You will be missed!

An important story that's getting attention, first from This American Life, now from the Times.

I don't buy Jobs' assertion that "those jobs aren't coming back". That's a decision companies make.

Sure, you can wake up 8,000 Chinese workers in the middle of the night to go build phones. That's because there are no labor laws in China.

So we should kiss those good jobs goodbye because American companies will always seek out the company with the most Capital-friendly regulatory regimes, and exploit them?

How about Apple takes a few drops from its ocean of cash to build some part of its supply chain in the US?

From a strict utilitarian perspective, there simply is no better car than this, by any manufacturer, including Mercedes, at any price. Cars have only gone downhill since, as I was reminded when the oil level light started blinking last night driving home in my wife’s 2008 BMW 528i. I would have checked the oil, only the thing has no dipstick. That’s right – no dipstick. Except the rafts of overpaid engineers at the overbloated company that designed the thing.

Frankly, you couldn’t pay me to drive a newer Mercedes, and lots of people with new Mercedes cars buttonhole me outside the bagel shop to tell me how they had a car just like mine and would still be driving it if they hadn’t been rear ended by a loaded dump truck on the freeway and totalled the car, but walked away. “Car saved my life. Don’t ever sell it – these new ones aren’t half as good”.

Rust is the enemy. Your jack points will rust out, and the fender rims. So spend your money replacing rubber items and get some new sheet metal. Respray it if you get bored. And drive to work with the quiet confidence that 95% of all the other cars on the road will still be in the boneyard long before yours will.

The drivers’ seat is clearly from another era, and you will likely have to re-stuff it if you have a bad back. But the MB tex is pretty bombproof.

You will need a reasonable mechanic to fix the vacuum system and adjust the valves periodically. You may need some new rod ends and periodic other suspension components, but once you replace them, they are good for another 20 years. So look at maintenance as an investment in secure transporation.

If you live in LA, take it to Mr. MB Motors in Encino, just off the 101 (no affiliation). Taking it anywhere else is a huge waste of money. If you live in or around DC, take it to the Auto Shoppe, in Silver Spring MD. Tell Randy that Karl sent you.

The W123 gets another well deserved encomium.

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Thanks!

“I’M SORRY,” said the UN bureaucrat, a flush of emotion flickering across his perspiring face. “I’m sorry, but this is something that bothers me a lot.” He paused to compose himself.

The problem was the Saudi Arabians, who the previous night had threatened to block the passage of a parcel of agreements at the ongoing UN climate change summit in Durban. They were demanding an addition to it—a commitment to look into ways to compensate oil producers for the losses they would suffer if the world stopped burning fossil fuels. If this did not happen, the oil sheikhs would withhold their support from the entire package, of finance, forestry, technology and other climate-friendly measures.

Most of the scores of diplomats present were appalled. Not least those from small island nations, like Kiribati and Tuvalu, which are likely to disappear beneath the rising seas long before the Saudis have drained their last well. But it mattered naught. Agreements can only be reached at the UN climate summit—properly known as the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (or COP 17)—through a consensus of the 200-odd countries represented at it. After a fraught few hours of bickering, the Saudis got their wretched commitment.

“It’s no coincidence that countries like that have the best-paid, most highly-skilled and biggest teams of negotiators,” said the UN man glumly. “So when everyone else is falling over with exhaustion, they can introduce fresh people and hammer away until they get what they want.”

Infuriating.

Wall Street executives have been quite open about the fact that they really, really don’t want to see Elizabeth Warren get anywhere near the Senate. And it looks like they’re about to ratchet up their efforts to help Scott Brown prevent it from happening — including the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce.