Joining the 21st Century

So I've grown quite tired of regular radio in the car. So what do I do? Swap out the current head unit for one with an MP3/CD unit? Buy an iPod and an adapter? XM? Sirius?

The chances of me actually spending money on a new head unit are nil. That one's out.

I wouldn't likely spend more on an iPod than the cost of a Shuffle. I don't have an extensive music collection to fill it with. The likelyhood of me finding 120 songs that I enjoy enough to pay for is slim. And a trip to my parents would put me through those 120 songs rather quickly. By the time I reached Bend, I'd be near the end. The 1GB Shuffle has twice the storage, but I'm even less likely to find 240 songs I'd pay for. 1000 songs on the Nano is an impossiblity.

From what I hear and read about XM and Sirius, I don't even know if I want to go with either of them. It seems that XM's selection is not as good as Sirius. They both seem to have coverage problems. I know that XM's satellites are geosynchronous and that they use terrestrial repeaters. I'll probably lose coverage on major sections of my long drives, and even my commute to work. Unfortunately those blind spots will coincide precisely with where I lose normal radio. Sirius has three birds in higher orbits, but many people still complain about losing signal.

Can't decide. Any recommendations? Or should I just stick to static?

Damn Comment Spammers

Word Verification is now turned on. Tired of hearing about Private Road Construction from Linda Johnson.

While I'm slightly on the topic of Atlas Shrugged

I find this from Illinois Democratic Congressman Rahm Emmanuel on "Meet the (Unim)press(ed)"

"...we create an institute on science and technology that builds for America like the National Institutes has done for health care..."

Can anyone say "State Science Institute"?

Hat tip to Rosenblog.

I will stop the motor of the world

In a letter called 'Tearing us apart', Jonathan Kallay got my temperature up a bit. Well, not really the letter, but his blog.

Kallay derides Mr. Na's Op/Ed for straw men and red herrings. But Jonathan never really addresses the issue of whether or not global taxation has merit or not. He does, however, make it clear on his blog.

After reading his post 'Thoughts on Global Taxation', I was going to just explode and then read 'Atlas Shrugged' again, but instead, I'm going to take Mr. Kallay's side.

In my full support of his support of wealth redistribution, I demand Mr. Kallay sell his new condo in downtown Seattle and split the profits with me so that I can also have the opportunity to own a home. After all, it's an issue of fairness. Why should he own a home when I don't? I am older than he is. I've been in the workforce longer than he has. My highschool personal finance teacher never taught about personal finance. When I was young I had to go to my grandmother's house to bathe since sometimes our well went dry. All of these hardships make wealth distribution sound great to me!

Mr. Kallay, I'll be expecting my check.