Grey Matters

I stopped by the Ford store and I was told that my truck is On The Way. It seems that FoMoCo has some sort of Quality Control program that involves pulling, randomly, three or four vehicles in a row off the end of the assembly line and subjecting them to a stem-to-stern inspection that is even more rigorous than the routine QC checks. My truck was one of those so selected.

At least that’s the story I got on this visit to the dealer. Someone more cynical than myself might say that this is just a line fed to a customer to sooth the ache of waiting so long…

I have some grammatical pet peeves.

Pet Peeve 109: “What Do We Got?”

I watch a lot of TV. American TV. I can hardly go one evening without hearing some dimwit character ask: “What do we got?” This is usually asked as the dimwit arrives at a crime scene.

This is said by the uniformed cops, the medical examiners, the detectives, even the police chief or commissioner.

Now, I can buy a uniformed officer with a G.E.D. saying “What do we got?” but I have a problem suspending disbelief when ostensibly college-educated characters say it. Someone with a medical degree? Hardly.

Not long ago, a “What do we got?” was closely followed by a “Show me what we got.” Ugh.

Using “got” in place of “have” is epidemic. I’m wondering if all these shows have the same writers.

Someone sent me a link noting: “Why Taxing The Rich Doesn’t Work:> <http://www.glennbeck.com/2011/04/14/tax-cuts-vs-tax-hikes/> Now, of course, he meant that taxing the rich doesn’t work to balance the federal budget.

Clearly though, Taxing The Rich Does Work when you have other goals.

Will taxing the rich get some politicians re-elected? Yes.

Will taxing the rich further shift the already unfair tax burden even further into the unfairness zone? Uh-huh.

Will taxing the rich assuage the envy of the people who think the world owes them a living? You betcha. (But only temporarily. More is never enough.)

Taxing the rich does work to accomplish many objectives, most of which are political, not economic, in nature.

The rich are a favorite whipping boy of the left. To hear the leftists tell it, the reason so many people are poor is that the rich people are hogging all the money. And it’s not “fair” that some people have more money than others.

The long form:

1. Open a Washington, D.C. phone directory to the Federal Government section.
2. Note the first FedGov government office listed.
3. Look in the Constitution to see if FedGov is actually empowered by the states to do whatever this department does.
4. If it isn’t Constitutional, eliminate it.
5. Repeat for each listed federal agency.

Back in December, I ordered a 2011 F-150 pickup truck from the local Ford dealer. I was told that, because I specified the Eco-boost V-6 engine (new to the F-150) that it would not ship until February.

In February, I received word that I should see my truck “Any Day Now.” It was released to ship with an estimated delivery date of March 4. It has yet to arrive here in Arizona. Though released to ship, it has not, apparently, been assigned a shipping or tracking number. No one seems to know where it is. Too bad they don’t ship them via FedEx!

I don’t know enough about these things to hazard an educated guess as to what’s happened. I’m supposing that, despite being a special order, someone diverted it to another dealer or something. I cannot imagine that it’s sitting in a corner of the factory behind a mop pail or some such, and no one has noticed. (I’m assuming it was built at the Kansas City Assembly plant in Claycomo, Missouri, the Show Me state. How about showing me my truck, Missouri?)

If the one built to my specifications cannot be found and has to be built again, I fear that the disasters in Japan may result in a delay due to parts unavailability.