Drag Racing

Today I went to the 2007 SuperNationals qualifying at Englishtown about 10 miles from my house. Its been a while since I watched drag racing closely. Back in the '90s I watched it quite a bit. Since then Top Fuel Dragsters and Funny Cars are running sub 4.5 quarter mile ETs at over 300 MPH. I always wanted to go to an event, but just never did it. Those who know me know I've been to a few racing events, NASCAR, F1, a few local race tracks. This was a new experience. This weekend my inlaws came for a visit and I happened to notice that the race was also this weekend. My father-in-law is a big race fan and he had never been to a big time drag race either. We arrived bright and early and had a great time. Here is a batch of pictures. All of the cars are simply parked in trailers all around the parking lot. We saw John Force's Top Fuel Funny Car offloading from his trailer, and the Budweiser Top Fuel Dragster. After we walked around a bit we went inside. Great racing from the start with some of the competition classes. Then the Top Alcohol lined up. They always talk about how LOUD NHRA can be and the Top Alcohol cars were amazing. We walked around a bit after Top Alcohol and I picked up some ear plugs. Top Alcohol was loud - Top Fuel is absolutely unimaginable. When two Top Fuel cars line up and go green the ground and everything around literally shakes from the noise. Last year we heard the noise when we were at the Home Depot 3 miles away. Sitting less than 100 yards from the starting line is absolutely incredible. I haven't watched in a while - I'm definitely going to watch the finals tomorrow to see who wins. Next year I think we'll have to make it more of an event - this was sort of last minute.

Spanish Grand Prix

Another exciting qualifying day. The new knockout qualifying seriously delivers excitement. This week saw another battle between Ferrari and McLaren. This week Ferrari came out on top. Massa pushed and came out on top of Alonso by a mere 3 hundredths.

As happened last year between Michael and Fernando - Q3 started with a chase. Hamilton maintained the lead and then the fuel burn off began. A bit of running around the track until first tire changes, right around 7 minutes left in the session. Then a few more laps around the course to set up for final hot laps on soft tyres. Everybody pitted with Alonso being the last on track. The setup was there for a big finish in front of the home crowd. The finish was very exciting - with everyone advancing their times during the last run to the line. Massa, Hamilton and Räikkönen all pushing - Massa finishing P1. Alonso had about 20 seconds before he reached the finish line. Very close - just came up short.

Hate Crime Legislation - Do we need this?

Seems like the libs think we need more hate crime legislation. I'm not sure precisely what's driving it this time. There seems to be a penchant for this every so often. Now however there does seem to be an organized opposition to it, and it may actually receive a veto, which I think is appropriate.

I think that part of this stems from the leniency that has been shown in the past for criminals. The phrase "the crows coming home to roost" springs to mind.

I certainly agree that the types of incidents we saw before the civil rights movement should not have happened. For too long juries tended to not convict those similar to them when they committed crimes against the different. This injustice does still happen and is what must be prevented. Frequently people point to the Matthew Sheppard incident as reasons why we need hate crime legislation. My point is that it is quite illegal and criminal to tie someone to a fence and beat them to death. The lame gay panic excuse attempted by his assailants was just that - lame. They belong in jail, and thankfully they are there. My point is simple - convict criminals for their acts! Here are my comments from almost precisely 7 years ago, when someone blew a gasket and killed a bunch of people back in Pittsburgh.

All crime is hateful

I found the dissertation by Steven D. Irwin and Joel Ratner of the Anti-Defamation League on the topic of hate crimes interesting ("Getting Tough on Hate Crimes," May 7). They seem to indicate that they would prefer that a person's thoughts while committing a crime be taken into account; that we should increase the punishment for such heinous crimes based on a person's race, religion or ethnicity; and we should expand state laws to encompass "all other categories of hate crimes."

This is, of course, in response to renewed violence on the part of one Richard Baumhammers. I ask Messrs. Irwin and Ratner this: Is it not sufficient that five human beings were killed? Or three, as in the case of Ronald Taylor in March? Should not such violent killers be locked up for the rest of their natural life, regardless of their victims' race?

I ask those who would rush to enact so-called hate crime legislation: Does it matter that those killed in these events where chosen based on race, religion or other such criteria? Would it somehow be more acceptable had they killed people completely at random? Or might it be better still if those no longer with us were similar in ethnicity to the shooters?

Let us focus on the crimes actually committed: The punishment for these acts should be swift and sure lest others decide to continue this onslaught on decency.

Anti-Racing on the NJ Turnpike

Yesterday, was an interesting journey home. Snow, sleet and freezing rain, slowed traffic to 35MPH on one of the more famous roads in America. 35 miles @ 35MPH, one hour at what seemed to be a crawl. Many people however determined that this speed limit was an erroneous downgrade from the normal 65. Many of these folks found themselves spinning and facing the wrong direction or slid off the side into a ditch. Although it would be easy to case all aspersion in the direction of the crazy SUV drivers, there were only a few SUVs in distress. Other cars also found themselves in dire circumstances. As I neared home, after travelling nearly two hours I saw additional cars feverishly spinning their wheels with their cars sitting nose deep in a snowy grassy medial strip. It surprises me at the inability of people to realize that snow and ice change the dynamics of car driving.

Beginning another F1 Season

Finally, the short mild winter has broken and we can at begin to think about racing again. NASCAR started a few weeks ago in Daytona, fun race, what other series can you cross the finish line upside down and on fire. However, now we start the top class. Melbourne, Australia is the start to the season. Qualifying was uneventful but interesting. Kimi put Ferrari back on the pole - perhaps his car will not fail him this year and the iceman can claim the top seat in more than a few races and get what everyone thinks he should be able to accomplish - world championship. Two time world champ Alonso may have something to say about it, he qualified in P2 and it will likely be a good start to the race. As readers of this site will know, I switched personal brands last year, going from BMW to Benz. I've now got torn allegiances, I've been a BMW fan for quite some time. I'm not really into my car as much as I was my BMWs. I do like Alonso, and now that he's at MB, perhaps I should ally myself there. The BMWs are seated well, sitting well at 3 and 5. MB sitting 2 and 4. Should be an exciting start to the first race. The big 3 are still atop the list - Ferrari, MB and BMW. It cerainly seems like Renault's ride atop the standings were dependent on Alonso, and their slide seems imminent. We go green at 11PM Eastern, less than 12 hours from now!!

Crazy Drying Dog

Yesterday we gave Peanut a bath. When we do this - he must dry himself by running around the house at warp speed rubbing his face on the various rugs throughout the house.

Fun with planes

Take off out of Detroit 40 minutes late. I've got a window seat and I notice after 20 minutes of flying we're still quite low. Capt comes on - the gear won't go up. We turn around and land again. Currently at gate no idea of status. I guess give the choice of gear not up or gear not down - I'll take gear not up.

- 10:00PM Update I'm in the hotel - flying tomorrow. Hopefully will be less exciting.