I'm going to read this over, think about it carefully, and ponder on
how I can tell you why I disagree with you, in as unemotional a way as
possible. However, if I think *that* isn't possible...

...and it's been a couple days and I still haven't repsonded; send for
the Mounties.

<<sitting here with my feet up on a stool cause I have to be in flexion
to stop muscle spasms caused by the pedicle screws put in my spine
without my authorization; by a hotshot show-off who knew those screws
weren't ok'd for use in the spine at that time.>>

Butter tarts & espresso at the Farmers' Market tomorrow...

I hope you have a great weekend Howard. Truly I do.

COMMENT:

Let me put it this way. It's a question of who is going to pay for
information-processing.

Imagine that I was in the market for a car, and wanted a mid-sized
sedan of some kind, painted red, and I wanted the best car I could get
for under $25,000.

But I don't know anything about cars.  So I ask  Joe Greasemonkey, a
mechanic and gearhead I know, to go buy me one. The "best" one.  I
offer him $500 to spend an afternoon shopping around, and with a phone
consult or two, finally I get the thing.

And I don't like it much. I don't like the way it handles. I don't like
the way it sounds. The switches are in the wrong place. I don't like
the power ash-trays. Joe suggested I'd have done a lot better going
with him to the dealers and listening some more about engines, but I'm
not interested in that stuff. Why else do I hire the guy?

While I'm mulling over my potential lemon, I find out more distressing
stuff, and it's becoming clear to be why I got the car I got. My bud
the mechanic guy has had deals and dealings with all kinds of car
manufacturers and parts makers for years, and he owns a couple of the
same kind of cars he just bought me!  Why, the very idea. I was paying
for a totally unbiased opinion. If that's not bad enough, I realize
that Joe spends half his time down at the local race track where
everything that is capable of motion is plastered with sponsor
stickers, and EVERYBODY developing everything has some connections with
companies that make car-stuff. I mean, really. Disgusting. How can his
mind not be totally polluted with spin and ad nonsense? Half of it's
buzz, and I can't tell which half. Anyway, I want to know what place
have Joe Greasemonkey's judgments and feelings about cars, which are
his life and his passion and certainly not his sober academic career,
got in this scientific issue of picking me out THE BEST CAR? The more I
think about it, the angrier I get.

But if you think that's bad, a few years later it's worse. I need
another car, having wrecked the first one (no fault of mine). But in
the meantime, the business of picking cars has been mostly taken over
by the government, which decided to remove all the commercialism and
corruption from it. Okay, that's a start. The problem is Joe the
mechanic has moved to some other country where they still actually have
a commercially sponsored racecar culture. He couldn't take my money
now, even if I wanted to pay him. So now I look around and realize I've
got few choices left. I'm left with Fred Friendly's Chain of Government
paid auto stores, instead, who get paid to pick my Best Car. They use
my taxes. If I want a better job of car picking, I have to go out of
the country for it. And the lines are pretty bad if I stay.

And you know what?  Even paid by my taxes and with less commercialism,
it's worse. At least Joe Greasemonkey knew his engines and was always
taking apart something or building something, and had some idea about
how the auto industry made progress.  He could tell you WHY brand X was
junk and company Y knew cars, and it wasn't just the stickers and
sponsor ads (though I'm sure they had some effect on his opinions). But
the Fred Friendly Government Guy seems to know only what they taught
him in government auto school about the stats, and that doesn't seem to
be much. It's just what opinions the government officially has about
what is the best car. But I'm I'm wondering where THOSE come from? Are
they cloned somewhere?  Government race track tests don't just spit out
the answer to what is the best car--- that's a value judgment. The
government has to be paying somebody and getting info from somebody.
And I know who. And I have the crawly feeling that some of the
companies that sponsor stuff at the track have been telling officials
somewhere about what cars are good and what cars are lemons. Not just
the drivers and mechanics, who can see from themselves. But this time,
it's all at a level where I can't even BEGIN to see the nuts and bolts
of it. The racetrack is gone. My gearhead guy is gone. The auto
developers have fled. I'm stuck in the government auto showroom with
the government-appointed and approved and trained salesman, and I'm
wondering about the nature of engineering. Where the hell DO good
expert opinions come from, anyway?  It's all very mysterious. The
government should be doing it, is all I know. And they're not.  The
people who invent cars and play with cars somehow still control it, out
there, somewhere. It's just not fair.

SBH