Buy gas at SuperAmerica or Speedway?

You might want to rethink it. Their "reward" for an employee who chased off a man who was assaulting a female employee was to fire him.

Yup, you got that right. Man comes to the assistance of his colleague, preventing further assault (perhaps even rape or murder), and is rewarded by being fired. You can let SuperAmerica know your opinion on this here.

H/T True North.

Something I want to try.....

....as I'm responding to $3.65/gallon gasoline by riding my bike. H/T Mitch Berg.

In his words: "It’s also fun to be able to drive up next to “Obama”-sticker-clad Priuses and yell “you earth-destroying gas-guzzler!”, and watch them wither with guilt."

I wanna try this.

Oh, and happy birthday to Israel! (sorry to any readers over there, as it'll be a day late)

Unsafe at any speed!

No, not the Corvair, but rather Barack Hussein Obama, who admits to taking a 1970s era Ford Granada to well above 80mph--and then complains that it didn't handle well at that speed.

Memo to Barack; the speed limit was 55mph at the time, and most roads were built for a speed of 55-70mph. Yes, when you exceed the design speed of both your vehicle and the road you're driving it on, you will have some problems. Your mileage will also go down. However, the blame is to be assigned not to Ford, but rather to the nut behind the wheel.

Obama, a big advocate of government intervention in auto markets, also ought to consider why the Granada was built so lightly; Ford was trying to meet CAFE fuel efficiency standards. Maybe he could take a hint and figure out that Congress ought to leave the engineering to the SAE.

Yes, I'm dreaming here, but I've got to have hope.

Great predictions of environmentalists

When you read a report by prominent environmentalists about what evils are about to befall us because we're not doing as they say, you would do well to look at their track record. Thank you, Professor Williams.

Flexible spending accounts?

I don't know how many "requests for substantiation" of FSA claims I've gotten (really they're demands), but I do know that there is something odd when the administrator can't apparently figure out that "Minnesota Children's Clinic" or "Chaska Dental Clinic" might actually be selling eligible medical and dental care, not power tools, beer, or motorcycles.

Surreal.

Even more surreal; we reward the guys who come up with these bureaucratic nightmares by giving them big offices, prestigious titles, and large paychecks. I would have thought that a trip to Singapore for a caning would be more appropriate, but maybe that's just me.

Opportunist Jeremiah Wright

Evidently Mike Huckabee and Clarence Page agree that Senator Obama's former pastor may be actively trying to derail his campaign, because his success puts the lie to Wright's claims that pervasive white racism are holding the black man down.

So if Wright continues to torpedo his former parishioner's chances for the Presidency, I've got to ask another question; does Wright really believe what he's saying, or is he saying things simply because they play well among those in his church? If you look up his bio, he and his parents both pretty much lived the American dream, and his mother was actually the first black teacher in not one, but three, fairly prestigious Philadelphia schools.

Yes, it could be that his views are his (IMO misguided) attempt to have compassion on those who are less fortunate. I've got to admit, though, that I'm suspicious of his sincerity here.

More great environmental news

Actually, two pieces of great environmental news. First of all, now my family is cookin' with gas--avoiding the Carnot inefficiency of generating electricity, which is only about 30% efficient. It's awfully nice to be able to instantly reduce heat while cooking, too.

(but really, we were ONLY thinking of the environmental win, not the cooking....well no, that's not true at all)

Probably more significantly, the rate of breastfeeding among new mothers has hit a modern high at 77%. Why is this an environmental win?

Well, first of all, it eliminates most of the bottles (except for pumping), formula, and other accessories needed for formula feeding. Moreover, breastfeeding also bonds a mother closer to her baby, and I'd have to guess this reduces the chance she'll go back to work--reducing the impact of driving to work, daycare centers, work clothes, eating out, and more.

Plus, as a dad, I hope I can say this without getting into too much trouble; it's an awfully beautiful thing. As such, I would have to guess it might even save on things a mom spends on to keep her husband's attention. Another environmental win!

(if you're "in the family way" and want to pursue this, my wife and I highly recommend the work of the LaLeche League, and we highly discourage listening to the "schedulers")

The boom-bust cycle

Take a look a this article from the Arizona Republic. Although written with real sympathy to those who now find themselves deep in debt, it leaves me wondering "what were these people thinking?" and "who failed to teach them about basic fiscal responsibility?" Since when is it a good idea for someone living in a mobile home to fill it with electronic gear?

Or maybe the point of many of our fiscal institutions, including the Fed, is to promote fiscal irresponsibility. As I watch the Fed lower rates, and the government hand out money, to induce debt-laden people to spend more, it's hard for me to deny that possibility out of hand. Fiscally irresponsible people are easier to control, after all.

Before you send your child to college

Read this. As this site noted a while back, sending a subpar student to college doesn't guarantee them a good job. The opposite--high debt, wasted years of life, and the failure to learn a trade--is statistically speaking closer to the truth.

Yes, there are those who will find their calling later in life--let's just not throw good money after bad winnowing them out in the "Animal House" right after high school, OK?

Our blind spots

I'm not quite sure if it's edifying, or infuriating, but one of the most popular things for Christians to do today, apparently, is to discuss the apparent failure of past generations to "get" what is "painfully obvious" to those today.

What's missing, in my opinion, is a similar appraisal of things today--although we do a great job of picking on other people's faults, we have a little more trouble dealing with....our own sins. As if reading my mind, my wife got me a book by Jerry Bridges called "Respectable Sins," which attempts to deal with the "little sins" we so often tolerate while decrying the more wild sins of others.

He does so in a very interesting way; he starts not with the sins that Christians are known to commit involving both mind and body, but rather with the mental sins that we so often commit, and then proceeds to the things that we'd ordinarily call as sin.

Interesting approach--as I read and re-read this, maybe we'll see what his approach does for me and others.

Good news!

Maureen Dowd notes that Barack Hussein Obama may be getting bitter out on the campaign trail. Maybe that means he'll come around on God, gun rights and the horrors of prenatal infanticide.

OK, I doubt it, but it was a fun thought. Let me dream, would ya?

Oh, and I promise; if I ever run for President, I WILL enjoy a cheese steak with all the fixin's, and they can take as many pictures of the mess as they want. And a root beer, too.

Why does college cost so much?

Thomas Sowell explains why in three delightful columns. More or less, the combination of government subsidies to students, government research grants, and the demands of accrediting agencies have put univerities and colleges into a paradigm where teachers do not teach, resources are diverted to "research" of dubious quality, and the size of the library matters more than the quality of the education in determining accreditation.

(if you wonder why small schools are having trouble, read that last line again)

Looking around, I notice that schools which refuse federal aid--like Hillsdale, Patrick Henry, and new Saint Andrew's--seem to be on the low end of the tuition scale, not to mention the high end of the quality scale. Hmmm.....tell me again why we have a federal department of education? Is it to prevent the same?

Some great environmental news

Wisconsin dairy farmers are increasingly pasturing their cattle. Why is this great for the environment?

Well, you don't get monstrous ponds of manure, as it stays on the land where it falls. You don't need huge amounts of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides to maintain a meadow, either. You don't need tons of diesel fuel to let the cattle out into the pasture, as you do to grow maize and soybeans.

You don't get quite as much milk, either, but the milk you get has more vitamins and minerals, and a healthier mix of fats, proteins, and cholesterol than grain-feed cows produce. And given chronic overproduction of milk, maybe it's a good thing that pastured cattle don't produce as much.

Seems that rural life starts anew when you ignore the USDA.

The cost of that all aluminium Focus

....in terms of fuel usage; it requires 15kW-h of electricity, or about 55MJ, to refine a kilogram of aluminium. In contrast, gasoline produces about 45mJ/kg, and coal produces about 24MJ/kg. Keep in mind that your power plant is probably fueled with coal due to the expense of other fuels.

What does this mean? Well, given about 30% efficiency in a coal fired power plant, or about 20-25% efficiency in a gasoline engine, you've got to burn about 7kG of coal or gasoline to produce one kG of aluminium.

Convert your steel car to an aluminium Focus now, and you find that the 700kG of aluminium was obtained at the cost of burning about 4900kG--about 1500 gallons of gasoline, or about the amount a Focus would use in driving about 50,000 miles. To actually break even with the standard vehicle in terms of energy use, you've got to go about 150,000 miles.

Then you can consider the opportunity cost of the $50k estimated sticker price--even a 5% return and a long 10 year life for depreciation costs you a cool $7500 annually.

About enough to buy a decent new car every two or three years. Sounds like a very expensive way to save some energy to me.

Oh, and back to that recycling thing; yup, most of the energy saved is due to recycling....you got it, aluminium. Think twice before putting your pop bottles in there. It may not work out after all.

Interesting statistics

A commercial being run in favor of recycling claims that here in Minnesota, one million tons of products are being recycled, and that this is equivalent energy savings to taking 1.3 million cars off the road.

Assuming those cars would be driven about 12000 miles per year at 24mpg (national averages), this would imply that recycling one ton of material nets an energy savings equivalent to about 800 gallons of gasoline, which weighs in at close to 2.5-3 tons.

Either a large portion of that recycled material is aluminium, or call me skeptical.

What is that recycled material equivalent to taking cars off the road? Well, it's equivalent to....taking cars off the road, actually. Our state's share of car purchases would be about 300,000 cars, with a total weight of somewhere around 600,000 tons. Most of that is recycled these days. Add in trucks, buses, and building materials that are recycled in our fair state, and you come to the unsettling conclusion that the portion of recycled materials actually processed in recycling bins is probably fairly low.