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Random Thoughts on a Monday
Apr. 21st, 2008 04:45 pmIt's a Monday and I'd rather be on the golf course then behind a computer keyboard, so I apologize if I seem cranky.
Instapundit is upset that Barack Obama served on a board with ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers. I'm upset that Ayers isn't doing 20-to-life somewhere. But he's not. Since he's not, Ayers is eligible to get elected to community boards, and if he gets elected to the same board as Obama, what the hell is Obama supposed to do? Quit? Not associate with Ayers? I mean, Jesse Helms was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, not exactly a tea-party-throwing group, but he was also elected to the Senate.
This morning on Morning Joe, the MSNBC AM news show, one of Joe's guests was complaining that the Bush administration hadn't done enough to protect the environment, reduce global warming and Save The Baby Polar Bears when it increased the CAF-E standard to 35 MPG. For non-auto-geeks, the CAF-E standard is a requirement that, over all the vehicles sold by a given corporation, the average miles-per-gallon is a certain figure.
Here's a news flash, which I would have thought was of the "water is wet" variety. Americans have always been able to buy fuel efficient vehicles. Until the recent run-up in gas prices, they chose not to. Instead, they bought SUVs, which is why every car manufacturer I can think of offers SUVs.
The car manufacturers, who are in business to make money, decided to make cars that Americans would actually buy, fuel economy be damned. Blaming "Detroit" for our fuel-thirsty ways is like blaming silverware manufacturers for obesity.
BTW, now that Americans care about fuel economy, largely due to the impact to their wallets, General Motors plans to offer 16 hybrid models by 2010. Funny how that happened.
Instapundit is upset that Barack Obama served on a board with ex-Weatherman Bill Ayers. I'm upset that Ayers isn't doing 20-to-life somewhere. But he's not. Since he's not, Ayers is eligible to get elected to community boards, and if he gets elected to the same board as Obama, what the hell is Obama supposed to do? Quit? Not associate with Ayers? I mean, Jesse Helms was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, not exactly a tea-party-throwing group, but he was also elected to the Senate.
This morning on Morning Joe, the MSNBC AM news show, one of Joe's guests was complaining that the Bush administration hadn't done enough to protect the environment, reduce global warming and Save The Baby Polar Bears when it increased the CAF-E standard to 35 MPG. For non-auto-geeks, the CAF-E standard is a requirement that, over all the vehicles sold by a given corporation, the average miles-per-gallon is a certain figure.
Here's a news flash, which I would have thought was of the "water is wet" variety. Americans have always been able to buy fuel efficient vehicles. Until the recent run-up in gas prices, they chose not to. Instead, they bought SUVs, which is why every car manufacturer I can think of offers SUVs.
The car manufacturers, who are in business to make money, decided to make cars that Americans would actually buy, fuel economy be damned. Blaming "Detroit" for our fuel-thirsty ways is like blaming silverware manufacturers for obesity.
BTW, now that Americans care about fuel economy, largely due to the impact to their wallets, General Motors plans to offer 16 hybrid models by 2010. Funny how that happened.