Halford fucking wept.

I own a 2008 Ford Ranger. This is one of the millions of cars and trucks affected by the Takata airbag scandal. In short, a Japanese contractor cut every corner possible, faked test results, a delivered millions of fatally flawed passenger side airbag systems to multiple car makers.

The first recall notification came to use a few years ago. It said to wait for a notice that replacement parts were available. We waited. Then another notice arrives telling us that my passenger seat is a spikey deathtrap, and under no circumstances should anyone ever sit in it! Darby the Ranger is our main car these days, and the car we drive to Burning Man. So unless Ford is going to loan me a F-150 for the duration, no.

Finally, in yesterday's mail, there comes a letter stating that our long national airbag nightmare is over. Parts are available! Call your dealership! With Google calendar open, ready to make the date, I call to schedule a replacement that's been needed for close to six years.

They're out of parts. For fuck's sake, who is running this whorehouse? I'm not blaming Capitol Ford, or Ford itself, they are as much a victim of Takata as I am, but you think that someone in a corner office in Dearborn might have said "fixing this problem before any of our competitors is our highest priority!" and authorized an emergency program to source and acquire replacement airbags.

So now I'm number 6 (heh) on the waiting list, and Teshub only knows when parts will become available. In the meantime, I think we tape a big pillow to the dash.

Super to Stupor

I'm done with the last two superhero shows I was watching, Arrow and The Flash. Neither kind find anything original to do, the characters are stagnant, and the writing sucks.

For the third season in a row, Team Flash is facing a villain who is always ahead of them. Nothing they do matters, as DeVoe has every variable planned. Even for things he can't possibly know are happening. As in last season, episode after episode of futility is not entertaining television. As I said before, the good guys need to win a few battles to keep people rooting for them.

Then there's the sudden moralizing. Barry Allen has literally reset time to get what he wants. Suddenly, even the option of killing a serial murderer who absorbs the powers of those he kills is somehow off limits? This option is raised by Ralph Dibny, the Elongated Man. Ralph is on the list of metahumans DeVoe is hunting for absorption. After their multiple failures to even slow Devoe down, Ralph brings up the necessity of killing this monster to save his own life.

Barry, being a condescending twat, says that "we're heroes, we don't kill." Fuck that. So of course, you know what happens. DeVoe has a plan based entirely on everyone acting exactly as expected exactly when expected (seriously, a second cup of coffee and a bathroom break ruins his scheme) and kills Ralph.

Fuck this. Ralph had become the only interesting character on the show. The CW writers seem determined to reduce everyone to a bland cardboard cutout.

They get one more episode to fix this.

Meanwhile, I've given up on Arrow, as I have completely stopped caring about any of these fuckers. None of them have the brains to pour piss out of a boot. More unstoppable bad guys, more terrible decisions made by allegedly smart people, and the fight sequences have become dull. The CW rule applies here: no one is ever allowed to be happy for more than one commercial break. Everyone spends their lives in constant gloom and fear.

Done.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: American televisions have to adopt story arcs with set endings. Arrow vs. the League of Assassins would have been a great five-year storyline. Give The Flash a similar arc, facing off against a large threat that builds while he battles the rogues gallery and picks up clues. And let people be happy once in a while!