A few responses

Note: Thanks Jenny, I actually had writers block today and wasn't thinking to post at all.)

Well, I've having a little writer's block today so I thought I'd respond to some recent comments. (Plus when I respond to the comments as a comment I do not believe it notifies you so a lot of times those I respond to never know.)

So Jenny, in regards to Ford F-150 story, don't misunderstand me, I don't think you should buy any car you don't want to buy, and I'm even more against the auto bailout. The point of the story was to get you to ask what's really wrong with the auto industry because according to all knowing, all seeing wizards in congress all the US automakers have to do is make a bunch of hybrids or enclosed riding lawnmowers and they'll be back in the front seat again.

It's a little more complicated than that. You hit on a big one: image. Everyone (myself included) when we think of a US car we think of how often it breaks down and how expensive it is to fix. Supposedly, (I cannot confirm this as the last American cars my family have driven are a 2001 Chevy Suburban which actually has done really well, and my grandma's 89 ford f-150) the new cars are better according to some friends and or course that what all the new commercials say. Only one problem: No one wants to gamble on a car. A car for most of us is big investment and why risks having to make repairs when you have such good experience with other car brands like Toyota or Honda.

Then you've got the issue of American cars being more expensive because or CEO's and workers and retirees make more and get better benefits than their competitors. Then you also have issues of efficiency and what Detroit needs to do to make their factories more efficient overall like that of Toyota's and Honda. So we really agree on that point.

On the issue of Obama smoking, I suppose that the President elect smoking could be portrayed as a weakness and how we don't want the President to be seen as unable to kick an addiction. However, in my opinion, Obama's memory lapses are a greater sign of weakness. I mean, that's not the Jeremiah Wright I knew, that's not the Luis Faracon I knew, that's not the Rod Blagojevich I knew, (and he hasn't even been inaugurated, and this doesn't even include the fact that Bill Richardson had to leave before being officially appointed because he's marred in scandal and his treasury secretary pick my not get confirmed either because he might not have paid his taxes.)

That's something that is of greater concern to me than whether or not he smokes. I suppose my bias could be based on the fact that I know some moral and good people who smoke but dishonest and immoral people who don't. In my view, whether a person smokes is of little concern to me (outside of the health benefits and the fact that my religion believes it to be a sin.) So I suppose I don't consider smoking to be a character flaw, so I'm more concerned with other things like lying, misleading, not sticking to promises, and incompetence.

But the media, on the other hand, has a cow! Over smoking! They'll rake this guy over the coals because he smokes but won't touch anything to do with his past. Plus, it shows that maybe we've gone a little too far on the anti-tobacco movement, which generally I consider myself a part of.

Yeah, when we have to worry about who's a secret smoker; I think we've gone a little too far. I'm satisfied with getting the facts about its effects on the body and making sure they don't smoke around me, but what they do in their own time (in regards to smoking,) is their own choice.

Jason Bentley is just a punk college kid who is attending Brigham Young University.