pure stupidity

suspend the gas tax for the summer?

YOU KIDDING?

That is flipping stupid!

That billboard might be familiar to the DC crew, but I saw it over at the local advocacy web log: Bike Providence.

Ain't it true?

Now, just as gas/fuel prices are starting to impact (in a good way) people's driving habits (driving less, picking the more fuel efficient car), they want to cap it?

Stupid.

Ride a damn bike. Commute by bike. Make a difference.

I dunno. Seems pretty stupid to cut the Fed $0.18/gallon gas tax. And why is it a fixed number? Seems they would be smarter to make it a %. Sure that would mean when prices go up they get more money. But THEY being OUR government. OUR country. Our country is kinda Fahked right now when it comes to the revenue/debt load. Esp considering the wonderful war in Afgan and Iraq.

Didn't ANYONE learn ANYTHING from the USSR war in Afganistan years back? Am I the only one who remembers the critique of that 'venture'? People left and right in the US military circles said fighting ANY kind of battle/engagement against the localsin Afganistan was suicide and 100% unwinnable. The Soviet Union proved that right. What has changed since then? Doesn't seem like much. The biggest advantage the locals have there is the terrain. Sure we can spend another 20 years and with mapping and new technology we could do 'better' than the Soviets but I don't think we can do what they couldn't. Heck look at Iraq.

Look at the most painful stat the G-Ride pulled out. Dead to wounded. Compare to Vietnam. Compare to any combat situation. No one talks about wounded. They made a big deal about 4,000 dead. But. How many US citizens are permanently disabled from wounds incurred in the 'war'?

So not only are we hemoraging money into two very challenging conflicts, we've just started cutting over a billion dollars of checks to tax payers here in effort to 'stimulate' the economy, now? Now they wanna cut the fed gas 'tax'?

And since WHEN has the US population on a whole had a hard time not spending more money than they make? Seriously? We aren't a culture like most of europe. Saving money to buy a car is a retarded notion for people here. Why spend 4 years saving money to buy a car? I can buy it now and spend 4 years paying for it and drive it the whole time.

But. It is the culture. There was an interesting thread about that over in the CX section of RBR. Pretty obvious answer to the question but i was suprised that some people came up with good intelligent answers.

I dunno.

I like this country of ours quite a bit. I honestly see this Obama dude as the one who SHOULD be president. But sadly all the indications I see are the democrats becoming bitter and divided and McCain gleefully grinning in the corner thinking "this is gonna be a LANDSLIDE"... Kinda scary.

Sure, I just spend almost $65 to drive 570 miles burning only 20% biofuel. It costs that much for us to fill the volvo and it only goes 2-300 miles/tank.

But where is the major out cry against the cost of coffee? Is coffee a luxury or a necessity? And why is it people are fine with paying $100-150/month for cable TV? Maybe if they thing gas prices are too high they could cut that out. Does it make their lives better? No. Heck turn the TV off. By the less expensive, unprocessed foods. MAKE THE DAMN FOOD YOURSELF! With the time you would have spend parking your fat ass in front of the TV! Eating out? Fast Food? How much money is there to be saved by eating at home vs eating out? Feed a family of four for $100-150/week? Possible? absolutely.

There is so much going wrong, so much waste. Making gasoline cheaper won't help fix the problem.

Ethanol, E85, won't fix the problem. BioDiesel can. It is just that people don't realize how cool Diesel vehicles are, and how clean the new engines are. Even the 10 year old engines are wicked damn clean when burning biodiesel.

But better than that?

Ride your damn bike.

Live to far away? Carpool, hybrid it, bike to a mass transit location. There ARE solutions. Driving yourself is NEVER the best one.

Think.

Heddwch
G

Okay now someone take this damn soap box away...