RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE RENAULT FORMULA ONE CHEATING SCANDAL

[Get the latest “Truth With Speedzzter” here]

Nelson Piquet, Jr.’s vindictive admission of an intentional crash in last year’s Singapore Grand Prix has imperiled Renault’s Formula One effort and sidelined former team manager Flavio Briatore and former engineering director Pat Symonds.

Although “Truth With Speedzzter” usually doesn’t think much of the haggard, liberal “Old Grey Lady” (the New York Times), it published a thought-provoking analysis of the cheating fiasco by Brad Spurgeon. (Special thanks to Brian Lohnes at Bangshift for linking to the NYT story)

Truth With Speedzzter has the following random thoughts based on the NYT story:

1. Except for the obvious safety risk, is Renault’s scheme really any different than some of the manufactured cautions in NASCAR? Or "team orders?" Or campaigning for rules packages and franchising -- which protect the "stars" and the "haves" against the unheralded and the "have nots?"

(Where one comes down on this probably is a fairly decent indicator of one's level and stage of moral reasoning)

2. Nearly anybody with a thinking brain suspected the crash was orchestrated long before Piquet talked.

3. It may not be fair, but this is probably a career-ending move for Piquet (unless he wants to work as a Hollywood stunt driver or as a stand-in for "Top Gear's" "The Stig.")

Why? (a) because he succumbed to real or imagined pressure and did it in the first place ;(b) he talked about doing it; (c) he talked about it to retaliate against his co-conspirators.

4. The NYT piece contains the following quote:

"Criminality is not a perverted disposition to do evil rather than good," [Colin] Wilson wrote in "A Criminal History of Mankind." "It is merely a childish tendency to take shortcuts. All crime has the nature of a smash and grab raid; it is an attempt to get something for nothing. The thief steals instead of working for what he wants."

While this may describe some property crimes (and most cheating in motorsports . . . and the NYT's Jason Blair), it seems inadequate to explain evil and/or selfish acts motivated by rationales other than greed, covetousness, and self-aggrandizement.

Was the sadistic bully who popped you in the mouth on the playground "taking a shortcut?" (To where? The WWE?)

Were the September 11th highjackers "taking a shortcut?" (To what? Converting America into a fundamentalist Muslim police state? “Scoring” with 72 mindless, nubile bimbos in Mohammed’s heretical, egocentric, and ersatz version of “heaven?”)

Is the graffiti vandal "taking a shortcut" to The Louve?

More fundamentally, why isn't taking "something for nothing" evil?
Of course Jesus Christ would not agree with Colin Wilson’s new-age soft pedaling of criminality: “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.” Matthew 15:19

Of course, in the erudite, urban, pink-tinted, fellow-traveling world of the NYT, about the only “evil” left after deconstructionism and political correctness is: (a) the Bush Administration; (b) conservative talk radio and blogs; (c) Fox News; (d) serious, traditional, conservative Christians.

Another Bangshift discussion on an aesthetically hideous, formerly Chevy-powered Mustang II being hawked on eBay prompts these observations:

1. There is simply no justification for putting a BBC in a Ford. Any Ford.

BBFs (FEs, Cammers, 429/460, Boss) can make all the power you'll ever get to the pavement on the street.

Perhaps this is another place where that quote from the NYT story on Renault/Piquet fits: Installing a Chevy in a Ford is "a childish tendency to take shortcuts."

2. As for the nose (which Brian Lohnes asked for discussion of). . . who knew that Michael Jackson's plastic surgeon did auto body? . . .

I suspect N.Y. Governor David Patterson could have done better, even after a couple of hits off of a crack pipe and with another "floozie" in his arms (See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23785969/)

Is that thing made out of the box that a Mustang II came in?