If many automakers have a version of a hybrid car – and if our oil resources are 1) precariously dependent upon unfriendly nations, and 2) severely limited and projected to run dry, perhaps in our lifetime – then I have one question:

Why are all new cars not being built with hybrid or electric engines – and the standard internal combustion engine rapidly going the way of the dinosaur?

I don’t get it, I truly don’t.

(I also believe that a hybrid SUV is an oxymoron and in a sane universe would implode, like a matter/antimatter reaction.)

I don’t believe that cost is an good-enough answer. Sure, a Toyota hybrid Camry costs considerably more than a standard. I strongly believe that a big part of that differential is charging what the market will bear, and the rest is volume disadvantage. If most new cars were hybrid, both of those issues would disappear.

(No, I’m not in favor of bailouts for the Big 3, businesses should succeed or fail on their own merits. The automakers are the ones who made poor business decisions, and failing to move fast enough into the hybrid/alternative market is one of them.)

I am hopeful about Obama’s inauguration, and looking forward to the next months and years of his leadership.

I also am not particularly a Bush fan – although I did not detest him either. I consider him a weak and unintelligent man, easily led, who made poor choices of both counsel and executive direction.

My position, as usual, is more moderate/libertarian than fervent partisan supporter (or opponent).

With that perspective, I am more than a little disturbed by the tone of much of the discussion across twitter, blog and comment feeds, as well as the crowd’s reaction to Bush at the event itself.

A relevant tangent:

This Sunday night, Bryan and I watched the excellent movie “Defiance”. It is a story of the Bielski brothers and the forest encampment survival of nearly 1200 Jews in Belorussia during WWII. There is a fairly powerful scene midway through the movie, where a Jewish camp guard captures a young, terrified German courier soldier. While the camp leaders look through the courier dispatches for useful intelligence, the mob in the background begin to kick and beat the solder to death, their pent-up terror and rage and revenge given a target. The leaders take note, but decide not to intervene; still, their grief at the violence is tangible.

It’s feeling more than a bit moblike out there, in the aftermath of Bush & Cheney’s departure. I found Anne’s plea for tolerance and mutual respect to be a refreshing breath of fresh air.

While the issues and the change in leadership are major events in US history, behaving with class and dignity through this transition are also important. With apologies to Janiece, who coined the phrase in relation to an entirely different subject, a message of “we rock” is often more effective than “you suck”.

I am drawing an absolute blank on blog topics tonight, so, inspired by Beast Mom, I’m going to list random not-quite-blogworthy thoughts:

• Is anyone else completely surprised that Bush didn’t pardon Uncle Ted in his final days in office?
• If I were Michelle Obama, I’d wear jeans and sweatshirts as a protest until the media gets off the ridiculous (and traditional) fashion coverage kick and starts focusing on what’s really important.
• Why did the powers-that-be choose Microsoft Silverlight for streaming the inauguration festivities – which is inaccessible to the 15+% (and growing) of users that are on the Mac platform?
• I should probably write something profound and reflective about the the inauguration, the new era, but I’m just not feeling very profound lately.
• Since Facebook’s most recent upgrade, I’ve been unable to get the Wordbook plugin, which sends my blog posts to my Facebook news updates, working. I deleted and reinstalled – and now it won’t even activate on my blog. Argh.
• I really need to upgrade my MBP to OSX 10.5, and clean up my hard drive. Again.
• I spent MLK day – I took a floating holiday – puttering about my newly cleaned up workshop finishing up several metalsmithing projects and starting a new one.
• Why do they set the demo ladies at Costco up on the most crowded days so that they block the aisles? This does not make sense. And why are there no demo men?
• My doggie is much improved after her visit to the vet – the antibiotics and pain pill helped a lot.
• My nephew just had his pet hamster die, which is very sad. Still, I don’t understand wanting to keep a rodent as a pet. The work-vs-reward equation doesn’t make sense to me. My condolences, though, to him.
• We just saw the movie Defiance which was quite good – I recommend it, and not just because it stars Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber.
• My ideal movie cast would be Clive Owen, Daniel Craig and Liam Neeson. It would probably not be a period piece or a chick flick.
• We had roast pork loin for dinner. (yum) Why do the folks that make roasting racks make then enamel-over-steel, which always peels and gets gross, rather than stainless steel?
• Chocolate chocolate chip ice cream sounds really good right now. It’s a good thing I have none.

I have been ordering hazardous chemicals via catalog lately. Really! This is the tagline: “This item is hazardous and is non-returnable. It can only be shipped via ground freight.”

What in particular? A hydrochloric acid and tellurium solution. And ferric nitrate crystals.

No, I’m not building a bomb in my basement. I don’t have a basement. And I’m not trying to poison my great aunt. I no longer have any great aunts. (But not because of my chemical-purchasing habits.)

These chemicals, and many like them, are routine metalsmithing supplies. The craft is more than hammer-finishing pieces and soldering ends together for a secure finish.

The first solution is for applying an antique black oxidized finish to silver and gold – it is one of the few chemicals that will patinate gold, which is quite nonreactive. The second chemical, made into a solution with water, is an etching mordant that will work on silver.

Not surprisingly, many metalsmiths have red, raw, dry, cracked hands. Even though we use nitrile gloves and appropriately nonreactive tongs for work with all the hazardous chemicals – acid pickle & etch, acetone, solvents, cleaners, etc. – we end up washing our hands and our works-in-progress (often with scouring powder) so frequently that we chap and dessicate our hands.

I do work in an adequately ventilated area, and use a breathing mask and/or eye protection when appropriate.

It’s worth it when a piece comes together.

Even if the UPS guy does think I’m a nutjob.

Dessert during Battlestar Galactica tonight will be courtesy of my excellent friend Barb, who takes great care of me when I’m in Anchorage. A few months ago she made a simple but yummy dessert she called “Drunken Ice Cream”, which I’ve been wanting to try at home since.

Ingredients:

1/2 gallon vanilla ice cream, softened
2 shots Bailey’s Irish Cream. Or more.
Crumbled hard cookies to taste

Mash together in a shallow mixing bowl, return to ice cream carton, and hide in the back of the freezer. It will all fit – ice cream has air incorporated into it, which will disappear when you mash it up with the Bailey’s.

She used Pepperidge Farms Brussels cookies, because they’re hard enough to stand up to mashing & immersion in ice cream, plus they contain chocolate, so that’s what I’m using too, but any hard, non-crumbly cookie would work.

You can make this with sugar free ice cream and cookies – and in fact I will, for some of the family – but if you try to use some weird-ass brand of sugar-free Irish cream I don’t want to hear about it.

Enjoy!