Thursday, August 27, 2009

Check This

I'm only adding this video because I find it completely ironic. Democrats are vehemently opposed to checking IDs at the voting booth, but apparently are okay with checking IDs when you want to ask a question at a TownHall meeting. You seriously can't make this stuff up.





But the Congressman doesn't have a monopoly on irony these days:
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Government Spending Revisited

In other news:

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Prius Worse Than Hummer

This article was originally posted on the website at Central Connecticut State University. Since they have gone ahead and removed it, I'm pasting it here:


March 7, 2007
Prius Outdoes Hummer in Environmental Damage

By Chris Demorro
Staff Writer

The Toyota Prius has become the flagship car for those in our society so environmentally conscious that they are willing to spend a premium to show the world how much they care. Unfortunately for them, their ultimate ‘green car’ is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America; it takes more combined energy per Prius to produce than a Hummer.

Before we delve into the seedy underworld of hybrids, you must first understand how a hybrid works. For this, we will use the most popular hybrid on the market, the Toyota Prius.

The Prius is powered by not one, but two engines: a standard 76 horsepower, 1.5-liter gas engine found in most cars today and a battery- powered engine that deals out 67 horsepower and a whooping 295ft/lbs of torque, below 2000 revolutions per minute. Essentially, the Toyota Synergy Drive system, as it is so called, propels the car from a dead stop to up to 30mph. This is where the largest percent of gas is consumed. As any physics major can tell you, it takes more energy to get an object moving than to keep it moving. The battery is recharged through the braking system, as well as when the gasoline engine takes over anywhere north of 30mph. It seems like a great energy efficient and environmentally sound car, right?

You would be right if you went by the old government EPA estimates, which netted the Prius an incredible 60 miles per gallon in the city and 51 miles per gallon on the highway. Unfortunately for Toyota, the government realized how unrealistic their EPA tests were, which consisted of highway speeds limited to 55mph and acceleration of only 3.3 mph per second. The new tests which affect all 2008 models give a much more realistic rating with highway speeds of 80mph and acceleration of 8mph per second. This has dropped the Prius’s EPA down by 25 percent to an average of 45mpg. This now puts the Toyota within spitting distance of cars like the Chevy Aveo, which costs less then half what the Prius costs.

However, if that was the only issue with the Prius, I wouldn’t be writing this article. It gets much worse.

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

So, if you are really an environmentalist - ditch the Prius. Instead, buy one of the most economical cars available - a Toyota Scion xB. The Scion only costs a paltry $0.48 per mile to put on the road. If you are still obsessed over gas mileage - buy a Chevy Aveo and fix that lead foot.

One last fun fact for you: it takes five years to offset the premium price of a Prius. Meaning, you have to wait 60 months to save any money over a non-hybrid car because of lower gas expenses.

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Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Cash For Clunkers

I would like to thank President Obama for giving America another example of just how inept the government is at running programs. Lets take a look at the Car Allowance Rebate System (a.k.a. Cash for Clunkers).

And this is absolutely rich. The program set up to help American auto makers is helping foreign owned companies instead. Here is the list of the top 10 vehicles sold in the Cash for Clunkers program (full article).

  1. Toyota Corolla
  2. Honda Civic
  3. Ford Focus FWD
  4. Toyota Camry
  5. Toyota Prius
  6. Hyundai Elantra
  7. Ford Escape FWD
  8. Honda Fit
  9. Nissan Versa
  10. Honda CR-V 4WD

Notice, only 2 American owned cars in the bunch. However, the top 10 cars getting traded in.... all American owned.

  1. Ford Explorer 4WD
  2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
  3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
  4. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
  5. Ford Explorer 2WD
  6. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
  7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
  8. Ford F150 Pickup 4WD
  9. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
  10. Ford Windstar FWD Van
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Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Health Care, Climate Change and the Census

Atleast the media covers both sides fairly.... or not.

And in more health care related news:

And everything else:

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Thursday, August 6, 2009

Who's Spying on Who?

Let's digest this a bit. The White House is now asking people to snitch on fellow citizen's. From the website, it says, "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy" then you should email it to the White House. You can read about it here:


Several things I want to touch on here. First, I keep hearing people breaking out the old saw that George Bush used warrantless wiretaps which were much worse than this. Two big differences here in my opinion. One is that these wiretaps were only for phone calls between someone in this country and known or suspected terrorists residing outside the US. The other is this, wiretapping terrorists is completely different than asking people to turn in their neighbor if they disagree with the President's viewpoint. I mean what is "fishy"? That opens up the box to anything. Notice that Bush is targeting terrorists, Obama is targeting Americans.

Next, I vaguely remember when we were told it was patriotic to disagree with the administration:





Thank you Hillary for that rousing reminder to dissent from our current President's policies. Now, I want to get back to the "fishy" comment. Seriously, what does that mean? If I say that Obama's health care bill would fund abortions, is that fishy? What if I say he wants to move to a single payer system, is that fishy? What if I said his statements about us all keeping our private health insurance is false, fishy? What if I provide facts for all that, is it still fishy?

And a couple more videos of Obama saying some "fishy" things:













Its no wonder the natives continue to get restless. I guess I get to look forward to being watched by the government now. Maybe they'll send some G-Men to get me. Please, Mr. President, when you said them, could you tell them to bring some global warming with them, its been awfully cold here in Minnesota this year.

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Monday, August 3, 2009

Obamacare and More

Things continue to look bleak for Obama's one payer health care system.






And other ways in which the government is showing its inept:

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