[ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame

Fri Jun 18 14:38:18 EDT 2010

Color me a masochist then. I'd much much rather sit on a train than
drive. I'm currently commuting in a car for the first time in 10 years
and find it nearly unbearable. I'm multi-moding it across town to some
of my extracurricular activities, 'cause the thought of driving an
extra inch is unbearable.

-- CHS

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Lightner, Jeff <jlightner at water.com> wrote:
> One problem with trying to be responsible is that smaller cars only fit
> smaller people.   Being 6'3" and ...umm... full figured I find few
> "cars" that actually fit me.   Despite that I've shopped around and
> found cars that do and resisted the urge to simply get a pickup or SUV
> even though I know many of of them will.
>
> If "public transportation" actually went from point to point AND was
> policed so that thugs and lunatics didn't make it unbearable more people
> would probably prefer to use it.   Having had to use it back when I was
> young and poor and had cheap auto insurance taught me that it is fairly
> worthless and only masochists would willingly subject themselves to its
> use if they could afford any other method.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of
> Michael Potter
> Sent: Friday, June 18, 2010 12:58 PM
> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
> Subject: Re: [ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame
>
> I had a BMW Z3 in 1997.  My friend had a Geo Metro.
>
> My cost per mile for tires was higher than his cost per mile in gas.
> His cost for tires was just a little bit less than the cost of tax on my
> tires.
>
> I am not exaggerating.
>
> My opinion is that the government should not set artificial milage
> requirements for the automakers.
> The government should just tax gas such that people will make better
> choices for which cars they buy and which cars they drive.
> Automakers will respond to people's preferences by building cars that
> get better gas milage.
>
>
> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 12:07 PM, Tom Freeman
> <tfreeman at intel.digichem.net> wrote:
>> Well, the majority of the race seems to lack the desire/ability/
>> education (pick one or more blame points, or add one) to make much of
>> any choice except on the basis of upfront cost.
>>
>> How often have you had the conversation with somebody about to, or
>> justifying the purchase of a SUV where the _only_ cost that they
>> consider is the cost of the fuel to drive it somewhere? Funny thing
> is,
>> fuel cost is a fraction of the total cost of driving, yet the cost of
>> fuel drives the whole dynamic because it is visible.
>>
>> My Mazda 6 is getting about 30 mpg overall at the moment. With fuel
>> running about $2.70/gal, that works out to about $0.09/mile. Capital
>> cost happens to run about, wait for it, $0.09/mile (I was able to pay
>> cash - it will be higher if you have to finance). I haven't figured
> the
>> maintanace on this car, but the last one worked out to perhaps $0.06/
>> mile over 270,000 miles. Add in insurance at something near or better
>> than $0.05/mile (in my case - YMWV), and you might see the cost of
>> driving is at least three, probably four times the cost of fuel -
>> assuming that all the costs are accounted for. Plus the cost of
>> maintaining the roadway is almost impossible to account for here, as
>> there are multiple sources of funding (including but not limited to
> the
>> road use tax on fuel.)
>>
>> What I'm trying to suggest is that "price saver" mentality isn't the
>> only force in play here. There is also the hiding of costs through
>> various mechanisms The bright people around here can probably add two
>> or three more cost hiding/transfer mechanisms in further discussion.
>>
>> Jim - I do so agree that we need to own up to our participation in the
>> whole process, and not foist the responisiblity off onto somebody or
>> something else. My driving habits drive the need for more oil wells,
>> oil wells will leak/spill oil even if handled with the highest degree
>> of professionalism, so part of the "fault" of the catastrophe in the
>> gulf is mine. The owners/stockholders of record at the time of the
>> blowout have a larger, more direct responsibility since they own the
>> entity which acted in a less than perfectly professional manner. (If
>> you want the profits - you should take responsibilty for the oopes
>> also. IMHO)
>>
>> On 06/18/2010 11:25:55 AM, Jim Kinney wrote:
>>> I am willing to pay MUCH more on my plane tickets if the extra $$
>>> goes
>>> to
>>> improve service and reliability and safety, etc.
>>>
>>> We have developed too much of the walmart mentality for my tastes.
>>> cut
>>> costs
>>> to save $ with no regard for the quality (or lack) or damage it does
>>> to the
>>> surrounding.
>>>
>>> We _so_ need to start evaluating our own individual participation in
>>> the
>>> process around us.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 10:37 AM, Greg Freemyer
>>> <greg.freemyer at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>> > Damn,
>>> >
>>> > I guess we should blame the passengers if a commercial airplane
>>> > crashes due to poor maintenance and pilot error.
>>> >
>>> > Greg
>>> >
>>> > On 6/18/10, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >
>>> > http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2010/05/31/mike-luckovich-
>>> june-1-cartoon/
>>> > >
>> <<snip for brevity>>
>>
>>
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