I'm a little tired of the European attitude. It's as if you aren't accepted as an American unless you agree with their bashing and profess complete hatred for everything about your government, culture, society, beliefs, etc. After a long time of this, it begins to give you a distaste for Europeans, which is irrational and against your will, but present nonetheless. Some of you guys are okay, but then you also know where I'm coming from.

And on another note, there's a 5'8" 240 pound (overweight) woman who applied for a position as a 'Jazzercise' instructor. She didn't get the job. Now she's SUING!! She says she's being discriminated against. God where do these people come from? News Flash: employers are ALLOWED to discriminate. That's what they do. Are we going to lift all functions away from business in an overwhelming wave of litigation and government intervention? Force a business owner to make a poor decision? Because she got her feelings hurt?

They wouldn't hire her because they felt she didn't fit their requirements for the job. BOOM, she runs and cries to the courts because a private business made a normal everyday independent hiring decision. Imagine if 130 pound guys who wanted to be bouncers ran to the courts. Imagine if 90 pound women who wanted to be firefighters ran to the courts. Imagine if an unshaven drug addict who smelled like a 100 year old circus tent and who wanted to be a sales representative ran to the courts. Imagine if some Birkenstock-wearing long-haired facial-pierced guy who wanted to work at a Porsche dealer ran to the courts.

If she "wins", we all lose, but in case she does, I'm going to go be a Dallas Mavericks player.

And how about the woman and mother in New Jersey who shot and killed her coked-up AND drunk, violent ex-con ex-boyfriend who promised to kill her and came after her at her home? In Texas there'd be no issue, no court proceedings, cut and dry. In New Jersey she's facing 30 years with no parole. Who was the victim here? I suppose if she wanted to follow the letter of the law, she should have let him beat the crap out of or kill her and her daughter. That would be justice, New Jersey style.

OK, rants over. I rarely get 'stressed out', but I'm feeling stressed out somewhat this week.

It appears the Yamaha announcement Friday is going to be that the FJR1300 is coming here. Several people have it on good authority. Not exactly a 'Super Sport', but what the heck.

Bikepic: here is a picture of the three open class sportbikes for '02. I'll take the one in the middle, please. The new R1.

Okay, cars. I'm really digging the new Nissan 350Z. It's not beautiful, but the design is at least clean. Its 3.6 liter non-turbo (and therefore non-laggy) V6 is rated at 280 crank HP, it's rear wheel drive, 6 speed manual, dual exhaust, 18" wheels with 245/45-18 rear tires, a no-nonsense interior with 2 bolstered sport seats, under 3200 pounds, and under $28,000. Perfect. Should be available in 9 months.

Of course, there's also the Mazda RX-8, also due out in late Autumn. It's the return of the rotary! I'm not completely enthused about the package though. First, it's only going to be available with a 6 speed automatic. Second, the engine makes a ton of power, but is lacking in the torque department (hence the SIX speeds in the auto transmission). The engine has been nicely redesigned with vastly better emissions, heat management, noise level, etc., but their decision to up the redline by 2000 and drop the turbos means you'll have to rev the piss out of it to make the car go quick. It's still a 1.3 liter two rotor, I'm not sure why they can't bump it to something like a 2.4 liter three rotor. Third, it's a four door four seater and I'm not crazy about the design. Fourth, it's heavier and costs more than the 350Z. It's got rear wheel drive and an engine I'd probably fall in love with despite its lack of guts though.

The new Mitsubishi Evo VIII due next year is real big with people right now, even though like the WRX, we in the states get the neutered engine version with more weight. I don't know much about it. But I know the Subaru WRX has made a huge impact on the market. I get a weekly car magazine called Autoweek. In the latest one, there's a column where the writer asserts that the popularity of rally video games of the last 6 years have been partially responsible for Subaru's decision to finally bring their performance car to the US. It's a nice car. All wheel drive and turbocharged, but light, inexpensive, and responds well to mods (and has a gigantic aftermarket supported by an enormous number of online resources).

And then there's the extremely shapely 2004 Mazda Miata (no picture available). It's a total departure from the current Miata and is by far the best-looking of any of these cars. It would be sweet enough with the slightly uprated inline-4 engine, but there's talk of putting the Renesis rotary from the RX-8 in a high-end Miata, which seems like a natural thing to me. That package would weigh 800 pounds less then the RX-8, which would alleviate some of the problem of lack of torque, and with that kind of power, you'd get sportbike-like acceleration if you kept it on the boil. Well, maybe not, but it would move nicely.

Finally, there's the Pontiac Solstice. Only a concept so far, but they say it may be on the way. It's a roadster, manual tranny, rear-wheel drive, supercharged little inline-4, smooth and fun-looking.

It's a good bet one of these will be my car in the future.

Get this. Stock Supra Turbos produced about 280-290 HP at the rear wheels. Click here to check out a Supra that's currently putting over 850 horsepower down. Notice it has tasteful paint, no graphics, very little extra bodywork, etc. He has more pictures, dynos, videos, mod list, etc.

Oh, and I got my new Cycle World and learned what Rob Marley, son of Bob Marley, is up to these days. They have a big story on organized street stunt riders. Rob belongs to a Miami team and they have a picture of him with no gear doing push-ups on the tank of an R1 painted like a circuit board while travelling 40 mph. Wild.