Dying for a Chevy Volt, but....

[harry]

Well most USAians. I now assume you're a Hottentot. That would explain a few things.

[Soupe du jour]

Just a thought here:

Isn't it better to use up the oil in the Middle East, rather than our own? Sooner or later, the oil over there will run out and if we save our domestic resources until that time we will be in better shape than if we keep on raping our own country.

I personally think it's insane to burn petroleum products. They're so useful in the chemical industry that only idiots would waste it on making a fire.

Nuclear energy as it is really isn't an option either. It's not economical without huge government subsidies. If it were a moneymaker, private investors would be lining up to build plants, and they wouldn't need government handouts to do so. (Amory Lovins at the Rocky Mountain Institute has discussed all of this better than I can.

Here's a good read:

I feel we need a new type of nuclear energy (liquid sodium? breeders? micro reactors?), and we need to move away from petroleum for energy production. Whether that's solar, wind, tidal, geothermal, etc. will depend upon the location.

Yes, it will cost more in the short term, but will be far better in the long term.

Burning petroleum is just pushing the real costs off onto future generations. Better to tighten our belts and pay the price now, rather than have our descendants curse us. (Or rather curse us more than they already will.)

I also feel we need to get our space program going again. We need to be able to have more than one planet. Our eggs are all in one basket, and we need to leave the nest. (How's that for mixing metaphors? :-)

There are huge amounts of resources out there that are just waiting for us. Why have we chosen to sit at home instead? I hope we will see the light and spread out into the solar system before it's too late. (At some point we will have used up enough resources on the Earth that we will no longer be capable of the large effort that will be needed to get out into space.) We were making so much progress and then we stopped dead. Why aren't we on the Moon and Mars? Why aren't we mining the asteroids?

[Soupe du jour]

There is less and less upward mobility in the US as time goes on. A lot of this is because the Republicans have cut spending on education, so it's much harder for low-income families to get their children a good education. Then at the same time, the wealthy can get subsidies (vouchers) for keeping their children out of the public schools.

The current price of a college education means that fewer will go to college, and when they do they're so far behind the 8-ball that many of them will be paying off their student loans for decades.

The only people that are really doing well are those at the top of the corporate ladder (where they make truly ridiculous amounts of money, and far more in proportion to regular employees than in other countries), those who have inherited family wealth, and the Wall Street types in banking and finance. So then the Right-wingers want to reduce their already low tax rates even more. Sure, just give them the everything and screw the poor and the middle class.

The "Tea Party" is even worse. They're the deluded pawns of Wall Street.

Yes, that's the common claim of conservatives - "They don't really want to work." You're really a hateful person. Your prejudice and bigotry are showing...

[Soupe du jour]

The illegals aren't doing anything to the welfare system. The vast majority of them work and pay taxes, but get no benefit from their taxes because they're illegal and can't risk going to government agencies for fear of being found out and then deported. They pay into Social Security too, and will never be able to get anything back.

In most cases, they're using fake ID and SS #s, so they do pay taxes. The employers aren't so stupid as to not deduct taxes, even if they do ignore all the warning signs and red flags that say someone is an illegal and using false documents. Of course there are also people being paid under the table and paying no taxes, but most larger employers won't risk this anymore.

[Soupe du jour]

If the pay rate for lawnmowers were $20 an hour, you'd see robots doing a lot of the work. We have most of the technology but nobody has done anything with it because it's still cheaper to have a teenager or an illegal pilot the mower.

[Soupe du jour]

You'll also be exercising, and that will be worth a lot. You'll live longer and live better.

[Gunner]

On the third hand..they still transported slaves after the end of British slavery.

The methodology of the left has always been:

1. Lie
2. Repeat the lie as many times as possible
3. Have as many people repeat the lie as often as possible
4. Eventually, the uninformed believe the lie
5. The lie will then be made into some form oflaw
6. Then everyone must conform to the lie

[Soupe du jour]

The best mileage I ever got from a highway-capable motorcycle was about 60 MPG, and that was with a Honda CB360. It wasn't something you'd want to take on an extended trip on the highway, but it was enough to handle anything in-town and also highways for roughly 30 miles one way. Anything more than that and you wanted a larger, heavier motorcycle.

A friend had a '77 Sportster that he claimed got 70 MPG, but I never knew whether to believe him or not. :-)

I had much smaller motorcycles that didn't really get any better mileage than the 360 did. I think a Suzuki 100cc bike that I had did better, but I only ever used it for very short trips within my neighborhood.

I had a number of 650 and 750cc bikes that didn't even get as good mileage as did a Ford Festiva that I owned for a while (It always got a bit over 40 MPG.)

Oddly enough, I think the most fun I've ever had with a street bike was with that CB360 or the KZ400 that replaced it.

[Soupe du jour]

Plug-in hybrids will probably be the best compromise once they get a bit better, and for a while after that until electrical storage technologies get good enough that electrical vehicles become practical for everyone.

The real question with most of these technologies is: Do we want to develop them, or do we want to wait and buy them from the Chinese? I vote for investing in these types of things now so that we will own the technology.

[The Daring Dufas]

The P.L.L.C.F. want to force them on the population before they're ready for prime time. I can think of many times an electric vehicle would serve me just fine but I often must drive across the state and I can only afford to own, license and insure ONE vehicle. So it will have to be a gasoline powered vehicle. ^_^

TDD

[Ed Pawlowski]

That is BS. The US spends more on education than any other country, but we have 10th ranking students. That is because the liberal educators have pretty much ruined what school is supposed to be.

It stated in the 60's when you could get a draft deferment it you were a teacher or taking college courses to become one. The liberal draft dodgers are not the school administrators.

It does not matter is the student can find Europe on a map as long as we don't hurt their self esteem.

[Ed Pawlowski]

Electrics may get us by for a few years, but I think there will be new technology in 5 to 10 years to replace that and the IC engine as we know it. Fuel cells? Hydrogen? Nukes?

[bob haller]

All electric vehicles should come pre wired with a hitch.

So the all electric vehicle could have a small trailer with a gasoline engine hitched to it for the occasional long trip.

Trailers could be owned or rented for the occasional user:)

[The Daring Dufas]

Antimatter, a dime sized piece would last for the life of the vehicle. ^_^

TDD

[trader4]

How about when they show up at the ER for any and all illnesses? Ever go take a look at an ER and see who's there? How about when they have a baby and go to the hospital to have it delivered, with no money? There are hospitals going broke over those scenarios. How about when they have babies they can't afford, that then wind up on welfare, because they are US citizens?

The vast

I can take you to the many "muster zones" here in NJ where

50 illegals are standing every morning, waiting for work. And they get paid in cash. Yeah, some of the illegals are on the books, but there are also plenty that are not.

[Kurt Ullman]

And let China steal it like they do now...

[trader4]

What a lie. We spend more today than ever on education. And we spend the most per student of any country in the world, except Switzerland, which is just slightly higher. The fact that students today are dumber, don't know who the VP is and are scoring far lower on tests than students in countries that spend less, is not a spending problem. But that is the image the liberals try to portray to try to justify throwing even more money and more big govt at the problem.

Then at the same time, the wealthy can get subsidies

That's pretty much a lie too. There are very few places that use a school voucher system. I'll bet it's way less than 1% of the total public school system. It actually would be a great idea. It would allow poor and middle income parents in schools that are doing a terrible job of education to use their voucher at a school that works. IT would give them choice. It would introduce competition into the system. But the libs won't allow it because they insist on protecting the teachers and failed schools. The rich? It doesn't matter to them because again, they aren't getting vouchers and are paying for public schools through their taxes and private schools out of their own pocket.

You conveniently forget that the other part of most of the Republican plans to cut tax RATES included changing the tax system so that people would pay about the same taxes. It would get rid of page after page of all kinds of deductions, to arrive at basicly the same number.

I call most of them patriots. For example, all of them are focused on trying to reduce govt spending before the country goes bankrupt. That point isn't too far off at the rate we're going. When's the last time you heard Obama or any of the libs warning of the problems of rapidly increasing debt, of coming up with any plan to reduce spending? Why Pelosi was out just last week saying it's simply not true that we have a spending problem.....

I didn't say that all people don't want to work. I actually said quite the opposite. Most people start out at a low paying job and work their way up. It's the lying libs like you that pretend everything is static. Because someone is making $8 an hour today, 5 years from now, because there are still people making $8, they must be the same people. And obviously the prices painters are getting here in NJ show there is opportunity for even those with limited education to move up.

[Soupe du jour]

There are many parts of the world where blood is eaten. The US was one of them until we turned up our noses at this type of thing.

The biblical proscriptions against blood were likely because it spoils rapidly and food that spoils rapidly can make you sick. We've advanced a bit since biblical times, so it's not smart to still try to apply the bible literally.

I've seen a lot of crap meals in the US and Canada, so I don't think the British have a lock on crap. There are good meals to be had in the UK as well as bad ones.

You'll just ignore this though, because you're a bigot.

[The Daring Dufas]

Or let the Commiecrats give it to The Chinese.... ^_^

TDD

[Soupe du jour]

Yes, several of them. Perhaps I live in a more cosmopolitan part of the US than you do?