Fort Ben

By the way, Indianapolis will benefit from the addition of about 3,500 jobs to the Fort Benjamin (US Army) Defense Finance Center (they do much of the Army's accounting). This should prove to be a big boost to the IT job market.

Brief rant about free trade

We have MUCH BETTER CARS as a result of free trade. I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and a person such as my dad could hardly dream of going well over 100,000 miles w/o serious problems to fix on their automobile (such a thing is routine for me; I hate to spend money on cars). Dad's '76 Volare had baeen nonstop frustration up to 49K, when we sold it (it felt like an old heap then); the '80 Ford Fairmont chugged sadly with a cracked head by 70K; ditto for the '81 Escort by about 60K. The '70 Charger, I vaguely recall, was not trusted with long out-of-town drives after about 60K. And we had bailed out of the nightmarish '70 AMC Hornet at 59K, thinking we'd get improvement with the Volare. THe first car I recall really making Mom and Pop happy was the '86 Taurus (a European-influenced sedan); it seemed pretty smooth up through 125K, and clapped out at 146K (my mon wasn't keeping it well-oiled, I don't think). Long-winded, yes, but I think it illustrates how far we've come. Thank you, Japan.