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Saturday, Nov 7, 2009
human power
Published Letters: 417 Editor's Choice: 41
Is this the same Robert Reich who sat idly by while this dramatic income and wealth inequality really got rolling during the Clinton years? Nothing like a little "free trade" to wipe out our manufacturing base and most of the middle class.
Skepticism aside, all of the proposals are great. Maybe a personal CO2-emissions quota would make the taxes a little more palatable for the uber-rich; when your money won't buy airline tickets or heat the 20,000 square-foot house, who needs it?
An average Californian consumes less than one-tenth the gasoline that the typical American consumes. If the whiny East Coasters would learn to consume less energy, the market for oil would collapse. Even though I would find my oil stocks' value greatly diminished, I would love to see this since it would give the future a chance to unfold.
As it stands, clearly energy is way too cheap in this country, since almost no one (outside of CA) is consuming at a reasonable level. Remember, every gallon of gas/oil is your way of supporting King George's Saudi masters and bringing about the rapture-crowd's end-of-times. Quit yer bitchin' and start walking, riding bikes, and learning how to manage in a 50 degree house you wimps. Our forefathers and mothers would be ashamed at how soft twenty-first century Americans are.
This is for Appoggiatura. Yes, my friend, we sure the hell do drive less. Check out the data at http://www.statemaster.com/graph/ene_gas_con_percap-energy-gasoline-consumption-per-capita. Californians’ per capita gasoline consumption is indeed less than one-tenth the national average. You Easterners really should get out more; we have lovely winters that often allow us to ski on the fourth of July. Many of my friends and relatives in the Sierra Nevada mountain suburbs and the Siskiyous would be surprised to find that they “don’t have winters”. Also, cooling is a much less energy-efficient process than heating, and don’t even talk about the summer temps. in the Sacramento Valley. In spite of this, California also uses half the electricity per capita relative to the national average (Connecticut, Georgia and Tennessee are the only states to do better, but not on a per GDP rate).
If the rest of the nation would conserve energy like CA, we could shut down all of the Coal-burning power plants, stop all oil imports, and join the forward-looking nations of the EU in finding a way forward that avoids mass extinctions; extinctions which, at this point at least, will probably include us.
By the way, bicyclists have better legs, trimmer asses, six-pack abs and more “staying power”. Give it a try. We laugh at increased gasoline prices and the obese people who whine about them.
SB, I wish the difference was that CA has legions of walkers/riders, but that’s just not the case. Sure, we have many more than any other state I have been in, but not nearly enough to make any difference. I suspect most of the difference stems from a combination of more fuel-efficient cars, roads which have reached their maximum densities which causes people to creatively avoid as much commuting as possible, much more tele-commuting, and a very large self-employed IT population. Also, we generally require sidewalks to connect housing to shopping, which allows people to walk to local shops.That said, I really do not know why the large difference in fuel consumption.
For Mizmoon, we did build mass-transit all over the country when we had the chance. Every city had extensive trolley lines and we had some regional inter-city rail systems. Then we allowed G.M. to take it out after WWII. Some forward-looking populations have been putting back in their trains and trolleys since the ‘80s (L.A., Sacramento, Portland, Seattle out west), but maybe too little, too late. Even in NY city, most of the cars on the road at any given time originate and end their trips from within NYC, and you guys are supposed to have a fairly complete mass transit system (NY Times had an article about this several months ago). By the way, why drive the 1.3 miles? I wouldn’t even bother getting out a bike for such a short trip. Criminy, you could do it on a pogo stick and barely break a sweat. So many Americans use their fossil-fuel powered wheel chairs for every little errand it is no wonder we use one-fourth of the world’s energy.
Genetically modified food products involve introducing antibiotic resistance genes into the crop. When the silage is subsequently tilled into the soil, these genes are readily picked up by soil bacteria; most bacterial species are fairly adept at "trying out" samples of DNA from their environment. Coupled with the outrageous antibiotic use, this could be a part of the explanation for the surge in antibiotic resistance. When a population of bacteria is challenged with antibiotics, there are likely to be many individuals with resistance to pass on, courtesy of Monsanto.
By the way Carrie, while most people infected with MRSA are elderly or immunosuppressed, not all are. When I was 21 and as fit as could be (200 mile bike rides were routine), I nearly lost a foot to staph. I did temporarily misplace one-fouth of my body-weight. Eight years later I was struck again. Lucky for me, neither case was MRSA, just good old-fashioned drug-sensitive staph.
While I'm rambling, my sister-in-law got a community-caused MRSA infection from a river guide. Since he didn't have health insurance, he went on to infect many others before he was cured. Our lack of universal health care may speed the spread of any and every nasty infection that comes along.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The Maine fight was supposed to be the dress rehearsal for repealing California's Prop. 8 -- but gay marriage lost
Once one obtains Seriousness credentials in the Washington media, they are irrevocable no matter one's conduct.
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