Letters to the Editor
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First!
Tom, sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
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The eyeshadow
is perfect.
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last!
last!
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laster
am lasterest!
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The Prize
Read "The Prize" by Daniel Yergin (1991). It tells the story and predicts the present situation.
In addition to that, in about 3 years, China will use as much oil as the USA. In about 20 years, China will use twice as much as we do.
Since there is not that much oil, the price will have to rise enough to prevent this.
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Yes and no
I heard there's a body, called Congress, that gets to set this standard, called CAFE. And that standard, apparently, hasn't changed since St. Jimmy the Ignorant was President. I heard you can call these people up, called "Congress persons" and "Senators" and you can ask them. Why I even heard you can get a bunch of your friends together and get these 'Representatives' to lose their jobs if you don't like the job they're doing.
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There was this president once named Carter
and once upon a time he tried to get the american people to use this crazy stuff called....now what was it again....oh yeah, ethanol. But that was so 30 years ago. Look how good we're doing now without it and all that pesky research we could have been doing since. You might even call it "ignorant".
I heard all he does now is build houses for poor people.
What a jerk.
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Love
the blue eyeshadow!
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You should also add...
"Oh, my God gas is expensive, we better protect the environment!"
"Oh, my God look how cheap gas is. Oh, what environment?"
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What a cesspool
of right wing trolls Salon letters has become.
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What a cesspool
... indeed.
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Gas is a gas
Him: Oh, no, gas is expensive!
Her: Let´s invade Irak. The towelheads have oil. And massive destruction weapons. Or something like that. The president says it, so it must be true.
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Him: Oh, no, gas is expensive!
Her: Let´s clone dinosaurs so we can juice them!
Him: Oh, no, dinosaurs are on the loose and destroying everything.
Her: Grab your rifle, Johnny. We must protect our gas stations!
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Specific fuel consumption.
Internal combustion engines today are about two and one half times more efficient than they were in the 1970s.
The specific fuel consumption for my 4000 lbs. Sequoia is:
.023 gal/hp/hour
The equivalent engine in 1978 for a 4000 lbs car is:
.060 gal/hp/hour
My 1963 470 ci. aircraft engine is:
.081 gal/hp/hour (ouch!)
Also...
1)Today's engine produce ultra low emissions.
2)Today's cars are much much safer.
We consume more fuel because we drive more miles per person and there are many more cars on the road, jets in the air and delivery trucks bringing your organic food from the farm.
This is not a Prius vs. Hummer debate. A parked Hummer consumes less fuel that a moving Prius.
Don't blame the car – it's us.
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How easily we forget.
Trolls with bad statistics notwithstanding, the fact is, once gas got cheap again, we forgot all about conservation and bought large vehicles BECAUSE WE COULD. No other reason, although some people might argue about safety (while the vehicle is rolling over in the ditch), utility (while the vehicle never tows anything or goes off-road - drive my Escalade where?), or 'cool factor' (huh?), it's pretty much "because we can." Hey, it's not more than we need, it's more than we're used to. That's what those nice people at GM told us, right?
We can still buy and drive what we want, or rather, what the Big Three wants to sell us, as long as we're willing to pay the market price for gasoline. Isn't America great? The thing is, we have all these surburban SUV-driving weenies to thank for the fact that this "market price" is now north of four dollars a gallon. But hey, just put another yellow-ribbon magnet on the tailgate; that'll make it all better.
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the 90s panel
Man, the horn rimmed glasses, the gas station attendant jacket, the rimmer t-shirt, the goatee, the girl in the Hello Kitty t-shirt.
Gold Jerry, GOLD!
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WHERE N'HELL'S MY BOLO TIE?
Old guy: "Where's my bolo tie dear?"
Old guy's wife: "For god's sakes, I sold it at our yard sale in the '80's, to the guy who bought the Yugo?"
Old guy: "I wish I had it back, the Yugo I mean."
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Once Again Tom Gives Short-Shrift to the Transgender perspective!!!
Though the drawings are priceless the entire strip loses all claim to legitimacy, because Mr. TT blatantly ignores sea change about to engulf the transgender world.
His gross insensativity to the mis-gendered in the world ultimately leads him to miss the nascent birth of the bi-gendered movement (where individuals "add" the genitalia of the opposite sex, and keep their original equipment).
His blindness to altered gender states means he is incapable of seeing the current energy crisis sitting in his lap.
I expected more of Mr. TT.
He usually captures reality succinctly, but not this time.
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We like Ike
You know, the panel from the present day would serve as a panel depicting the 1950's.
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Necessity, still the mother of invention.
Conspiracy theories aside, fuel economy is profoundly affected by weight. Recent requirements by the government to mandate anti-lock breaks, airbags and higher survivability crashes has added hundred(s) of pounds to a car.
A 1998 escort weighed 2461 lbs and a 2008 focus weighs 2623, 162 pounds more.
What’s my point? The Focus is more survivable in a crash and that’s worth a little less mileage.
With fuel prices settling in at $4.00/gal the trolls will have to dust of our slide rules and get to work re-inventing the car as we know it and let the beautiful people (they all work at Starbucks) be the judges.
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We deserve what we get
I live in a urban environment in "environmentally conscious" California and an amazingly high number of people drive SUV's and large pickup trucks - check out the parking lot at Whole Foods. I have heard justifications that they need the vehicles to go skiing or to haul their kids around.
My parents drove Toyota's and VW's in northern Montana through some of the worst roads and weather in the 48 contiguous. We had 9 kids and we all managed to fit into one Toyota and one VW - both of which were well in excess of 20/mpg in the 1960's and early 70's.
I inherited my parents tastes in vehicle and have a small Nissan pickup and a Toyota Corolla - both of which are more than 10 years old. We save money and carbon impact by driving cars that are smaller and don't replace them as often.
When I seen someone driving an Escalade in wild and woolly Cupertino, I shake my head.
Pax