Some random thoughts on a snowy, bitterly cold day in Akron.

• 2009 will surely go down as the Year of the Fire. By my count, we reported on 19 separate tire store/warehouse fires last year – more than any single year in memory. Some were accidents, as investigations showed. Some were arsons set by outsiders who were later arrested. And some remain unsolved.

• 2009 can also be remembered as the Year of the Tire Theft. Don’t think a week went by when we didn’t see news reports of one tire theft or another (there were three more this past weekend). Most were single-vehicle driveway jobs, but a good number of car dealers, truck lots and tire dealers were victimized on a larger scale. Some were daring deeds, including the theft of two tractor-trailers supposedly loaded with tires (only one was). Times are sure tough. But one has to wonder where the thieves were able to dispose of their bounty. Any ideas?

• Remember P.F. Flyers? Jack Purcells? SeaVees? Keds? Dunlops? They were all footwear developed and produced by tire companies. Back in the day, as they say, many tiremakers turned out sneakers or specialized footwear. SeaVees were the TopSiders of the day, for instance. Only Keds, first produced by U.S. Rubber (Uniroyal), still survive; it is a Stride Rite brand. The rest are faded memories.

• Gas prices may zoom back to the $3 per gallon level soon. Experts are convinced it will happen, but aren’t sure when. So much for experts. Still, pump prices in our area have hovered around $2.79 for more than a week, a sign that a new “normal” is being set. And crude prices, up three times what they were a year ago, appear bent on rising even higher in coming weeks. Great timing, what with high unemployment and cost-conscious consumers. Who is to blame? Oil speculators, of course, who appear to be back at the same antics they pulled when oil raced to $150 a barrel before the economy crashed.

• Always love to hear from Leo Gerard, president of the USW. As a contributor to the Huffington Post, Leo gets to vent on a pretty regular schedule. Most recently he was bemoaning media coverage of the USW’s “victory” against China. In late December, the International Trade Commission (remember them?) ruled in favor of the USW’s anti-dumping complaints and recommended added duties of 10.4% to 15.8% on China-made steel pipe. Seems the media – that “leftist” media – failed to hail his victory. Calling this a “screwy thing,” Gerard said the major media “characterized it (the ITC ruling) as Americans unnecessarily picking a fight with the Chinese.”

“What else is new?” Leo pondered. “It’s exactly what happened in September when the USW won tariffs in a trade case regarding imported Chinese tires.

“What’s particularly disturbing about this stance from the media is that it occurs only when a trade case involves manufactured goods,” he meandered. “The media strongly supports protections for copyrighted material – movies, music etc. The media have made clear they oppose Chinese piracy of intellectual property – you know, like the written and filmed products that media members produce.

“But their reaction is completely different when the Chinese violate international rules regarding manufactured goods. Then, the media blame the victims – the U.S. industries and workers – the same way defense attorneys accuse rape victims.”

Wow, Leo, you managed to equate media coverage of your trade tirades to a violent crime despised in virtually every civilized country. That takes some doing, folks, but I guess if you squint hard enough one can see the similarities between profit-driven corporations and their highly-paid (one might argue over-paid) factory workers and the innocent victims of a heinous crime.

And then Leo finishes his latest Post post thusly:

“America can enforce international trade laws. It works. Shortly after President Obama imposed the tire tariffs, Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. announced plans to add capacity to its Findlay, Ohio, plant and hire up to 100 workers. Other U.S. tire plants began recalling laid off workers.”

Leave it to Leo to take credit where credit is undue. As we have shown before, Cooper didn’t add those workers because of the tariffs, and the others who were laid off were brought back because of inventories of high-margin tires (the ones they still make here) were depleted. Not a single brick has been laid for that new low-margin broadline tire plant, Leo.

If, as Gerard claims, “American manufacturers, workers and communities are…fed up with the media blaming them when all they’re asking for is justice,” they should be equally angry about the half-truths and chilling phrases the USW chief likes to toss around.