Listening to the Senate testimony on NPR this morning, I was chuckling to myself when one of the generals tried to explain the difference between the Gitmo bay detainees and the Iraqi detainees, and how the Geneva Convention applies to one group and not the other. (Habeas what?)

Desirability. Stopping for a burger in Ellicott City last night, we came upon a near-cherry Austin-Healey 3000 sitting in the parking lot, looking like it was doing 100mph sitting still. And me, without my camera.

Mobility. Given the state of my current automobile, here’s a checklist of the things I’d like to have on my next vehicle, which will be showing up shortly after our return from Italy, with any luck.

• An engine that doesn’t overheat at the drop of a hat (forcing the use of the defroster on high, in August—minus the Scout, the last three of my vehicles have shared this tiresome trait; it’s getting old)
• A transmission that doesn’t slip out of gear during turns at speeds higher than 30mph (going back to a standard would be just fine with me)
• 4 doors (gotta make room for our future KISS army)
• Some kind of cargo capacity beyond a cupholder
• Seats that don’t promote scoliosis in adult humans
• A windshield that doesn’t make my future bride sick to look through

Also desirable, but not mandatory:

• mileage above 25 highway
• 4-wheel drive
• A working radio/CD player
• A pickup bed of more than 6-foot length, but I’ll take the 6

What I really want is a stripped down 6-cylinder fullsize pickup with a crewcab for under $15K, but that’ll never happen, considering Detroit’s need to throw a DVD player, Hemi, and leather heated asswarmers in every truck larger than a Matchbox. What I’ll settle for is a used Tacoma crewcab with 60K miles and a 4-cylinder engine. Finding that truck locally will be the big problem.