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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/09/2008 : 03:20:11
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Well, there's a lot of them out there, anyway. But one stands out amognst the confereracy of cretins and it is a tribute to his stature that he is instantly recognized from the mere mention of his first name: Rush!
And here is his latest celebration of the sublime glory that is to be found in ignorance: Limbaugh's solution to auto crisis: Build crappier cars
By Ed Brayton 12/7/08 12:44 AM
One of the familiar refrains we've heard from auto industry critics is that they just don't build good enough cars to get people to buy them. Now we hear from Rush Limbaugh that the problem is the opposite, that they build cars that are just too darn good and that's why people don't have to keep buying new cars.
After a customer tells him that he's buying a new Chevy pickup, this conversation ensued on Limbaugh's radio show on Thursday:
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On the other hand, maybe cars aren't such a hot idea after all, as they seem to promote yet more stupidity over a far larger geographic. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 12/09/2008 03:25:10
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 03:22:49 [Permalink]
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Hoo-boy! Is that guy Rush funny, or not?
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/09/2008 : 03:44:53 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
Hoo-boy! Is that guy Rush funny, or not?
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Well, he certainly would be, but his spew is taken seriously by a fair percentage of the population and that's what gave us eight years of an alleged president even stupider (it scarcely seems possible doesn't it) than he is.
Having a low bullshit tolerance, I can't listen to him but my elder daughter finds him and his benighted callers highly entertaining.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 05:55:56 [Permalink]
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There was a common claim years ago that the US auto companies intentionally designed their vehicles to fall apart / rust out after a few years so they could maintain demand. Thent he Japanese came into the market and refused to play ball, undercutting that tried and true business model with cars that drove on and on and didn't rust. I'm not sure I believe that. I'm more inclined to believe the domestics didn't design long lasting cars because they didn't have to and it's much easier to make a sloppy car than a good one. But the Japanese had to do it to bust into the market. That and maybe there's a cultural factor - they are (were?) somewhat perfectionist compared to Americans.
Regarding good ideas, IMHO the automobile along with it's ugly step child the highway system, is more or less an idiotic means of getting millions of people from A to B. I imagine in a few millenia archeologists puzzling over what the heck we were thinking in much the same way we look at the Egyptian pyramids today. |
-Chaloobi
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 12/09/2008 : 08:04:12 [Permalink]
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Yes, yes the Sarah Palin of transportation. Looks good but high maintenance costs. The "planned obsolesce" riff was floating around in the '50s and many, including myself, believed it. Today, thanks to the Japanese, that sort of thing can't survive.
I've read that in spite of dropping fuel prices, public transportation is growing. A good sign, if true.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 09:56:07 [Permalink]
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What Rush fails to mention, because he is too stupid or to much a liar to think of it, but along with better built cars came the rise of leases. In that way, the same car can be sold twice on the same lot. First as a lease, which they do not lose money on. Then the car comes back and is sold again as a pre-owned vehicle. Again, not at a loss. Fifty or sixty thousand miles on the odometer is considered a low mileage car. And the lots get decent money for them. That wasn't the case 25 years ago and makes them attractive to people who can't afford new car payments on some new high priced cars, which they almost all are now.
Also, body styles tend to remain the same for many more years now. They used to change almost every year. They needed to so people who's cars didn't last as long as they do now didn't feel like they were replacing their old car with the same car. Today, a pre-owned usually still looks new.
In short, the car companies make out nicely on leases and then resales. Rush needs a brain transplant... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Hittman
Skeptic Friend
134 Posts |
Posted - 12/09/2008 : 14:36:01 [Permalink]
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| IMHO the automobile along with it's ugly step child the highway system, is more or less an idiotic means of getting millions of people from A to B. |
The problem is millions of people don't want to go from A to B. If they did, mass transit would be a great idea. But we want to go from A, B, C, D through Z to a, b, c, d through z, on our own time frame, without waiting in the rain or the snow or sharing rides with someone we'd otherwise cross the street to avoid.
Mass transit can work great when you've got a high population density, but the US is too spread out for it to work well anywhere other than large cities.
I think people are realizing that leases are a major rip-off, but that's still not a license for the auto makers to go back to making crap. I'm driving around a ten year old Dodge sedan and haven't had much trouble with it.
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When a vampire Jehovah's Witness knocks on your door, don't invite him in. Blood Witness: http://bloodwitness.com
Get Smartenized® with the Quick Hitts blog: http://www.davehitt.com/blog2/index.phpBlog |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 11:08:56 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Hittman
| IMHO the automobile along with it's ugly step child the highway system, is more or less an idiotic means of getting millions of people from A to B. |
The problem is millions of people don't want to go from A to B. If they did, mass transit would be a great idea. But we want to go from A, B, C, D through Z to a, b, c, d through z, on our own time frame, without waiting in the rain or the snow or sharing rides with someone we'd otherwise cross the street to avoid.
Mass transit can work great when you've got a high population density, but the US is too spread out for it to work well anywhere other than large cities.
I think people are realizing that leases are a major rip-off, but that's still not a license for the auto makers to go back to making crap. I'm driving around a ten year old Dodge sedan and haven't had much trouble with it.
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First, the highway system caused the urban sprawl you claim justifies the highway system. It's not like they built the damn thing because Americans were all spread out. Americans spread out because they had highways that made bedroom communities possible.
Second, just because most people want the convenience of a car & highway doesn't mean it's a very good way for them to get around. Nor does it automatically make it necessary. Europe does very well with it's mass transit, which incidentally was designed based upon what the US once had.
Third, tax gasoline back up to $4.00/gallon or more and see how popular mass transit becomes. In the last six months we've seen mass transit all over the country literally overwhelmed with riders. This is all about policy and incentives. Mass transit has long been discouraged and car ownership encouraged by government policy and the result is awesome waste and inefficiency.
But on the other hand, along with that waste and inefficiency has been a thriving auto-industry that's provided for the livlihood of millions of people for many decades. Same goes for highways - part of their awesome inefficiency is they have to be continuously re-built, keeping millions of people employed for many decades. And it turns out the highways are very good for moving short haul freight or long haul between origins & destinations and the rail on/off ramps which fostered economic growth.
Nothing is simple. |
-Chaloobi
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| Edited by - chaloobi on 12/11/2008 11:12:44 |
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 12:43:45 [Permalink]
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In all fairness, Europe also relies heavily on cars.
Not as much as the US, sure, which means your are somewhat more likely to find people who do not own a car, but still, or people are more likely to take a train, especially if travelling a long (several hours drive) distance AND toward a big city, but still most of the adults still own a car. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 20:22:09 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Simon
In all fairness, Europe also relies heavily on cars.
Not as much as the US, sure, which means your are somewhat more likely to find people who do not own a car, but still, or people are more likely to take a train, especially if travelling a long (several hours drive) distance AND toward a big city, but still most of the adults still own a car.
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You should try living in SE Michigan without a car. |
-Chaloobi
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 21:16:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chaloobi
You should try living in SE Michigan without a car. |
In LA, people drive to their mailboxes. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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chaloobi
SFN Regular
1620 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 22:30:09 [Permalink]
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| But even LA has a subway. |
-Chaloobi
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 22:33:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by chaloobi
You should try living in SE Michigan without a car. |
In LA, people drive to their mailboxes.
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As a recent immigrant to Canada, I feel I must commend/express bewilderment/complain about the existence of drive-through liquor stores. Can't see that one happening any time soon in Sweden. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/11/2008 : 23:00:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by chaloobi
But even LA has a subway. |
But Tommy Lee Jones showed us that it's nothing but a conduit for lava.Originally posted by Hawks
As a recent immigrant to Canada, I feel I must commend/express bewilderment/complain about the existence of drive-through liquor stores. |
They save wear-and-tear on the starter motor in your car. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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perrodetokio
Skeptic Friend
275 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 05:25:35 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by chaloobi
You should try living in SE Michigan without a car. |
In LA, people drive to their mailboxes.
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Hahahahahahahaha! Sorry, I was laughing so hard I messed up the first reply! hahahahaa!
cheers! |
"Yes I have a belief in a creator/God but do not know that he exists." Bill Scott
"They are still mosquitoes! They did not turn into whales or lizards or anything else. They are still mosquitoes!..." Bill Scott
"We should have millions of missing links or transition fossils showing a fish turning into a philosopher..." Bill Scott |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 10:18:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by chaloobi
You should try living in SE Michigan without a car. |
In LA, people drive to their mailboxes.
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Mass transit has been a problem in Los Angeles ever since the electric rail lines we done away with, which made a few people rich. Old history. Our subway system is not a big one. And it has been very expensive to build. (Should have been done years ago.) We now have rail lines (metro rail) that run down the center of some freeways, and express bus lines with dedicated lanes and fewer stops.
There was a big jump in the use of those services when gas prices were high. But Los Angeles is a car city because it really is so spread out. We are the poster child for run away development and urban sprawl. Our freeways are being widened, but that's a band aid on the real problem.
Unfortunately, to get from point A to point B, due to the hodgepodge nature of public transportation, we actually need our cars.
We are a prime example of what not to do. City planning is an oxymoron here.
And just so you know, the lava was diverted to Balona Creek. That's what saved us in the movie... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Help! I am surrounded by an army of stupids!
