Orac brings us a report from the front line of the anti-vaccination movement and shows how it's becoming even more hysterical. I'm very pleased to see that Time last week had a cover story about how the anti-vaccination movement is putting us all at risk.
How much do you think solving the world's worst problem would cost? Would you believe only $60 million a year? Eight hours of Iraq. That's how much it would cost to prevent the cognitive developmental diseases related to being malnourished in beta carotene and zinc to the 140 million children worldwide who lack them. Malnutrition, disease control, and access to education-- all relatively economically cheap (but sometimes politically expensive) problems that don't have quite the same cachet as worrying about carbon footprints. This is like exercise... we know how to stay healthy, we're just fatigued of hearing it.
Darwinism "serves the goals of global Jewery." And "When the Clinton White House made statements that they didn't like, what did Zionism do-- they sent him the Jewish Monica."
Because, you know, nothing is more important than bringing little Iraqi kids to Jesus. Yeah, that'll help our cause. I think any soldiers found doing this should be discharged immediately and dishonorably for failing to take their Soldier's Oath seriously.
A case from Tennessee of parents who created a proseltyzing parents group at public schools has been settled. Some of the quotes Ed Brayton collected are quite telling.
Brad DeLong brings us the greatest hits of the Republican spin machine explaining to us how McClellan was always a poor representative of the President's magnificent and eloquent leadership.
Wow. Apparently, there's a huge kerfluffle in the world of vertebrate paleontology, where a respected member of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History is accused of intellectual theft and publishing material without permission from the specimen holders-- and it looks like the professional review was stacked. It's a fascinating look at the ugly underbelly of the politics of science, the ferocious battle over grants and prestige.
Reagan's Director of the Budget brings us his tales of the Reagan White House, and how out of it Reagan really was. Cabinet members would regularly bring him a bamboozling array of facts and figures, and then point to one anecdote that would please him and point him in the direction of approving whatever it was that cabinet member wanted. The "magic asterisks" were footnotes that hid the actual costs of any operation from Reagan's eyes. (via Brad Delong)
They pray when gas is $3.91 a gallon, the cheapest outside of nationalized oil industry countries that sell it at cost instead of market value. What would they do when it's $5.11 a gallon like it is here in Canada? Or, gods forbid, $8 a gallon? Pray harder? Sacrifice a goat? Renounce God? Convert to Islam? The latter makes sense, from a certain point of view. After all, gas is *really* cheap in Saudi Arabia...
I lived in the Netherlands for a few years in the early '90s. If I recall it correctly, gas was the equivalent of about four dollars a gallon in 1994. To contrast, I believe gas was just hovering around a dollar a gallon in the US at the same time. (I have exactly no citations to back any of that up - I'm just pulling these figures out of the murky recesses of memory.)
Folks I know who've never spent any time out of the US don't seem to understand how much cheaper gas is here than anywhere else.
Or everything else, for that matter. The brief time I spent in Europe showed me that *everything* was twice the price it is here. It's quite the eye-opener when you see a can of coke going for a pound stirling, then do the math in your head (it was easy for me - 1 pound was almost exactly $2 Cdn).
You can respond to most of the grousing of Americans about the price of gas with the maxim "you made your bed, now lie in it". They've built a world that can only exist if the price of gas is low. It's the reason that gas isn't taxed into the $2.50 a litre range, like it is in most of Europe.
Your information matches mine for that period, yeah.
I think that gas in the U.S. is extraordinarily expensive, though. What we get for the ***appearance*** of cheap gas is a third world economy, payment at the point of service health services (which is just about anti-preventative), and a transportation infrastructure which is, um... ...not at its peak? Would that be a fair characterization?
But the price at the pump looks low, yeah. (Just like the price at the hospital looks low in Europe). It's all a matter of what industries a particular country wants to subsidize...
And before you tell me "but I *neeeeed* my car for..." well, just ask Shunra how they're getting by with $9 a gallon gas in the Netherlands. It's at that point where people really understand what, if anything, they "need" a car for. When something is expensive enough, "needs" become "wants" pretty damn quickly.
There has to be some time when nobody can get to me.
Learning to ride public transportation involves more cultivation of the skill of ignoring the other smelly, loud, drucken, and mentally cracked plains apes than I care to practice.
Really what's happening here is that you're having the tablecloth yanked out from underneath your party. American suburbia exists in its current form purely because gas used to be cheap, and there is no backup plan. It probably won't be long until the only way to work in the city is by living in the city.
While I didn't exactly forsee this happening a year and a half ago (I knew gas was going up, but I was mostly motivated by ecology, not economy), I'm well prepared for it, since I designed my lifestyle around not owning a car when we bought our townhouse.
Yes, I know its higher everywhere else in the western world...but I also think that until Americans (who probably have more cars, and other gas consuming vechicles than anyone else. Not that I know this for a fact, I'm just making a logical assumption considering that around here...there are more cars per households than people, i.e. 3 cars, two drivers) really start to feel the pain that the rest of the world puts up with, neither Tokoyo nor Detroit are really pressured to come up with "a new idea!". Once Joe America starts paying $100.00 to fill up a tank of gas, then there will be the outcry "Fix this!", then they'll actually start to look even more closely at the problem (Hybrids are a great interim solution). Remember, the gas shortages of the '70 is what gave us the carburetor, which increased? Gas mileage.
ask Shunra how they're getting by with $9 a gallon gas in the Netherlands Lets just assume she lives in Hilversum (which is where a friend of mine and his family moved) The school that their kids attend, is about a mile from their house. The train station for the commute? About the same. Downtown for grocery shopping? On the way back from school. Older cities in Europe and the Eastern US (and I'm assuming Canada as well, I've never been to that East Coast) was designed around walking people. And is thus fairly to get around in and is also fairly easy to set up effective mass transit. So they really don't need a car. Its nice for road trips on the weekends. But day to day living? Walking, biking, and mass transit work great.
I live out in surburbia, in the Silicon Valley. This place was designed for cars. Now granted, a grocery store is about a mile and a half away, and I pass right by my gym, and I am extremely glad that all of our schools are indeed walking distance at less than 1/4 of a mile away (except the pre-school. That's a good 4 miles away). Everything else? BFE! Why don't I take the bus? Because what is less than a 5 minute drive, takes 20 minutes on the bus. And the 1/4 gallon that I use for that trip costs less than the bus fare for 4 passengers. My commute? 10 minutes in my car. 45 on the bus. My husband is lucky that he can use the light rail, its convenient. And at rush hour, the timing is about the same. And now with gas so high, its actually (FINALLY!) cheaper. Why don't I just walk or ride my bike to the gym and store? Two reasons. 1. 3 small kids, 5 and under. I can't take them all on my bike and trailer. Why doesn't the 5 y.o. ride his bike? I'll answer that with #2. The road that I would have to use to either ride or walk, is to put bluntly, dangerous. It is a VERY busy 6 lane street, where people commonly speed 15-20 mph over the limit.
I need a car. So what do I do? I don't go far, I group my outings/errands, I drive the limit, and we stay home a lot. I think a lot of Americans outside of a big Metropolitan City like, NY, Chicago, & St Louis, are all in the same boat. More things in the 'burbs and Franchise Ghettos' spread too far apart for other options to be feasible. This is why I think this is why something, on the technology front, will finally happen.
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Date: 2008-06-03 05:23 pm (UTC)They pray when gas is $3.91 a gallon, the cheapest outside of nationalized oil industry countries that sell it at cost instead of market value. What would they do when it's $5.11 a gallon like it is here in Canada? Or, gods forbid, $8 a gallon? Pray harder? Sacrifice a goat? Renounce God? Convert to Islam? The latter makes sense, from a certain point of view. After all, gas is *really* cheap in Saudi Arabia...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 07:40 pm (UTC)Folks I know who've never spent any time out of the US don't seem to understand how much cheaper gas is here than anywhere else.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 07:55 pm (UTC)You can respond to most of the grousing of Americans about the price of gas with the maxim "you made your bed, now lie in it". They've built a world that can only exist if the price of gas is low. It's the reason that gas isn't taxed into the $2.50 a litre range, like it is in most of Europe.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 08:46 pm (UTC)I think that gas in the U.S. is extraordinarily expensive, though. What we get for the ***appearance*** of cheap gas is a third world economy, payment at the point of service health services (which is just about anti-preventative), and a transportation infrastructure which is, um... ...not at its peak? Would that be a fair characterization?
But the price at the pump looks low, yeah. (Just like the price at the hospital looks low in Europe). It's all a matter of what industries a particular country wants to subsidize...
no subject
Date: 2008-06-03 09:46 pm (UTC)I figure if it keeps going up, Detroit and Tokoyo will either
A: Come up with some after market gas consumption fix
OR
B: Come up with some truly radical technology that will eliminate (or severely reduce) the use of fossil fuel beyond lubricants.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 06:58 am (UTC)Plenty of other solutions have appeared in these other places though:
- smaller cars
- electric trains
- denser cities
- mopeds
- bicycles
And before you tell me "but I *neeeeed* my car for..." well, just ask Shunra how they're getting by with $9 a gallon gas in the Netherlands. It's at that point where people really understand what, if anything, they "need" a car for. When something is expensive enough, "needs" become "wants" pretty damn quickly.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 05:04 pm (UTC)There has to be some time when nobody can get to me.
Learning to ride public transportation involves more cultivation of the skill of ignoring the other smelly, loud, drucken, and mentally cracked plains apes than I care to practice.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:50 pm (UTC)Personally I don't take public transit to work. But that's in no small part because work is 4 blocks away. There's a certain luxury in that.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:47 pm (UTC)While I didn't exactly forsee this happening a year and a half ago (I knew gas was going up, but I was mostly motivated by ecology, not economy), I'm well prepared for it, since I designed my lifestyle around not owning a car when we bought our townhouse.
no subject
Date: 2008-06-05 04:13 am (UTC)ask Shunra how they're getting by with $9 a gallon gas in the Netherlands
Lets just assume she lives in Hilversum (which is where a friend of mine and his family moved) The school that their kids attend, is about a mile from their house. The train station for the commute? About the same. Downtown for grocery shopping? On the way back from school. Older cities in Europe and the Eastern US (and I'm assuming Canada as well, I've never been to that East Coast) was designed around walking people. And is thus fairly to get around in and is also fairly easy to set up effective mass transit. So they really don't need a car. Its nice for road trips on the weekends. But day to day living? Walking, biking, and mass transit work great.
I live out in surburbia, in the Silicon Valley. This place was designed for cars. Now granted, a grocery store is about a mile and a half away, and I pass right by my gym, and I am extremely glad that all of our schools are indeed walking distance at less than 1/4 of a mile away (except the pre-school. That's a good 4 miles away). Everything else? BFE! Why don't I take the bus? Because what is less than a 5 minute drive, takes 20 minutes on the bus. And the 1/4 gallon that I use for that trip costs less than the bus fare for 4 passengers. My commute? 10 minutes in my car. 45 on the bus. My husband is lucky that he can use the light rail, its convenient. And at rush hour, the timing is about the same. And now with gas so high, its actually (FINALLY!) cheaper. Why don't I just walk or ride my bike to the gym and store? Two reasons. 1. 3 small kids, 5 and under. I can't take them all on my bike and trailer. Why doesn't the 5 y.o. ride his bike? I'll answer that with #2. The road that I would have to use to either ride or walk, is to put bluntly, dangerous. It is a VERY busy 6 lane street, where people commonly speed 15-20 mph over the limit.
I need a car. So what do I do? I don't go far, I group my outings/errands, I drive the limit, and we stay home a lot. I think a lot of Americans outside of a big Metropolitan City like, NY, Chicago, & St Louis, are all in the same boat. More things in the 'burbs and Franchise Ghettos' spread too far apart for other options to be feasible. This is why I think this is why something, on the technology front, will finally happen.