In my sleepy hometown of Winona, Minnesota (population 26,000) we live a good life.  We don’t have much traffic congestion and there isn’t much crime.  We are surrounded by incredible natural beauty, nestled between the Mississippi River and tree-lined bluffs.  Folks who visit here from big cities think we’ve got it made.  We probably do.

Across the street from my home on Main Street is the gymnasium at Winona State University.  On weekends I sometimes walk across the street to watch a men’s basketball game.  I’m not a consistent fan; I attend when it is convenient.  Winona State University participates in NCAA division II basketball, one step below the “big time” programs.  We don’t play Duke, North Carolina, or Gonzaga; we play teams like Northern State University in Aberdeen, SD and Minnesota State University in Mankato.  Nevertheless, the competition is decent and on a cold, winter evening a WSU basketball game is about the best entertainment value you can buy for five bucks.

This year I went to five regular season home games and WSU won four of them.  As a result, I figured they we had a pretty good team.  I’m not a basketball expert, but WSU seemed to have a good defense, could score consistently on offense, and had the grit to come back in the last few minutes to win from behind.  WSU won the conference championship and I figured they had as good of a chance as anyone to win the regional championship, which was held at Winona State University.  Teams came in from Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota.  Because of their ability to come from behind, even in overtime, Winona State won the tournament and a trip to the “elite eight” in Springfield, MA.

Prior to the first game with Barton (NC), there wasn’t a lot of excitement in Winona.  However, after beating Barton 86-78, it started to dawn on me that a WSU win over Stonehill (MA) would put us in the championship final game.  I joined hundreds of local fans at a local hotel to watch the pay-for-view broadcast of Thursday’s game with Stonehill, which Winona won 83-73.  On Friday, March 25, 2006 I said to my economics students, “It looks like we might have ourselves a basketball team!”

Now, as I write this blog, I am in a state of semi-shock, as WSU has just become NCAA-II national champions with a convincing 73-61 win over defending champion Virginia Union!  WSU has a bunch of good players and a couple of outstanding players, but they don’t have a superstar.  I know some of these young men because I teach at Winona State University.  They’re good students for the most part, and really decent young men.  They play basketball not for fortune or fame, but because they love the game.  WSU hasn’t been playing Division II basketball very long and this is the first time we’ve reached the Elite 8, so I’m sure we will have a big celebration when these guys return to campus.

Congratulations to Coach Mike Leaf and the WSU basketball team.  Are they that good?

ABSOLUTELY!

On June 14, 2005 Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, while criticizing the treatment of prisoners at the US facility in Guantanamo, compared our Americans serving there to “Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime – Pol Pot or others – that had no concern for human beings.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan called Durbin’s remarks a “real disservice to our men and women in uniform who adhere to high standards and uphold our values and our laws.”  Senator John McCain, a prisoner of the Vietnam War, said “I think that Senator Durbin owes the Senate an apology — I don’t know if censure would be in order — but an apology, because it does a great disservice to men and women who suffered in the gulag and in Pol Pot’s ‘killing fields.”

By Wednesday, June 22, just eight days after his poorly chosen remarks, Durbin offered a tearful apology on the Senate floor as he sought to quell a torrent of criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Those idiotic remarks in 2005 were my first exposure to Durbin.  Since then I’ve kept my eyes on him.  I wasn’t impressed with Durbin, but his recent actions as a vocal opponent of Dubai Ports World, while ignoring the prosperity of his constituents and thousands of American workers, has so infuriated me that I’ve been motivated to establish my annual “Political Idiot of the Year Award”, with Durbin as it’s first recipient.

My reasons for supporting Dubai Ports World were carefully outlined in my February 26, 2006 blog titled “Dubai Company Should Run US Ports.”  That article appears at:   http://www.donsalyards.com/Archive%20File/Feb%2026%2006.htm

Durbin, like the other Arab Phobes in Washington, gave faulty and emotional arguments that eventually led Dubai Ports World to announce this week that they have forgone their investment to manage six US ports.  Durbin and his cronies celebrated.  So what makes Durbin more of an idiot that the rest of these Washington politicians?

Unlike other politicians in Washington, Durbin’s constituency in Illinois consists of the world headquarters of this country’s largest Aircraft Manufacturer, Boeing.  When Boeing manufactures an aircraft thousands of jobs are created in the United States.  These jobs are not only created in Boeing’s main assembly sites in Long Beach, California, St. Louis, Missouri, and the cities of Renton and Everett Washington, they are created in thousands of small firms that supply parts for Boeing aircraft.  Furthermore, these are good paying jobs that inject billions of dollars of expenditures and payroll into the US economy.  Boeing directly employs around 160,000 people.  At least four times that number of  US workers owe their livelihood to Boeing by supplying the parts the company requires.

So, you might ask, where are you going with this, Salyards?  Why is Durbin an Idiot?  The answer is simple.  The US Senator who is supposed to represent the interests of Boeing and its thousands of US workers has acted like a “cartoon protester” leading other politicians to sling insults at the citizens of Dubai and it’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.  The Sheikh is now wondering why the United States, a country that he has long admired and supported in the war on terrorism, has insulted him.

Unlike most heads of state, who act solely in a political capacity, Al Maktoum actually owns Dubai’s Emirates Airlines, which recently awarded Boeing a $9.7 billion order to buy 42 Boeing 777 Dreamliners.  In addition, Emirates had already booked with Boeing an additional $27 billion worth of aircraft orders in the past few years, choosing Boeing over Europe’s Airbus Industries, Boeing’s only competitor.

Those orders from Emirates, the Arab world’s largest airline, would have kept Boeing workers and employees in parts supply houses all over the Unites States working overtime.

Over the last two weeks Dick Durbin, the honorable Senator from Illinois, had to make a decision.  On the one hand, political grandstanding against Dubai Ports World would make him look like a national security hero, while at the same time discrediting his political enemy, President Bush.  On the other hand, that same grandstanding would likely cost the US economy thousands of jobs due to cancellation of contracts by Emirates Airlines.

Political Grandstanding vs. Thousands of U.S. Jobs?  No problem for Dick Durbin, my Political Idiot of the Year!

Last week the body of Tom Fox was recovered in a Baghdad trash heap.  After holding him prisoner for more than three months, his captors bound his wrists, tortured him, and shot him in the head several times.

Tom Fox was a peacemaker sent to Iraq by Christian Peacemaker Teams, founded in 1986 by members of the Mennonite church and other Christian anti-war activists.  The homepage of Christian Peacemaker Teams includes a link to “Adopt a Detainee in Iraq”, along with an “Iraq Body Count” link.  You can learn more about the organization on their website at:  http://www.cpt.org/index.html

By all accounts Tom Fox was a truly righteous and gentle man.  The day before he was abducted he wrote, “As I survey the landscape here in Iraq, dehumanization seems to be the operative means of relating to each other. U.S. forces in their quest to hunt down and kill “terrorists” are, as a result of this dehumanizing word, not only killing “terrorists,” but also killing innocent Iraqis: men, women and children in the various towns and villages.”

Fox went on, writing:  “It seems as if the first step down the road to violence is taken when I dehumanize a person. That violence might stay within my thoughts or find its way into the outer world and become expressed verbally, psychologically, structurally or physically. As soon as I rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them, I begin the process that can have, as an end result, torture, injury and death.”

In my hometown of Winona, Minnesota there is a group of people who periodically stand on Broadway Street and hold up signs against the War in Iraq.  Tom Fox would fit in well with that crowd.  He reminds me of a lot of well-meaning people who protest against all war, determined to convince others that the United States is the enemy, rather than the ally of peace.  Radical Muslims, wherever they roam, would find Tom Fox an enthusiastic friend.  He would not call them “terrorists”, but refer to them as people who have suffered injustice.  If anyone on this earth loved Iraqi’s more than Tom Fox, it would surprise me.  Tom Fox was the last person who would “rob a fellow human being of his or her humanity by sticking a dehumanizing label on them.”

I think that the anti-war protestors here in Winona believe that if we just reasoned with those who have been treated unjustly (terrorists), they would understand us and dialogue with us toward creating a peaceful world.  I have always suspected that if our local anti-war protestors actually met these Islamic terrorists face to face the terrorists wouldn’t waste five minutes before they would cut their heads off.

Tom Fox was true to his word and put his life at risk.  I doubt he ever dehumanized anyone, especially his captors.  Tom had four months to convince them of his love for them, which was undoubtedly genuine.  They rewarded him by torturing him and shooting him in the head.  Knowing Tom he was probably praying for them when the bullets penetrated his brain.

Consumer Reports, published by the nonprofit Consumers Union, covers the automotive market each year in its April issue.  The next issue goes on sale March 7, 2006 and the news isn’t good for Detroit.  The technicians and engineers of Consumer Reports have given a clean sweep to Japanese automobile companies this year, virtually shutting out Ford and General Motors.  The magazine also revealed a survey of its subscribers and of Internet readers showing that the top-three most reliable brands were considered to be Lexus, Honda and Toyota.

Some of the 2006 results are shown below:

Winner Category
Honda Civic                             Best Small Sedan
Honda Odyssey                        Best Minivan
Honda Accord                          Best Family Sedan
Toyota Highlander Hybrid        Best Mid Sized SUV
Subaru Forester                        Best Small SUV
Subaru Impreza WRX STi           Most Fun To Drive Sports Car
Nissan Infiniti M35                   Top Luxury Sedan

Last year Ford’s Focus was named the top small sedan, but the honor was jerked when the Focus performed poorly in crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.

When I was growing up in the 50’s there weren’t many foreign cars in the United States, save for a few Volkswagens and Renaults.  GM, Ford, Chrysler, and American Motors were the “big four”.  While I love to go to car shows and look at the old 50’s models, none of them stack up to the quality of today’s cars.  My 1929 Model A Ford owner’s manual recommends an engine rebuild every 500 miles!  In the fifties if you got 100,000 miles on a car it was considered an excellent vehicle that had seen its last days.  Today you would call a car a “lemon” if it quit running at 100,000 miles.  I routinely drive my cars over 200,000 miles without problems.  The old cars rattled a lot and rusted easily.  Today’s cars are tighter and far more rust resistant.  Modern automobiles also have many features that were unheard of years ago like heated seats, navigation systems and cruise control.

The history of foreign domination of the US auto market is well documented.  In the 1970’s the Japanese were just starting to crack the US market but their cars were junk.  Nissan pickups (then called Datsun) started showing rust a year after you drove them off the lot.  The 70’s Toyota cars were laughable rattletraps.  In spite of that we bought Japanese cars because they were inexpensive.  Only the Germans were making quality cars in the 70’s.  They got top dollar for their BMW and Mercedes automobiles, which were superior in quality and reliability.

Then, much to the chagrin of the Germans, by the 80’s Japanese automobiles matched and finally exceeded the quality of cars made in the fatherland.  The Japanese also learned to drive down manufacturing costs while increasing their impeccable quality.  It wasn’t long before the Japanese started to dominate the hearts and minds of American consumers, along with US market share.  I’m not complaining about the Japanese domination of the US auto market, for I’ve bought plenty of Japanese cars.  In my opinion consumers should purchase the best products possible.  The Japanese haven’t imposed their leadership position on American consumers.  The American public has voluntarily bestowed that leadership to the Japanese companies.  A basic tenant of capitalism is called “creative destruction”.  Competent firms and products deserve to survive and incompetent firms deserve to die.
My wife and I enjoyed Mercedes cars in the 70’s until we nearly killed ourselves driving their rear wheel drive configurations on snowy Minnesota highways.  We have purchased many full sized and small Ford pickups over the years.  They were good trucks, although the Nissan and Toyota trucks we owned were fabulous as well.  For the last twenty years we have driven Acura (made by Honda) automobiles.

My wife and I quarrel a bit over this choice.  I have tried, without success, to convince her that an Acura is nothing but a Honda Accord with a fancy name and a high price.  She won’t give up her Acura, but what the heck, the darned things last forever and we aren’t frequent car traders.

My wife and I have bought many foreign nameplates over the years, rewarding their makers with our hard earned dollars.  I don’t apologize for this.  I buy a car based on its quality and value, not based upon whether it’s parent company is American owned.

A confession is in order, however.  I’m going to admit that I would really like to see an American company succeed in the auto market.  When I see Bill Ford on television commercials, I’m thinking, “Darned it, Bill, why don’t you quit trying to catch up with the Japanese and really come up with something revolutionary?  Instead of trying to keep up with them, why don’t you “leapfrog” over them?  Come on, Bill, let’s see you build a vehicle that is so extraordinary that the Japanese just look at it with their mouths wide open?  Come on, Bill, make your great granddaddy proud!”  Come on, Bill!