Finally Chrysler issued a retro-fit kit to convert back to carburetor, no charge regardless of milage. It included--I know this list off the top of my head becuase of the number of those retrofits I performed--fuel lines for the entire lengh of the car, fuel tank, fuel pump, intake manifold, carb, linkage, air filter housing, instrument cluster, dash wiring harness, engine comptment wiring harness, complete exhaust system, heat shields, compliance labels, and all the associated brackets and fasteners

Anyone recall the Chrysler horror show they billed as "Electronic Fuel Injection" on the early to mid-eighties Imperials? It was basically a throttle-body injection system, and that wouldn't be so bad except that the major components--including the electronics--were all contained within the air cleaner housing, a part they called the "hydraulic platform".
If anyone can think of a dumber place to put even decent-quality electronics (and even decent quality electronics didn't appear in domestic cars until the 90s) I'd like to hear it--maybe on top of the cat convertor.
In addition to the extraordinarily high fail rate, there were no component parts, no exchanges, no rebuilds. When a platform failed--and it was always the platform--the tech pulled it off and the parts dept sent to out for repair. In six to eight weeks, it came back; sometimes fixed, sometimes not. In the meantime the car sat.

I'm afraid you're right. We have ceased being citizens and are well on our way back to being subjects.

The simple answer is to turn every toll booth into an sobriety / immigration status / seat belt / driver's license / insurance checkpoint and then ALL the do-gooders will be happy!

I agree with gigabytousai; its the same theory by which credit card companies raise your interest rate if you pay off your balance each month.

This is the logical outcome of the anti-tax movement. They don't get that it costs money to live here; all this stuff we enjoy as Americans is not free and everyone has to pay their fair share of the rent. No politician has the balls to stand up and say that so instead we get the next worst thing to slavery, for-profit law enforcement.

No one cared when asset seizure bankrolled the "war on (some) drugs" because that was just crackheads and stoners, but now that it has filtered down to the average motorist, perhaps those who argue so fervently about rights will take notice.

If the state of Illinois can't afford a state police department and the state's residents are not willing to voluntarily tax themselves to pay for it, perhaps they need to entertain the idea that maybe they don't need it.

I'm certainly apprehensive. There are those say "if you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to fear." But while that may be true most of the time, more and more it is not. The first thought that crosses my mind when I see a cop--especially if he seems to be showing some interest in me--is this going to be the time I'm mistaken for the guy who held up the 7-11 a couple hours ago? Am I going to bring down the wrath of a cop's stressful shift because he interpreted my misunderstanding of his instructions as belligerence or resistance? Am I going to take a bullet because I moved too quickly? Will I get tazed because I might be too demanding when asking why I was being "detained"?

The fact is the police have built a wall between us and them and tend to view civilians as their lessers. Although most cops are good dedicated public servants many are authoritarian bullies. And I while I have an absolute right to defend myself from a criminal, I totally lose that right when my assailant is a LEO.

Yes, I fear the police.

Every NMA member needs a car with at least 5000 horsepower so we can get up to 120 mph before the school zone ends and we have to run the red light. And every car should have a wet bar right in the console because you know how much we like to drive drunk. AWD is necessary because we need to be able to wantonly break the law and threaten lives in any weather conditions. Of course we are all very protective of the environment so we like to wreak our mayhem in hybrids.

I don't understand why you need to have this repeatedly explained to you.