Letters to the Editor
ncarey
Published Letters: 132 Editor's Choice: 27
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Cheap refurbishment
[Read the article: Recycling the old bicycle]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Seriously how many people just happen to have old rusty clunkers laying about? And how many people are going to drag it in to the bike shop to pay more than replacing it, on resurrecting one?
Well, it doesn't cost anything close to replacement cost. I have a pretty decent 11 year old bike, that would cost about $1000-$1300 to replace today (paid $850 for it in 1997), and it's coming due for some major repairs. I've been deferring the drive train for a few years, worried about whether the cost was worth it.
But here's the thing. Most cities have a bike club that provides a well outfitted DIY shop available for next to nothing. Mine charges $2/hour for members (membership is $20 annually, or $10 for low-income), $5/hour for non-members. Used parts are free, and new parts are available at wholesale prices. Don't know anything about bikes? A bit of internet research should help, but bike geeks hang out at bike clubs, and are generally happy to help people out.
Anyway, using new parts, I've redone my drive train, brake pads and cables for a little over $100. And I went in with no knowledge whatsoever...bikes are simple machines that aren't too hard to learn.
Don't have a bike? No problem. Bike clubs collect old bikes, and strip them for useable parts. There's piles of used parts that can be assembled with a bit of elbow grease into a working bike of whatever style you like.
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Close Polls
[Read the article: A tale of two campaigns]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For why the close polls, let's start out with the technical reasons.
Well, you can't generally believe polls, and you definitely can't believe it when a single poll shows that a gap is closing. The margins of error are too large.
Also, focusing on the most recently released poll is an even bigger mistake. In Colorado, where Quinnipiac has Obama ahead by 2, Rasmussen puts him ahead by 7. The Quinnipiac poll is treated as more recent by the press because it was released later, but its data was collected July 14-22, while all the Rasmussen data was collected on the 21. Which is more recent? And certainly, neither will be able to measure the effect of Obama's trip yet.
Lastly, polls do weight voters based on their likelihood to vote. So, while only the election will tell for certain, there is a distinct possibility that past likelihoods will hold, a candidate that can inspire a group of normally low-turnouts to show up will exceed polling expectations.
That's it for the technicals. Moving on to why public opinion is closer than it has any right to be.
Basically, the coveted independents are a shrinking group. People are physically moving more and more into areas where they agree with their neighbours, and thanks to the internet have unlimited opportunity to sit in the echo chambers of their half of the spectrum, and radicalize. Their only encounters with opposing opinion is in the form of trolls, so not only will they not be swayed by arguments, they won't even know there is an argument.
At any rate, with a smaller percentage sitting in the middle, the polls are always going to be close. Fact of life.
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That's Kinda the Point
[Read the article: A GDP paradox]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Because the dollar is weak, our stuff is cheap. The only reason that trade number is up, I'd bet a beer, is the weak dollar.
(We have family visiting from Europe at the moment. They seem to be on a nonstop shopping spree because everything is so cheap here).
Which is exactly the point. Floating currencies are great for this reason. Economy does badly? Currency is devalued, making you more competitive on the world market, increasing economic activity.
The fact that US trade is being buoyed by the weak dollar is exactly what you expect and want to happen in this situation.
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Dangerous Words
[Read the article: Is Barack cheating on Hillary?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]However, at this point I don't much care. So long as he beats McCain, I'd be happy with Obama picking the proverbial yellow dog as his running mate.
I'd be wary of this. I think the fact is, there's a decent chance that Obama will be assassinated sometime during his tenure as president. This is hugely unfortunate, but the fact is that there's a strong correlation between racists and nut jobs. So that makes picking a decent VP important.
At any rate, I really don't get the hostility to picking a woman who's --gasp-- not Clinton. That's incredibly sexist. These are people, who are probably feminists, who are now saying "ignore 1/2 of all potential candidates - based on their reproductive organs - except for the one who spent the last several months slamming your ability to lead, and thus the one that you're least likely to be able to work productively with. It's not just incredibly sexist, it's incredibly stupid too.