French Moxie

Now that's a French resistance!
Hitler's march through France might have ended much sooner, and many tragic deaths averted, had he threatened to fire many of them them without cause, rather than threatening to throw many of them into the fire.
It strikes me as odd, what motivates the French, these days.

Unintended Consequences

The law of unintended consequences is back in the local news. It seems the "Drug Free School Zones" laws are putting too many minorities behind bars. Hmmm - never saw that coming. I never thought the stepped up enforcement made much sense - do adult drug dealers actually approach school yards and market their wares all that often? I'm guessing young'uns doing drugs are getting them from their most entrepreneurial peers, who in turn, are generally smart enough to contact their wholesalers off campus.

This Old Car

As you might have guessed, I'm an advocate of buying used cars, letting the other guy take the hit on depreciation. My daily driver is a 1995 model, which I acquired in late '96 for less than ten grand. At this point, I budget about a thousand a year for repairs and maintenance, and usually come in under budget. Now it's got some kind of issue involving intermittent leaking coolant. Great. I brought it to the shop when I first saw the problem, their pressure testing confirmed the radiator was ok, so they replaced all the hoses and clamps. Came in under 200 bucks - but a week later, it's leaking again, just a puddle smaller than a compact disc, and not every day, in the morning under the radiator. Very frustrating, but highlights the trick to the used car game - at some point you have to move on.

I'm not making that call just yet, but I am at 120k miles, and may need to figure out whether the time is near....