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While the batteries do lose some range - they work quite well. I'm in VT (USA) where winter "gets real." - and a local person purchased a Leaf a few years ago (2013). She reported on using it over the first year. It had impressive range - even with access to 120V chargers during the day. For those of you unfamiliar with local landmarks - some of the distanced she drove were impressive. A few routes are rather, remote. She attempted trips on a low charge that I'd make sure of having 1/2 tank of gas. Very brave - but necessary due to lack of charging stations. Still the car did it. Her fear of running out of juice slowly dissipated.

And just yesterday I saw a blue Info sign pointing to an EV charging station in the middle of town. So the infrastructure is coming. Until now charging stations have been in key areas - in front of City Hall etc. While I see dozens of Tesla's & Leafs in this area - hybrids are most common.

http://archive.burlingtonfreep...

"No politician in our PC-heavy climate would even dare to think about it. "

Oh, I think one might at least. It is discussed quite openly in Vermont, and I seem to recall other states have legalized it as well. This suggests to me that more that one politician has been brave enough to speak truthfully on the subject.

Frankly I always knew that weed would be legalized and Windows would finally be recognized as the garbage it is by most qualified people in technology. I'm just surprised it has taken the former longer to transpire than the latter :-)

Our Gov is finally "out of patience" with Vermont's site (built by the same CGI that did such a bang up job on the Fed system: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20131031/NEWS03/310310034/Governor-Peter-Shumlin-Web-woes-prompt-changes-to-Vermont-health-reform

I suppose it's just a matter of time before IBM kills off this facility in Vermont, my home state, and sends the whole works to India. http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20130614/NEWS02/306140038/Vermont-Labor-Department-responds-to-laid-off-IBM-workers

"The nuclear industry... have never lied about conditions at their plants or the scope of an event."

Google "Vermont Yankee Lied Under Oath" for your own education. It is very hard to find an unbiased source, but this is the best I can find:

"The underground pipes were of the sort that plant officials had earlier told lawmakers and the Public Service Board — the later under oath — didn’t exist."

I think modern nuclear power is important, and I'm usually a nuclear proponent, but Entergy is hard to love.

It wasn't much of a storm. people from Vermont just don't know how to respond to a Hurricane. It was barely a Category 1. Let a 3-4 roll through, and then come back and try to tell me Irene was a bad storm. I've slept through worse.

We didn't have bad winds here in Vermont, but 10" of rain in several hours caused flash floods 7 or 8 times the volume of normal spring flooding. Almost every major road in the state has been washed out in at least one place and there are dozens of bridges gone or damaged. See: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20110829/NEWS02/110829007/Governor-Vermont-seeing-worst-flooding-century

As one example, my local New Haven River normally flows at ~200 cubic-feet/second (cfs) through the summer and winter and floods to 2,000-3,000 cfs each spring. Last night it flash flooded to 20,000 cfs and took out several sections of roads and bridges. In southern VT, the Williams river flashed from 80 cfs to 50,000 cfs (normal spring flooding of 5,000-8,000 cfs).

I live on a hill, so we slept through much of the storm without worry. Those in the valleys had to be evacuated.

Does that mean US Taxpayers Ski for free? http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS/80918001/1001

In this article, it says that a research assistant, Walter DeNino, discovered that Poehlman was fabricating data. It sounds like Poehlman was pretty aggressive in trying to slander DeNino to save his own skin ...

For example, Vermont has a cap on spending in local government races. Part of that cap includes a mileage reimbursement rate for driving your own car. Therefore, candidates in statewide or even countywide elections can blow their spending cap simply by driving from town to town to meet the voters.

Finally, money is not speech. Speech is speech. Money is money. By limiting how much money individuals can give to candidates you invite corruption instead of hindering it. In any case, political speech in support of a candidate is exactly the type of speech that should be most free. If I want to spend 10 million dollars to put ad in the media nationwide about how Presidential Candidate X slept with my sister, or shot my dog, or redirected money from a trust fund into his own company, HookersAndBlow Inc., I should be able.

"Nobody can really compare a relationship in which the victim is 15 years old to one where she's 6," said Steven Wright, Cartner's lawyer. "While both criminal, they're very different circumstances."

Good point, you should have done it rather than posting about it.

Here are some statistics for your hungry little minds.

From the Illinois Council against Handgun Violence

In 2002, there were 30,242 gun deaths in the U.S.

Digging a little deeper, from the Department of Justice

The number of gunshot wounds from assaults treated in hospital emergency departments fell from 64,100 in 1993 to 39,400 in 1997, a 39% decline. Homicides committed with a firearm fell from 18,300 in 1993 to 13,300 in 1997, a 27% decline.

And from the Burlington Free Press

Vermont's loss of hunters is part of a national trend. The number of hunters declined from 14.06 million to 13.03 million, or 7.3 percent, from 1991 to 2001, according to the Census Bureau and the Fish and Wildlife Service. The drop was greater in the West -- 9.6 percent, from 2.46 million to 2.22 million.

Not a direct comparison, but it's hard to find numbers detailing the number of times a gun was discharged at a person versus discharged at an animal or target. Nevertheless, it's pretty apparent the original poster was incorrect. The vast majority of shooting in the US is not at people, but at animals and targets.

So, back on topic. The analogy was not a good one. A closer analogy could be made for handguns (handguns are not designed for hunting, but a lot of people do use them for target practice), but it still wouldn't be a good one.