Bring it on!

I was ready to move on from (pass?) the topic of cars, but the New York Times website has a story this morning on new models of small cars that are selling well in Europe and Asia, but which we'll never see here in the United States. Arrggghhh! These cars are incredibly fuel efficient, and so freakin' cute! Check them out here.

I was thinking of writing a blog spot or two on George Bush's legacy (negligance-y?). He's in the Balkans (again), making speeches about bringing Ukraine into NATO (I thought the whole point of NATO was to keep countries like the Ukraine out of NATO), and pissing off Angela Merkel and Putin. He keeps returning to Eastern Europe (looking for that watch he lost, perhaps), apparently because it's one of the few places where he is popular. Bush may be polling in the single digits in Boston, but he's boffo in Bulgaria. Given how well he's handled things here and around the world - Katrina, Wall Street, the war in Iraq, the war in Afghanistan, health care, crumbling infrastructure, the economy, China, Social Security, etc. - it's good to have him offstage, where he can do the least damage (we need a Hippocratic Oath for presidents like Dubyah - "First, do no harm").

Or we could talk about the economy, and Wall Street. How do you feel about Bear Stearns, did you send their deposed CEO, James Cayne, a sympathy card?. Will we need to build an Ark to survive the rising tide of mortgage defaults, and should we worry that so many people took out loans that they had no chance of ever paying back? As we head into a recession should we be cheered by the job opportunities for Repo men? Does it matter that, for the first time in my lifetime, the Canadian dollar is now worth a dollar? How about that deficit? Are the Gen-Xers ready to step up (no more slacking) and pay my generation's bills? Or should we declare bankruptcy and hope that China will write off all our debts?

I'm also tempted to talk about education, given that it's what I do. The dollar and our educational proficiency seem to be tracking each other, is that a good thing? Is it a problem that the US is so far behind Finland (they're number yksi!) and 30 other countries in math, science and literacy tests? Are standardized tests accurate predictors of our future societal and economic health? Is education all about the contest, and the prize (what is the prize)?

Or, we could go back to discussing religion. By which I mean the Red Sox (the one true faith). Baseball season has begun, no more of that knuckle-dragger sports-page-filling football folderol. Is Manny the Mozart of hitting (if you've watched Manny in the dugout, and you've seen Amadeus, you'll understand that the comparison is not meant as praise)? Can the Yankees' creaky, ancient pitching staff hold up for a season? Is there anything more satisfying than a night of baseball in which the Red Sox win, and the Yankees lose?

And there's technology. Wonderful, incomprehensible, banal technology. Is the iTouch a boon to mankind, or just another ADHD-inducing distraction? Speaking of religion, which is it - Mac or Wintel? Is Steve Jobs a visionary, or just amazingly arrogant? Do you youtube? Is the democratization of media the best or the worst trend to come down the pike? Should we celebrate the fact that today anyone can create a film of their cat flushing the toilet and share it with the world, or should we fall to our knees and pray that Rod Serling will come back from the dead?

What do you think about these things? What shall we talk about next?