Thursday, November 20, 2008

More Blathering About the Big 3

For anyone who is opposed to the auto industry bailout, Manny Moe & Jack showing up in DC in private jets is the "well, there ya go" moment. My first thought when this happened was not to really get riled up; I thought doing so would be like when there's a meeting on global warming and some jackasses smugly point out that it happened to snow on the same day. But the more I think of it, the more their tin ears bug me a little bit...how come an industry like Hollywood can figure out what audiences want to watch for their $10, but the Big 3 have completely ignored the wishes of their own demographic and continued to keep doing want they want...which has led to this. I use the word "demographic" because we are being led to believe that it's our patriotic duty to support these people; we're led to believe there's some sort of two-way street going on here. But there's not. It's only "you'll take what we give you, or you're a bad American, hey lookit me I'm rich as shit."

This kind of thinking reminds me of a few years ago - one of my favorite bars when I first moved to Williamsburg was the Halloween Bar, which featured the 32oz styrofoam container that the Nest has made famous. 90% of the time I went in, I'd order a "Big Bud"...but every once in a while I'd want, say, a vodka tonic. The exchange would go like this:

"Hiya - Big Bud?"
"Actually, I think I'll try a vodka tonic."
"Big Bud?"
"Vodka tonic, please."
"Big Bud?"
"(sigh) Yeah...Big Bud."

Guess what? I don't go to the Halloween bar anymore.

Now look at these Big 3 men, men who aren't even smart enough anymore to think "you know, if we're begging for money, maybe we shouldn't show up in private jets?" Something like that is not within their realm of thinking - it's been so long since they've had to turn their brains on, it's useless to even dream they'd consider something else. And this is who we wanna turn our money over to? You think they're gonna do anything other than take the money and go back on the same cruise control ride to complete disaster they've been on? Why would they - they know we'll just keep giving out more.

I believe in a return to great men. After all, our insistence on incompetence has surprisingly come back to shoot us in the foot, hasn't it?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i'm pretty certain the halloween bar never had styrofoam cups. they had the 7oz, the mug, and the pint glass ... right?

Xmastime said...

yes. and the styrofoam cup.

Anonymous said...

i think you're wrong. meet you there in 10.

Anonymous said...

still skaing my head over the hummer (car).

halloween had styrofoam. and the worst taps known to man. prolly the last bar id choose to go on my last day. [hug]

Rambler said...

They were idiots for the private jets and the PR people who also were too dumb or scared to tell them not to do that should be fired...morons