Next week and probably for months to come, +Fisker Automotive will be raked over the coals by hypocritical politicians

Surprisingly Fisker Automotive hasn't yet filed for bankruptcy protection, but but that is a formality will almost inevitably happen very soon. But as Mark Rechtin of Automotive News points out, like the vast majority of startups, the failure of Fisker was always far more likely than its success and private investors will lose far more money than the government. At less than $10 billion spent on green energy loan programs, the total is a pittance compared to what is squandered every year on subsidies for the oil industry and agri-business. Let's not even talk about the waste on military contractors. 

Don't forget that the vast majority of those loan programs went not to startups but to companies like Nissan and Ford and it will be paid back with interest. 

Back in 2009, +Hyundai Worldwide paid tribute to the Mustang on its 45th birthday

p.s. If you happen to be the Pittsfield Township police officer that rolled out to check out what all the racket was about, sorry, we tried to shoot at time when there wouldn't be anyone around. 

A salute to the 45th anniversary of the Mustang

Hyundai pays tribute to the Mustang’s 45th Birthday

The 1970s were undoubtedly a nadir for automotive enthusiasts

One example of a car from the era that most people would prefer to forget is the 1973 Mustang II. In the linked article, the writer argues that the Mustang II very nearly killed the iconic franchise. I would argue otherwise.

The early 1970s hit automotive engineers with a perfect storm of new safety, emissions and fuel economy standards at the same time as the first of two oil supply/price shocks. A combination of a trying to meet all of these new rules and low point in style yielded some atrociously bad rides. 

All of this happened before electronics had advanced to a degree that would eventually bring us the automotive golden age of performance and efficiency we live in today. Engineers were aware of the coming regulations and had to make product decisions. 

At +Ford Motor Company they opted to move the Mustang to the smaller, lighter Pinto platform for the 1974 model year. While the performance sucked and the styling was unimpressive, Ford managed to sell a lot of them. As uninspired as Mustang II was, it was in fact enough to keep the nameplate alive through a very bad period in automotive history.

With Mustang II sustaining the brand, Jack Telnack's design team went to work on a whole new direction while the engineers developed the Fox-platform car for 1979.

Without the Mustang II, the original pony car probably would have been extinguished after 1974 and probably never revived.  

The 1965 +Ford Motor Company Mustang GT350 was the first of a long-line of high-performance ponies over the past 49 years

http://wot.motortrend.com/happy-birthday-ford-mustang-turns-49-capri-celebrates-44-years-356223.html/1965-ford-mustang-shelby-gt350-1024×640/#axzz2QliahUcq

While I am totally a proponent of marriage equality, this less talked about case is actually far more important

This week the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case involving the patenting of human genes. There is absolutely no way anyone should be allowed to ever get a patent on the instructions for growing a human or any other organism. At best (or worst depending on your perspective), patents could be granted on specific methods of detection, but never the genes themselves.

Yeah, about that debt being bad for growth; never mind

Did you say you need more torque? +Ford Racing supercharger kit for 5.0-liter +Ford Motor Company Mustang

The 2008 +Ford Motor Company Mustang Bullitt was one of my favorite ponies of all time

This 2010 +Ford Motor Company Mustang was shot outdoors

#mustang  

My first photo shoot with the 2010 +Ford Motor Company Mustang GT convertible