Jawfish
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- Name: Jawfish
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evidence of whacko lefties
Look, I myself am a whacko leftie. At least I find I am much more radical than I was even in college, thanks to the Repubs. But here are some quick examples:
- some of the responses to this post
- anti-nukers who wont open the repository
- 10,000 responses to a MoveOn query about what to stand for, and not one supported small business or mentioned a healthy economy
- the hemp lobby
- people who think we can just use solar and wind everywhere, right now
- new agers
- people who write too-long posts with lists
- some of the responses to this post
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Not surprising, but ....
I thought the story was kind of fun. Some of the characters reminded me of old-time Southerners ranting about integration. And I have run into some pretty whacko ideas on various motorcycle websites.
I'd like to say though, that for every over-dressed Adolph Coors-loving right-winger who fears the Muslim menace, you can find a hemp-shod semi-literate leftie who thinks every corporation is a conspiracy, and cars can run on water. Just compare the fear of stem-cell carrying embryos with the fear of gm crops. Knee-jerk union-sentimentalists are just as delusional as immigration fence nuts.
Quasimodo predicted all this, or was it Notre-Damus? Me, I am just waiting for the UFOs to come down and clean up this mess.
Jawfish
On Take a National Review cruise to find out posted 2 years, 4 months ago 22 ResponsesClick here to view comment in original post
Carbon Tax Credit
Charles, I'll have to look at your site, but a quick reply:
I was suggesting exactly the opposite of what you are- that is I was suggesting that in order to get voters on board with a carbon tax on motor fuels, you have to emphasize the tax credit. So I was floating the notion that the amount of the credit could be printed right on the gas-pump receipt to drive the point home.
The important point for me is overcoming business and voter resistance to the carbon tax. The way my state, CA, grabs money out of the DMV and fuel taxes for the state general fund is already a sore point with drivers. I fear a new tax is likely to play into the ideologues on the Right, so steps should be taken to make it more palatable.
Jawfish
On Picking apart an argument against carbon taxes posted 2 years, 5 months ago 22 ResponsesClick here to view comment in original post
Safety is Overrated, Reduced Mass is Paramount
I want to take the opposite tack: there IS a trade-off between safety and efficiency, we just don't have any vehicles in that missing category. Here's my point:
I have been researching building myself a very green car, looking at solutions ranging from something a little better than a Prius to fully EV. One side issue I have discovered is the technology is not ready for ultralightweight cars that meet the current DOT standards. Well it's theoretically available, but not for low-cost manufacture. See RMI's hypercar for an example.
However we already have a class of vehicles on the road that has no onerous safety standard - motorcycles. Since most people will burn more gas, and spend a lot more money to get comfort, capacity, and safety, few people ride bikes. Yet, there are a number of microcars available in Europe, the Far East, and Brazil which are true cars, but get better mileage than current hybrids. They can't be imported because of the DOT standard. Some of them are available as EVs.
So here's my pitch- given that I think global warming is a bigger safety and security issue than mandated individual safety, and given that there is a direct trade-off between vehicle mass and efficiency, let's establish a class of vehicles between the 500 lb two-wheelers and the 3000 lb hybrids. Say for instance, anything under 2000 lbs that meets smog standards and 50+ mpg would be federally classified as a motorcycle even though it has four wheels. ( 3-wheelers are motorcycles). That way those of us willing to accept a safety reduction could drive more efficiently, without having to build it at home.
NEVs are a precedent to this idea, they just haven't sold well because they are too restricted in speed and range.
On We can have both posted 2 years, 5 months ago 31 ResponsesClick here to view comment in original post
schedule of tax rebate, obvious wrongness etc
I don't understand, please explicate.
On Picking apart an argument against carbon taxes posted 2 years, 5 months ago 22 Responses