Advanced Citizenship

Interesting FT article.  What seems missing from the list of items that might contribute to rising food prices, however, is, in fact, "higher oil prices".  How much of the cost of food at the consumer level is driven by the fact that it must be transported, at  higher rates?   That tractors and combines, etc., are all more costly to run nowadays?  That pesticide and fertilizers are also doubtless more expensive? 

Also watched "Car of the Future" on PBS lastnight with Click and Clack.  They are so cute.  But, what no one mentioned during the segment on plugin hybrids was the same set of things no one ever mentions:

• Where does the electricity come from?  The grid.  What powers the grid?  Mostly coal.  What is coal?  Foul and dirty, and also destroyer of land, whole mountains and their ecosystems, water systems etc. 
• Corollary:  This "carbon sequestration" sounds good, but I don't trust this whole "bury the waste underground" idea.  Because industry has such a great track record where that is concerned...
• Proponents say the grid can handle the demand of millions of plugin cars if they are charged off-peak.  But what are the chances, really?  You just know there will be tons of people who will drive the car to work and charge it there, all day long, because they are not paying the electric bill. 
• And speaking of electric bills, how many KWH will it take to charge a car?  Will my electric bill go up by an order of magnitude?  Double?  25%?  No one ever even tries to deal with that.  I mean, if you never have to buy gas, that's great.  But if you are spending just as much, if not more, on electricity (which, did I mention, comes from coal), where's the consumer's incentive to buy?  Now, if you're not - that's great!  Make it a selling point, idiots!
• Doesn't the desired widespread adoption of plugin hybrids only exacerbate our existing land-use problem?  I mean, I live in a mid-rise apartment with outdoor parking.  I can't buy one.  Where would I plug it in?  City-dwellers everywhere have the same problem!  Argh.

Finally, this program, while interesting, brought back another thought I've had before:  I wouldn't buy an electric or battery-powered car until it was demonstrated that it could go from the East Coast to the West just as a gas-powered car does now.  I mean, I mostly use my car to go to dad's house (a 70-mile roundtrip, more than the range of most electrics) and to mom's house (300 miles away).  Prove to me that an electric/battery car can do that, easily, and then MAYBE I'd get on board.

I was always the new kid (17 schools) and, in elementary schools, always the kid getting beaned in the head during dodgeball (among other forms of remorseless bullying).  I still won't participate in sports that involve balls flying through the air.  (It's ice-skating and horseback riding for me!)

When a former coworker started telling breast jokes, I told him -- "look, jackass.  they might be funny to you, but having been the butt of those jokes for the past 25 years I'm here to tell you they're not funny to me.  wait till i leave the room!"  Repeat every few months.

It's a huge problem and I don't know what to do about it - but then, I don't have kids.  Just ventin'. 

Via Ezra Klein.

You know, my dad moved into one of those developments twenty years ago and -- you'll never guess -- the trees are now twenty years old, too!  They are as tall as his house!  They shade the whole yard!  Birds nest in them!  Squirrels and rabbits scurry about eating folks' gardens!  This is, of course, a separate area from the strip malls, etc., which (no matter where they are located) are teh suck.

Meanwhile, I live in an inner ring suburb of DC and my last apartment looked out onto the back side of Arlington Ridge.  Nothin' but grass and trees, replete with fox and deer.

Now, I live in a mid-rise apartment building in a distinct neighborhood.  Mostly consists of SFHs with some apartments and THs mixed in, with tree-lined avenues and little local businesses.  It has been a struggle to keep the neighborhood from being "redeveloped" out of existence.

Via  MY.

I love him.  Just love him.

Tapped's weekly ad roundup is about Obama and McCain ads going into the NH primary.  While I'm not on the Obandwagon I have to say that I found the ads to be pretty good, basic, easy-to-digest stuff.  But the thing which really jumped out at me was the ending slogan: "Barack Obama. President."  Talk about your "inevitability" meme!  Also, I liked the "Vote Tuesday" message.  Just vote, even if it's NOT for me.  Nice.

Seriously?  Huckabee's family lawyer's name is "CRASS"? 

Wow.

Oh, and eew.

Oh, Mr. Jefferson!  I for one am GLAD you were elected President.  And are known as "Author of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom, Author of the Declaration of Independence, and Father of the University of Virginia."  Especially that last part.

People don't believe me when I say that there's no way to underestimate the anti-Clinton (both Clintons) vitriol out there.  They really don't.  (See below.)

Of course, there are also loud groans of protest when I insist that, if he gets the nomination, Giuliani will win.  These groans all come from New Yorkers, who understand how bad of a mayor he was, etc.  (No way! It's ridiculous!  Like if Ed Koch tried to be president!) 

Of course the problem is, the newspaper and pundit types ALSO are New Yorkers who already know all of that. So they don't think it's news, so they don't report it.  Unless something (like ShagFest) breaks, and in the right way, and BIG, the only thing Joe Sixpack is going to think about him is that he was "that guy who charged around NYC on 9/11" and "America's Mayor". 

And they're going to think that until mid-October 2008, when most people start actively deciding for whom they will vote.