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Bateshorn

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Everything posted by Bateshorn

  1. To use a different version of Given’s Razor: If somebody tailgates you, you found a tailgater. If everybody tailgates you, you’re driving too slow, move over.
  2. Seeing people talk about finances and espouse a "working class" lifestyle with a Chevy Tahoe and an F250 in their driveway: My brother in Christ, you are leasing two luxury vehicles.
  3. Ironically (again No CR), the Obama administration's (and to a lesser degree CARB) attempting to improve auto safety and efficiency at the same time ended up pushing both manufacturers and buyers into less efficient vehicles. It wasn't by design, but it's easier to make the safety requirements in a larger vehicle than it is in a VW Golf. The companies make more money on the crossovers/SUVs/trucks, and the beancounter, marketing, and sales people took it from there. I'm as guilty as the next: I bought a VW Alltrack because I wanted the extra bit of lift and all wheel drive (despite the fact it's cheaper to just switch back and forth from winter to summer tires and you will get much better traction). The extra weight of the Haldex knocks about 5 miles off the MPG. The performance of modern cars is truly mindblowing. My 2012 GTI performs better than a mid 90s Carrera from a timing perspective. Jay Leno had a great line when talking about his 80s Countach, which was his daily driver for awhile (and I'm paraphrasing): There is more technology difference between that 87-88 Countach and a modern sedan, then the Countach and the Model T.
  4. East Coast parallel parking is an Olympic level sport.
  5. I think gas and vehicle cost is the simplest explanation for the sudden interest/move to medium trucks. I live in a heavily Central American community and the contractors around here universally drive two trucks: old full size beaters, and Tacos, of many vintages. The only full-size driveway queens I regularly see is the fat white guy who’s gonna show up on day one to give me the price for the job.
  6. Much like America is really an insurance company with a military, most domestic auto manufacturers are really lending companies that specialize in SUVs/Trucks. And in the case of Dodge, it’s a predatory lending company. /noCR/ Light duty trucks are subject to easier emissions standards than cars. Due to their size and that exemption, They are easier and cheaper to engineer, update, and produce, relative to cars, across a manufacturing line over time. With marketing, they sell for far more money and with much greater profit margins. It’s an easy decision for the companies to push trucks as the ultimate product. Until the US closes the light truck exemption, and/or gas prices get and stay high, this trend will continue /noCR/
  7. As much as it pains me to say it, since those LOYAL FOREVER! Maroons will never let it go, but Austin High is very good (use the Notre Dame tune): Beer beer for old Austin High Bring out the whiskey, bring out the rye Send those freshmen out for gin, and don't let a sober SENIOR in We never stagger, we never fall We sober up on wood alcohol All ye saints of Austin High are out on the drunk again
  8. As somebody who lives on the Eastern seaboard and does not have giant, Kramer-esque, Texas roads, Pick ups are the bane of my existence. Also, trying to figure out which of you guys actually need a pick up and which of you just have little dicks.
  9. Yeah, to me, some sort of Practice Squad Dress out Activation makes most sense to me. You activate the player from the Practice Squad on game day? They get a bonus or something. But the thin ass rosters is brutal.
  10. Every year I have a sip or two of Longhorn Kool aid in August, watch a couple of games, then we have our annual garbage September outing, and I basically become Jerry's girlfriend here:
  11. Lol. My kids are in college now, so IDGAF if people judge: My first wife and I benedryled our kids when they were young for flying. It has a couple of benefits: as a first gen antihistimine, it has anti-motion sickness properties. As a mild disassociative, it makes kids docile and sleepy. One time we boarded the flight, got settled, and proceeded to put a dropper full in each child. Since we were four across, I was across the aisle, although we often would switch to allow the other person a few minutes of not having to be on child overwatch. The dude in the window looked me dead ass in the eyes and said thank you and bought both my wife and I a drink once the cart came by.
  12. re: Troop appearance…. They can’t all be this guy, huh?
  13. I walked away from the Cowboys after Jerry bought the team and have never looked back. Apathy is slowly driving me away from the Longhorns.
  14. Este. The quality of the game drops off so badly in December as we lose starters and end up with guys who were roofing houses or in practice squads a month earlier in starting roles.
  15. I knew this thread would get bumped with a Cowboys-49ers playoff game. Good work, America.
  16. The Swedes were really ahead of their time on the Gripen. Take the best parts of the F-16 role wise, then focus on ease of flight/fight/service for a logistics constrained battlefield. It’s perfect for the Ukrainians.
  17. I suspect that’s why the Dutch are starting to talk about putting together a group of EU partners to “buy” the Leopards: to give Scholz the out he needs here before the Poles start giving their Leopards to the Ukrainians without German approval and turn over the Fragile EU applecart.
  18. Hence the reason he is tying the Leopards to the Abrams: it allows him an easy out instead of having to say no outright. and risk his governing coalition. He’s absolutely savvy about US politics. The Germans aren’t sending Leopards because they don’t want the Ukrainians to win. They also don’t want them to lose. Which is why they will send all the anti air weapons the Ukrainians want.
  19. I wanted to take a second to discuss the US political reasons behind the German tank intransigence. If folks want to argue in detail about the domestic politics, kick it over to Cloakroom, but I just wanted to give 100k consequence of the November elections as a DC person. Following GOP takeover in the House, it has become conventional wisdom that we will be operating under a series of short term funding resolutions, flat funded appropriations, and possibly cuts over the next two years. It’s highly unlikely that there will be another major Ukraine funding bill that will make enough people happy to survive the politics of divided government. I’m not CR-ing this: it’s just politics 101. It’s equivalent of saying Nick Cage is weird. There are basically 20 or so pro Russia House Members that can block anything, short of some sort of unique procedural trick that virtually never happens. The last Congress realized this, and during December did another Ukraine Bill, plus gave the President lend-lease authority and lots of other legal wiggle room in the Defense Authorization. Basically, that’s gotta get Ukraine through the next election. Because the Abrams costs nearly $10 million a pop, retail, even giving the Ukrainians a few dozen, with all the necessary support, training, etc. will quickly eat up a massive chunk of the money the Administration has to stretch out over the next two years. That’s why we aren’t stepping in and saying “Let’s just roll the Abrams! Fuck them Krauts!” The Germans know this, and I’m sure have conditioned any Abrams we send on being fully supported, as opposed to just sending a few first gen Abrams to be parked on the outskirts of Kyiv for show. Putting aside all the other dysfunction in the German Government, Olaf has figured out a weak point in US domestic politics and is exploiting it for maximum leverage.
  20. You know, for a site full of Cockrell engineering grads, I really wonder about you guys occasionally.
  21. I’m going to have to be the one to bring up PedoBear at the Texas Bowl? I feel like that’s core Shaggy.
  22. French let the UAE use the LeClerc to do the same.
  23. @Ghost of LL Didn’t you get drunk with like half TOS and fall in a campfire once? Put that in there.
  24. If you have the logistics, the Abrams is the tits. This isn’t about the Abrams, it’s about the Germans wanting the war to end in some sort of current status quo in hopes of reviving its cheap commodities relationship with Russia that allows it (Germany) to go back to the export driven economy and 800 lb. Gorilla in EU politics. That isn’t going to happen. The fact the Dutch are on the edge of telling the Germans to fuck themselves and ship tanks directly tells you where the winds are blowing.
  25. I honestly think it has to do with the green subsidies in the Biden Energy Bill. I think they are pissed about export markets.
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