I am in love with a different car every few days – I even drive a bunch of them.

Truth be told, most of the cars that I drove leave me somewhat .. unmoved. A reviewer in today’s New York Times discusses how disconnected they are from car prices – and how challenging it would be to actually spend money on most of these cars.

I feel that same way. I drive something and think “uh .. wow. That’s a lot of greenbacks”.

My feelings and experiences with cars have always been influenced by the writers in the several automotive publications – especially that of Car & Driver and Automobile magazines. As many have noticed, there isn’t any difference between these publications anymore. They always print about the same cars, the same topics and for the most part, they all say the same thing.

Witness the revised VW Beetle. Have you seen a single article that has failed to prominently mention that it’s more “manly”? Manly? It looks more like a Beetle, but manly? Have you SEEN one? It looks like .. a Beetle. Inside – it looks like my 1969 Beetle was updated with modern instruments and airbags. And, something less than a flat pane of glass for the windshield.

People are unwilling to go out onto a limb and say something unique or creative at all.

So, the new version of the iconic Beetle is “masculine”, the new Buicks are either too expensive or too inexpensive, the new Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet is ugly, and you read the same damned thing on every page of every publication everywhere.

The formula goes:

Introduce car type/size/brand – remark on history “Hyundai sure has come a long way since that Excel nightmare”. Make doubtful remark about their ability to maintain their lead/enter a market/stay in a market/stay in business based on doubt that the new model/entry can rise above/make a mark/survive.

Compare model being reviewed to the standard for this size/class/ideal/impossible standard never achieved. Make a comment about the market, and past mistakes by the brand/manufacturer. Point out someone else did it better.

Discuss the car’s visuals and materials quality/manufacturing standard. Compare VW/American built cars unfavorably based on quality of interior materials. Suggest/hint that the rest of the car will be found equally wanting.

Drive car around block. Make three points about the car’s drive experience; one point can be how people on the road viewed the car.

Discuss price according to following guidelines -

Too expensive

VW/Audi, Buick/GM/Cadillac, Lincoln, Chrysler (make suggestion that Chrysler won’t be able to sell any at that price)

No comment on price

Bentley, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, Lexus

Laud how inexpensive it is for what you’re getting

Hyundai, Toyota, Nissan, Honda

Avoid pricing concerns – point out that no one will buy them

Acura (all), Infiniti (all except G)

Make wry remark that repeats negative comments; re-make competitive comparison favorable to the competition whether or not the car you’re reviewing is actually competing with the comparison you’ve chosen.

Pat self on back.

Hit “submit”

There is no soul in this writing. No reason to read it. No reason for it to exist.

And yet, this writing is expanding – pushing out anything in its path.

Mr. Martin, who grew up in Houston, Texas, graduated from Texas A&M University only a month before the beating death of Paul Broussard, a fellow Texas A&M alumnus on July 11, 1991.

Mr. Broussard’s crime was to be in a “gay area”, and identified as likely a gay man. He was beaten to death by ten suburban high school students, who drove the forty-five miles from the Houston exurbs specifically to hunt and beat homosexuals.

Mr. Broussard was ambushed by these young men for the act of walking through a parking lot near a well known gay bar. He was chased into a dead end street and beaten with fists, steel toed boots, nail studded pieces of lumber and a knife.

Because he was in a presumed gay area, Mr. Broussard endured having his person physically beaten until he was non-responsive. He died eight hours after arriving in a hospital that was fewer than three miles away from the scene of his beating.

During the effort mounted by the youth from the affluent exurbs of Houston, two cars were necessary to carry the revelers to and from the scene of their work. They cheered each other one, and expressed themselves much as would attendees at yesterday’s Super Bowl, at which Mr. Martin felt it appropriate to again speak about his belief that persons appearing to be GLBT should be physically beaten and killed.

While Mr. Broussard paid with his life for the entertainment of ten young men of means. The statements of Mr. Martin continue to create and validate the atmosphere that lead to that crime being entertainment for ten educated young men.

It was not Mr. Martin’s comment that led to Mr. Broussard’s death. However, the fact that Mr. Martin was a Texas A&M grad in Houston requires that he had been fully aware of this crime. Mr. Martin continues to speak out in favor of this crime, and others like it.

At some point, it is the actor who speaks the words that create a permissive environment who must be held accountable.

We in Texas must hold our elected officials to account; the ten adults who beat Mr. Broussard to death for being near a gay bar are all out of prison. The actor who confessed to having stabbed Mr. Broussard with a knife was given only forty-five years imprisonment, and has already approved for parole, but is still imprisoned after “new information” was presented to the parole board, which withdrew its approval.

In a state and in a county where an offender who commits robbery with a weapon routinely gets forty years confinement, and where murders are nearly uniformly given life without possibility of parole, that ten adults could pre-meditate arming themselves, driving for an hour, looking for a victim, beating the victim to a bloody, dying pulp, and then drive back – all while celebrating their superiority and be sentenced to less prison time than a shoplifter would receive tells us just how unequal GLBT citizens remain. That it is acceptable for a national figure with a guaranteed distribution of his words can – not once, but repeatedly – speak to validate death to citizens who only appear GLBT tells us just how unequal GLBT citizens remain.

In this city, in this state, less than one hundred years ago, it was perfectly acceptable for white police officers to chase a perceived suspect into a black neighborhood, and physically beat any black resident who came into their path. Lynchings of black persons suspected of looking the wrong way at a white girl occurred near Houston through 1935.

Even today, in this city, a black person who comes before the notice of law enforcement has a very uncertain future. However, in the largest city with an out GLBT mayor, a GLBT citizen must be prepared to give their life each and every time someone who feels validated by the words of those such as Mr. Martin takes notice of them.

For appearing to be GLBT in the eye of the beholder, is a capital crime that requires no court of law. Execution, immediate and horrible, is appropriate.

That is what Mr. Martin is advocating.

In our country, he has a right to advocate it.

However, if CNN retains him as an employee, then the GLBT community must act to protect itself from a multi-national corporation providing a home and a distribution channel for that advocacy.

You know, it’s not so terrible being in a center seat when your seat mates are polite and courteous. However, my flight this afternoon had me sitting next an armrest hog, who felt it necessary to repeatedly elbow me in the ribs to give him room to underline in his Bible. He was studying Galatians, I think. His Bible was in Spanish, so my normal powers of detection were inhibited.

He gave me a little card near the time we landed. It invited me to take some guy named Jesus into my heart. How did he know? Maybe it was my unwillingness to hang out into the aisle to give him more room.

After a moment, I thought to have some reply cards made up to point out the equal validity of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I probably won’t, though. Still, isn’t there quite a hateful message in proselytizing some seat mate whom you never took the effort to strike up a conversation?

Now, riding the middle out to San Francisco, I’m behind a guy who has punished his chair something fierce. He’s dropped into it several times with his full weight, and the entire seat frame has twisted and warped. Of course, you KNOW that he has banged the seat back against the tracks several times to get every millimeter out of the recline.

The person directly behind me has kicked, kneed and shoved my seat back so regularly that one wonders if they’re engaged in an aerobics program. I call the seat’s occupant a person, but quite frankly I don’t know that to be the case. It could be some dragon like monster wrestling to free itself from the confinement that some long dead wizard trapped it into.

Still, it’s cheap. I mean, astonishingly cheap. I guess that’s quite all right, because paying more for a better seat does not assure one of freedom from this bizarre dominating behavior. I considered paying to upgrade to a better seat, but then eyeballed the other 134 persons prepared to board with me.. They weren’t so desperate as to hang off if the wings, but it was rather disturbing.

This experience of course starts with “security”. Having been through security a few times in the last few days, I am convinced that the problem isn’t really with the TSA. The problem is with passengers who aren’t paying attention, aren’t prepared, are belligerent and generally making the experience more unpleasant than it need be.

This isn’t quite unique to air travel, of course. The same hostility, aggression and competitive inattention is present each day that I pilot my Buick to such exotic locales as the UPS store, or the university.

Is there any empirical data in the behavior of the masses over time? Or, is it just that there are so many more of us angling to get two ahead in the line.

One of the most memorable and startling “star trek” episodes had Jim Kirk kidnapped by a society so desperately overpopulated that they could no longer function. A blood born illness Kirk carried was their only solution. Occasionally, their deception failed and Kirk saw the heaving mobs of unhappy people – totally trapped and unable to exercise any choice.

Are the situations analogous?

Lovely.

There are dealership applications, enthusiast apps, and manufacturer’s apps. I’m going to review the handful of manufacturer’s apps in this post. Dealership apps seem to be uniformly an opportunity to send push marketing to whatever sucker has downloaded them. Why someone would want their handheld to chirp “Come on down! We’re making CRAZY deals!!” is beyond me, but.. it’s not for me to say. Let me call out the Alex Rodriguez MB application, though, as being very snappy. I’ll talk about it a bit later.

As to the manufacturers themselves, there are two basic types available – telematics/roadside assistance and operating instructions. These apps are uniformly available for both iOS and for Android, but not for Win 7 mobile or other platforms.

Roadside assistance apps tend to be the realm of the premium brands – Audi, BMW, Volvo, Lexus and Mercedes all have them. They sometimes allow one to avoid the hassle of identifying one’s location to an operator. So messy. The Audi app allows you to call for road side assistance from the app without having to talk to a human. It transmits your information, your car’s VIN and the specific problem that you have selected to the road side assistance dispatch center, and has a very zippy feedback feature from the dispatcher – it tells you what service provider is responding and their ETA. The Mercedes Android app’s earnest focus is on where one parked their car, and on how to record the details of an accident (damned peasants!). No road side assistance connectivity is included. The Volvo app is a bit more creative, allowing for in app request for road side services, tracking trips for your Volvo (checking on errant husbands and runaway teens, I guess), and giving you a bit of GM’s functionality by being able to check the status of your doors, windows and trunk security from your handheld.

The BMW app is fairly well reviled. On its face (well, from the AppStore – the Android market listing for the Android app is scanty with the information but heavy on the negative reviews) it does everything that the other European apps do and a bit more – you can request road side assistance from the app and receive confirmation/ETA, secure theft recovery support, contact BMW customer relations (presumably to complain), and get “service details” which may be the local oil change special, or an OnStar like transmission of codes directly from your car, through your handheld and to BMW service. The BMW app’s latest iOS release MAY have cured a number of the persistent complaints about it, but they seem to have a number of data connectivity issues – an inability to register even a brand new BMW, and accessing the records related to a vehicle.

Its GUI is lovely – however, it seems not to work very well, as 1 star reviews far outweigh the 5 stars. Funny thing, Allstate Roadside Assistance provides the app and the roadside service – just as it does for Audi of North America. Go figure. The Audi GUI (especially for iOS) is equally lovely, and very much Audi and works with Audi products MY 2007 and newer – the most coverage of any of these apps. The BMW GUI is pretty much what you’d expect from an iOS application.

The Volvo GUI is quirky/Scandanavian and very nice IF you have the iOS version. The Android version looks pretty plain. Be aware that the app only works with 2012 MY Volvo that have the telematics installed.

Mercedes has deployed their customary visuals for the Android application, but their iOS application is a horse of a different color entirely.

For iOS, the Mercedes mbrace application is stunning. Gorgeous GUI, and extraordinary functionality. One can call roadside assistance from the app (no data transmission here – you have to talk to a US based, highly trained MB rep), call the mbrace customer center, the M-B concierge, and the M-B Financial Client Care Center. Mind, these are CALLS that the app places for you – I can only presume that they also transmit your vehicle/customer data while making the call, but their write-up doesn’t make that clear in any manner.

Just as with the GM applications, you can locate your car on a Bing map screen, lock or unlock the car and send map and destination data from your phone to your vehicle’s nav system. Pretty slick.

Pretty slick, that is, if you have a nearly brand new Mercedes model. The mbrace service is not available for MB products with MY earlier than 2009, and will only function fully with MB products from MY 2012 forward.

Most of the negative comments to the MB app are related to the lack of reverse functionality for owners of older model MBs. They seem quite bitter, in fact. I wonder why…

How about some upstarts? Lexus has an “Enform” mobile application for both Android and iOS. The Lexus Enform application hints at road side assistance, but the app descriptions (provided by Lexus) have no information about that, other than the screen shot. The primary purpose of the Enform application is bifurcated – for those who pay for the Enform service, one can send destinations to one’s vehicle, search for good spots to eat and be merry, and .. that’s about it. For those poor suckers who didn’t pay – it’s a dealer locator, and gives access to instructional videos for each “current Lexus model”. So helpful for the pre-owned buyer who didn’t get an owner’s manual.

The consumer reviews for the “Enform” application are very sour. “Missed opportunity” is the common thread.

So, who’s the winner here? Hold on to your chairs, it’s GM.

C’mon, you might be thinking – you’re biased. I’ve read your (my) posts for years and I’ve got a magic pony fantasy for GM.

Yeah, yeah. Allow me to point out that FoMoCo has no apps at all, except for car brochures. Acura – zip. Nissan/Infiniti? Nada.

GM, though, through their existing OnStar telematics strength gives one extraordinary control over one’s vehicle even when one isn’t near it. Remote start, fuel level check, tire pressure check, battery charge status, lock/unlock, check unlock status, oil life, fuel range remaining, recent and average MPG, current mileage, direct call for roadside assistance, and navigation data to send to the car OR to OnStar for their turn by turn directions without using the map display. All of the warning lights are explained – by light as displayed – order by picture, just like McDonald’s. Awesome stuff.

Holy cow, Batman! Oh, there’s more? Searchable owner’s manual, OnStar account information, OnStar rep direct contact, or favorite dealer direct contact, parking locator/meter time remaining AND app service scheduling.

Yowzah! That’s “yowzah” IF you own a 2011 (some models) or 2012 (most models) GM car. If you don’t, you need to find one of the embittered mbrace customers, and have them buy you a drink. Or two.

Of all of these apps, the two most frequently downloaded are the GM apps, far and away. The Lexus Enform app is a distant second. Oh, wait – did I forget someone?

Yeah, I did. My earnest goal is that ChryCo get their shit together. Clearly, they’re trying.

ChryCo has a GORGEOUS iPad app for the 200 and for the 300 – except that they’re stuck in 2011. (don’t get me started on these iPad apps. I’d need more vodka). They have the best, hands down, iPad and iOS app for the Fiat 500. Show that app to a friend who’s thinking of a small car and they’ll be sold on the spot.

They have apps for the Dodge Charger, the 300, 200, Fiat 500 – that are lovely to look at, and provide basic information on vehicle operating systems – what the warning lights mean, basics for operating the touch screens, and the like. It’s a truncated owner’s manual that has a few (helpful) videos embedded into it.

Mopar? Mopey? Please. We know you’re “imported from Detroit” (which really means something given that the Lancia Thema is nothing more than a Chrysler 300 with a REALLY nice grille) but. C’mon. I know some peeps in the Motor City who can do some apps. You have the tech in the cars now (if you want to drool a bit, check out the dealer accessory Mopar EVTS and then the VERY naughty MyGig lockpick which MAY be able to turn my new 300 into a hunter/killer stealth sub), so USE it.

Chrysler should be well able to deploy the identical services as does GM/OnStar in a handheld app. AND, their new visual presentation is killer (Remember? Detroit? Imported from?) How about ADDING some functionality to this app you haven’t deployed yet? Pretty please?

I planned to give Alex Rodriguez some app love tonight, but it’s time for me to hit the hay. More on that later!

Chrysler has taken a different path in the revised 300 series.

The company that brought us in-car record players and in car cassette player/recorders has brought us FOUR choices in their 300 series. This past week, I test “drove” all four at Spring CJD, ably assisted by Russ DeLoit.

The base sound system is pretty standard – six speakers – dash, front doors, rear package shelf. The base model stereo has a comprehensive touch screen, SD slot, CD player and satellite radio. I didn’t have a chance to interact with the smaller touch screen, and you may find it challenging to come across a 300 that is equipped with it. In a quick review of local inventory, there are a bunch that reflect such equipment with a window sticker notation that a $1000 price credit has been applied, as the 8.4″ screen was unavailable due to parts shortages. According to Chrysler’s website (which frequently conflicts with their printed materials), the 8.4 touch screen WITHOUT Navigation is standard in the 2012 300 and Limited. Thus, once they get their supply chain issues worked out, it’s 8.4 actual inches in the 300, baby.

The base sound system is nothing fancy, but includes all of the convenience features you could wish for. Sound quality is acceptable, and probably more than adequate for the large majority of 300 customers. Sound quality is agreeable enough, especially if talk radio is your thing. The base sound system is only available in the base model 300 for 2012.

The Limited, 300C and the 300C SRT8 add Bluetooth phone and music streaming, and boast of a 276 watt amplifier for the six “premium” speakers. The 300C adds Navigation and a mini-jack for external devices. Sound reproduction quality is agreeable for most everyone that will consider this car. The 8.4″ touch screen is very easy to manipulate, and voice activation is standard. The voice activation is “trainable”, meaning that the more you use it, the more effective it should get.

If you are anything of an audiophile, this system will perform reasonably well IF you leave the volume low. The 300 is a very quiet car, and background noise that tends to compete with music reproduction is quite minimal. However, if you have a 300 with this or the base stereo system, NEVER loan your car to anyone under the age of 30. If you do, you’ll have nothing but speakers that buzz and whine the next morning – 276 watts is enough to ruin six speakers in a couple of hours of hard (audio) driving.

Now, we get into the wacky world of audio options for the 300.

For 2012, all versions get the 8.4″ touch screen.
Limited gets Bluetooth included.
300C and higher get voice activation and navigation included.
Limited and higher get the 276 watt “premium” six speaker system.

Check out the brochure, and it looks quite clear that the two “level up” systems are available on all of the models. This seems not to be true if you check out Chrysler’s own website (note to ChryCo – whoever did your website is stuck in 2003, and needs to be flogged. Repeatedly.), it’s quite clear that only one “level up” system available on the Limited, the 300C and the SRT8, that being the “19 premium speaker group”.

For 2011, there was a $650 “Sound Group I” option, which consisted of a 506 watt amplifier, and Harman Kardon 7.1 surround, must as you would find in a competitive Buick LaCrosse. This has been pitched out in favor of two ultra-premium systems – Beats by Dr. Dre, and the aforementioned “19 premium speaker group”. These two premium systems head down incompatible and divergent forks in the audiophile road and are both very different to the ear.

The Beats by Dr. Dre system is “tuned” by Dr. Dre, hip hop recording giant. The back end is produced by Panasonic, and features a chunky 8″ subwoofer in the trunk, and a system tuned for hip hop/rap music. This system comes standard in the 300S package (whether V6 or V8) and is sucking up most of the marketing muscle for the 300 this year.

In practice, if you listen to hip hop/rap, you’ll be thrilled. The system is very powerful, and throbs with low toned sound. However, just as with the guy going by in the old Buick on chromed 22s, you can hear the distortion from a block away. Mid tones and high tones are muddy, meaning that they’re not clear. You know that they’re there, but they are not distinct sounds for your ear to experience. Crank it up beyond 50% power, and the system is LOUD and the distortion begins to take over the mid/high tones.

By the Chrysler 300 brochure, the Beats system is available on ALL models of the 300. According to their own website and other reliable sources, it is only available in the 300S models. If you like to cruise, while listening to the latest hip hop tracks – this is your car. If you prefer something exquisite and rewarding, skip the S with your 300, and grab a Limited, 300C, Luxury Series or SRT8 with the “19 premium speaker group”.

Curiously, your Chryco store probably doesn’t know the difference between this system and the “19 premium speaker group”. After all, “Beats by Dr. Dre” is being flogged like a stepchild in the marketing, and is something you can wrap your mind around. “19 premium speakers” sounds like just that – more expensive speakers. As in, $1,995.00 more expensive. The truth of the matter is far more complex and worth your time if you’re an audiophile.

For 2012, Harman Kardon cooked up the first, factory installed, 32V audio system for automotive installations. So what? Well, the entire back end of this system (which is to say, everything that isn’t your interface with the gorgeous and massive touch screen) is running at 32V and 900 watts. With 32 volts, the 900 watts doesn’t have to push as hard as it does in the Dr. Dre system, and the results are amazing.

If you’d like to learn more about Harman/Kardon’s GreenEdge technology, check out their own description of it here. Notice the part where it says “90% efficiency from amplifiers, up to 55% improvement”.

From the Chrysler Corporation’s SRT8 product announcement, we get this:

The new system uses GreenEdge® speaker and amplifier technology to offer superior sound quality and high Sound Pressure Level outputs with minimum energy consumption. GreenEdge amplifiers alone outperform traditional amplifier efficiency by up to 55 percent, representing a net efficiency of more than 90 percent in some cases. The speakers are tuned for maximum efficiency and perfectly matched to the amplifier output.

The system’s 19 GreenEdge high-efficiency speakers include:
Seven 3.5-inch Unity Coaxial mid-range speakers with seven integrated tweeters located in the front dash, rear doors and rear deck
Two 6 x 9-inch subwoofers located in the front doors
Two 6 x 9-inch subwoofers in the rear deck
One 10-inch subwoofer in the rear deck

One of Chrysler’s window stickers tells you this:

18 premium speakers with subwoofer
900 watt amplifier

Most people would see that on the option list, or on a window sticker and question why they needed it – especially when there’s a Beats by Dr. Dre system in the next car in line that doesn’t (apparently) cost more.

Trust me, if you love music, if your car is your haven to listen to your favorite music, if you love to hear sound that is indistinguishable from being orchestra center, you have to spend the $1,995.00 on this system.

Whereas the Beats by Dr. Dre system has a very pronounced front presence, the GreenTech system emanates from all around you quite smoothly. There is no noticeable sound stage; it’s just everywhere at once. Turn it up, and everything gets louder and remains completely smooth. Separation is excellent. Tone quality is the equivalent of being there. Vocals are crisp and delicious, and you will hear every note, every grace note and every nuance of your favorite music. The sound is robust, there is enormous depth that is not boomy. You’ll find that you don’t want to leave the front seat.

You can roust a 300 Limited with all this sound out of them for $33,490 before incentives if you skip memory seating, adaptive cruise control and the patio door that they call a panoramic sunroof. A 300C can roll into your driveway for $39,490 with all of this aural beauty.

I’ve recently test listened the Bang & Olufsen system in the 2012 A7; it was a bit nicer than the GreenTech installation for the 300, but not $4700 worth of nicer. For the money, this is, hands down, the best car stereo money can reasonably buy you.

Take the Dante’s Inferno Hell Test

Perhaps I’ve been a bit too frank in speaking my thoughts? Wouldn’t be the first time; won’t be the last time.

Especially when a car is fully loaded, the colors found on the dealer lots are more likely as not to be black outside and black inside.

I have wondered this for months. Why so few colors on the ground? I have noticed that dealers are even reluctant to special order a car in a color that’s not black/black. Why?

Salesmen will tell you that it’s because the black/black combination is what customers want. I think that the truth is more on the egg side than on the chicken side of the question.

I was talking with John, my car whore buddy who has worked in the retail auto industry for years and he told me that black/black is ordered because it can ALWAYS be dealer-traded to get something else. This keeps the franchisee from having to keep a car color that might not sell right away, and that other dealers will be reluctant to trade for. It’s the least risky choice.

Surrounded by black/black, dark gray and black, dark blue and black, silver and black, with the occasional white and black – the consumers make a choice. Do they pay full retail and wait for a color, or do they just accept a car that is indistinguishable from pavement? You know, the roads on which we drive.

Black is like damp asphalt at night.
Silver is like concrete on a dreary day – so is silver/gold and its permutations
Many whites are more like dry concrete on a sunny day than white
Dark grays are like wet pavement, pavement on a cloudy day or icy pavement

Black interiors? Here in the Southwest, where the summer sun can warm your car to a temperature exceeding 180 in just an hour? Black is insane. In casual testing, a guy at an Audi store measured a black/black car at over 40 degrees HOTTER inside than a white/beige car.

Black interior is also just .. invisible. There’s nothing there.

So – your choices on the lot are pavement with black. Or, wait and pay more. Is it that the customers are REQUESTING this combination, or is it more accurate to say that they’re ACCEPTING this combination?

Travel to any other country in the world, and the cars on the roads will remind you of a fresh bag of jelly beans – black is only used on cars in professional service.

Why are we colorless? Why do we accept this?

Eight one episodes, fewer than fourteen days means I’ve been knocking these things down at a clip exceeding four a day. It was the video equivalent of “can’t put it down”.

As is said, all good things must come to an end, and last night I bade farewell to Michael Scofield, Lincoln Burroughs, Sara Tancredi, Fernando Sucre and the rest of the characters – the producers and writers wrapped the story up so beautifully that I was left sated. Satisfied with the conclusion, and only a bit sad that their characters wouldn’t continue to frolic about the Western Hemisphere in defiance of the predatory “Company”.

Wonderful show. Terrific acting. Thanks, everyone on that project for a memorable experience!

• We responded to 9/11 disproportionately
• We radically revised our civil liberties
• Those revisions have been used to pursue “the drug war” in 98% of cases, and only 1% to pursue terrorism
• We attacked two countries that were neither of them involved in the attacks, at a cost of $10Trillion +
• We created an enormous bureaucracy that didn’t previously exist which does not serve its stated purpose
• We created an enormous transfer of wealth from taxpayers to private business for “security” equipment
• We have increased our debt by almost $12 trillion
• At the same time, we have refused to pay for first responders’ health care, early death, or disabilities
• We have refused to address any international issues that would reduce the hostility toward the United States – instead we have greatly exacerbated those issues
• We have departed much farther from our nation’s “principles” in response to 9/11 rather than embraced our principles
• The celebration at the World Trade Center site excluded representatives of first responders