Broken Down Cars 2026

Whenever Beth and I take a road trip, we record the makes of the cars we see broken down beside the highway. We update after every trip and will continue to do so as we travel...As of the date in the title the totals were : Chevrolet/GMC -174 Ford- 105 Dodge/Jeep- 90 Honda/Acura-46 Toyota/Lexus-36 Nissan/Infiniti-33 Kia/Hyundai-25 VW-12 Subaru-10 Mazda- 10 BMW-6 Mitsubishi-5 Suzuki-3 Volvo-1 Also 10 unidentified vehicles of which we could not determine the manufacturer. This is by no means a scientifically accurate indication of the reliability of these brands, because we do not know the age and maintenance records of the broken cars and other important information. But generally speaking, foreign cars have a much better reliability record than domestic vehicles, and that pattern shows up in our informal observations.

A long time ago I heard people ask, "should the U.S.A. be the policeman of the world?", and along the way that question has defined wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and many others. Claims that we needed to save the world from communism, authoritarianism, socialism, hunger, or to preserve the flow of oil or some other commodity have been used to keep Americas 'military industrial complex' financed for decades. In this modern age the justification is fighting 'terrorism', and so the United States, or a few men anyway, declared war on Iran, and so it continues...Anyone who has read about Iran knows that it is run by brutal men who, in their lust for power, have suppressed women, free speech, and other human 'rights' that most Americans take for granted. Their ideology has been the spread of Islamic influenced ideas in opposition to notions of democracy-to the point that, according to ideology expert Hannah Arendt, "'orthodoxy' becomes a kind of logical certainty—a fixation on a pseudo-scientific conception of reality as an ultimate, unquestionable truth. It is at this point that ideology “ruins all relationship with reality.” So, like a fundamental Christian who is unable or unwilling to consider any possible description of reality other than the bible inspired depiction of God, Jesus or Creation, there is little argumentative reasoning with such a one minded person, religion,or government...Unfortunately, there is no changing human nature either, and no international fight against "terrorism" will succeed any longer than temporarily in any more than a few places. All of the policemen in all of our American cities and all of the rules of civilization in our constitution have not stopped crime. The people in power here and in Iran-or anyone who wants to challenge 'authority'- simply make up ther own rules if what they want to do is not sanctioned by normal rules of behavior....So I have no solutions for human nature, and simply killing everyone eventually becomes 'whack-a-mole' until some fundamental evolution of the human psyche is attained. I do not imagine anyone alive today will witness that. But I am not hopeless, and to behave well in your own life and resist those who would oppress you is honorable. It is too early to tell what the "excursion" in Iran will solve, or not solve, except perhaps to make the violence and destruction so complete that everyone grows tired of it, or is unable to wage it for awhile, and peace is achieved until next time.

Tucson, Sedona and Beyond

...When Beth and I left Pennsylvania on February 27th, we were suffering from colds/coughs and driving through snow and below freezing temperatures-conditions in Warren that had persisted almost continuously since Thanksgiving. We proceeded south to the Florida panhandle and through Texas and New Mexico to an Air B@B near Tucson for two weeks, then north to Sedona and another Air B@B where we are now. As our illness subsided we hiked various trails along the way, including in Bowie Fort monument, Chiricahua Monument, Saguaro National Park,Tonto National Monument and a half dozen or more obscure places we discovered on the map. The western deserts are filled with so many inspiring views and rock formations that one begins to expect them as normal entitlements that accompany every hike. The crowded trails here in Sedona are because of Redrock unique to the area (...such as the 'Bell Rock" in the picture) and supposed spiritual energy emanating from "vortexes" of energy near here. We cannot attest to the latter, although I do recall feeling something positive when I walked through here in 2007, and had even commented on it to a resident despite having known nothing about its history. The weather has been mostly sunny and 60 to 80 degrees since we crossed the Mississippi, so after exploring this area we will be travelling north to explore Utah depending on how the weather unfolds in March.

Marjorie Taylor Greene's finally awake look from the inside:

>> from her interview with Kim Iverson>> ..."Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said President Trump’s Make American Great Again slogan was a “lie,” saying his first year back in office was focused on obliging wealthy supporters. “I think people are realizing it was all a lie. It was a big lie for the people. What MAGA is really serving in this administration, who they’re serving, is their big donors,” Greene said in a Wednesday interview with radio personality Kim Iversen. “The big, big donors that donated all the money and continue to donate to the president’s PACs and donate to the 250th anniversary and are donating to the big ballroom,” she add "The former Georgia representative recently resigned from Congress, after airing concerns over the future of health care premiums and the war in Gaza, citing fractures within the GOP and falling out with Trump and MAGA, despite years of loyal support for the president. On Wednesday, she said the people who truly benefit from backing Trump are financial benefactors, telling Iversen: “Those are the people that get the special favors. They get the government contracts, they get the pardons, or somebody they love or one of their friends gets a pardon.” Since the start of the second Trump administration, the president has encouraged wealthy sponsors to provide private contributions for his political endeavors, including the construction of a White House ballroom and the celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding. Greene criticized the favoritism for Trump’s wealthy allies and also slammed the president for focusing on foreign policy rather than problems at home in her interview. “It’s the foreign countries. They are running the show here. It’s the major big corporations and what is best for the world. That’s really what MAGA is. We are seeing war on behalf of Israel, we are seeing the people in Gaza, innocent people in Gaza, hundreds of thousands of them completely murdered so that they can build some new real estate development. Money can pour in and everybody can get rich there in the new Gaza,” she told Iversen. “And we’re seeing a whole plan play out, which is really a new world order. It’s a new way of doing business. And that’s the — it’s kind of like the ‘Scooby-Doo’ meme where … they pull the mask off the bad guy,” Greene continued. The former lawmaker alleged that the MAGA movement “isn’t really about America or the American people.”