They Don't Make Them Like They Used To
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This is Hard Park and brought to you by Right Hunter and Right Toyota out of Scottsdale, AZ. I'm your host, Jay Finning
recording for my home studio here in Gilbert, AZ.
There's a lot of stuff to get to on today's episode and I'm going to be moving kind of fast on those things.
If you notice the title of the episode, the title of the episode is what brought you here.
They don't make it like they used to.
What do I mean by that? That is 100% an opinion, Peace
of Mind. There's a difference between
opinions and facts. And I'm also going to talk about
that as it relates to social media and kind of monitoring your friends online, You know, when should you engage?
When should you not engage? Should you just not engage at
all? But first, you will notice that
I'm wearing a purple shirt, especially if you're watching, if you're listening, I am wearing a purple shirt that says Christy and Sandy's team, Christy and Sandy.
Who are they and why am I wearing this shirt?
Why am I wearing purple? You may have never seen me wear
purple before. I think the color looks good on
me. You decide.
So Sandy is my godmother. Christy is my God sister.
They are quite literally the first family, the first people that I met after I got adopted when I was five years old.
There's also Win, which is the husband.
There's Dan, who is a really good friend of mine.
In fact, that was my my connection to Make a Wish charities for NS Expo last year. All the money that we raised for
Make a Wish we did as a club. But that connection was natural
to me as it came through Dan when he was the chair of Make a Wish Foundation of North Texas. And of course, they had a
brother, Eddie, who had passed decades ago from cancer.
Christy was diagnosed with patriotic cancer a few years ago. Sandy was diagnosed with
patriotic cancer a few months ago.
And so part of the fundraiser that they're doing is selling off these shirts. Tomorrow is April 26th.
They'll actually be doing a fundraiser walk.
I don't think it's a race, but a fundraiser walk.
And so if you're interested in following up about that or hearing about opportunities to donate not only to their specific fundraiser teams, but just to the 'cause I will link that in the description and put it in the show notes as well so that you can grab it on YouTube and you can grab it from the audio portion of the podcast wherever you listen to this podcast. So after the Sparkforge read,
we're going to jump into some car news and then get into the meat of this episode. You would not want to miss it.
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get your first month free, upgrade your tech and get back to business. OK, this has nothing to do with
car news. But over Easter, I'd smoked a
leg of lamb. We haven't talked about Easter.
I don't know if you celebrate Easter or not.
We do. Like we used to go to church
early in the mornings growing up.
We actually went to church a few times as an adult in the last 20 years. But since we've moved to
Arizona, we just don't go to church.
But you know, it's a big day for the family to get together.
And also we have so many Micronians.
I call Micronians based off of Robotech, one of my favorite cartoons. They called humans Micronians.
So so I refer to children, small children as Micronians.
So we had lots of Micronians around the house.
And so we did the Easter egg thing a little.
They had way too much candy. And anyway, I smoked a leg of
lamb that I received from a friend of mine, also Co worker, soon to be former Co worker. I've never made lamb before and
it was really good. I had marinated it with some,
let's see, olive oil, thyme, Rosemary, a ton of garlic, a little bit of cumin and I forgot what other seasoning I put in there. Obviously salt and pepper, which
you'll notice none of the lamb recipes call for salt and pepper that I've seen, but I just wanted to be safe.
You know, you don't want to sit there and make something that has no flavor, especially because we have a very ethnic family and the first thing they say is it's good, but it could use more flavor. So I'd rather have peppery and
salty so that no one can ever accuse my cooking of not having flavor. But one thing that I've learned
because a lot of people liked it, was because people say, well, I don't like lamb. Sometimes I had it and it's been
gamey. And sometimes the lamb that you
get can be gamey, depending on where it came from.
But lamb is defined very specifically as baby sheep, sheep that are less than 12 months old.
And I wrote this down from 12 months to 18 months.
It's called hoggett. And different people around the
world eat hoggett. And then mutton is sheep, which
sheep are also lamb. They're just adult lamb.
It's like kids and adults, right?
So if you eat the adults, the mutton, it's a little more gameier. And those are for all sheep that
are over the age of 18 months. So now I know you came here to
learn about sheep, lamb and mutton as it pertains to dining, but it was great. And so I would say that if you
go somewhere and somebody has smoked a leg of lamb, hop in and check it out. I smoked it to doneness.
Lamb traditionally is eaten medium rare, but there are people that absolutely freak out when they see red.
And I get it. But it was still tender enough
to where it didn't matter and it was great as a leftover.
So hoing into some car news on April 19th, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in OAA.
We're doing a dive checking out an old sink World War 2 ship called the USS Yorktown and they discovered a car, a 1940s vehicle. This was in the Pacific Ocean.
It says here that they believe it's a 1940 to 1941 Ford Super Deluxe. Woody was on the front plate.
This is a picture of the wreckage they found and they're still trying to figure out why a full size vehicle was on the USS Yorktown, but they both sank. They also discovered what they
think is a new breed of jellyfish, which makes me wonder, is it a new breed or they just recently discovered something that maybe thousands of years old and they discovered it for the first time. So does that make it that makes
it a new discovery, right? Or is it a new breed?
And how do you know? Auto evolution is talked about
the 2030 NSX all digital rendering right now.
I find this very difficult to believe.
So one thing we do know for a fact is that Honda slash Acura is working on 1/3 Gen. NSX.
They have said as such. I have witnessed this at an NSX
bow where people very high up who would know those things have said there will be another NSX. However, looking at this render
I find this highly improbable. You probably would too because
it makes 0 design sense and if this thing were to come out it would be so expensive because it looks so exotic.
But I do believe that whatever we do see is going to be loosely based on something like this and maybe the ARX 06.
That is 100% opinion piece. I do not have any insider
information. I know you guys know that I'm
pretty well connected with some people at Acura, but all I do know is for a fact, they are redesigning a new car.
They're also working on something and they don't know if they're going to call it NSX, maybe it's going to be the next S2000 or whatever the the successing phrase of that vehicle is going to be. But rest assured, they're
working on something. I highly doubt that this is it.
And just looking at the design, there's no way.
I guess we'll find out. And a little bit of personal car
news. We've made the decision to sell
our Infinity, my Infinity. Now, I don't know why I say R.
I've got three cars, my wife has one.
I'm selling my Infiniti FX50 SI Love this car.
I already missed this car, but one of these cars has to go.
And so I've decided to keep the Honda Z because there's almost nothing I can't do in the Honda Z that I could also do in the Infiniti. Maybe I said that backwards, I'm
not sure. The difference is the Infiniti
is a lot faster with that five point O liter V8 and it can carry a little bit more, but not a lot more.
One of them has a go. And so it's going to be the
Infinity. And I'm a little saddened about
it because most of the views on this channel are views of people watching my Infinity content. But that's OK.
Maybe I can pivot over to the Honda Z plus.
I want more for the Honda Z than most people are probably willing to give me, but I got some money into it and it's sick minus is dope so I'm going to keep it for a while and tinker with it and let's see what happens. But now I am down to two cars.
Say a prayer for me please. I have the NSX type and the
Honda Z UM 4 turbo. Quite possibly possibly
literally the fastest car on the road at any given time and the slowest car on the road at any given time.
And finally switching to a little bit of, I wouldn't say politics, but you know how we've got on people for keying Tesla's and getting caught. It's like don't get caught by
the camera, it's your ass. I don't understand why people
are so damn radicalized that they would do this.
But the big news is in Minnesota, a man aged 33, what's this guy's name? I have it on here somewhere.
I have it on my phone I think. A 30 to 3 year old man named
Dylan Adams who caused over $21,000 of damage to over six different Teslas as caught by the police and arrested in Minnesota. Minneapolis County Attorney or
District Attorney Mary Mariarti. Mary Mariarti has decided to not
press charges. This guy is a direct employee of
Tim Waltz. Cue the conspiracy theories.
However, she decided to charge a 19 year old who was suspected of keying a Co worker's car $7000 damage.
Make it make sense. Not cool.
Don't be so radicalized. But you can't literally not
charge somebody who was caught on camera for doing it multiple times to multiple vehicles. The felony charge, I guess now
and then turning around and charging someone else for doing the same thing to a non Tesla. It's crazy.
But I was curious because we've talked about this and it feels like I talk about Tesla a lot because they are in the news a lot. They do a lot of things.
How many Teslas are on the road today?
How many Tesla owners out there? If you're a Tesla owner, let me
know. How many Tesla owners out there
are worried about somebody keying your car?
The amount of people that are being caught on social media or at least are being reported doesn't seem to be that many.
And it doesn't make it OK if it happens to you.
But I was just curious, you know, because I see so many Tesla cyber trucks now. They're all over the place.
I called it a year ago. At least you can do the
research. I don't feel like doing it for
you. And I did the Tesla challenge,
which is literally something I made-up myself.
The Tesla challenge is depending on your city, your population density, how many traffic lights can you go without seeing a Tesla? And rarely do I make it more
than two. Sometimes I don't even get to 1.
But I live in a densely populated area in southeastern Phoenix Valley. I'm sure most of them are in
California, Arizona, Texas, You know, the warmer client.
I'm sure there's a bunch up in the Pacific Northwest because they were a very green movement. And that's a very green part of,
no pun intended, because it's a beautiful place.
But the Pacific Northwest is a very green part of the country.
So you have, I don't know whatever that number is.
I'm just curious. So let me know if you're a Tesla
owner, if you are worried about your car being vandalized because it sucks. And I don't know.
It's, it's just, I got no words for it.
And finally, how many of you received those toll texts?
I have a theory and it's not a good one.
So the only time I've received a text message telling me I owe tolls, tolls, tolls is when I've gone through areas that have tolls. Which makes me wonder, how
secure is a freaking system? The toll system, the toll booth
system, How are we referring to it?
The toll road system, How secure is that?
Because the last time I got it, or the first time I got it rather, was after NS Expo in Dallas.
The North Texas Toll Authority. I think it's NTTA.
Yeah. The North Texas Toll Authority,
when I get home, boom, you owe money and tolls.
I go, no, that's weird, and I didn't pay it, obviously.
Thank God I'm a little smarter than that with my data security, my information security, my computer science degree.
Many months later, I'm in California going to events.
Boom. I do go on the toll roads in
California when I'm out there 'cause I still have my toll pass, this big plastic thing from 2016.
But as soon as I get done in those toll roads, I get the text message about me owing money and it is a scam.
Excuse me, and it is a scam. It's 100% a scam.
But somebody's data is out there and somebody's data is not secure. So that's another reminder that
if you're asked to give your data or if you're one of those people saying, uh oh, I'm not signing on the dotted line, you're not getting my data. Guess what?
They already have it. That is the car news.
So I want to talk about the title of this episode, and I'm going to do that right now, but in a little bit, I'm going to give you my viewpoints on some of these social media posts as it relates to family, close friends, maybe associates in.
I think you're going to want to hear that.
And at the end, I know that the big Trump versus, or I would rather say this administration versus Harvard has popped up.
And I have some stuff on that as well.
And you're going to want to listen to that or watch it if you're watching on the video, because I think it's important that everybody understand what it is you're either fighting for or fighting against. Information is critical.
And I feel like you have to be armed with the facts of a case or the facts of something before you can render, I guess, a true opinion or feelings on it. Because opinions, everybody has
them. And that's fine.
You should have an opinion. But an educated opinion is
always better than shooting from the hip without doing any research on what it is you're excited about backing or, or fighting against, I guess. But first, you know, we always
hear the stuff, you know, things aren't like they used to be.
Things aren't made the same way anymore.
They just don't make them like they used to.
I'm trying to remember what happened to me, where that triggered the thought in my head.
Because if you've been watching this podcast or listen to this podcast for a long time, you know that I used to have a section called Random Thought of the Week.
And I guess that would kind of be the return of Random Thought of the Week. I think I was picking up
groceries, but I don't remember what it was in that process that made me think about it. But regardless, there's a reason
why they don't make them like they used to or they don't make this like they used to. They don't make that like you
used to. And I think everybody kind of
understands this, but I, I wanted to spend a couple minutes, I wouldn't say ranting about it, but just kind of breaking it down because let me find something around here.
OK, here we go. So I have this Sony camera
cover. This is this is the bottom.
It goes over the actual lens, not the camera.
Lenses have two things on them, right?
They have the external lens cover, which is the thing that I'm looking into right now. And then they have the inside,
which goes over where the the mount style is.
So the Sony ZVE 110 I'm using right now, ZVE 10.
It's not 110 to 10. Anyway, this goes on the bottom
of arguably one of the most critical parts of the camera.
And this is a mount cover. So let's say 20 years ago they
used to make this out of metal. I have no idea.
I'm just making this up. OK, for the sake of the story.
20 years ago they used to make this out of metal.
Back then, you used to be able to drop your camera lens and it would land on it. It might dent it, it might not,
but it was pretty rugged. Rugged enough to take camping
with you. Almost like those metal camping
glasses, right? Or cups or the old canteens.
Back in the day, you could drop them off a mountain and other than having a huge dent on them, they still work great nowadays.
Let's say this, this little camera cover lens thingy is made out of plastic. But the biggest difference is
you can make a thousand of these for the same amount of price it would cost you the same cost for the old metal ones, 100 of those. But at the cost of 1000 of
these. You can drop that camera lens as
many times as you want and it's going to break and you can replace it for a fraction of the cost.
However, one thing you're giving up is the durability.
And of course, you could also damage your lens by dropping that lens with this plastic cover and the plastic cover snapping. Think about IKEA furniture.
That's a classic example we can all kind of get down with, right? I used to have an IKEA desk in
here. I'm not.
This is not a referendum on IKEA.
This is not a referendum on China, anybody.
But when it costs a lot less per item to produce a lot more than who doesn't want to take that? I mean, that's money right
there. If you're a business owner, if
you're a manufacturer, you want to save as much money as possible. Obviously same thing with labor.
And you want more money in your pocket while being, but while also being able to service more customers, right?
So it's very, it's very simple, but take an IKEA desk.
Everybody knows because we all shop at IKEA.
If you have an IKEA near you, you'd be foolish not to.
Everybody knows that IKEA furniture is good once you assemble it the first time. Once you start taking it apart,
moving around your apartment, the corner, start shearing off the particle board that the good IKEA stuff is made from.
Because there's some good IKEA stuff.
It's a bad IKEA stuff. It's some great IKEA stuff, but
mostly across the board. Everything you buy at IKEA has a
shelf life significantly shorter than old school furniture that was made the old fashioned way with better hardware.
Screws that don't strip edges or bindings, corners that don't come loose, no matter how many times you tighten them with the little Allen wrench, they just keep coming loose.
But like an IKEA desk, I used to have a white one in here, very popular. Everyone buys these desks.
And what I noticed is, you know, you put the screw in for the legs at the bottom of it. There was IKEA legs that you can
buy. But if anything happens to that
desk or you have to relocate one of those legs or starts getting loose, you have to kind of rotate the leg over and drill a new hole. Why?
Because of the way those things are made, you can't back a screw out and then reassemble it later and have just as much strength like you could any traditional desk.
But it costs a fraction of the price as a traditional office desk. It's lighter, it's cheaper, it
might actually look better visibly, but it's kind of a piece of crap because they don't make desks like they used to.
One time I took the desk and I went to chop it in half.
It was a long desk and I wanted to cut part of it and rotate it and buy four more legs and make an extension.
I took it downstairs. I put it on the table saw, and
as I started to cut it, I realized something really quick.
That thing is basically cardboard.
That's right, that desk is basically cardboard.
It wasn't even particle board. So once you cut it in half, you
can't even use the open part. You have to like tape it up,
which I did. I butted it up to the other one.
It's impossible to cut a straight line because The thing is basically cardboard. Which explains why when you back
a screw out of an IKEA desk or break a screw if the leg has too much pressure, you can never use it again.
The difference is you can buy ten of those desks.
Well, not ten. Maybe you can buy three of those
desks that not only look better but are at a fraction of the price of an original desk that you can't really do anything with. But they don't make them like
they used to. And so that's the thought.
So that applies to literally everything.
If you say they don't make them like they used to, it's because the way they make them now is more cost efficient for whoever it is that makes it. And we all kind of knew that.
But that's why I called this episode.
They don't make it like you used to because I think almost anything that we come across in life.
Take a look at this microphone. They've been making these
microphones Electro voice forever.
This is a professional broadcast microphone.
It's pretty expensive. It's not the most expensive out
there, but it's pretty expensive and they've been making these things for a long time and they're they've been expensive for a long time just because they try to make them like they used to. However, if you want, you can go
out and buy a different dynamic microphone, maybe unbranded on Amazon, 20 bucks. I can promise you, depending on
what you're using it for, it is not going to sound as good as this before any post processing because they don't make you can have that microphone. You say, God, they don't make
microphones like they used to. Oh, they still make them like
they used to. But if you want to save yourself
money and don't want to be that invested, you're going to buy something cheaper. I want to talk about social
media and the opinions of that. And you know, I, I've talked
about this before. One of the struggles that I've
had is to or challenges that I've given myself.
And you should do the same thing.
OK. And the challenge is know when
to respond to a social media post and when to back off.
And it's one of those things that depends on your personality. It depends on who's making the
post. If it's a random stranger,
there's no real reason. If it's family, friends, you
know, if, if, if it's an opinion piece, if it's something that's stated as a, as a, as a piece of fact and it's maybe actually incorrect, it could be a very strong opinion.
But I think learning the difference between this is someone's opinion versus this statement was made out of not only frustration, but it's their reality, It's their facts.
And it's also made based on little to no information or bad information. And so it's been really hard
because there's emotional opinions and there's opinions based on certain topics that are debatable.
Like one of the examples I'm going to play for you guys in a couple minutes is from the All In podcast, which I've talked about before, which is funny because my wife says, hey, you always play that All In stuff you always talk about on your podcast. I go, I don't, this is episode
273. You can ask any AI engine to go
through all my episodes and they will tell you, I may have mentioned this podcast maybe half a dozen times, if that.
So six times divided by 273 is not every episode.
But with all that being said, they talk about Harvard and I talked about that a couple minutes ago.
But I I could have a friend that may post Doge sucks.
Doge is cutting all these jobs. I don't like it.
OK, I get doge probably doesn't suck, but it's OK if you don't like what they're doing. That's your opinion.
But that opinion needs to be based off of facts like I've and I agree with some of this stuff. You know, should they be going
through and just randomly cutting jobs, their approach is turn off the water and see who basically starts raising their hand looking for their water. That's one way to go at it.
I don't personally think that's the best way to go at it.
Things need to be looked at on case to case, company to company. But understanding that in
knowing that they decided to like for USAID, right?
They decided to just cut all fun in the USAID.
That is the fact of the matter. That's a decision they made.
And that is a very debatable approach.
What's not a debatable approach is Doge sucks.
We're fine as we are. We're not fine as we are.
That's your opinion, that we're as fine as we are.
And I wouldn't tell you you're as fine as we are, as fine as we are, because that is your opinion.
But your opinion is based off of no factual information.
And I'm not singling anybody out here, but I OK, I'll put this one this way. I have a, a dear friend of mine
who had made a post on Facebook about there was, there was, there was something, an article that was posted online at a very reputable thing. And, and he said, I had to read
this. I can't believe this, this is
ridiculous. OK, that's his opinion based on
a fact of information. And so I reached out to him and
I go, hey, I read that a few times too.
And I guess I just want to know what your discrepancy is with it. And it's not required.
You can tell me or you don't have to tell me.
But I was just curious because what I didn't want to do is just respond to their post like, oh, yeah, well, why do you feel this way? Well, it's here's the deal with
social media. And this is one thing a lot of
you have not yet quite figured out.
If you just want to tell the world what you're feeling, that's what Facebook is for, absolutely, because Instagram's not even set up like that. But if you want to post
something that as a statement of fact, and unless you want a bunch of people to either, it's, it's confirmation bias.
Either the people who are your friends are going to agree with you or the people who are going to disagree with you.
And it's going to turn into this big argument about nothing.
And the last conversation, the last debate that you're going to win on social media is probably going to be the first one.
So think about that. So if, if, if one of your
friends post something you don't agree with or if you post something that somebody else doesn't agree with, be prepared to either A have a fight about it, which I don't recommend, especially if it's a friend of yours or B, get nothing but supportive comments or C people just turn you off or they mute you. That happens as well.
I've had to mute people on Facebook because every single one of their post is about this, this, this or this, or it's about that, that, that or that. And I'm like, I just want to say
how your family's doing. I want to see what you've done
to your car. I don't care about your opinion
on this because I can tell based on your opinion about AB and C that there's no one talking you off the bridge.
You're not open for debate. You're not open for
conversation. This is how you feel.
And this isn't a Republican or Democrat thing.
This is just you can apply this to just about everything there is on social media in the way of opinions and God bless.
Some people are great at just ignoring that.
I have some great friends. I know they see all this stuff
well when their peers do it. They don't say anything.
And so I've tried to be that person.
But if it's somebody I really care about, I might respond.
It depends on the tone that they have on their original post or you know, weren't one of my good friends, you know, Nate support of this podcast. You know, he responded to one of
our mutual friends that go, you know, that's that's your opinion. That's great, you're valid to
it, But are you open to discuss possibly another point of view?
And he laid, you know, he laid it out and you know, they didn't they had it back and forth. But I would say far from
negative. And I respect that approach.
You know, I joined that conversation as well.
And then I slid into this person's DMS and we had another conversation and it was all respect.
It was like, hey, you're going to this event.
Great. Hopefully I see you.
Yeah. I can't wait.
But there's a way to approach it because you don't want to really get in a fight with people that, you know, on social media and you consider friends because it makes it really weird the next time you see each other in real life.
And you sure So don't want to lose all friendships.
I've talked about this before. And it isn't just politics.
Again, this is pretty much anything that's debatable.
Or you could be a die hard Marvel person and say, well, MCU sucks and it has. They haven't had a good movie
since end game. Somebody else is going to fight
you on it or their people are going to be like, I don't know why adult men. I don't know why adults watch
comic book movies. There was a guy and I haven't
heard from in a long time, so I need to check up on him.
Maybe he just checked off the social media, But one of the times he posted, you know, why do grown men play video games?
Help me understand. I don't understand.
And then instead of engaging in the conversation, basically it was based. It was talking crap about any
adult that plays video games. And I think I weighed in once or
twice in a respectful way. And this person reciprocated in
a respectful way. Huh.
I didn't think about that. But when they originally posted
that, again, it's an echo chamber.
So everybody who follows them, who are in the exact same things they're in, it's like, yeah, I know what losers.
Spend some time in the gym, go to the shooting range, do this, do that. It's like, no, no, if you update
your status with a post, be prepared to have an intelligent adult conversation about it or don't post because it's not worth it. So what I want to do right now
is there's right now the, the, the Trump versus Harvard thing is like a really big thing. And I'd say the administration
and so on all in they had a conversation about on not the most recent episode because by the time this comes out, it would have been 2 episodes ago. I'm recording this on a Friday,
Friday the 25th. This came out the following
week. I will have it in the
description starting at the exact point of this conversation, but I think it's important because I wasn't sure what's going on because on the surface, it's OK.
The administration is sweeping through and trying to get rid of everything that has anything to do with DEI.
And I get a little cringe when I see or hear that because I think that, and I've said this before, in the past, the intention of DEI was good. I honestly believe it was good.
However, like many things, it's been abused, heavily abused, and so now it's been vilified. And it's a damn shame because
there are people who have been benefited by DEI and maybe for the better, but inherently, like with all good things, things slowly get abused. And so in talking about this
Harvard thing, I think the mainstream media and certain social medias will tell you that it's because they won't dump their DEI. So now they're being forced to
have their funding removed because they won't dump their DEI programs. However, here's context from
three different people on the podcast and all have something very valuable to say from Shamath Polyapatia, David Sachs, and then David Freiburg at the end.
So let's take a listen and we'll talk about these as they progress. You know, as I get this, as get
this set up, I think it's important, you know, to understand why I listen to these guys.
And my wife has accused me of just because that podcast, you'll just do what she solicited to too, until they started saying stuff that she didn't agree with.
And they don't agree with each other all the time either.
But I walk away every single time much more informed about just about everything than I did when I went into it.
And then it gives me an opportunity to form my own opinions or be like, oh, I didn't know that.
I guess that makes perfect sense.
So let's play the first clip here from Chamath.
Really important question. And right now, if you look at
the top of the educational hierarchy, Harvard, what have we seen over the last few years? They are at the absolute bottom
of the rankings with respect to free speech.
They have lost all of these cases all the way up to the Supreme Court about how they do admissions.
Harvard doesn't just have a front door.
It's got a bunch of side doors, got a bunch of back doors, and they discriminate. And what is the opposite of
discrimination? It's meritocracy.
And I think with 20 plus years of discrimination, what Harvard did was made it fashionable for other schools to discriminate.
And if you compound that for 20 years, it doesn't just touch the universities. It starts to touch the high
schools and the middle schools where we live.
At the beginning of COVID, we had some morons at the Board of Education decide to take away AP Calculus and AP Math because it made people feel bad. It's absolutely ridiculous.
And then we # these kids with ADHD pills and what happens is what you described him. So what is the point of fixing
Harvard? It's really important because
the opposite of what they do, what they do is discriminate, is a meritocracy. And we need to make that
fashionable again. OK, so there's a little bit to
digest there, right? We view Harvard as literally the
pinnacle of education in America.
If you went to Harvard, if you get a Harvard degree, you should in theory be able to go anywhere and everywhere with any company they say, oh this person went to Harvard, that's great, nothing wrong with that. However, they are at the bottom
statistically according to Shamas research.
And I trust his research and I'm positive that the information is online because they've talked about it before with the Ivy League schools a year ago, about how low the Ivy League schools rate for diversity. It's important.
And that is abusing the DEI standard that they have in order to keep this nonprofit status and get funding by the government. But notice what he said there,
OK, It started at Harvard and starting to spread to other schools, and it dribbles down to the high schools, to the middle schools, and that becomes systemic.
That's bad. That's very bad.
And so that's part of the big problem here.
So this perfect Harvard, but we think it is the reality is they've been not only accused but legally held responsible for abusing the Dai system. Let's listen to David Freiberg.
Sorry, David Sacks, and this is also important.
I'm going to break this up into two parts.
They want to make their own decisions about this and not have the federal government. Make this decision.
Let's get to the nitty gritty of the legal issue here.
In 1983, there was a case called Bob Jones University versus the IRS. Listen to this The IRS
challenged the tax exempt status of Bob Jones University because Bob Jones had this bizarre and reprehensible policy banning interracial dating on campus and interracial marriage based on a strange interpretation of Scripture at least.
OK, so in 1983, Bob Jones, right, they, the, the IRS challenged their tax exempt status because of these very prejudice racial policies that the that the school had, right.
So that's what he's saying here. That's what they said it was.
In any event, Bob Jones lost that case and they lost their tax exempt status. As far as I know, they kept the
policy and they continued to operate as a private university.
But the Supreme Court found that if you enshrine A racially discriminatory policy in violation of the civil rights laws and you cannot get tax exempt status.
So that was the precedent. Fast forward to 2023, we have
the case Students for Fair Admissions versus Harvard.
Two years ago, Students for Fair Admissions versus Harvard, so the students brought up a court case against Harvard.
This is the Supreme Court case a few years ago that said that affirmative action policies that use race as a factor in admissions are a violation of the 14th Amendment protection against racial discrimination. So Harvard lost that case.
They were found to be racially discriminating in admissions.
How about now what Harvard did in the wake of that is that they claimed that they removed. Before we go forward, so
racially discriminatory during admissions.
So what does that really mean? So you could take what DEI is
diversity, equity and inclusion. Like how do you think that they
could be kept found guilty of that?
They could be found guilty because they take these questions of racial identification by their applicants and say, OK, huh, Well, we already have enough Asian people just discount this kid.
We have enough black kids, We don't need any more.
See how that's racially diversive divisive.
See how that's bending what the DEI is intended to do illegally and unconstitutionally for admissions?
That's how DEI gets bent backwards.
That's essentially what has happened there.
Race from the admissions process so that the admissions readers don't know what race a student is.
This is their claim. But at the same time they did
that, they updated their application, replacing the long form essay, you know, that all of us filled out decades ago.
We went to school with five shorter questions asking how applicants will contribute to a diverse student body.
Suspiciously similar to these DEI statements where prospective professors who are applying for jobs these universities get asked, you know, how will you contribute to diversity on campus? Things like this.
And it's used as a way to discriminate against conservatives or people who just think that race or diversity should not be a factor in teaching on campus.
Anyone who answers that question, I believe in judging people based on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. They're they're going to get
weeded out, right? I mean, or someone who says,
well, I'm going to contribute to diversity on campus by contributing intellectual diversity.
Those are the types of applicants who get weeded out by these DEI statements. And we see that in another part
of what the government is claiming is that Harvard has is engaged in. You can see this in polling of
the the Harvard faculty. More than 80% of survey at
Harvard faculty identified as liberal.
Our state would be that they want to make their own decision.
All right, so viewpoint discrimination, that's a big one. So basically what that's saying
is, and a lot of you people out there are guilty of this is if you don't think like I do, if you don't believe in the exact same things I do, you don't have a place here.
How is that diversity? How, how so?
You're abusing that program if you don't think like we do here.
And so when polled, over 80% of the faculty identified as liberal. I, I, I don't care if you're
liberal or not, but if you have over 80% of anything that tells you exactly what your viewpoint is as a whole and how undiverse you are as a corporation. Did you guys see the NPR?
And she's newer, I think to her, to her position at NPR.
But she just got grilled on in front of Congress a few weeks ago because they said that she said MB RMPR is not, it's not left-leaning, it's not right leaning.
It's right down the middle reporting.
And everybody kind of laughed at her because over I forgot what the percentage was. I don't want to quote it, but it
was a very high percentage. So I'm going to make this
percentage up, but it is this unrealistic.
It was something like. Over 86% of your contributors,
your staff and everything are Democratic.
So of course all the opinion pieces are going to be Democratic left-leaning. That tells me that NPR has a
problem, and she finally admitted that they have a problem and she finally committed to trying to rebalance the scales. That's because they went
unchecked. Right now, Harvard is being kind
of checked on their current policy again.
They were found guilty when the students sued them in 2023.
So that's really what's going on here with Harvard.
It's not because the current administration is kind of get rid of all DEI. It's because people like Harvard
and these other schools and other corporations are grossly abusing the policy. Let's listen to one more from
David Freiberg, who was actually a liberal.
He's a liberal. Let's grab Freiberg's here.
It's the problem is that Harvard wants to have his cake and eat it too, right? They want to basically keep
engaging in racial discrimination through these DEI policies, but they want federal funding and you can't have both.
Do you think that these universities or universities in general that receive federal funding have become more ideologically call it liberal? I would call it a little bit
more kind of socialist oriented because they're dependent on federal funding. Do you see what I'm saying?
Like, is it the case that this ideology accrues over time when you are much more dependent on the government?
Right. So that is and Chamath says this
and I agree. Let me stop that right.
So that is like I said, Chamath said it following that up and I agree and he started going on about comparing China chips and all this other stuff. But is it to where universities
like Harvard are so dependent on this federal funding that over time they kind of bend their policies to ensure that they still get this money? Like do they really honestly
believe this way or they just kind of conditioned to believe this way so that they can ensure that they get that money that I think 260 million or billion dollars a year and it can't be a billion, right, $260 million a year from the federal government. And so the government right now
is saying you will cease and desist on these ways that you're doing if you want to get your funding.
And so Harvard either has two choices, either A, they can stop what they're doing and get the money, or B, they can lose their tax exempt status and keep doing what they're doing and just continue moving forward. Because these guys said that
Harvard has a $50 billion a year endowment, 50 billion.
So why would a school that gets that, that has donations of 50 billion and is worth 50 billion across the board need federal funding? I don't know.
What do you think? I think these guys laid out a
really good case as to why Harvard needs to not be federally funded or get rid of these policies that they have that they've been accused of and found guilty of discrimination.
And Chamoth also says later on that they find new ways to spend it, I guess. And then every two years they
get pulled up in court and lose and they switch it up again.
So I encourage you guys to listen.
That's about a 20, probably like a 25 minute conversation on that podcast and it's broken down. You can see the chapter I'm
going to have again, I'm going to have the link of it in the description, but I, I highly encourage it.
And it's, this is the type of stuff that I listen to and I only listen to like maybe once, like I don't listen to it that much. But this is the type of stuff
that I listen to that makes me feel more, you know, educated on what's going on because the mainstream media ain't telling you shit and absorbing this stuff on, on, on social media.
You have to really know what you're that you're absorbing and you have to kind of check it from time to time.
I was going to lead this episode, this episode I was going to lead with a story about a woman in Houston.
And I have one operator getting fired for hanging up on over 800 calls because I saw it going viral on social media.
And just before I started recording, I looked it up so I can find the article and actually read from it.
And guess what? This happened in 2018.
It's a bizarre story. She got fired for bleeding
calls. That's what it's called,
bleeding calls. I got fired ones for bleeding
calls. But it's not a new story because
seven years ago. So with all that being said,
want to thank my Patreon business supporters.
Cui Automotive out of Winter Garden, FL, Pell Construction out of Caledonia, MI, Big House Small Home Design out of Ashford, Virginia and Traverse City, MI, Shade Bros out of Boise, ID, and automotive Specialty Tool out of Owings Mills, MD. Q the official closing.
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Now it's stripping time. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Shut up.
About this episode
Exploring the theme 'They don't make them like they used to,' Jay Finning reflects on the evolution of products and opinions in today's society. He shares personal anecdotes, including a family fundraiser for cancer awareness, and discusses car news, including a WWII ship discovery and the future of the NSX. The episode also delves into the complexities of social media interactions and the importance of informed opinions, particularly in light of recent discussions surrounding Harvard's admissions policies and DEI practices. Jay emphasizes the need for critical thinking in both automotive and social contexts.
Original notes
EP273 – They Don’t Make Them Like They Used To
This episode has full video on the YouTube channel @HardParking
Have you done the “Tesla Challenge"? Chances are, “No”. This is a made up challenge of seeing how many traffic lights you can go without seeing a Tesla. How many Tesla’s are on the road in the United States?
A man was arrested for vandalizing as many as 6 Tesla’s causing over $21,000 in damages but was NOT charged by county attorney Mary Moriarty, yet she did charge a 19 year old first-time offender for allegedly keying a co-workers vehicle (non Tesla) upwards of $7,000 in damages.
How disciplined are you on social media when a friend or colleague makes a post you fundamentally disagree with? What is the real deal with the Trump administration threatening to remove Harvard University’s “tax-exempt” status? The All-In Podcast covered this discussion and Jhae plays some of the opinions and responds to them in this episode.
What is the real deal about the popular phrase “They don’t make them like they used to”?
How close are we really to seeing the next generation of the Honda / Acura NSX?
Main Show Sponsors:
- Right Honda: https://righthonda.com/
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Contact Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning:
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Links Referenced in this video:
Pancreatic Cancer Action Network: https://pancan.org/
Christy and Sandy’s crew: https://secure.pancan.org/site/TR/PurpleStride/PurpleStride?fr_id=2948&pg=team&team_id=59253
All-In-Podcast Podcast segment: (at 28 minute mark on All In pod)
Trump vs. Harvard: Why the White House is threatening to take Harvard's tax-exempt status away
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/trump-vs-harvard-nvidia-export-controls-how-dei-killed/id1502871393?i=1000704069760
YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/rCrb4TbHRxc?si=RKixQXc4MvhMQPiH
Other Links:https://x.com/SawyerMerritt?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/why-was-1940s-car-discovered-wreck-american-naval-ship-that-sank-during-world-war-ii-180986485/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/honda-acura-nsx-for-2030-is-already-here-still-with-ice-power-albeit-only-virtually-250081.html
https://kstp.com/kstp-news/top-news/hennepin-county-attorney-wont-charge-man-who-caused-20k-in-damage-to-teslas/
https://www.teslarati.com/atty-no-charge-six-time-tesla-vandal-controversy/
NPR Editorial Staff statistics and congress oversight meeting:
Jim Jordan and Katherine Maher (CEO of NPR): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-YBKr40feg
https://washingtonstand.com/news/npr-has-zero-republicans-87-democrats-on-editorial-staff-says-senior-editor-
https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/anti-american-airwaves-holding-the-heads-of-npr-and-pbs-accountable/ https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/18/us/harvard-university-endowment/index.html https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2022/7/13/faculty-survey-political-leaning https://www.thefire.org/news/columbia-nyu-join-harvard-bottom-2025-college-free-speech-rankings
Bob Jones Univ. v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983)
https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/461/574/
Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023)
https://www.oyez.org/cases/2022/20-1199
Hard Parking with Jhae Pfenning
Jhae Pfenning
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