually keep smoking in public places and almost anywhere that alcohol is served. That's right, it's not in favor of protecting non-smokers at all. So why does the title sound so appealing to non-smokers? Easy. 99.9% of Americans are not going to sit down and read every page of a petition. They think that the title is enough to tell them all they need to know about the cause for the petition therefore they just go ahead and sign it. The truth of the matter is that they are signing a petition that is totally a 180 degree turn from what the title says. The title, in this case, must sound like it's for non-smokers. They make it sound even better than the actual non-smoker petition to lure people into signing their petition. They even go as far as to lie to the general public to get signatures. So when people are thinking that they are doing a favor for the non-smokers, they are actually helping smokers keep smoking in public places.

This is a trend that is soon going to effect almost every state as the battle for smoking in public places gets underway. Therefore, if you are approached by someone with a petition that says they are trying to get smoking banned in public places, be real sure that you know what you are signing. This goes for any petition. Just remember that it's not against the law to make the title of a petition sound different from what you are actually signing. Make sure that you take the time to read about what the petition is actually for because it is the law for the petition to actually state what it's for.