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When I was out on the road today, I got to thinking about how much it costs to maintain and drive an automobile. Doing some quick calculations in my head, I came up with a rough estimate of $8000 a year for my family's two vehicles. That figure includes one car payment, gasoline, insurance, taxes, maintenance, and repairs. $8000 represents 20% of our household income - almost equal to the national average of 19%, according to the Thoreau Institute. This figure has risen from 10% in 1935 and 14% in 1960.
Let's get hypothetical for a moment. Let's assume that every American household spends $8000 a year on transportation. That comes to a total of $880 billion for the entire country. Now, let's assume that we all reduce our transportation costs by 10%; we can car pool, buy more fuel efficient cars, buy less expensive cars, drive less, drive slower, and do a lot of other things.
Suppose we could take the money we've saved and pool it together - about $88 billion.
Just imagine what kind of public transportation systems we could build with an $88 billion annual budget. For comparison, the federal government currently budgets about $40 billion per year for highways, some of which could also be diverted toward public transportation since we'll be driving less and needing fewer new roads.
Fernando Lugo, an ex-bishop, had won the presidency in Paraguay as a liberal. For the first time in 60 years, Paraguay was to have a leader not from the Colorado Party. Up until now, elections were simply a passing of the torch. This time, Blanca Ovelar gracefully conceded the victory, ending years of what many saw as a dictatorship.
Paraguayans no longer scared to show their support flooded the streets chanting, "Paraguay! Paraguay! Paraguay!" Fireworks went off throughout the night. Many missed work on Monday. I was lucky enough to be inside the country at the time and to understand a bit better why there was so much joy.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few days (which you might be if you live in a small town), you may have heard that presidential candidate Barack Obama has kicked up a shitstorm (or more accurately, the handlers of his opponents have) for daring to suggest that people in small towns are bitter and accordingly embrace right-wing causes. Here’s the full quote:
It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Guess what, people, he’s right.
How dare I say this? As John Cougar Mellencamp sings it, I grew up in a small town. I can’t say that I will live and die in a small town, because I got the hell out as soon as I could, when I got to go to a mega-university in a bigger town, and have lived in metro areas ever since. But I grew up on a 360-acre black Angus cattle farm in MIssouri near an intersection that used to be a town (still had its own sign, even though there were only 8 people in the immediate vicinity), eight miles from a town of 629 people, where I attended the same school for twelve years with a graduating class of 26. That was in a county of 8000 people that was 98.7% white when I grew up there. It was 30 miles from a Wal-Mart (and let me tell you, that’s real distance in rural America) and 1 1/2 hours from the nearest shopping mall. The nearest major airport and metro area was 2 1/2 hours away. So I have the “midwest farmer’s daughter” cred down pretty well by now.
And let’s get this out of the way: yes, I support Obama, but a little reluctantly (I was a John Edwards fan, and still can’t quite figure out why he’s not the best candidate for president). And yes, I will generalize and stereotype in this post, and you can always find an anecdotal example to prove me wrong. We like stereotypes because they’re convenient, and often because they’re, well, TRUE.
The California Senate's Public Safety Committee has taken a historic step toward ending the practice of sentencing youth to die in prison by passing a reform bill, Human Rights Watch said.
The committee voted 3 to 2 in favor of the Juvenile Life Without Parole Reform Act (Senate Bill 1199), which would eliminate life-without-parole sentences for offenders under age 18. It would instead impose a sentence of 25 years to life, giving young offenders access to parole after 25 years if they show convincing evidence of rehabilitation.
"Today's vote shows that California can give young people a parole hearing – which is not a get-out-of-jail-free card – without compromising public safety," said Alison Parker, deputy director of the US program at Human Rights Watch. "The full California Senate should pass SB 1199 so that young prisoners will have a chance to redeem themselves."
The Falun Dafa Information Center is alarmed at a series of reports indicating adherents in China are being killed in custody within days, or even hours, of being detained by authorities. The Center expressed today that the escalating maltreatment is a direct result of efforts to “stamp out” Falun Gong prior to the summer Olympics.
“The speed with which Falun Gong adherents are being seized by police, abused, and turning up dead is alarming and reprehensible,” says Falun Dafa Information Center spokesperson Ms. Gail Rachlin. “These are people who never should have been arrested in the first place. Arbitrary arrests, torture, and extrajudicial executions are no way to ‘prepare’ for the Olympics.”
“If China’s communist authorities wish to hold a truly 'successful' Olympic Games, rounding up and killing those who might remind us that ‘all is not well’ is not the way to go about it. The artificially sterile, silent streets of Beijing should give visitors the chills.”
** jake remington is an american. his empathy for others can only be described as an elephant standing atop an ant hill. his face is like fools gold and his eyes are made of fly ash. he wants to get to know you better but he is a poor listener. he has a bad back which would explain the grimace. jake remington is just around the corner.
Imagine that you established a publishing company, and decided to call it “The Little Penguin.” You chose orange and white colors for your logo, which contained a cute, flightless bird. Rest assured, there would be letters from lawyers, and if necessary, a lawsuit coming your way from the global publisher, the Penguin Group. The legal arguments would rest on copyright infringement, all the costs involved in maintaining their “good name,” etc. There is a small army of lawyers who put bread and butter on the table, and a Lexus in the garage, by protecting copyrights and companys' good names.
Where are the lawyers now? The Riverhead publishing house, a subsidiary of the Penguin Group, published a book entitled “Love and Consequences” which proved to be a complete fraud, and had to be withdrawn. My previous article outlined the events surrounding this fraud. So, a month later, what happened? Riverhead is officially “saddened” by this event, per “Publishers Weekly.”
Saddened! Saddened? Saddened as in the passing of an old friend. Saddened as in having to redraw a cash machine of a best seller. If I had been systematically duped over a three year period, spent much time and effort on this book, had my judgment and the company’s good name besmirched by not having detected that this was a fraud, a few words beside “saddened” come to mind. It would be nice to see a little “outrage,” and given that the same publishing house issued the “A Million Little Pieces” semi-fraud, it would also restore some confidence if there was a grim determination never to allow this to happened again, instead of a Rumsfeldian shrug, and a “Stuff Happens” answer.
One could envision another, much more constructive response, whose objective would be to make the next fraud much more difficult.
John McCain, the Republican candidate for president who dubiously claims the status of war hero because he was imprisoned and beaten after bombing civilian targets in North Vietnam 40 years ago, apparently wants other young men to have the chance to become war heroes.
He continues to be dogged by a remark he made in January during the New Hampshire primary. At a town meeting a man asked McCain what he thought of President Bush’s statement that U.S. forces could be in Iraq for 50 years.
“Maybe 100!” McCain said. “We’ve been in Japan for 60 years. We’ve been in South Korea for 50 years or so. That would be fine with me as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed. It’s fine with me — I hope it’d be fine with you — if we maintain a presence in a very volatile part of the world where al-Qaeda is training, recruiting, and equipping and motivating people every single day.”
Later, McCain amplified his position in response to questions from David Corn of Mother Jones:
“After the event ended, I asked McCain about his ‘hundred years’ comment, and he reaffirmed the remark, excitedly declaring that U.S. troops could be in Iraq for ‘a thousand years’ or ‘a million years,’ as far as he was concerned. The key matter, he explained, was whether they were being killed or not: ‘It’s not American presence; it’s American casualties’” (http://tinyurl.com/yu639c).
Since then, McCain’s critics have used this statement to demonize the senator. McCain and his allies have cried foul. Are the critics out of line?
** jake remington is an american. his empathy for others can only be described as an elephant standing atop an ant hill. his face is like fools gold and his eyes are made of fly ash. he wants to get to know you better but he is a poor listener. he has a bad back which would explain the grimace. jake remington is just around the corner.
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