Status Messages

• Aug 28, 2009

Status Messages

My Gmail-integrated-chat status message is sort of my version of twitter.  Character limited blurbs of what’s going on, interesting facts and quotes, links to various stuff.
For some reason there are still some people who don't use gmail as their primary personal email client.  So they don't get to see any of my status messages.
Not to worry!  I have been collecting them for about the past 10 months:


http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2008/11/green-dime

To pull a man out of the mud, a friend must set foot in that mud - Rabbi Nachman

"In my day, television was called 'books' "

Eat Drink and Be Merry, for tomorrow we die

if you can read this, thank a teacher


poor and happy

do you deserve to be a citizen? http://www.nbcnews.com/id/13442226/  or   http://usgovinfo.about.com/blinstst.htm

I want to cuddle her fucking brains out

I consider cuteness an unnecessary bonus.  Fucking jackpot, man.

Set Status Here

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=51170

http://www.balkanbeatbox.com/

http://toomuchonline.org/

You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/15/world/fg-shoe15

No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in

http://www.jonentine.com/reviews/sf_examiner.htm

Dinosaur Rap

"I think presumptuousness and judgementalness are major traits of your personality"

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it. - Georg Hegel

Spare The Air Day, Tomorrow September 5

I can not think of any clever or informative status messages

1/3 of Americans did not vote.

"The impact to the environment, human health, and animal welfare would be enormous if everyone would just cut back on the amount of meat they eat. If 5 people are each vegetarian 20% of the time the impact is the same as 1 person 100% of the time." (stolen from a customer's status message)

Buy Nothing Day, this Friday.  X-mas is about compassion and humanity (and Jesus), not buying lots of crap

Geekfest - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A man is as young as (the woman) he feels

An enemy of socialism cannot write in our newspapers - but we don't deny it, and we don't go around proclaiming hypothetical freedom of the press where it doesn't exist, the way you people do - Fidel Castro (Playboy, 1967)

Lets allow love to kindle even when its a bad idea.  Maybe we end up burning the whole fucking house down and losing everything we own and having to sleep in the street.  Maybe.  I prefer the risk to curling up in the cold on the floor indoors because I'm too afraid to light the fireplace.

Bicycle!

Terror Experts Warn, Next 9/11 Could Fall on Different Date

One year left http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/01/one-more-year.html

http://www.utne.com/mind-body/Get-Radical-Get-Some-Rest-Vacation-Time-Off.aspx

They are starting to get desperate http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/01/14/us-usa-pilot-idUSTRE50D12320090114

The next President of the United Stateshttps://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1suPd6eaJCvynGxFbbBnMVjwTs-GLsCdA5dyrdh9BMyQ7aTMVV6tDjl3kbqrHxdKH-UQCSpEAiH9hndMHh7hdJyjRziyL-lhUjFWUWaD5yFr_esXOZTT1iFZu6YSx5OLVHxzp01QenVk/s1600/barack-obama-beach-450x688.jpg

How much you can do depends on where you believe your limits are. You can do a lot more when you don't know that you can't

I work hard, and I play hard.  Wait, no... I don't work hard at all

if jerks like us would start driving cars like normal people, maybe we could have 70 degree winters every year

"It's good to be open minded, but not so much that your brains fall out"

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Militant Agnostic - I don't know, *and you don't know either!*

I wonder if penguins feel inadequate for not being ok without a partner in life?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/ethics/

solution to credit crunch: don't live beyond your means

Goodnight

I never give compliments. I merely make statements and observations of truth

I'm _far_ more humble than you motherfucker

http://www.utne.com/Politics/Is-Poverty-the-Problem-Or-Is-Wealth.aspx

In order to make a solar panel or wind turbine, you have to mine for the iron ore to make the steel, and drill for oil to make the plastic parts

But I was young and foolish then...                ...          I feel old and foolish now

I had to work 5 whole hours today!
No one should ever work 5 hours in one day

Good morning

The island of Guernsey is less than 10 miles across, and nearly every adult owns a car.  http://gubbinsexperiment.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-to-do-about-parked-cars.html

Your lifestyle is excessive and unsustainable

A life not enjoyed is a life wasted

Work all day, party tonight, date tomorrow ;)

In a pure free market, if a comet is coming, everybody dies http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/global-warming-vs-fascism-or-why-nasa.html

$1/2 million cap on tax payer money to CEOs. Pobrecitos http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/fashion/08halfmill.html?_r=3&

"so... due to your heroic deeds fixing our wiring, my roommate has insisted that i go on another date with you"

Large truck + sharp turn off of freeway + gobs of rain + people braking suddenly up ahead for no apparent reason = hydroplaning + fishtailing + adrenaline + a nice little test of my reflexes

Everyone is pro-democracy until the people vote for a law they don't like.  Overturning prop 8 in court = fascism.

11:34.  Guess I'll get dressed.  Good lord I love being self-employed.

http://inequality.org/inequality-data-statistics/

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/everyday_economics/2006/10/how_the_web_prevents_rape.html

I don't play devil's advocate.  I mean, I'm not playing.  I really _am_ the devil's advocate.  Seriously.  The devil is totally awesome.  You should check him out sometime.

I discovered the jelly bean machine accepts pennies.  Uh oh.  So much for rationing...

In Texas, owning 6 or more dildos is a felony.  If you own 5 or fewer, you are merely a hobbyist http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaUl6x1YXpg

The net worth of America’s wealthiest 1 percent now exceeds the net worth of the entire bottom 90 percent. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/fy2010_new_era/Inheriting_a_Legacy1.pdf

I was doored on my skates today for the first time ever.

"There are worse things in life than getting your heart broken. It sucks but it's a good honest kind of hurt. Makes you more human"

Censorship at its best:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyJR7QlRhM4

I just got pulled over and given the breathalyzer for driving too slow!

Former BikeStation employee shot by Israeli military  http://www.insidebayarea.com/news/ci_11907109

$450million from tax payers directly to the personal accounts of those most directly responsible for the credit crises - including $6.5million to a single AIG executive: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/16/business/16aig.html?_r=1

I do enjoy my job, but I don't like having to do anything for hours every week.  I'd rather do other things with that time, like, you know, talking to my friends.  I guess I could charge them... but then I'd probably have fewer friends.

4.5 Million Americans are on unemployment (the most in 26 years); only 1/3 of the unemployed receive benefits

21.75 MPG in the 5500lb truck!!!!

The comments after the article are from the generally progressive readers of Mother Jones; we really are going to go the way of the yeast in a beer barrel - drowning in our own waste because we are incapable of not breeding: http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/03/tiniest-baby-booms-monster

"Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck ... locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks." - http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2009/02/spoiled-organic-and-local-so-2008

"People are people, and I still love them (especially the women)"

"Big Brother is not only watching, he is recording it all for later.  And thanks to Congress, there’s not a damn thing we can do about it."

"Human kindness can be a renewable resource"
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1407952648?bctid=1657909722

"Prior to the 1980s, conservatives were fiscally conservative-  they were unwilling to spend more than they took in in taxes. But Reaganomics introduced the idea that virtually any tax cut would so stimulate growth that the government would end up taking in more revenue in the end. In fact, the traditional view was correct: if you cut taxes without cutting spending, you end up with a damaging deficit. Thus the Reagan tax cuts produced a big deficit; the Clinton tax increases produced a surplus; and the Bush tax cuts produced an even larger deficit. The fact that the American economy grew just as fast in the Clinton years as in the Reagan ones somehow didn't shake the conservative faith in tax cuts as the surefire key to growth." - Francis Fukuyama

screw mutant fruit

"With just 5% of the world's population, America holds nearly 25% of the world's reported prison population. Our prison population has quadrupled since 1984, and most of the increase comes from people being imprisoned for drug offenses--mostly minor and nonviolent."

Only 5 billion years until the sun expands and engulfs the Earth.
Make the most of them.

Gay animals even more common than we thought: http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/the_gay_animal_kingdom/

Infant male prairie voles (a normally monogamous specie) which are injected with a single dose of chemical which disrupts oxytocin fail to ever bond with a mate as adults.

29 to 68% of the offspring of monogamous bird species are the results of feathered infidelities.

She's like the character in a movie who comes into the lonely/forlorn/nerdy/hopeless protagonist's life all of a sudden, and complete turns his outlook around, changes his life permanently.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/how-are-corporations-going-green,7598/
Happy 4500millionth birthday, Earth

"In any case, I need another installment of the soap opera  that is Bakari's all natural biodiesel dating frenzy. The Bold and the Biodiesel? General Handyman?"

24mpg http://www.instructables.com/id/Vehicle-efficiency-upgrades/

1100sq ft RV for multimillionaire trailer trash
http://www.andersonmobileestates.com/

Ty, your comment provided me the motivation to actually write this: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/gay-animals-social-sex-and.html

Total # of deaths from "swine" flu: 8                   
Total annual deaths from regular old human flu: 500,000               

"I have no idea why anyone went to the movie in the first place, let alone rent it." - Paul Haggis, writer/director of Crash, on its being Netflix's most rented video for the past 4 years

Average US passenger vehicle fuel economy peaked in 1987
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/energy/i/cafe_standards.htm

Yesterday I did some thing most unusual... Cleaned :)

War predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY9LNEJNrZs&feature=related

Females in more than 80 species eat their mates http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=ELahVSsrmA8

Slavery predates vertebrae http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=7jsX0_mwTX8&feature=related

% of Americans who believe in:                           ..   
Astrology - 40%
Creationism - 50%             
ESP - 60%                  
Magnetic Therapy - 70%

Bike-ari

lots of stuff to get rid of http://www.biodieselhauling.org/Salvage.html

me = tired


May is bike month.  Its not too late to sign up: http://www.youcanbikethere.com/user/register

Didn't meet my goal, but did better than last year 1:11:31 and am in MUCH less pain than last year! :)

"I saw your truck on 580 this morning as I was heading in to Instructables, and I thought, "I should check out that website."  Now, I'm reviewing entries in the efficiency contest, and here's your truck again!" - CEO of instructables.com

Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits reunion show!!! 

I think I have swine flu.  It is getting back at me for making fun of it on my blog.

Counter-protest http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/counter-protest-not-that-theres.html

"It would be zero emissions if it weren't for the tire smoke" http://www.commutercars.com/videos.html

*26.8 mpg* in a commercial truck!!!

"This is the reason your headaches didn't go away:  that's pronounced _analgesic_ not 'anal'gesic.  The pills go in your mouth."

Winner! http://www.instructables.com/contest/earthjustice/?show=WINNERS

The Obama Reality Show: http://www.hulu.com/the-obama-administration

conservative morality http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_on_the_moral_mind.html

Walmart forces major manufactures to provide earth friendlier products, brings green to the lower classes http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/business/25walmart.html

In a nationwide survey of Americans, atheists were ranked lowest of all groups in terms of trustworthiness, sharing America's vision of society, and approval of who their children marry - lower than Muslims, recent immigrants, and homosexuals.

http://journey.totheendofthenight.com/oakland

The human side of evil http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

"sometimes there's a third, even deeper level, and that one is the same as the top surface one.  Like with pie." http://www.hulu.com/watch/28343

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/101-5-mpg-my-2003-ninja-250-a-8686.html

goodnight everybody.  I'll put that link back up tomorrow in case you missed it

I just ate food which I GREW MYSELF!!!!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etzs3Cc8pxI&feature=related

we parked 160 bikes at the first annual Uptown Unveiled festival

Haircut ordered by President of the United States http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-collections/229295/colbert-report-adventure-quest?current_video=230466

The richest dozen Americans hold roughly as much wealth as the entire lower 50% of the population

http://blog.okcupid.com/

http://www.cafepress.com/BioDH

Downieville!!!!!!!

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17372-gallery-domestic-robots-with-a-taste-for-flesh.html

Oakland has the nation's cleanest tap water.  Why are you still buying it in bottles?

"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

A 7 year old told her mother that a boy in her class asked her to play doctor.  "Oh dear, what happened honey?" asked her nervous mother.
"Not much," said the little girl, "He made me wait 45 minutes, then double billed the insurance company."
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/07/cheese-eating-healthcare

She's so hot she's making me sexist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JT5AQIlmM0I

I was probably the best dressed guy there.        
Imagine that!!!
ME!?!?!?!?!

I have $5 left in the bank.

"What happened?"             
"we grew up"                       
"but you're still playing it" 
"hmm... well... I guess _they_ grew up."

another instructables contest: http://www.instructables.com/id/Large-Self-Watering-Planter-made-from-recycled-mat/

Even I think other entries are better than mine... but vote for me anyway:

A "hands-free" cell phone contributes about as much to safer driving as a dashboard beverage holder contributes to safer drinking and driving.

NASCAR saving gas http://ecomodder.com/blog/dale-earnhardt-jr-hypermiles-to-victory-in-nascar-racing/

http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2009-07/computerized-rat-brain-spontaneously-develops-complex-patterns

Notice any similarities? http://tiny.cc/hp2009  and  http://tiny.cc/hp1955         Where does it stop?

Old-school Bakari-style rant-essay: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/04/race-whites-still-winning.html

The number one killer of Americans under 40?  Car accidents.  Every time you get in a car, you may die.

people who should be natural allies against the elite, instead focusing on fighting each other: http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/8794

http://www.utne.com/Media/Tao-of-War-Photography.aspx

I do measure up to the myth though ;-)
http://www.salon.com/comics/..knig/2007/06/20/knig/index...html

Using a cellphone (even w/ handsfree) produces accident rate equal to DUI
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/19/technology/19distracted.html?_r=1

My ex says I like to talk, and don't spend enough time asking questions. I think that's probably a valid criticism.

The average new car has around 250 horsepower.  For comparison, my 2.5 ton truck which is capable of hauling another 3 tons at freeway speeds and up San Francisco hills has under 170 horsepower.

I just got home from singing Bohemian Rhapsody while wearing a bright blue sparkle shirt in Oakland's most famous gay bar and I wonder why people mistake me for gay

today marks 3 years of biodiesel powered hauling and delivery

Slow down http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/slow-down-my-philosophy-for-life-also.html
3 jobs, 4 truck problems repaired; long day - all finished now! :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3n5LMNplE

BART strike Monday!! Which means no BikeStation either :( On the other hand, since traffic will be terrible, this is the perfect time to start riding your bike to work :)

Whole Foods CEO is campaigning against national healthcare http://www.alternet.org/story/141961/why_you_should_boycott_whole_foods        http://www.careerjournal.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html

Safeway, Lucky's, and Albertson's are unionized. Trader Joe's and Whole Foods aren't.

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/07/i-am-capitalized-and-you-are-not.html

Why does everyone think necrophilia is sick?  They didn't think it was sick beforehand.  When she was "alive"

Tap water standards are higher than bottle water standards, yet bottled water costs approx. 2000 times more. http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2009/07/bottled-waters-can-you-taste-difference San Fransisco and the East Bay have some of the nations cleanest tap water. 

"Of course, everyone - regardless of race and sex - will hit occasional bumps on the road. And everyone, white men included, has put out some sort of effort to get where they got. But when the folks on the smoother road go faster and further, let’s not pretend it’s because they’re better drivers."

http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2008/02/top-7-reasons-to-learn-lojban.html

"Middle class people put a tremendous amount of focus on addressing issues of language and protocol, but addressing one’s racist conditioning is more about communication than language, more about self-awareness than protocol, more about humility than expertise." http://www.anarchistnews.org/?..q=node/9455

The future of transportation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?..v=hdJrUuoU53s

If you are going to be stopped more than 1 second, it takes more fuel to idle than to start http://www.iwilltry.org/b/projects/how-many-seconds-of-idling-is-equivalent-to-starting-your-engine/
Shut your engine at every red light.

People are like elephants.  Some of them are just jerks.

http://laughingsquid.com/never-go-to-work-by-they-might-be-giants/

Slow down. My philosophy for life also applies to the road.

Slow down. My philosophy for life also applies to the road.

I have been requested to post something positive.
In light of that request, I am putting a positive spin on what I was going to write anyway.

While I am generally good at pointing out problems and at complaining, I don't generally offer much by way of solutions.
This time I have a very concrete solution, which is within easy reach of ordinary Americans, with no risk, no cost, and a negligible amount of inconvenience.
It is something you, the reader, can do.


But first, a short history lesson:

In October of 1973 a group of nations got sick of the US “foreign policy” of military intervention, and, knowing we had developed a lifestyle totally dependent on oil, they all agreed not to sell us any more.
This caused massive and immediate affects throughout the US economy. Buying fuel, at any price, meant waiting in long lines – on those days you were even allowed to buy gas at all*
The government took steps to encourage conservation – which (unlike sourcing new oil) could be done immediately – such as banning Christmas lights.
Another major step they took was to enact a national speed limit of 55mph.
The reason for this is that at higher speeds air resistance increases exponentially** relative to speed. Going twice as fast requires 4 times the energy. This is as true of modern vehicles as it was in 1973. It will always be true, because it is due to fundamental physics. All vehicles, small or large, gas or alternative fuel, use more energy at speeds above 45mph.
In fact, going from 55 to 70mph typically uses between 20% and 25% more fuel to go the same distance.***
25% is a massive amount more fuel to use – at our current national usage, that amounts to approximately 5 million barrels of oil every single day!
That’s 175 million gallons.
That just happens to almost exactly equal the amount we purchase from the Middle Eastern OPEC nations.
In other words, if we still had (and actually enforced!!!!) a 55mph national speed limit today, that alone would completely eliminate any need for importing oil from the Middle East.

Guess it turns out congress occasionally does something sensible, eh?

Next, a physics lesson:
Similar to the relationship between wind resistance and speed, kinetic energy varies with the square of speed.
Energy=1/2 mass X velocity^{2  ****}
This means that if you are going twice as fast, it will take four times as much force to stop.
In other words, it will take four times the braking distance to stop in an emergency.
If it takes four times longer to stop, you are much more likely to slam into something full force which, at a lower speed, you could have come to a full stop in time to avoid hitting at all.
It also means that if you do end up in a crash, at twice the speed you will have four times the impact force.
At four times the impact, crumple zones and airbags can’t stop your organs from hitting your ribs hard enough to literally explode.
The energy in the previous equation dictates how hard you hit.  Whatever energy isn’t absorbed by the car and restraints, gets absorbed by you.
A lot of people focus on the size of the car or truck they are in, believing a large amount of vehicle mass will absorb more crash energy.
Look at the formula:  that’s half true.
Literally.
The affect of mass gets divided by two.   But velocity is not only factored in fully, it is squared.  In plain English, this means that speed plays an overwhelmingly larger role in how bad a crash is than mass.
And incidentally, going back to the first point – a smaller car has a shorter braking distance at any speed, and so is less likely to crash into anything in the first place.  Ask yourself: Which would you rather do, crash and survive, or not crash in the first place?  This is why crash test ratings do not reflect safety – they only tell you if you will survive a crash, as though a crash were inevitable.  They aren’t.  And as it turns out, drivers of mid-size sedans actually do have less fatalities than drivers of full-size SUVs (along with all other sizes of SUV, all sizes of truck, and even heavier full-size cars.  All of these are statistically more dangerous than mid-size cars, which should be more than enough to dispel the myth that heavy=safe, if only people knew the statistics) .

Buying a big vehicle, and then driving it fast is like getting a diet soda with your super-sized burger and fries.
I realize that almost everyone actually feels they are safe when they are driving a car.
It is human nature to take anything which is commonplace for granted.  We tend to fear things which have an infinitesimally remote chance of happening but receive lots of news coverage but not think about things that really are likely to kill us, but which we don’t hear a lot about.
The number one cause of death of all young people in the US in car crashes. It causes more deaths among young people than murder, suicide, cancer, and heart disease combined. It is the number one cause of death up until age 40, at which point it is still in the top 3.
We don’t hear about it much in the news precisely because it is so common. There are roughly 16,500 accidents significant enough to be reported in the U.S. EVERY DAY. Of these, roughly 1/3 to 1/2 result in permanent injuries. Every 12 minutes, an American dies in a car crash.
Every time you get into a car, you may die.
The number one factor in causing all of these deaths and injuries? It isn’t alcohol. It isn’t teen drivers or cell phones.
It’s speeding.

Speeding is the single largest factor in injury and fatality collisions.
Contrary to popular belief, driving slower is safer even when other cars around you are speeding.*****
Here are two different studies’ conclusions on the issue, after compiling actual accident data:

“risk of involvement in a casualty crash, relative to the risk for a car traveling at 60 km/h, increased at an exponential rate for free traveling speeds above 60 km/h [37mph]” ***”First, the probability of a crash is approximately proportional to the square of the travel speed. Second, in a crash, injury risk is approximately proportional to the impact forces on a person, which in turn are proportional to the square of the impact speed. These two effects can be summarized in a general rule of thumb: When travel speed increases by 1%, the injury crash rate increases by about 2%, the serious injury crash rate increases by about 3%, and the fatal crash rate increases by about 4% ” ***

And finally, a chart from the DHS defensive driving course:

So, ok, by now you are accepting the physics and the statics, and acknowledging that maybe there is a legitimate reason for speed limits, and a very real cost – environmentally, financially, and in lives – to breaking it.

“But… but…
I’m running late!!!!!!!!!!!”
The catch:
There is, of course, an obvious drawback to driving slower: it takes more time to get somewhere.
That is, of course, why people do it.  Who wants to spend more time than they have to sitting in a car?
Time for just a little more math:
Time = Distance / Speed
What does this mean for typical driving speeds?  Here, I’ll do the calculations for you:
1 hour = (60min x 60sec) = 3600seconds
3600 seconds / 65mph = 55 seconds
It takes 55 seconds to go one mile at 65mph.
3600/55mph = 65 seconds
1 mile at 65mph= 55seconds
1 mile at 55mph= 65seconds
Difference = 65-55 = 10 seconds
Slowing down from 65mph to 55mph means it will take you an additional 10 seconds to go a mile.  Ten seconds.  That’s it.
Speeding up from 65 to 75 would only gain 7 seconds.  Going from 75 to 85 saves 6 seconds.  The faster you go, the less time it saves.
Of course, going even one mile per hour over the posted speed limit is a crime.  This is not an opinion, nor is it open to interpretation.  It doesn’t matter if law enforcement chooses not to enforce the law, nor does it matter if “everyone else is doing it”.  Speeding is, in addition to wasting money, natural resources, and human lives, is also illegal, and is totally unacceptable.  Therefore I’ll limit the discussion to whether one drives as fast as legally possible, or slower than that.  Going 10 miles per hour below the posted maximum is legal in every state in the country (in states that specify a minimum at all, it is 15 to 20mph below the maximum).

But when you are tempted to go above the limit, remind yourself that the faster you go, the less time you save.  You can do the math yourself if you have trouble believing that.

A typical drive is 10 miles.  Over a 10 mile drive by driving at the legal maximum instead of 10 under, you will waste 25% more gas (increasing your gas bill by 25%), and increase your risk of death by 60-100%, all to save just a minute and a half.  A minute which you may well end up losing again at a single stop light.  I’m sure you have been passed by a speed demon only to catch up to them a minute later at the red light they raced to (or are you always that speed demon?  Either way, you know what I mean).  I find that even at 20mph under the limit, the ETA estimates that Google Maps and my GPS unit give me are always spot on, if not slightly late.  Both systems assume I will drive at the speed limit, and calculate how long the trip should take based on that.  I often get where I am going sooner than they said I would, even though I drive slower than they expect.
Even on a long drive, say 350 miles from SF to LA, speeding the entire way only saves a little over a half an hour.
That half an hour meant using up an extra 3 gallons of gas, or almost $11.  According to the study quoted above, you also increase your risk of death by up to 100%.

But wait!!!

Here is a real-life story, written by "CBR Shadow":

" I recently took an 800 mile trip with a friend in my car [A Honda Insight] and we averaged 74mpg on the highway with some hypermiliing techniques (slow lane, try to get behind a truck, etc).  I got behind a full car carrier truck (the holy grail for hypermiling on the highway IMO) and stayed behind him for 50 miles averaging 94MPG!!!

The best part of that trip is that my brother ... drove his Nissan Xterra on the same route and left at the same time as us.  He laughed before thet rip about how he's going to get there way before us because I'm such a penny pincher.  Ends up we beat him there by 5 minutes!  He stopped twice for gas and stopped for food twice, where we stopped for gas once (almost didn't have to at all!) and brought food in the car.  My brother spent $135 in gas for that trip, where my friend and I split a $40 gas bill :)" [Emphasis mine]

I am not asking you to give up your car and rely solely on bicycles and public transportation.
I am not asking you to buy an experimental electric or alternative fuel car, an expensive new hybrid, or even a smaller more efficient car.
I am not suggesting you go to the lengths I do and remove your power steering pump and alternator, or drive 45mph on the freeway.

All I am asking is that you slow down.  Never, ever, ever exceed a posted speed limit on a highway.******
Leave home on time so you don’t have to rush. It is not up to you to regulate everyone else, so stay in the right lane.  Don’t worry about people who pass you.  It is not a race.  On rural roads be courteous and use turn-outs; but don’t let obnoxious impatient people pressure you into risking a traffic ticket or fatal accident – just move to the right, put on your flashers, and encourage them to pass.  On a freeway there are always at least 2 lanes, so there is no excuse for anyone behind you not to pass if they want to go faster.

If you value your own money.
If you value the environment.
If you value national security and energy independence.
If you value the lives of those around you.
If you value your own life.
You don’t even have to care about all of those things. Any one of them of them is reason enough.
Leave the house 1 and a half minutes sooner, and slow down.
This will not, all by itself, save the world. But if we all do it, it will make a difference.
Thank you.

“No one can cut you off if you choose to slow down and let them in”





*hmmmmm... so maybe Soviet era lines for goods were not caused by the distribution system of communism, but by a plain lack of resources…

**Disclaimer for math and physics people: I know, technically the curve is parabolic, not exponential, but if I used that term no one would know what I was talking about

***You don’t have to take my word for it:

http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/speed-vs-mpg-charts-post-em-if-you-15182.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_economy_in_automobiles#Speed_and_fuel_economy_studies http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/driveHabits.shtml
http://eartheasy.com/live_fuel_efficient_driving.htm
http://www.lawcore.com/car-accident/statistics.html
http://casr.adelaide.edu.au/speed/exec.html
http://www.tsc.berkeley.edu/newsletter/winter2008/speed.html

****Mass means the total weight of the car (plus passengers and cargo, etc). Velocity is basically a fancy word for speed.

*****The chance of an accident is higher if you go slower than traffic around you, because of the speed deferential. This is (unfortunately) even occasionally pointed out in some driving courses.  But the chances of a FATAL accident, or even an injury accident, go up with speed, as noted above.  Which would you rather avoid: a low speed fender bender, or death?

******Don’t speed on the streets either – you won’t save gas at 25mph, but you will avoid killing pedestrians and cyclists.  Traffic engineers put speed limits in place for a reason.  You aren’t a traffic engineer.  Trust them on what speed is safe.

Hate, now in a rainbow of colors

• Aug 4, 2009

Hate, now in a rainbow of colors

A number of things I have read recently have had the same saddening undertones to me lately.

Whether its queer folk expressing prejudice against heterosexuals, feminists who hate men, or people of color claiming that white activists who have no money coming into their neighborhood is a “gentrification” issue. http://www.anarchistnews.org/?q=node/8794

I hear about "gentrification" here in Oakland too.
Oakland has rent control, which means no tenant can be forced out or have their rent raised dramatically just because local property valuations have gone up.
Raising the average income in an area serves to increase the tax base, lower crime, and is not bad for a neighborhood.  If, thanks to rent control, no one is being displaced this means that, like in the clash between anarchists in Pittsburgh, what people are really fighting for is something activists spent years trying to dismantle: segregation.

Bigotry which comes from an oppressed group is still just as much bigotry as it is when it comes from wealthy straight white men. 
In all cases it is counter-productive.
Activists, please - stop alienating your allies just because they look different than you.

That is exactly what they want us to do.

Race (Whites still winning)

• Jul 28, 2009

Race (Whites still winning)

Recently a friend of mine suggested the only topics I haven't addressed are racism and sexism.
As it happens, I did write on sexism not long ago ("...feminism is nothing more than the "radical" notion that women are people. Not that women are men. Not that women are capable of being men...Claiming that women are capable of doing anything men are is also the suggestion that men should be the standard by which people are measured.")
I had my own ideas of what to write about next, but in light of another recent conversation, it looks like he was right. Its time.



I have a few (white) friends who have complained to me on different occasions about how unfair it is that ...insert some random instance of perceived "reverse" racism here...
I am, perhaps, the friend that people can point to and say "I am not racist, some of my best friends are black", and being that friend apparently my word carries extra weight if I support them in their argument that 'such and such' is unfair.
(Never mind for now what it implies about me that such a disproportionate number of my friends are white...)



Well, first of all, you are racist. You, reading this right now. Just admit it. I'm not saying you don a white hood on the weekends, but in the very first fraction of a moment you see someone new, you make some assumptions about them based on what they look like, and skin color plays a factor in that. You may not ever act on it in any way. You might be totally willing to look past that initial assumption and give each person a fair chance to show who they really are. But it is part of how the human mind works to seek patterns, and living in our society it is impossible to not be at all racist. I know I am.
Some researchers at Harvard built a test to try to get at subconscious initial reactions, and put it online where you can try it.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/..implicit/demo/
If you are one of the exceptions, and score neutral, it really doesn't change anything overall. The issue is bigger than you; and the fact is that the majority of people make the same assumptions we expect. And so long as its true in society as a whole, every white individual in the country directly benefits from it.

A most simple example of what some could see as unfair is Affirmative Action.
When I was younger I saw it as just that. If we want to get past racism, we shouldn't be using race as a criteria, for anyone.
Thing is, pretending that there is equality doesn't make it true.
To call affirmative action (or whatever else) reverse racism is to ignore both history and the reality of today. Being color blind does not, can not, will never, solve existing problems, because we aren't starting from neutral.

First of all (and I wrote about this years ago, but before I had any significant readership...) reparations were never paid. This country has virtually unrestricted inheritance.
(I thought about trying to summarize, but I actually wrote pretty much exactly what I wanted to say here back then. So take a moment to read that one)
http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2012/03/heading-14-in-which-reparations-are.html

Prejudice against blacks by whites has affected a dozen generations of people, and continues to have an enormous effect on millions of people right now, today. If we start from right now, and eliminate all racism, it would STILL have an enormous effect on us, because the effects are inherited.

If someone in your ancestry immigrated more recently the same issue of a non-level playing field applies, because the US generally does not admit immigrants who can't show some level of existing financial security. One way or another, they aren't starting from zero.

So suppose your own parents were drunks or gamblers and you got nothing from your family but food and shelter, left home at 15, had to fund your own education.
You then might get the mistaken idea that you didn't have any advantages.

But the truth is, although you would never notice it, you have had plenty.

You can't tell by just watching individual situations. Because it is more subtle than that.
But you can tell by looking at the overall trends.

You can see society wide racism in the fact that a black person is 5-20% (depending on the offense) more likely to be sentenced to prison time as a white person for the same crime.
(Many studies attempt to account for this by factoring in prior sentences, but this is a circular argument. If you are more likely to be convicted the first time, obviously you are more likely to be convicted the 2nd time too)
Once convicted, Blacks face 10-15% longer prison time.
For drug offenses:

"African Americans make up approximately 12 percent of the population and are 13 percent of the drug users, yet they constitute 38 percent of all drug arrests and 59 percent of those convicted of drug offenses...Nationwide African American males sentenced in state courts on drug felonies receive prison sentences 52 percent of the time, while white males are sentenced to prison 34 percent of the time...When sentenced for drug offenses in state courts, whites serve an average of 27 months and blacks an average of 46 months" - Justice on Trial: Racial Disparities in the American Criminal Justice System, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and Leadership Conference Education Fund, 2000

You can tell from college admission rates - with or without affirmative action
http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/56_race_sensitive_not_helping.html
http://www.jbhe.com/news_views/56_b_w_disparities.html
http://aad.english.ucsb.edu/..docs/op42.html

You can tell from the Black unemployment rate: consistently about twice the average for whites.
Or from the percentage of Black CEOs or congress people (1% of the Fortune 500 - the highest # ever; 40 out of 435 in congress and 1 out of 100 senators - these numbers in comparison to almost 14% of the general population.)

There are two ways to explain that difference. Either Black people as a whole actually are less capable and hard-working, or else the affects of society-wide racism are still as relevant today as they ever were.

If we can point to these examples and show statistically that, even accounting for individual intelligence and work ethic, Black people are overall at a disadvantage, another equally valid way to say the same thing is, all other things being equal, White people have an advantage.
Every college application. Every job interview. Every time you walk into a store. In that very first moment that someone takes a look at you, somewhere in the back of their mind is a prejudice in your favor. You will never notice it. You will have no way to know. But it's there.

Having a (half) Black president (who's African ancestry didn't descend from slavery but immigrated here) doesn't change anything of significance, so long as there is that fraction of a second of assumption that people make when they see someone new for the first time.

It's no different than if an Aboriginal American were to make some blanket statement about Americans taking the Indian's land. I am an American. I was born here. I worked for what I have now and am a generally good person. I never harmed an Indian American, never took anyone's land, never deliberately spread disease.
But the fact remains that every day I directly benefit from the people who did do those things.
I have no intention of giving up my own property or abandoning my home on the grounds that Oakland should rightfully be inhabited by Aboriginal Americans, but I certainly have no grounds to be indignant or self-righteous about the issue. As far as the actual effects go, I benefit just as much from Europeans having committed genocide against the people who lived here before them as someone directly descended from them. And merely by choosing to accept that benefit which I was born into, in a way, albeit small and indirect, I share in the responsibility for the fact that Aboriginal Americans today are by and large confined to reservations of land that no one else wanted, living largely in poverty.

We may not be directly at fault, but we are all complicit in receiving the benefits, which are at someone else's expense. So if an American Indian makes a blanket statement about Americans (which includes me) which may be technically unfair, all I can say is "your right, and I'm sorry". I have no counter-argument. I have nothing to complain about. I have no right to be indignant.

And so to, if someone makes a blanket statement such as "white people are racist" or "white people repress others", you don't get to be offended. You don't get to point out the logical flaws in generalizing. You don't get to call double standard or reverse racism.
It may be "unfair" that you are born into being seen as an oppressor, but it is even less fair that I have to prove myself just that much more than you do.
I have had friends "jokingly" say that I am not "really" Black, or not "that" Black because of how I talk and dress and act.  Those same associations, those stereotypes, they are racism, even if they aren't inherently negative, and accepting any one association implies all the others to be valid.  The fact that I can trace my own family lineage directly to American slavery on both sides of my family makes me Black.  The fact that every time I meet someone new, for at least an instant they will make certain associations and therefor assumptions about me makes me Black.

Have I experienced racism first hand? Not overtly. It would be hard to know for sure, since the person it was coming from is likely not conscious of it. Chances are, not so much. All it takes is a few minuets of talking to me and I can dispel any stereotypes pretty thoroughly, make a case for myself as an exception even with someone who is generally (subconsciously) racist, and I live in a place where it being overt is unacceptable (I learned in my travels that this is far from universal in this country).
But the point is I shouldn't have to.
Between being thought of as an oppressor and actually being oppressed, you have the better end of the deal. So suck it up and get over it.

Being color blind is not a solution. It is a cop-out. Pretending that slavery didn't happen, that racism has not been an enormous factor, and just focusing on the basic equality of man will not do anything to change things. If you need to here everything logical and fair, take a logic class, or a justice class, or a love everybody class. If you don't want to hear people say white people are racist and that's a bad thing, don't take a racial studies class.

Is it unreasonable for people to make blanket statements? Yeah, of course it is. But focusing on it isn't much different from telling a holocaust survivor that some Nazis didn't hate Jews, or stopping a conversation about rape because of improper grammar.


I don't want to end without offending everyone equally, so now is as good a time as any for another rant I have.

This one is directed to Black Americans.
Stop acting like jackasses.
We have centuries worth of stereotypes to put behind us.
Don't deliberately jaywalk extra slow just to make people wait for you.
Don't evade the fare on the train.
Don't drink or smoke weed in pubic.
Don't play music on the bus. When is the last time you saw a white person playing a boom box in the back of the bus?
Don't get into fist fights. People tried to make the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police into a race issue. There were no white people involved in fist fights on the train. If he wasn't fighting on a crowded train, he wouldn't have gotten shot. Simple as that.
I have a 400watt stereo system with a separate powered sub-woofer behind the seat. I like my music loud, and to roll around with my windows down and my system bump as much as anyone. But when you are in a residential neighborhood at 11pm, turn that shit down. What the hell is wrong with you?
Years of oppression and poverty don't change the basic rules of being a decent respectful human being.
Remember earlier when I pointed out I have to prove myself each time I meet someone new? That's not because of a legacy of slavery. That's because of you.
People build impressions based on what they see, and each time you act a fool, it makes us all look bad.
Its true that Blacks are given disproportionate prison sentences, but it is also true that Blacks commit a disproportionate amount of (non-drug-related) crime
So when there is a statistic like 35% of the prison population is Black or 1/3 of black males between 18-29 has been, is, or will be imprisoned, part of that is systemic racism, but part of it is Black people committing crimes. It seems it has become un-PC to say so.
That's not OK. No amount of history or social issues can excuse individual behavior.
Obviously this behavior is the minority of the Black population, (although it is, inherently, a very visible minority). But if it isn't you, chances are its your friends, or your children, a family member or neighbor. And if you don't say something, no one else will. The single best way to change the perception of us is to eliminate unfavorable associations at the source.

I think its actually pretty simple and straight forward. We just need to eliminate all forms of inheritance, standardize education from preschool through university for everyone, make all hiring blind, and change young Black culture to emphasize respect of others. Those 4 steps and all this will become a non-issue in no time.
And when that happens, then we can finally have a purely logical and intellectual discussion on the subject.

Spoons and Amtgard; together at last

• Jul 9, 2009

Spoons and Amtgard; together at last

Its been a long time. 

There was winter.

Then training for the Bay to Breakers.

There is Farmer's Markets, my truck and garden projects, and Downieville.

But, to be honest, it has been mainly laziness.

No more!

This time, for the first time ever, I am combining my two favorite sports, Full Contact Spoons and Amtgard.

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-..Full-Contact-Spoons

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..Amtgard#Ruleset

(No, not at the same time. We will not be using weapons during the actual spoons game.  No, its not actually a good idea.  It would be terrible.  Don't suggest it.)

At the same Bat time, same Bat channel:

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 2:30-4:30pm

Ohlone Park in Berkeley, (across the street from N. Berkeley BART)

Please note:

Spoons is not a spectator sport!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone in attendance will be expected to play.  Don't wear anything which would be tragic to have grass stained. 

I now have two shields to add to my amtgard arsenal.  If you happen to have any foam swords, bring them.

If you are seeing this message for the first time, and are interested in playing, be sure to email me so I put you on the Spoons list for future games.

Part 2, gas tax digression

Thursday, June 25, 2009


Part 2, gas tax digression 

This one was on my hypermileing forum, and began as a question about gas taxes.
That quickly degraded into an argument about taxes in general, and from there fell further to a general condemnation of government.
Since it was the off topic message board anyway, I decided to weigh in:

(original, including what I am responding to, here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthread.php/over-80-oppose-raising-gas-tax-8319-6.html)

----------------------------------------------------

Of course 80% oppose raising gas tax. Not because they think it won't work, but because they personally enjoy the luxury of driving an inefficient vehicle. It has nothing to do with the cost of a hybrid. Trucks vans and SUVs make up 1/2 of new car sales, and all of those buyers knew they were buying gas guzzlers. It would cost less money - not just in gas, but upfront - to buy a small (non hybrid) car.

Quote:

I am for the freedom of choices that we all have in this country. In my opinion, you cannot tell me what to do if I am not hurting anyone else.

1 You do have total choice if gas prices are raised. You can choose to buy whatever car you want. In fact, even if CAFE standards were raised you would still have choice, because they only refer to fleet average, not individual models. The only way anyone's freedom is restricted is if it became illegal to buy a car that got less than XX mpg.
2 Buying a big car DOES hurt others. In addition to the fact that they do far more damage in an accident, there is this little thing called "global warming" (to be honest, I am not 100% convinced, but it is undeniable that burning fuel does environmental and health damage to all living things, including ourselves.)

Quote:

I oppose all taxes. period.

Forget about social programs and libraries.
Government pays for things which are not profitable, and which the free market could not provide, or which are essential and the free market could not provide equitably. Things like roads, harbors, airports, bridges, military, police, fire services, courts. How long do you think it would take for private security to turn into mercenaries? If you want to go back to living in teepees, maybe, but giving up government in the real world means who ever has the biggest gun and most friends gets to do whatever they want.

Quote:

Originally Posted by theunchosen (because 50% of government spending goes to those programs).

Last I checked, the top three uses of federal tax money was:
1 the military (we spend literally as much as the rest of the world combined)
2 payments made to private health care companies (contracted medicare and health care for government employees)
3 interest on the debt.
(Social security is basically a mandatory savings account. You get back more than you pay into it. It isn't counted as part of the federal budget; although unfortunately in order to pay for massive budget deficits the government has been illegally "borrowing" from it which is why the fund is in trouble)

Quote:

A government that rewards the lazy (welfare for fat slobs with no intention of getting a job, and pumping out children they are teaching that lifestyle is okay)

Welfare makes up about 1% of the budget.
Even before Clinton's welfare to work program, the average welfare recipient received benefits for less than 2 years. Currently, after 2 years, if you don't get some job - any job - you get cut off, even if they are in college at the time. So it encourages people to get minimum wage jobs instead of actually bettering themselves and getting a job which might actually support their family.
Look up some data, and turn down the Rush morning show.

I wonder how many of the people who propose alternate taxation schemes have actually crunched the numbers (or consulted a reliable unbiased source).
I haven't, so I won't say they are all impossible, but they mostly sound like fantasy to me.

Quote:

to say that you are for higher gas prices means you are not for a free and open market, which requires the gasoline and other products to set their own prices, via supply and demand.

When the US military is assigned to guard pipelines (which is a lot of what they do in both Iraq and Afghanistan), that is an oil company subsidy. 100s of billions of dollars of subsidy, which never get counted for what they really are on the oil companies bank sheets.
Our over-sized military budget is what allows our gas prices to be artificially low (several times lower than what any other net importing nation pays).

If you want to cut taxes, instead of cutting social safety net programs which are a insignificant amount of the budget, start with reducing the military budget to no more than 10% more than the next highest spending country.

Quote:

military is what keeps the enemies that want what we have away.

If we were not exploiting the 3rd world, we wouldn't have so many enemies in the first place. Scandinavia has a higher standard of living than the US but no one is invading there or blowing stuff up.

Next nationalize all health care. Believe it or not, most projections actually show the government would SAVE money by giving free health care to everyone. This is because, as it is health care is the governments 2nd highest expense, but much of that money goes to the shareholders of insurance companies, for-profit hospitals and drug companies, not to actually providing services to sick people.

Then balance the budget. This might mean *gasp* raising taxes! In the long run we have to pay for all those interest payments on our loans. It should go without saying that living on credit is unsustainable, but for decades conservatives have ignored that obvious truth by pretending that that "growth" would absorb the deficit. It didn't.

Quote:

Alright pal, why attack the wealthy? They are those that create wealth. Without wealthy people (not rich), there is no capital to create jobs and continue functioning as an effective entity on this planet.

You got it right about the rich inheriting their wealth, but the idea that the wealthy contribute their fair share is a stretch too. If you own a factory, you aren't creating the jobs. If that same factory was a coop, the jobs would still be there, the same work would get done, the only difference is you wouldn't be able to skim some of the profits off the top. If a few people didn't hoard most of the resources the same capital would exist, it would just be spread out a little more. If a landlord hadn't bought a particular house, the house would still be there for people to live in. They aren't actually providing anything. If someone invests in the stock market they have not actually produced anything of value. Anyone who uses money to make more money is a leech on society, just as much as welfare recipients. Only differences are they live alot better than any of us, and we glorify them.

Quote:

Government has 0 provisions for interfering in the market, and Adam Smith would tell you you're always worse off when they do.

"Civil government, so far as it is instituted for the security of property, is in reality instituted for the defense of the rich against the poor, or of those who have some property against those who have none at all.''
"The pretense that corporations are necessary for better government of the trade is without any foundation. "
-Adam Smith.
His argument against government was the EXACT OPPOSITE of modern libertarians. He was opposed to the corporation as something which interfered with the free market. To Smith the market consisted of INDIVIDUALS freely trading with one another, not companies, and certainly not corporations. He was opposed to government because of its tendency to protect and support corporations.

In the past 20 years GDP has grown steadily. Over that same period (accounting for inflation) median income has decreased. This disparity is because all of the increase has gone to a very small portion of society. The reason for the historic levels of inequality is a direct result of deregulation under our last 4 presidents, Regan and Jr. in particular.
Its the ideas that the wealthy must be more valuable to society and any increase in economic activity is inherently good which lead to the state we are in now.
The top 10% holds more wealth than the entire 90% added together.
Those 10% don't have to work, because they can invest instead.
The rich have not been working harder. US multinational corporations have just been able to consolidate and outsource at unprecedented levels.
This is the modern reality of the free market and deregulation.
It hurts American workers.
It hurts the middle and working classes (ie the vast majority of the population).
It hurts the federal budget.
It hurts 3rd world economies which are forced via predatory lending and threat of military action to open their markets.
It benefits one group, and one group only. Those who have the resources to live entirely off of stock dividends. They make us believe our interests coincide with their own by pointing out our 401k is in the stock market. However if not for their manipulation of the economy for their own benefit we could have higher wages and less inflation, less taxes and more stability.

Consider the Great Depression
Consider CA electricity market after deregulation (prices soared, service became terrible)
Consider Enron
Consider the recent bank bail out

Ford likes to ***** about the costs of union benefits, but they paid their CEO $21 million in a year they did terribly, lost money, begged the government for help. Meanwhile Toyota, which is doing far better in every way, paid their CEO less that 1 million. Follow that trend for the assistant CEO, the CFO, the president of the company, the president of the board, the lead project manager, etc.
The reality speaks for itself. The trickle down theory does not work.

Quote:

...gas is an essential...

Why do people, even here, keep claiming gas is a necessity?
Food, water, clean air, a place to live, shelter from weather extremes, these are necessities.
People in places with no cars survive.
Before cars were invented, people lived.
Cars are no more a necessity than cable TV.
This is a free country. Nobody forces you to live in the suburbs.
Actually, I lived in the suburbs for a year, in a place where it snowed all winter and rained all summer. I didn't have a car.

Quote:

For decades they've been preaching conservation, handing out rebates for "energy star" appliances and the like, and what has that gotten us? Double the household electricity use of 20 years ago?!?

As it happens, back 40-50 years ago utilities were literally giving away tank based water heaters just so that people would use more electricity and gas (solar and instant water heaters already existed back then) so they could sell more. The campaign was extremely successful.
Its only fairly recently that utilities haven't been able to keep up with demand and environmental concerns made people rethink the idea that maximizing consumption is inherently good, and began trying to persuade people to conserve.
However, even "energy star" rated appliances consistently use far more power than we have the technology for. Consider how often a fridge has its hot coils on the bottom, where the heat will just rise back into it, instead of on top. They do it cause it looks nicer.
Even so, individual appliances have been getting more efficient, but Americans have been upsizing everything for for the past 20 years. The average new home size is more than twice what it was 30 years ago. That means twice the area to heat and cool and light. TVs are bigger, sound systems louder, computers many times faster. If the technology is 2 times as efficient, but everyone uses 4 times more of it, you double your energy demand. Just like with cars. Engine technology is far better than it was back then, but car companies and consumer choose to use 100% of those gains to make cars faster and larger.

Quote:

I promise you what will happen is states that have strict emissions and specialty registrations will see a sizable exodus to states that have no such policies

uh... the car companies have been making CA specific models due to additional air quality restrictions for decades. Either that or they just make all of their cars to CA specifications to avoid having to make 2 versions. No one is exodus-ing away. Unless they are selling at a loss, companies aren't going to overlook any market.

Quote:

Still wanna trade?

Quote:

(progressive taxes heavily burden the rich)

If you tax someone with a $10,000 income 10%, he is left with $9,000
If you tax someone with a $100,000 income 80%, he is left with $20,000

Even at that rate, the person with the high income is doing far better, and is "burdened" less.
And of course in the real world the higher tax brackets are stepped and only apply to the income above the threshold, not the entire amount, (so a 80% income tax would only be 80% of the money above some amount, say 90k - the first 10k would still be taxed at the 10% rate. In other words, he would keep much more than just 20k at that rate)

Quote:

Unless someone drives more than 100 miles a day every day changing vehicles in light of fuel expenses is never an economical decision

No one has to go out and buy a new car tomorrow. Eventually people buy new cars. When they do, then they can buy a smaller one. They save money upfront AND save money in gas.
This could take some time, but the idea is to look long term at the big picture. If we act only for the moment we will regret it tomorrow. Individuals and corporations often can't see beyond instant gratification, and that's (hopefully and in theory) one of the useful things that large scale organization (ie government) can do.

------------------------------------------------------

[key points of the response to the above are included in my next reply]

Quote:

the number one expenditure of government is welfare spending, which you failed to mention completely.

Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2009

Define "Welfare"
If you choose to count SS as "welfare", maybe, but the benefits people get from it are directly proportional to what they paid in. Same goes for unemployment. If you don't work, you don't get social security or unemployment. These things are revolving funds which legally the government doesn't get to spend (although they do anyway). Part of the category of human services also includes education. Education is an investment that pays for itself by having an educated workforce. Veteran's benefits, which should properly be classified as military expense, are also lumped here.
Most of all, medical payments is counted under the same category, which I addressed earlier, and is by far the 2nd biggest sub-component after SS.
Yes, if you count all of those things as "welfare", then it adds up to more than the military.
But if you are looking only at direct AFDC payments to poor families, it is less than 1% of the budget.
If you have a source that says otherwise, please feel free to share it.

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Military spending only makes up 1/3 of all government spending. With the expenditures lately. . .its not even remotely close to 1/3.

If you remove SS (which is a trust fund, not a government handout) from the budget, "national defense" come to well over 1/3. Check the numbers at the link I provided above if you don't want to take my word for it.

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Ford never asked for any money. You lose all credence when you post overt fallacies.

Ford's bailout plea to include pledge for smaller cars

Ford CEO on bailout opposition: Past is past - CNN.com

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Back to the top, you can throw all of those things the government provides away and allow for the private sector to pick them up. Bodyguards pick up where police forces are useless.

So, in other words the wealthy should be protected, and no one else should. I didn't say it was unviable.
What I said was, in the absence of law, body guard = mercenary. Whoever has money can buy guns and take what ever they want from those who can't afford a mercenary force. I'm not saying it is impossible, I'm saying that isn't a world any of us want to live in.

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Look at situations in which there is no military to speak of. Rich families in Mexico have their own para-military body guard service. They pack automatics body armor and bullet proof vehicles. They don't hold trials and they don't take prisoners.

Yeah. Exactly. That's my point. Besides, there IS a military and police force in Mexico. The Federales carry sub machine guns and ride around in pickups with 6 guys in the back.

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A justice system that provides quick and immediate punishment to murders, thieves and what the CIA classifies as "abrasive" crimes or "assualt" crimes typically has fewer of them and it costs far less. I don't have to hold criminals in jail for months before trial feeding them and I don't have to put up with appeals and other issues. If someone breaks into my home there will not be a trial. I might have to go into a civil case with their surviving family but as I live in the south I know my local judges will throw it out and the appelate judges will also throw it out.

Sounds like someone hates America. There is this thing called the "constitution" - they put it there for a reason. Thing is, sometimes innocent people are accused accidentally. You do realize that, right? And sometimes people accuse the innocent on purpose, out of spite, or to draw attention away from themselves. Trials are not to coddle criminals. Trials are to determine the facts as best as possible so that the wrongly accused aren't punished.

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Adam Smith did not argue that the government was out to protect the poor from the rich. If you read your quote again he said that government is necessary to protect those who have(corporations) from those who dont(employees).

He didn't say it was "necessary". He said that's what actually happens. He was not suggesting it was a good thing.

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At Smiths time the East India Trading company were a racketeering organization that stole from honest traders by imposing their own taxes on their goods so that they wouldn't be attacked by privateers. Smith was against this practice.

Exactly. He further suggested that corporations only exist because governments create them, and that they are inherently anti competitve.

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He obviously was not against a corporation in and of itself because he had his own.

An individual can not have a corporation. Their is a difference between a corporation and a company.

I won't repeat all the points about how libertarians distort Smith's work, because someone has already done it for me:
The Betrayal of Adam Smith
SimpleUtahMormonPolitics.com: Adam Smith Hated Corporations

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Jacob do you honestly believe that taxing one person 80% is fair and one person 10%?

That was an example to show the numbers involved.

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If you do I'm leaving Ecomodder. What you are saying is. . .because I work 2 full time jobs and 2 part time jobs I should only be allowed to have 2x as much as someone who works never and gets a welfare check? I put in 80 hours a week(2 full times) I mow for 6 hours a week and I work for a neighbor for about 5 hours a week. You are saying that some slackass that works 0 hours deserves the same amount of money I get when I work vastly more hours than he does(90 compared to 0 and he gets the same amount as me)?

That's not what I am saying at all. First of all, someone who works 0 hours pays 0 taxes, no matter what the tax rate is. Someone who works 2 (or 4) jobs likely does not make that much per hour (or else why would they be working so much?) and so isn't going to be in a top tax braket no matter what.
What I am saying is NOONE earns a million dollars a year through working. It can't be done. You have to understand just how rich the rich are. There was a guy who owned a chain of casinos who made one million dollars an hour on average for a year. He didn't have to work. He added nothing of value to society. He didn't build the casinos. He didn't even pay to have most built, he bought them. So he didn't earn that money, which means he didn't "deserve" any of it. Bill Gates took open source (free) software, made a few minor changes, and patented it. He was not an innovator. He was a predatory businsess man who made exclusive deals with hardware manufacturers in order to form a monopoly. Now he pays other people to come up with (often inferior) software, and he gets to skim some of the profits. He is not creating jobs. If Microsoft weren't there, those same people would be working at smaller companies.

The market does not assign wages based on how valuable the work done is to society. Consider an ad company executive. The ad company has big clients which don't make the best or cheapest product, but have momnetum on their side. The ad companies job is to convince people to buy their products. This in no way betters society as a whole, but its valuable to the corporation that hired them. So they make big bucks. Meanwhile someone who does a job that actually creates something valuable, say the day laborer that builds a house, a auto plant assembly line guy, a public school teacher, makes a tiny fraction of what the ad guy makes.

Damn straight I think people who work hard for little pay should be taxed less than someone who makes their money on the stock market, or by being a landlord, or any other job where you make a lot of money without doing any actual work!
I think you should pay less taxes.
I think anyone who makes over 200k a year or has more than 2 million in assets should pay more taxes.

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[several less relevant posts]

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I'm somewhat looking at it as likely as a small business owner.

Laws which help corporations and the wealthy hurt small business owners.

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The moment someone says they want 60% of my income I'm working to profit you not me and I'm going Galt to get under your tax bracket and I won't make a dime more.

Tax rates apply to a bracket of income. a 60% tax bracket does not mean they take 60% of your income. It means they take 60% of what you make over a certain amount.
It a bit like people saying its not worth in to win a lottery because the government takes 2/3rds. That means you keep 1/3. Thats better than not having 1/3.
If you don't want to work anymore because you feel its too high a rate, fine. Why is that a problem?

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Our military is very streamlined as far as how it manages cost effectiveness.

I won't dispute that, because I know nothing about it. I am saying its total size is unnecessary, regardless of how efficient it is. It is also the largest single expense, and so where we could save the most.

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And honestly do you want them cutting money from the system that protects you

What are they protecting me from? The "terrorists" want to steal my old 1983 truck? They want to force me, personally, to become Muslim? We have only had one foreign terrorist attack here - ever. The last time a country attacked us was at Pearl Harbor.
Our military budget is 5 times larger than the 2nd highest country in the world. We have nukes. We have unsurpassed technology. We are capable of doing more with a dollar of spending on military than any 2nd or 3rd world country (read China and the Middle East). I can see no justification for spending as much as the entire rest of the world combined unless we plan to literally invade every country in the world at the same time.
The military budget is about imperialism, diplomacy via unspoken threat, predatory free trade, and protecting corporate interests abroad. To tie this back to the original thread, the taxes you pay is what keeps our gas prices so low (again, US troops protecting pipelines in Iraq and Afghanistan.)

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or from the system that allows people to sit around and do nothing?

I already addressed this. 1) AFDC makes up about 1% of the budget (vs over 33% for the military). Cutting it won't make a dent in government spending. 2) welfare recipients can not sit around doing nothing. Finding work is MANDATORY. If you aren't actively looking, you get cut off. There is no exemption for students. I know this because my mother was cut off when she, a single mother, was working towards a masters degree from UC Berkeley and refused to cut classes to attend their job training seminars. No matter what happens, they cut you off after 2 years.

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If a private sector had to make a road its like a nuclear power plant, its very expensive up front and it takes a good bit of time to pay for it, but after that its dirt cheap.

The ancient Roman and German roads you mentioned were all built by government.
No nuclear plant has ever been built that was not heavily government subsidized. Private industry will not go into something with such a high initial investment which takes such a long time to show any return. Why would they, when there are so many other more profitable opportunities? A corporation is not concerned with what happens in 400 years. It is concerned with the quarterly report and shareholder dividends.

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Social security is a ponzi scheme. Its not an investment. I have several relatives now drawing social and they are going to draw far more than they ever put in even with inflation and whatever else.

An investment means you can draw more than you put in. Its called interest. In addition, baby boomers not-withstanding, it is generally a valid assumption that there will be more workers each year than the one before, so the pool should consistently grow.

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If you fired all the bureacrats, didn't pay all the politicians

I posted a link to federal spending. You can check exactly how much is spent on various things, and therefor how much could be saved by cutting any particular thing.

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and just made the tax code simple(and fired all IRS agents)

see example above of what happens with a flat tax.

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you would be taking one huge leap towards reducing deficits. If you then took another leap and cut any form of social safety net systems

Good way to create a whole lot of desperate people who will do anything to survive. You can either spend a little on education, job training, unemployment, and healthcare, or spend a bunch more on police and prisons. This has nothing to do with morality or personal responsibility, it is just a straight forward realistic cost/benefit analysis.

Places with more of a social safety net have lower crime.

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the private sector could do everything else more cheaply.

I am not totally anti-private sector. From what I have read education would be greatly improved and the costs reduced by privatization. However with healthcare, every other 1st world nation has universal healthcare, and most have both higher quality care and more simplicity, yet the US spends more per person. There are some things the private sector is good for, and some it isn't.

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can make a profit much easier and are able to sell their products for less.

why would anyone sell their products for less?

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Some things in effect will cost the same whether its a tax or a toll, but I would bank on the service always being superior(go to a DMV).

haha, granted!

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In some cases though(maybe in alot of cases) the toll would be less than the tax and the service would still be superior.

I would agree with "some".
But I don't think money is the only issue.
The real reason government is necessary is the phenomenon called the "tragedy of the commons"
The classic example is a lake open to the public. It has 1000 fish. If everyone just takes 1 every once in a while, no problem. They breed and replenish. But how long is "once in a while?" How many people are there? What if I take 2, one for me and one for my family? No one person is responsible for taking an unreasonable amount, but sooner or later, there are no more fish.
The free market can not responsibly allocate a finite amount of resources in the long term w/ no external regulation. The free market leads to massive environmental degradation, massive wealth inequalities, and a disregard of the value of anything other than money.
Consider the formula from "fight club", for decideing whether to do a recall for a fatal design flaw:
"Take the number of vehicles in the field, (A), and multiply it by the probable rate of failure, (B), then multiply the result by the average out-of-court settlement, (C). A times B times C equals X...If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one."
This is a real job. There is actually a specific dollar value attached to a human life (if I remember correctly, it is generally around 2 million)

I don't mean to say I support everything about the current US political system - not by a long shot.
I just think total deregulation and total trust in a market economy will make things worse than they already are.

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[The response from the other guy]
You said why would anyone sell their goods for less(I'm not quoting because the quotes are getting long lol and I don't want to snip).

The reason is because I am greedy. I see you have a business that makes 40% on its product(you used to make 10% and now with lower taxes you make an extra whatever percent), but I have a crappy job. I take out a loan get some investors and start a business model doing exactly what you do, but I sell mine for 75% of what you do so I make only 30% profit per item. All of your customer switch suppliers because I am cheaper. You undercut me and this continues until someone like walmart shows up and sells the product for .01% profit but sells trillions of items. Thats Free market.

And it is beautiful. If there is enough money to be had the single greatest force in human innovation and production comes to play. Greed. Beyond a shadow of a doubt its the most powerful force on the planet. Its predictable and powerful.

If there is enough room to make a profit better than what I am doing now I will do it. So if that means undercutting my competitors because my business just became cheaper to do and driving all their customers into my queue well then thats what I am going to do.

It is natural selection at work. The leanest most efficient wolf will be the one to survive. The bloated fat pig will be the first one eaten, because its too slow, inefficient and has too much excess weight to rapidly restructure its survival patterns.

If you believe in evolution you have to believe in a free market. Yes there will be "robber barons"(I prefer Captains of Industry) but there will always be some clever little fellow(Aptera vs GMC) who can outmaneuver you because he's not carrying baggage and your profit margins got wide enough for him to squeeze in between you and the customers. It might not be a big profit compared to your business. . .but what matters is, is it more profit than he had working for someone else or running a competition with some other industry.

Every other country in the world has universal health care. Ask someone who lived in a Foreign country if they like it. I have family(in-laws) that lived and grew up in Italy. He moved here married into my family and loves Healthcare in the US depsite the fact it comes out of his paycheck. Thats my anecdotal evidence, and I've seen a few interviews with Canadians that much prefer US healthcare. I'm sure people will speak out about it, but all I can say is I have been to a French Hospital(friend got hit by a car while in Paris) and it wasn't impressive by any means. It was far less technical than a visit to MSHA(Mountain States Health Alliance, Johnson City's Hospital) or my own personal experiences with surgery here in the US.

Looking at the fight club example. . .there is always a cost of human life. Free Market systems just tell it like it is. They don't try and hide it behind systems to make everyone feel comfortable with it. Free Market is about market value. I know you will agree with me that each person has a value. If you don't think everyone puts a value on anyone else think about it this way. You have a sniper and terrorists plan to kill some hostages. Your sniper has to chose which terrorist to kill first, the terrorist with his gun pointed at 10 civilians or the one pointed at 1 civilian. After the first shot there are no guarantees the other can be killed before he fires on his targets. Obviously you shoot the terrorist guarding the 10 people because 10 people are more important than one. If you have one person in the hospital and it will cost 10 mil to make them completely healthy and live to die of old age and you have 10 people that only need 1 million each. . .what do you do? Free Market dictates you spend 10 mil and save 10 people. Universal healthcare by definition(provide the aide people need) you spend money on whoever gets there first. So 10 mil boy gets there and the other 10 people die while waiting for the funds to do their transplants.

Market Value is true blue transparence. We don't like to admit that we would just assign a value to someone's life because that seems shallow. . .but we do. A doctor who is capable of saving lives through medicine or a painter? You have to chose. Market value and Free economy dictates you save the doctor because directly he can save more lives than the painter(assuming he's not a superhero). In anything less than a Free market there is no justification to rescue someone who is dying already rather than a teenager or some young doctor.

In all honesty there are more valuable people than others. Bill Gates has done more for the human race than I have. Bill Gates simply put if I had to chose between which of us existed. . .I would have to chose him. I won't revolutionize the world. You can play "if" history all you like and say that Bill Gates didn't do anything but we don't know, we do know that since he did what he did we arrived here today, whether its his fault we can't say. Free Markets require comfort with perfect honesty, what is something worth to you, what are you willing to do for it?

I prefer completely deregulated Free market because it allows true honesty in market value rather than fixing a price because you feel that some moral induced idea that that product is bad(sin taxes on cigarettes and gas). The product is worth what people will pay for it no more no less, whereas in regulated systems. . .its what you say its worth and who dictates who choses values? what if I get to pick? What if I say you're favorite brand of soda is an unneccesary good because its harmful and got bad flavor(Gas is harmful and not the most efficient mode of transport).

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[me again]

Evolution has nothing to do with the free market. We are all the same specie. Nature has no end of examples of individuals within one specie working cooperatively instead of competitively. If you really want to live in survival of the fittest mode, it does not imply the free market. It implies me shoving up at your door with a shot gun and a bullet proof vest, and whichever of us has the most training gets to keep all your stuff.

The WalMart model is beautiful - unless you are one of the local business run under, or one of their employees who now has to take a minimum wage WalMart job, or one of the people who used to supply the local business who is undercut by outsourcing, or the worker in a 3rd world country making 1/2 a cent per hour. What you save as a consumer you lose through repressed wages.
The only people its really beautiful for are the WalMart shareholders.

Your examples of choosing 10 peoples lives over 1 has nothing to do with my example of choosing profit over people's lives.

I disagree that it is ok to knowingly cause the death of anyone because you can make money from it - any amount of money.
Thats not about honesty. Its just a basic level of morality.

You did read my comments about Gates, right? I wasn't making that stuff up. Look it up. You still think he is more valuable than you?

It isn't just an arbitrary application of morality, but a question of democracy. If the market decides everything, than the more money you have (and as someone - I think it was you - pointed out earlier, the very richest often got their money from inheritance) the more influence you have over society.
That is already too true as it is.
Basically, the real result would be a return to serfdom, with the working class (ie you and me) being reduced to peasants.

I said an awful lot you didn't address to claim that I "hung myself" with an argument.
Explain how the market can resolve the tragedy of the commons.

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[He responds again, basically acknowledging his view is amoral, but that this is the cold hard reality of the world. He expresses faith that the market can solve the tragedy of the commons - that in fact someone can get rich from the threat of environmental destruction itself, but does not offer an explanation of how that might happen. At this point, given that his comments seem to me to be mainly based on faith, I did not continue responding to the specific points, but after having a dream the next morning in which I came up with a very suitable analogy, I closed with the following]

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the single greatest force in human innovation and production comes to play. Greed.

Here is another incredibly powerful force: the nuclear attraction between protons and neutrons. That force can be harnessed to power aircraft carriers and entire cities. But if it is not very carefully managed and regulated, that same force gets out of control and produces Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island. In some cases its destruction is deliberate, and you have Nagasaki and Hiroshima. In the greed model, you and I are the citizens of Hiroshima, and the top 1% of society is the bomber plane. The Great Depression, CA electricity market after deregulation (prices soared, service became terrible), Enron, the recent bank bail out - these are all examples of what happens when you give up government control in favor of totally free markets. Everybody ends up losing.


Part 1: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/capitalists-libertarians-and-anarchists.html
Part 2: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/part-2-gas-tax-digression.html
Part 3: http://biodieselhauling.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-last-one-anarchists-this-time.html