I don't consider a fueling station that I need to hit between two locations so far apart that I need to refuel between them (IE 300+ miles apart) as 'local'.
The gas station I stop at on the way to my parents is not local to ME. It IS local to the people that built it, maintain it, work at it, and use it on a daily basis. If there were no "locals" living there, there would be no gas station there.
Note that YOUR local gas station is probably halfway between a couple of places that you don't consider "local" to you as well.
I've cornered one before and forced them to admit that rampant poverty is preferable to even a small amount of taxation to alleviate it.
Just out of curiousity, how would you manage to have "rampant poverty" that "a small amount of taxation" could alleviate?
An actual example would do, or even a reasonable hypothetical. With numbers, of course. It's easy to handwave situations when you don't have any numbers behind your assertions.
b) Bring in some major gas station chains and offer them a subsidy for installing at least a single electric "pump" at all their stations.
Now this would be a significant step toward widespread acceptance of electric cars.
Actually, you don't even need a subsidy - offer to install, say, 2-4 chargers (with software for metering and selling the electricity) at every gas station for free.
But your local gas station doesn't need chargers, because you can charge it at home.
No, but the local gas station I stop at halfway to my parents house needs one. Otherwise I can't visit home with an overnight stay somewhere.
And yes, I can have another car to use for long trips. Or rent one. But if I have to keep an extra car around, or pay rental to use one, I might as well keep the gasoline burners I use now, rather than switch to electrical.
So, basically you want WW2-style food rationing in the USA today? That'll go over well.
Do note, however, that your solution won't cure the "epidemic", nor will it cure the budget. Even if it could do the one, the two are mutually exclusive - either you get people to eat what you want them to eat, and thus not pay the sin taxes, or they eat what they want, and pay the sin taxes - one option fixes the budget, the other fixes the "epidemic".
That said, all you get with sin taxes is smuggling and a black market. Note that sugar was one of those things you bought "off the books" in WW2 if you didn't have enough ration cards to get what you needed.
Hmm...three million tons dumped into an area of 345000 km^2...assuming the stuff has a density the same as seawater (it's denser than that, but this assumption gives a worst case analysis)...assuming uniform dispersal over the whole park, and none of the stuff dispersing to elsewhere than the park...
A layer 9 microns thick over the entire park.
I fail to see where this could be a problem, since the stuff is denser than seawater, not all of it will disperse in any case, not all of the dispersal is going to reach the reef itself, and it would be thinner than a dust mote if it did....
Many people seem to be under the delusion that if we don't allow the pipeline into the US that the oil wont be extracted.
Many more people are under the delusion that the pipeline is not already in the USA.
It should be noted that the first two parts of the pipeline are already in place, and already pumping oil. The part that this article is talking about will provide only a better path to move the oil that's already being moved from Canada to the USA.
But we will patronize you, because you in that region are so incredibly hostile and intolerant of others. You strut and preen especially when the subject turns to your masculinity. Yet when the slightest amount of precipitation strikes you handle it with less ability than our younger sisters.
"Storm of the Century" mean anything to you? Where I live, we call that a Tropical Storm, and since we basically ignore anything short of a full-blown hurricane (Cat-3 or higher), we got a lot of laughs out of that one.
About 9 years back I received a pre-approved offer for a credit card (Visa, IIRC) with a limit of $100,000. I tore that sucker up into teensy-weensy bits.
I've got a couple like that.
I use them regularly, and (hopefully) annoy the CC company by paying my bill, in full, every single month.
The Causeway (a 26 mile long bridge across Lake Ponchartrain) was described yesterday by the highway patrol as a "26 mile long iceberg", since all lanes were covered by a sheet of ice for the entire length of the bridge.
"Why would you in a city that gets one snow event every three years? Why would you buy 500 snowplows and salt trucks and have them sit around for 1,000 days, waiting for the next event?"
You don't.
You buy them as a state or regional co-operative as an emergency reserve to be drawn upon as needed.
Lease them out to others when they are not needed at home.
Hmm, a state or regional coop. And what happenns when the whole region gets the same weather (as happened Tuesday).
Lease them to others when not needed at home. So, we lease them to more northerly States, then when we need them they need to drive from, say, Ohio to Atlanta starting the morning they are needed? Remember, the Winter Storm Warning went out ~9 hours before things went to crap. If they'd had them, and they were leased out to more northerly States, and they'd all managed to get to Atlanta between 3AM and Noon, they'd have been too late.
That wasn't the worst of it. The worst was that some kids were trapped on school buses overnight. The National Guard had to go out Wednesday to rescue multiple busloads of kid who had spent the night stuck on the highways...
Note that we got pretty much the same warning in the NOLA area. Out local governments decided to cancel schools for the whole day, since, while the weather was supposed to be fine in the morning, by the time the kids had to go home, it was going to be a nightmare.
Sure enough, it was a fine morning, but by mid-afternoon (when the kids would normally be coming home by bus) the freezing rain had started and the roads were getting increasingly unsafe (there are a LOT of elevated roadways here, what with the bayous and all, so freezing rain is a more serious problem here than it might be in other places).
And things stayed shutdown through Wednesday.
Of course, it's Thursday now, and temps are expected to be in the 50's today (and 70's by Saturday)....
[1]: Ironic that Venezuela had their violent crime rate drop by a factor of a thousand by removing guns from the citizenry. Wonder how many dead children it will take for that to happen in the US.
Hmm, Venezuela's murder rate in 2012 was 45.1 per 100,000. In 2013 it was 79 per 100,000. Are you really stupid enough to think that before they banned civilian ownership of firearms, their murder rate was 45000+ per 100,000 annually?
Note, by comparison, that the "gun-crazy" US murder rate was 4.5 per 100,000 in 2012.
Slashdot Mirror
The gas station I stop at on the way to my parents is not local to ME. It IS local to the people that built it, maintain it, work at it, and use it on a daily basis. If there were no "locals" living there, there would be no gas station there.
Note that YOUR local gas station is probably halfway between a couple of places that you don't consider "local" to you as well.
Remember, ALL gas stations are local to SOMEONE.
Just out of curiousity, how would you manage to have "rampant poverty" that "a small amount of taxation" could alleviate?
An actual example would do, or even a reasonable hypothetical. With numbers, of course. It's easy to handwave situations when you don't have any numbers behind your assertions.
Now this would be a significant step toward widespread acceptance of electric cars.
Actually, you don't even need a subsidy - offer to install, say, 2-4 chargers (with software for metering and selling the electricity) at every gas station for free.
Or have the Feds do it.
No, but the local gas station I stop at halfway to my parents house needs one. Otherwise I can't visit home with an overnight stay somewhere.
And yes, I can have another car to use for long trips. Or rent one. But if I have to keep an extra car around, or pay rental to use one, I might as well keep the gasoline burners I use now, rather than switch to electrical.
So, basically you want WW2-style food rationing in the USA today? That'll go over well.
Do note, however, that your solution won't cure the "epidemic", nor will it cure the budget. Even if it could do the one, the two are mutually exclusive - either you get people to eat what you want them to eat, and thus not pay the sin taxes, or they eat what they want, and pay the sin taxes - one option fixes the budget, the other fixes the "epidemic".
That said, all you get with sin taxes is smuggling and a black market. Note that sugar was one of those things you bought "off the books" in WW2 if you didn't have enough ration cards to get what you needed.
Hmm...three million tons dumped into an area of 345000 km^2...assuming the stuff has a density the same as seawater (it's denser than that, but this assumption gives a worst case analysis)...assuming uniform dispersal over the whole park, and none of the stuff dispersing to elsewhere than the park...
A layer 9 microns thick over the entire park.
I fail to see where this could be a problem, since the stuff is denser than seawater, not all of it will disperse in any case, not all of the dispersal is going to reach the reef itself, and it would be thinner than a dust mote if it did....
Wonder how they intend to manage that - first stop 100% of the sediments entering the park, then work on that last 50%?
No worries. I can order two at a restaurant, or microwave two at home.
Nonsense!
They only create TWO billion a day.
Read the whole thing. Still boggled by the idea that carbon is a greenhouse gas.
Many more people are under the delusion that the pipeline is not already in the USA.
It should be noted that the first two parts of the pipeline are already in place, and already pumping oil. The part that this article is talking about will provide only a better path to move the oil that's already being moved from Canada to the USA.
I take it you're Canadian? Because the oil in question is coming from Canada, not the USA.
Note that if Canada really wanted to export their oil overseas, they would have just built a pipeline to one of the Canadian ports.
Carbon is NOT a gas. Greenhouse or otherwise.
Carbon dioxide IS a gas.
Weapon Shop guns. They'll only fire in self-defense.
From "Weapon Shops of Isher", if it's not clear.
its
libraries.
It horrifies me that someone who likes libraries can't spell "libraries".
"Storm of the Century" mean anything to you? Where I live, we call that a Tropical Storm, and since we basically ignore anything short of a full-blown hurricane (Cat-3 or higher), we got a lot of laughs out of that one.
Not sure I really care what the merchant is getting charged by the CC company, unless the merchant gives me cash discount.
And I haven't noticed merchants giving cash discounts for a long time.
I've got a couple like that.
I use them regularly, and (hopefully) annoy the CC company by paying my bill, in full, every single month.
They weren't called up in advance, or they wouldn't have had to wait till wednesday morning to rescue those school buses full of kids.
Yeppers.
The Causeway (a 26 mile long bridge across Lake Ponchartrain) was described yesterday by the highway patrol as a "26 mile long iceberg", since all lanes were covered by a sheet of ice for the entire length of the bridge.
Because he's the boss? The guy in the hotseat? The person they're paying to make decisions?
The mayor may be advised by his engineering or public safety guys, but, in the end, it's his decision.
And if he says it's not his decision to make, the wrong guy got elected mayor.
Hmm, a state or regional coop. And what happenns when the whole region gets the same weather (as happened Tuesday).
Lease them to others when not needed at home. So, we lease them to more northerly States, then when we need them they need to drive from, say, Ohio to Atlanta starting the morning they are needed? Remember, the Winter Storm Warning went out ~9 hours before things went to crap. If they'd had them, and they were leased out to more northerly States, and they'd all managed to get to Atlanta between 3AM and Noon, they'd have been too late.
That wasn't the worst of it. The worst was that some kids were trapped on school buses overnight. The National Guard had to go out Wednesday to rescue multiple busloads of kid who had spent the night stuck on the highways...
Note that we got pretty much the same warning in the NOLA area. Out local governments decided to cancel schools for the whole day, since, while the weather was supposed to be fine in the morning, by the time the kids had to go home, it was going to be a nightmare.
Sure enough, it was a fine morning, but by mid-afternoon (when the kids would normally be coming home by bus) the freezing rain had started and the roads were getting increasingly unsafe (there are a LOT of elevated roadways here, what with the bayous and all, so freezing rain is a more serious problem here than it might be in other places).
And things stayed shutdown through Wednesday.
Of course, it's Thursday now, and temps are expected to be in the 50's today (and 70's by Saturday)....
Hmm, Venezuela's murder rate in 2012 was 45.1 per 100,000. In 2013 it was 79 per 100,000. Are you really stupid enough to think that before they banned civilian ownership of firearms, their murder rate was 45000+ per 100,000 annually?
Note, by comparison, that the "gun-crazy" US murder rate was 4.5 per 100,000 in 2012.