The 2000 Model Year ML Sport Package: Body color bumpers and trim. Integrated bumper mounted front fog lights. Rear bumper blends with lower hatch trim. Tail lamp grilles. Sculpted rocker panel trim. 6-spoke EVO II design alloy wheels, 275/55HR-17 all-terrain tires. Single Chrome exhaust tip. Additionally, if you want Xenon headlights you must have the Sport Package.
This is the fire-breathing ML55. Highlights include: Over 340 horsepower and 380 lb. ft. torque. The 0-60 time is under 7 seconds.
First you should know about the COMAND system. COckpit MANagement and Data System (Factory installed).
It includes:
-Color 5" Liquid Crystal Display with automatic day and night modes
-Integrated navigation system (GPS)
-AM/FM Weatherband Radio
-Cassette Player (S-Class)/Single CD music (E-Class, CLK models)
-Steering wheel controls for all functions (radio/navigation system/CD/telephone)
-Telephone keypad (for ten radio presets/optional digital StarTAC dialing)
-Separate COMAND mode display in instrument panel.
Optional Features:
-Motorola Digital StarTAC portable phone
-6-disc CD changer (trunk mounted)
NEW PHONES:
As faithful readers of this rag know, the reason we haven't put in digital phones before is the fact that there are multiple digital systems around the country, and there are still areas not serviced by any digital system. If we put in a CDMA phone, you'd have to buy service from GTE. If we put in a TDMA phone, you'd have to buy service from Houston Cellular. If we put in another system, you'd have to buy service from Sprint, another Aerial, etc. THEY DON'T INTERCHANGE.
So the solution is to put in either a CDMA phone or a TDMA phone. This creates no problem when you order your car. You specify one. If you're picking a car from stock, it could have a Houston Cellular phone when you want GTE. What we'll be able to do about this I don't know yet, but you'll see it here first.
Those of you familiar with the StarTAC know it's very small, very neat, and very sexy. If using one at a trendy restaurant doesn't get you a supermodel on your arm, well, you're just a nerd. Just kidding. It is THE most desirable phone out there.
To answer the inevitable question, it can be retrofitted in 1999 C-Class, SLK, CLK, E-Class, and SL-Class cars. They use the fiber-optic radio system. It can't be retrofitted in '99 M-Class or S-Class, or in any previous year models.
It is available with voice activation as well.
New Standard Equipment
Standard TeleAid (standard on all models except SLK and ML-Class.)
Standard ESP on all models except SLK.
The Mercedes-Benz Maintenance Program provides required maintenance for the entire warranty period free of charge.
Now let's do the models class by class:
C-Class:
-C230 Kompressor, C280, C43 AMG. Planned Release October 1999
Modifications vs. MY 1999
Exterior:
Desert Silver (693) replaces Smoke Silver (702)
Interior:
Gear Indicator added to the instrument cluster
Equipment:
Standard Telescoping Steering Column
Touch Shift added to the Automatic Transmission
New/Revised Options
Multicontour Seats are now Special Order only. Left and right must be ordered together.
Xenon Headlamp System is now Special Order only.
(Special Order charge is $1,000 plus the cost of the options. Only one Special Order charge per vehicle, so you could have a special order color, special order leather, Multicontour Seats, and Xenon headlamps for $1,000 plus the cost of the options.)
E-Class
E320 Sedan, E430 Sedan, E320 Station Wagon. Planned Release October 1999
Modifications vs MY1999
300DT (turbodiesel) not offered for MY2000 (If you're thinking of getting one of those, do it now while there are still '99s in stock. We've acquired several extras knowing that dieseloholics will be clamoring for them soon.)
4MATIC now available for E430 in addition to the E320 Sedan and Wagon.
Head Protection Curtain standard on all models including E320 Wagon.
Exterior Facelift
Supplemental turn signals on exterior rearview mirrors
Integrated front/rear bumpers
Lower front end (approx 0.8")
Body color door handles
New sedan wheel design
New front grille design
New integrated fog lamps
Redesigned side protective rails
Side skirts now in matching body color
Redesigned roof rail
Desert Silver paint (693) replaces Smoke Silver (702)
Interior Facelift
New instrument cluster with display
Extendible sun visor
Improved quality carpeting and interior materials.
Space covering between front seats and center console
Interior soft illumination for door openers, front and rear legroom areas
Redesigned door trim with softer armrest, new handhold, insulated door pockets
Equipment
Head protection curtain now standard for E320 Wagon
Side air bags, front and rear (one for each side)
Multifunction Steering Wheel with chrome star
New "Touch Shift" feature for automatic transmission
COMAND available as an option (COMAND replaces standard cassette with navigation or CD music capability and provides a connection for a portable audio player in the glove box)
OTHER
Designo Editions available for MY 2000 (except 4MATIC)
CLK Class
CLK 320 Coupe CLK 430 Coupe CLK 320 Cabriolet Planned Release October 1999
New Model:
CLK 430 Cabriolet Planned Release October 1999
Modifications vs. MY 1999
Exterior
All CLK models
Supplemental turn signals on exterior rearview mirrors (replaces front fender mounted signals)
CLK 320 Coupe and Cabriolet models
Newly designed front and rear aprons in body color
Sculpted rocker panels in body color
Side protective rails in body color
New 7-spoke 16" wheel design
CLK 430 Coupe and Cabriolet Models
Aerodynamic enhancements and AMG 5-spoke 17" wheels standard on V-8 models
Door handles in body color (without chrome)
Window trim in Black Hematite
Windows with blue tint
Interior
All CLK models
New instrument cluster with display
Storage box in center console now illuminated
CLK 430 Coupe and Cabriolet Models
Gauges in light grey
Dark Sapeli wood trim replaces Burl Walnut
Special Order Option: two toned leather available
Equipment:
Multifunction steering wheel
New "Touch Shift" feature for automatic transmission
Key fob remote trunk release button for all models (new for Cabriolets)
COMAND available as an option (COMAND replaces standard cassette with navigation or CD music capability and provides a connection for a portable audio player in the glove box)
SLK 230 Kompressor Planned Release October 1999
Designo Editions available for MY2000
SL
SL500, SL600. Planned Release October 1999
Modifications vs. MY 1999
Exterior
Desert Silver paint (693) replaces Smoke Silver (702)
SL600: Star and Laurel center wheel caps (i.e. SLK)
Equipment:
Digital StarTAC telephone with voice recognition is standard for the SL600 and is a retailer installed option for the SL500
OTHER
Designo Editions available for MY2000
M Class previously covered
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety did one of their quarterly publicity stunts and crash tested several SUVs at 5 mph.
The ML320 sustained the least amount of damage in 4 silly crash tests:
Front into Flat Barrier $346
Rear into Flat Barrier $121
Front into Angle Barrier $951
Rear into Pole $1,500 (Would it have been as much if they had hit a Czech instead of an unfortunate man from Poland?)
Total Damage 4 tests $2,918
OTHER SUVS
Lexus RX 300-$3,293
Jeep Grand Cherokee, 1999 model-$5,107
1996 model-$6,405
Land Rover Discovery, 1999 model-$5,226
1996 model-$7,209
Dodge Durango-$5,655
2nd test after bumper change-$5,153
Two pole tests of Dodge Durango:
When the rear of this utility vehicle hit the pole at 5 mph, the minor impact activated the door latch and the tailgate opened. The automaker made changes in the rear bumper system and asked for another pole test. The result was that, the second time, the latch didn't open and the vehicle sustained about $500 less damage in the impact. However, there still was more than $1,000 damage in the pole test alone.
Mitsubishi Montero Sport-$6,282
The IIHS tests vehicles at 5 mph. Federal standards for cars are a reasonable 2.5 mph. SUVs aren't required to meet a standard. The IIHS doesn't like that.
In the real world, for people who DON'T go around crashing into Poles or Lithuanians or bad Czechs at 5 mph, carrying around another 200 lb.. out on the ends of the car where the pendulum effect makes it very dangerous for cornering, braking, etc., is pretty dumb and will cost hundreds or thousands of dollars over the life of the car to pay for the extra fuel the heavy vehicle will consume.
To IIHS, Get a life. To all of you, get an ML320.
Additionally the MLs have bumpers which are friendly to automobiles. They won't override like the lesser SUVs and truckies will.
After reading your newsletters I ordered your book DRIVE TO SURVIVE and just finished reading it. This should be required reading in every driver's ed class for everyone including beginners and senior citizens.
I would like to get your thoughts on the new ESP and brake assist systems in the new Mercedes cars. I recently ordered an ML430 to replace my ML320 and would be interested in information as to how these systems help or hinder in emergency situations. This may be something you could put in your future newsletters.
You are making a very important contribution and I really appreciate it.
Thanks.
Roger and Carol Whitcomb
Woodbury MN
Look, Roger and Carol, thanks for the kind words on DRIVE TO SURVIVE, but you're missing the point on the newsletter. If you like the newsletter you're supposed to buy your Mercedes HERE, FROM ME. Do you think I do this newsletter just for the fun of it? I don't care that you're in Minnesota and have perfectly good dealers there. I need the business, ok? Walk down here, if necessary, and buy from me. Got it?
Now, ESP, first, has no negatives. If the car tries to get "sideways" or "plows" in a corner, the ESP will brake the appropriate wheel to help the car do what you're trying to do. It has a steering wheel position sensor and a yaw sensor and a computer. It uses the ABS sensors kind of in reverse. If the tail slides out, it brakes an inside FRONT wheel to straighten the car out. If the car is understeering, not responding to steeering input, it brakes an inside REAR wheel to help the car turn.
When I tested it on a rain-soaked test track, we couldn't fool it. Go to your local dealer (yeah, bug HIM) and ask to see the new video on Mercedes-Benz Driving Dynamics systems in a comparison test to several lesser luxury cars. Some of their systems simply don't work in the real world.
Brake Assist® is neat. Here's what happens in a real world emergency, Ms. Soccer Mom looks up to see all hell breaking loose in front of her, spinning cars, pieces of cars, flying nuns and debris. She quickly hits the brake pedal. Then she fiddles with the pressure. Her driver's ed instructor, that great driver Coach Jockstrap, told her 20 years ago not to lock up the brakes. So she tries to modulate the brakes.
Now the car is moving along while she's doing this. If she's going 60 mph when she starts this, for a second or so she's moved 88 ft. minus a few feet lost to mild braking. If the problem is 67 feet in front of her, she hits it at nearly 60 mph. If it's 150 ft. in front of her, she hits it at 45 or so mph.
With Brake Assist®, if she hits the brakes QUICKLY the system says, "I say, old chap, that meets the criteria programmed into us for a OMIGOD I'M GONNA DIE EMERGENCY stop. It's time to STAND ON THE BLEEPING BRAKES WITH BOTH FEETS!!!" (or the German equivalent, sans the sense of humor, of course).
So it does, letting the ABS computer modulate the system right on the verge of lockup. The MB system in this mode is so good racing drivers can't beat it. Lesser ABS systems can be beaten by really good threshold brake experts.
But here's the results with this system:
Average drivers, no BAS, 62-0 mph-239 ft.
Professional drivers, no BAS, 62-0 mph-147 ft.
Average drivers, BAS-130 ft.
Yes, you're cutting your stopping distance in half.
Downside?
I can't think of any. If, in a REAL, HONEST-TO-GOD EMERGENCY you wind up being rear-ended by the dolt in the Suburban behind you instead of you hitting the dolt in the upside down, spinning, rolling garbage truck in front of you, you're better off.
But that can be avoided with just a little driver awareness, say 3 on a scale of 1-10.
How, you say?
The problem is in front of you, and you jab the brake pedal. BAS takes over, throwing you into the seatbelts and decelerating the car at .90 gs. You slow QUICKLY.
The Dolt in the Suburban behind you awakes from his traffic-induced stupor and realizes he has an ML430 growing in his field of vision at an alarming rate, and all three brake lights are BRIGHT, FLAMING RED.
He jabs the brake pedal, fiddles with it for a second, and is close to eating the back of your car with his ugly, poorly built front bumper.
You see that the problem in front of you is now not going to be a problem. You have plenty of room to stop because BAS has saved you 100+ feet of stopping distance. So you let off the brake pedal for a split second, disengaging BAS, and returning control of the vehicle to you. You now let up on the brakes to lengthen your stopping distance to just behind the problem.
One of two things will happen:
A. The dolt in the Suburban now has room to stop, and he doesn't hit you.
B. The dolt in the Suburban does not have room to stop, and he hits you. HE WOULD HAVE ANYWAY, and, without BAS, you would have hit the problem.
In Texas, at least, he will now be fully at fault.
Most of the time, when you activate BAS, you will, a short time later, be sitting in a stopped car saying, "Wow! I'm good. Look at how I avoided that (pick which is appropriate:
a). Nun pushing the baby carriage.
b) upside down Geo Tracker.
c) rapidly moving bambi creature.
d) Revenue collector with the dangerous microwave device.
Speaking of encounters with revenue collectors using cancer causing microwave polluting devices, do remember to take your foot off the brakes sometime after you're below the legal speed limit. Stopping dead on a freeway is probably not a good idea.
COP TRAGEDIES
Another Houston policeman was shot to death recently, and the tragedy which covered the headlines was the horrible 18 minute response time of the paramedics due to the Fire Department having a dispatcher who was hearing impaired. He had, in writing, told the Fire Chief a year ago he couldn't do that job but had been kept there as retaliation for running for a union office against the chief's wife.
But the media ignored the real cause of the tragedy.
The officer was shot in the torso. An officer who is wearing his bullet resistant vest doesn't normally become a headline and a tragedy in such situations. He returns fire, and the would-be cop killer doesn't get to spend millions and millions of our money while on death row.
And the officer's family isn't left without him.
If you study the police officers who have died in the line of duty and eliminate those killed in car wrecks, etc. and concentrate on those shot, the big majority have been shot in the torso. There has been an increase in officers shot in the head after NBC blew the whistle on the fact that officers were wearing bullet resistant vests some years ago. NBC was trying to get banned so called "Cop Killer" bullets, armor-piercing bullets only available to legitimate police agencies (but the real agenda was to get some bullets banned now, more later, all eventually). No policeman was EVER shot with such a bullet, but the campaign to ban such bullets brought out the fact that officers were wearing vests. Thus criminals started using head shots.
Duh. What did they expect?
So once more the media and anti-gun congressmen have blood on their hands.
But officers shot in the torso continue to die, not because of vest failures, but because they're not wearing them.
To my knowledge, only one local officer died because of a vest failure. A Pasadena SWAT officer died when a round missed his vest. A proper assault vest would have saved his life, but the SWAT team had spent their limited budget on new weapons rather than new, better vests.
Officers still patrol without wearing their vests. Why? They're uncomfortable and hot in Houston in the summer. Vests must conform to federal standards, and the bureaucrats who made up the standards didn't think of wearability. They require that the vest work when soaking wet and under other circumstances which, to pass, makes for thick, stiff, uncomfortable vests.
Then police departments buy from the lowest bidder.
Naturally the coolest, most comfortable vests come at a premium. I have a good level IIA vest equivalent to what most officers wear. It's uncomfortable and stiff, but I wear it at some public ranges, at Thunder Ranch, and I keep it next to the bed in case I have to get up in the middle of the night to repel boarders. If I were a street cop in Houston I would have trouble with it in the summer.
On the other hand, the latest, coolest, most comfortable Second Chance vest in a "Deep Cover" carrier is much more wearable. But it costs twice as much. Thus it isn't used. Cops are underpaid, and such a vest must come out of their own pockets.
Thus officers faced with the choice of wearing a hot, heavy vest or none often choose the latter and die because of it, leaving their wives and children to wonder why. This is not a legacy I would want to leave.
Most officers shot aren't wearing their vests. Most motorists who die in traffic accidents aren't wearing their seat belts. There's a comparison there. The technology is there to save lives. But it isn't being used.
Do you want your spouse or children looking down at your grave saying, "Daddy, why didn't you wear your seatbelt?"
ML FUEL ECONOMY
I drove a 1998 ML320 for 20037 miles, using 1230.388 gallons of premium name brand fuels. That's 16.285 m.p.g..
So far I've driven the ML430 5681 miles, using 372.80 gallons for 15.238 m.p.g..
Your mileage may vary.
I do NOT drive for fuel economy. Gas is cheap. Life is short. Cliches are many. So you'll probably get better mileage. Whenever The Redhead drove either truck for a tank she got better mileage, and shooting buddy (2 trips to Thunder Ranch) and ace professional webmaster (Forbes 2000, Frontgate, others) Peter Dayton got better. But it probably says the difference between an ML320 and an ML430 is probably 1 m.p.g. overall.
I did note that the ML430, at its governed 118 drops to 12.4 m.p.g. indicated by the trip computer. The trip computer fuel mileage, by the way, does not always correlate with the results of dividing tank distance by gallons used.
One client learned the other extreme. He blew a tire while in Big Bend. He called Alpine and Ft. Stockton for a tire, and they didn't have any. A dealer at Ft. Stockton had been sent a set, and they sent them back the day before! (We'll never use these!). So he drove from Big Bend to San Antonio at 50 mph. That IS what the spare says on the side is its top speed (which I ignored when on mine. I don't recommend this, but I just forgot. But do remember to corner slowly and carefully). The MB dealer there had a tire for him, but they couldn't get anyone at any of the tire stores to stay open till 10 P.M. till he could get there at 50 mph. So he drove to Houston at 50, fit to be tied.
The good news? 30.9 m.p.g..
LIARS
Our competitors at the other Mercedes-Benz dealer in town continue to lie about us. Clients come in all the time repeating their lies. It gets frustrating.
For the record, as most of you already know:
Their lie: we don't have a loaner car program. The truth: We DO have a loaner car program. It is, as far as I know, superior to theirs.
Their lie: We are going out of business. The truth: We are EXPANDING. Why would we be building a multimillion dollar exclusive Mercedes-Benz facility if we were going out of business? (When that is done the current facility will be remodeled and become the Volvo facility.)
Their lie: Their client satisfaction is better than ours. The truth: Our client satisfaction, as rated by our clients on Mercedes' questionnaires, is superior to theirs and has been for some time. It is a near perfect 97.7% on an average between service and sales.
We're family owned since 1970, the same family. We are not part of a chain, a conglomerate, or a mega-dealership. These are the only cars we sell.
The lie is we're not an authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer. The truth is we're the oldest authorized Mercedes-Benz dealer in town.
Their lie is their service prices are lower than ours. The truth is our labor rate is $69.80. They have 18 different labor rates above that up to $99/hour.
Their lie is their parts prices are lower than ours. The truth is our parts prices are Mercedes-Benz recommended retail prices. Theirs are "matrix" priced, where some parts are 200% of list, some 125%, some 150%, etc. A few are priced below list for the same reason Safeway sometimes prices Cokes really cheap-to get you in.
MEDIA LIARS
Please excuse the redundancy above. I was watching TV news, always a bad idea, and the $50 haircut on the $5 head said Montana was instituting a speed limit because of an increase in fatalities under the "Reasonable and Prudent" regulations.
EL WRONGO! Montana instituted a speed limit, a dawdling 75 mph, because the revenue collectors were ticketing people capriciously, and a judge said they couldn't give people tickets for speeding when there was no speed limit. So they put in one low enough to make everyone on the rural freeways criminals so they could ticket them at whim.
SPEED LIMIT INCREASE-NOT
During the debate over the possible increase in rural freeway speed limits in Texas, which are set at a ridiculous 70 mph, or the 45th percentile in some areas, an article in the Houston Comical quoted opponents to the speed limit increase at saying, "If they raise the speed limit to 80, those people will be doing 90!"
No, no, no. I won't slow down just because they increase the speed limit.
Opponents of reasonable speed limits based on the 85th percentile don't get it. People will drive at what they consider a reasonable speed regardless of speed limits. The logical thing to do in rural areas is to set them at the speed at which 85% of the population are going, making only 15% criminals instead of EVERYBODY as is done now. The REALLY logical thing would be to eliminate speed limits on such roads and concentrate on DWS. Driving While Stupid. DWS is the cause of virtually all traffic accidents. But the rules are made by a bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is what replaces common sense.
Note this isn't applicable at school zones and such. There you have to set a speed and force people to comply with strict enforcement. That makes sense and reduces fatalities. Enforcing rural freeway speed limits has been shown in study after study to RAISE fatalities.
Of course if we had European type lane discipline, there would be areas of Texas which don't need speed limits. The traffic density, say, between Van Horn and El Paso, is about 5 cars per mile, while unlimited areas of Germany get by with no speed limit when the traffic density is one car in the left lane every 100 feet.
But in Germany a car in the left lane doing 120 mph can pass a line of cars/trucks in the right lane doing 50 mph and not expect any of them to pull out in front of him without adequate room for him to slow down. The same can't be said for Texas. Until that's cured, we can't have really appropriate speed limits.
The legislature, 2 years ago, ordered signs up saying, "LEFT LANE FOR PASSING ONLY," and my contact at the highway dept. brought me the memo telling sign shops to make them. But they didn't put in a priority or a deadline, so nothing is being done. I have yet to see such a sign.
JEFF COOPER
called. He just got back from France where he drove a CLK 320 coupe. He called me to ask how much it cost and to tell me how much he liked it. When I said about $43,000, he asked me to repeat. I did. He said he thought it cost much more.
Everyone who has bought one has loved it. Used ones are quite rare. Problems with it are nonexistent. It's one of the more beautiful coupes ever produced, and it's very fast. the CLK 430 is faster. The CLK 55 AMG will be even faster.
Letter
(This from a client who had an SLK stolen and wrecked while in a shop which wasn't ours). I must say that I still have my 94 MB serviced at Star since I purchased it with you and your service department is vastly superior to theirs. They just are not organized over there... I guess the theft proved that.
Regards, Gregory J. O'Neil
(We'll be happy to service your replacement SLK. We service a lot of Mercedes and Volvos we didn't sell. There's no discrimination in our shop. You even get a loaner car on the same basis as someone who bought here. What you don't get is my assistance with problems in service. I only have time to help my clients and those I've adopted. Someone who has a car bought from another store and buys a car from me gets my assistance on both cars.)
SPEED TRAPS
If you're coming to Star Motor Cars please be aware of two notorious speed traps in our vicinity.
1. I-10 access road, going east between SILBER ROAD and POST OAK ROAD. The rest of the access road has a 45 mph speed limit and an 85th percentile speed of about that. This section, in front of a big, well financed and powerful church, has a 35 mph speed limit with an 85th percentile speed of about 50. This means virtually everyone is speeding there. Radar detectors are thwarted by virtually constant false alarms in the area. The usual method of operation is for a motorcycle cop with a radar unit to sit at the corner of a cross street around a blind bend and arrest everyone who comes through, since they're all speeding. Your only hope is to come when he's writing a ticket or to be blocked by a slow moving truck.
2. Katy Road, going west just past the underpass under the Southern Pacific Railroad. Cars climbing the hill have an 85th percentile speed of about 50. Speed limit is 40, but I've seen tickets which indicate the arresting revenue collector believes it to be 35. I hope he never finds out because these tickets are all void, of course.
The method of operation is for a radar task force car to set up and write the day's quota, which has risen from 8 a couple of years ago to 15ish, then leave. Of course his purpose in finding an area in which everyone is speeding is to write the day's quota quickly so he can go and either goof off the rest of the shift or sleep so he can be alert for his second job. (A friend of mine on the force was once caught with a pillow in his police car. I don't make these things up.)
LETTER-SEQUEL TO SECRETS
When I lived in Houston, I was stopped three times that I recall; once for "illegally following too closely," once for an illegal right turn off Fannin or Main St. downtown, and once for speeding. After the first ticket, I learned to always plead not guilty in court. Always. If you plead guilty, I doubt the judge has much choice but to find you guilty and then levy a fine and punishment. However, if you plead not guilty, you have a good chance of getting off. At the very least, you'll will be given a chance to present your side of the story. Police do not like to spend their time in court for simple traffic fines. When no one from the police showed up, I had my case dismissed twice. But, I'm sure you already knew that.
Terry Bush
And as The Redhead found out, if, after you receive your silly ticket for getting on the HOV lane at 0647 with 2 people aboard a 2 passenger car, you say something which will make the revenue collector jerk mad, he will make sure to show up for your jury trial. Hence she just took take home defensive driving this weekend. So this month's advice is not to say anything. Try hard to make no impression on the revenue collector at all. He is less likely to show up.
Of course if you're a beautiful redhead in a new Mercedes SLK 230 Sport, and the revenue collector is an ugly, 5'2" dweeb who realizes never in his wildest dreams will he get a gorgeous redhead or a gorgeous Mercedes, there might not be much you can do to prevent his spite. He admitted he showed up, a rare thing for Metro Revenue Collectors, just for spite. In this case he was willing to lie, but, oh, I forgot, lying is okay now if you work for the gumment.
Reference Terry's letter above, if a revenue collector really wants to ticket people for illegally following too closely, I suggest they just follow me to work and pick off one of the idiots always attached to my rear bumper. I checked the vehicle. It's not magnetic, so I have no explanation for it other than public stupidity. I'd be willing to wait while he wrote the tailgator up so he could follow me again and get his daily quota between Katy and I-610.
My HPD contact tells me that currently HPD officers who don't show up are punished with a day off without pay.
Letter
The subject line of the email was "China and Spying." I believe it refers to something I said on the online version of the newsletter. Check the article "Bloody April."
Hi Curt,
Your newsletters are always a riot to read, but I have to disagree w/ you on this one. I read the Congressional report and it contains a lot of inferences and guesses and includes claims that there is more info, but they can't release it. I regard this as more media brainwashing, along w/ the gun control, the "people" approving Clinton even after MonicaGate, the bombing of the "chemical weapons lab" which they never provided proof for, and on and on...
If they have proof, kick the spies out. Jail the people who helped them or leaked info. China should do the same w/ American spies. Having every other reporter babble about leaked secrets (especially when one of their examples is on a public web site) is as ludicrous as the gun control claims and all the other crap surrounding Clinton.
Ken Yee
As well as I can tell, the "media brainwashing" is directed toward avoiding this potentially embarrassing to the Clinton administration story when it's probably THE story of the decade.
License Plate
As most of you know by now, when we sell a new or unlicensed used vehicle in Texas, we have to put on a temporary plate with the expiration date of that plate in large block numbers (there's an official way to do each number, of course). I saw a Ford Ranger today with 063199 on it.
Another victim of the Texas Public School System became a car salesman, no doubt.
Driving Tip
While The Redhead was watching her take-home Defensive Driving tape I was occasionally in and out of the room. Most of it was the usual talking head telling you things an eight grader SHOULD know, but most people, apparently, don't. They did have one good point which sneaked in.
If you're driving at night and think a drunk is following you, in your effort to get out of his path don't pull over and stop. Odds are he'll follow your tail lights and hit you.
This wasn't on the tape, but one of the biggest causes of police officer death and injury is being hit by drunks while at traffic stops at night. They see the flashing red lights and go right for them.
DAN RATHER
that Texan gone bad who slants the news nightly for CBS
was on Jay Leno and had one good story. He mentioned that tourism is very
important to Texas, so there's a guy at the Fish and Wildlife Department
whose job it is to come up with dumber fish, specifically bass, so they'll
bite easier. As a result, "there's no dumb bass like a Texas dumb bass."
"We don't stop playing with toys because we get old,
we get old because we stop playing with toys."