Are your used items selling?

The "Sale Pending" stuff reminds me of the auto auction shenaninigans I run into a couple of times a week. Live auctioneers are so accustomed to shilling and pulling bids out of the air or convenient standers-by that they now have to yell "he's there" or "I got money" to a guy who stops bidding to hopefully bring the price up another round. Several times I've stopped bidding, thinking there was NO competitor, only to find the car sold to a sly real bidder! Other times I've bid the Subie up several hundred all by myself, bidding against the auctioneer's clever gestures.
The automobile industry is apparently the ONLY one in the US where these auction tactics are still legal. It's getting tiresome....
Lugman, you're not a good ole' boy, are ya?

Subaruguru,

Label me if you like, but rest assured that idealogues on both sides are uncomfortable with the truth. The fact is that since Iran took our embassy hostage in the 70's, the bombing of our Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon in the mid 80's, the original attack on the World Trade Center, the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, and other acts of agression against U.S. interests, not to mention 9-11, war has been delcared against us publicly and clandestinely. How many cheeks do we have left to turn? Would you volunteer to be the next victim?

So, you don't like George Bush. Okay, I've got no problem with that. When you insinuate that potential actions taken against Iraq are a cover for illegal business dealings you present a simpleton, idealogue point of view that, if left unsaid, wouldn't have resulted in this post. I bristle when facts become irrelevant and are replaced by vague and cute accusations.

Bad ole boy is closer to the truth.

Seems to me that some of the "bad ole boy" reasoning is pretty simplistic too. It's funny that the rest of world (outside of the U.S.) would disagree with your interpretation of the "facts". Some would even go so as to argue that the attacks against the United States are to a large extent a reaction to U.S. policy initiatives. When the U.S. supports a corrupt and authoritarian monarch, should we really be surprise that after he's overthrown the populace hates us and seeks reprisals. (Somewhat ironically one of the student leaders of the Iran embassy takeover has spent time in Iranian prison because he now supports curbing the power of the mullahs and greater interaction with the United States.) Should Americans really be surprise that when we send troops to foreign shores that various local groups might react, even violently so. Think about it, what would you do if China sent troop into Canada, say to protect the rights and economic interests of ethnic Chinese ex-pats. What would you do? Take China at its word and bake a cake for their troops. I don't think so. Yet your average American sees no problem with the permanent stationing of U.S. soldiers in Saudi Arabia, nor the U.S. arming and financing the military capabilites of Isreal. Despite American desires for simplicity, a clear cut right and wrong, or George Jr. would have it, good vs. evil, the world ends up being a complex place where the facts and the truth are not universally perceived.

One last point, with the elections over and "victory" secured the rheteric about Iraq will subside to normal levels.

Onhwy61,

I agree with some of your proposition. What I take issue with is the claim that G.B.jr. is doing this to take the spotlight off his illegal activities, per Subaruguru. We may see the light someday and allow the rest of the world to interact without us. Nevertheless, whatever reaction the rest of the world has to us and our past policies, I draw the line at events like 9-11.

The sad fact about our involvement globally is that it is based on commerce. The middle east controls the world oil prices with it's vast reserves. To a very large extent past practices by our government were reactions about real threats to vital world trade. A perfect example is Afghanistan. If we wouldn't have trained the Afghans and supplied them arms in the 70's, they may very well have fallen under Soviet rule. That would have allowed the Soviet military to be one step closer to gaining control of the middle eastern oil reserves. A successful Soviet campaign in Afghanistan may very well have delayed the USSR collapse. What we have repeated done was enough to have a stalemate. Universally it has backfired on us. At least we are not expansionist.

This is all history. I am concerned about today. My bad ole boy remark was meant to show that neither the right nor the left like my views.

Talk about selling IT...seems there's there's a pretty active ad campaign on both sides....On with the PRODUCTS! :-) Sorry, don't mean to offend. It just seems that talk of what is or isn't selling has turned into a "right-left punch", as it were. Guess I prefer Audiogon talk of right/left be confined to our two-channel systems! :-)