Keep your tires inflated !

[Iosif is a COTHO]

Oh, snnaaapp.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

Basically what you're saying is drilling is an easier solution because the average person doesn't have to lift a finger & thus it'll more likely get done. Agreed. As I suggested a while ago, I have no problem with drilling. By all means, let's do the Hilton plan. However, I see nothing wrong with urging people to check their tires and I don't think the cost is so prohibitive that it's impossible that large numbers of people would be willing to do it.

Of course we should try to educate people about ways to save oil now.  It's cheap to do it; we have nothing to lose.  But while may be able to put a small dent into consumption through this tire checking business, but the same 500,000 cars that are underinflated now will not be the same 500,000 cars that are underinflated six months from now.  It's going to be very difficult to permanently lower the "low tire equilibrium" point.

I'm trying to be realistic about matters.  Drilling offshore isn't a perfect solution (or even a "solution"), but it'll help.  And even if the oil doesn't come online for another 5–10 years... you better believe we'll need that oil even worse then than we do now.

I'm glad that you seem to favor a sensible energy policy.  I'd like to see your candidate do the same.

[Beet]

Basically what you're saying is drilling is an easier solution because the average person doesn't have to lift a finger & thus it'll more likely get done. Agreed. As I suggested a while ago, I have no problem with drilling. By all means, let's do the Hilton plan. However, I see nothing wrong with urging people to check their tires and I don't think the cost is so prohibitive that it's impossible that large numbers of people would be willing to do it.

Of course we should try to educate people about ways to save oil now.  It's cheap to do it; we have nothing to lose.  But while may be able to put a small dent into consumption through this tire checking business, but the same 500,000 cars that are underinflated now will not be the same 500,000 cars that are underinflated six months from now.

The point is, if people are educated about it and check regularly, the average number of underinflated cars would go down. It doesn't matter whether they are the same cars or not. The obesity rate can go up or down even though at any given moment, there are some people losing weight and others gaining; the recycling rate may go up or down even though at any given moment there are people learning to recycle and others deciding not to recycle. Reducing the number of underinflated cars is no harder than any other behavior that people could be educated about.

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Well hopefully, whatever price it is then, we won't need it as badly as we would today at that price, because the economy will be further along in its transition away from oil. But yes since the cost is high now and not likely to fall much, I don't see a problem with drilling.

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Obama's moved toward a compromise that would allow drilling, as is well known.. a little after myself, but nonetheless.

[angus]

the Republican National Committee is sending tire gauges labeled "Barack Obama's Energy Plan" to Washington reporters.

LOL.  Clever, though, you gotta admit.  Maybe that explains the bump in McCain's polling.

I bought my first six-pack of CFL bulbs at Wal-Mart last week.  10 watts they were.  The garage had six one hundred-watt incandescent bulbs when we moved in, and I just couldn't stand the thought of it, and replaced them.  So I replaced six hundred watts with sixty.  It's slightly dimmer, and there's the slightest pause when you flick the switch--I'm told that the slight pause will became a long, frustrating one around mid-January, when it's minus twenty degrees Fahrenheit.  I'll cross that bridge when I come to it--but I like them so far.  I also bought my first lawn mower last week.  I'm 41 and I've never owned a lawn mower till last week.  It's electric.  Bought it on Amazon.com.  Free delivery.  I did a little calculation comparing the one I ended up buying to a comparably-priced combustion mower, assuming 7c per kW-hr and 4 dollar gas, and it turned out to be much, much cheaper to do the electric.  The 100-foot cord is a bit of a drag.  But it's orange, and so I managed not to run over it yet.  I'm sure I will at some point.  ZAP!  Won't need to do that twice.  And we're still recycling all my booze bottles and Coca-cola cans.  Also, I'm bringing a bag to the supermarket nowadays and minimizing the single-use plastic bags.  And of course I still cycle to work except when it rains or snows.  Most importantly, I'm down to two pulls, three squares per pull, in the toilet.  No kidding.  That's six squares per movement.  Can't beat Cheryl Crow yet, but I'm getting there. 

Ran over the fuçking cord today.  Bam!  Second time I used it and I managed to run it over.  You know how like when you are vaccuuming and you come across the cord and you try to jump it?  Like, you push forward, accelerating, and pop a bit of a wheelie, front, then back?  Because you're basically too lazy to bend over and grab the cord and whip it out of the way or hold it up?  Well, I did that.  Except that the electric lawn mower is a bit heavier than the vaccuum cleaner.  Not that I'm too weak to lift it.  Just wasn't expecting it.  Kind of like, it's not that I don't like grape juice, but when I pick up a glass of dark-colored liquid and expect it to be coca=cola, and I'm hot and thirsty, and I pick it up expecting that phosphoric acid and sugar burn, sweet and icy hot in my throat, and I end up with this tingly sensation on the sides of my tongue, the way grape and other fruit juices do.  It's just weird.  Not that I don't care for grape juice.  I was just expecting coca-cola.  It was like that with the lawn mower when I tried the accelerate/wheelie/front/back manoeuvre when I came across the cord.  I'd expected the slight pressure sensation on my wrists that I'd come to know and love when I did the vacuum cleaner that way, but I didn't give it enough of a jerk.  Being heavier, it didn't jump up over the cord, but cut through it.  Dammit.  I'd had about a half bottle of Bohemian Highway Cab and decided it was time to mow.  Actually it has only been eight days since I first mowed, but the lawn was looking shaggy.  (I'm really finding my inner Hank Hill since I bought this place.)  But the cord didn't kill me.  Didn't even jolt me.  Actually, it just shut down.  So I pulled out my Swiss Army knife and got the medium-sized blade and I cut the cables clean and peeled the wires back--green, white, and black--and twisted them together then looked for some black electrical tape to tape them.  Couldn't find any so I used duct tape (Or maybe it was Duck Tape.)  Whatever it was it worked.    I went down to the basement and noticed that the "ext. recpt. all" breaker was thrown.  So I flipped it and plugged back in and finished the job.  Then I finished my bottle of red wine. 

Man, the grass grows fast here in Flyover Country. 

[Beet]

The only person I know with an electric mower has his wife behind him the whole time holding the cord.

I think the reason he bought it was not to save money, but because he didn't realize it was electric (serious) and now doesn't want to take it back to the store.