Polish American Walt Kowalski, played to anti-hero perfection by Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, stands against corruption and lawlessness and wins. But not before sacrificing his life. Kowalski is a Korean War veteran and retired auto worker living outside of Detroit. He is old and tired, and just wants to be left alone after the death of his wife. But fate and duty had other ideas. He carries a long held guilt over killing a surrendering soldier in the Korean War. His death redeems, not just his soul, but the soul of his town.

Events lead Kowalski to resist a local takeover by a Hmong youth gang. The Hmong are an ethnic Southeast Asian people, primarily from Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. In real life Michigan, they are among the fastest growing immigrants. Many Hmong people emigrated from South Vietnam after Democrats shamelessly withdrew monetary support from South Vietnam in 1974. The Paris Peace Agreements thus became toothless and North Vietnam conquered South Vietnam. “Boat people” fled Vietnam and the insane, murderous Pol Pot created the Cambodian Killing Fields. (more…)

I do a line in my act that’s often copied about how if you want the government to run health care you need to spend a little more time at the DMV. However the Obama administration has given us a new benchmark in government ineptness. If you’re looking forward to the government running our health care system perhaps you should look over at the CARS program. If you think that a quickly cranked out complex government program is what’s best for the economy or health care check out the so called Cash for Clunkers debacle.

The idea was simple, offer an incentive to get people out of gas guzzlers and help boost lagging car sales. I don’t know why the auto industry was chosen for a big corporate welfare handout instead of the furniture or big screen TV folks. It may have something to do with the government owning a big hunk of the auto industry and therefore being on the hook for future pension and health care costs. Which, if I may offer a quick civics lesson review, means that you and I are now the proud owners of the Old GM obligations. (more…)

So according to MSNBC, President Obama is enjoying amazing support from “an uncommon alliance of auto executives, union leaders and environmental activists” concerning is new proposal to raise mileage standards and curb vehicle emissions.

But if you look at this support, you can see why it`s as pathetic as spoilers on a Yugo.

Of course, the auto executives are behind it, because the government is paying them to be behind it. For the union leaders and environmentalists, it just means a preservation of power and an increase in influence. The only people missing from this equation? The rest of America. They will pay with their wallets, and their lives.

According to the experts, Obama`s proposals will add about $1300 in costs to every car. How that helps an industry during a bottomless recession is beyond me. Worse, the National Academy of Sciences has linked mileage standards to roughly 2000 deaths per year. According to Steve Milloy, the author of Green Hell, every 100 pound reduction in the weight of small cars causes traffic fatalities to rise as much as 715 per year. He claims that Obama`s proposed plan will kill more Americans at a faster rate than the Iraq War. He might be right: last month, for example, crash tests found that drivers of the 2009 versions of so-called Smart cars- basically sardine cans without the odor or the protection – could suffer serious injuries in front-end crashes with larger, mid-size vehicles. (more…)