Darn right!

Note that the only reason this works is because the cost of the bus isn't rising with the cost of fuel. So what high gas taxes really accomplish is to push people away from the pump onto subsidized transport.

Live on pay per view - OJ and Peter in a steel cage match over gas taxes

David:

Americans also have a bigger car fetish than anyone else. And a bigger walking phobia.

I guess the impending surge in motorcycle fatalities is of no consequence.

Glad you acknowledged that it is working though David. The invisible hand strikes again.

Not to worry Jeff. Buy a Hummer ... the full size one ... not those dangerous minis they've introduced.

Jeff:

Where else will we get organ donors for all those aging boomers?

I ride my bike as much as I can these days. I don't think anybody's gonna want my liver though.

I wish I had the nerve to buy a Hummer. The olive drab one with the very dark tinted windows. It wouldn't fit into the garage is the answer I get when I mention it to my roomie.

Sigh.

Bud of mine has a '72 Buick Riviera. Drinks at least as much tasty gasoline as any Hummer.

For extra kicks, here's a french language site dedicated to the '71-'73 models, the "Boattail" Riv's:

http://www.buickriviera71.com/

My liver is also not transferable. I can think of something else that doesn't seem to work as good as it use to.

erp: I would buy a Humvee, the desert colored one with the TOW missle on the roof.

When I first met him in 1954, my father-in-law-to-be had a huge 1939 Buick with 12 cylinders. My husband claims that when he was learning to drive, he backed it into a fire hydrant and the fire hydrant took most of the damage.

Ah, the good old days.

Desert colored is nice too. TOW missile on the roof? I don't know what it is, but I want one especially if it increases the gas consumption.

erp:
A TOW Missile is a wire-guided missile. About 2 miles (I think) of wire goes from it back to the operator, so it's very accurate. Quite handy for destroying tanks or hybrid vehicles with "Impeach Bush!" bumper stickers.
The funny thing is that I can't find anyone (and I work in an environment with lots of former-military types) who can tell me what TOW stands for.

Brit: Darn right.

Genecis: I never denied that it would work. Raise the price of something and cateris parebus demand falls. The question is whether we want to be where higher gas prices would push us. I don't see any benefit worth the cost of getting there. As OJ admits, for him the benefit is aesthetic, and I have a different aesthetic. As for the other arguments, I think it has zero effect on terrorism (when I'm feeling optimistic), that even if the terrorism argument works it boils down to a wistful "Wouldn't it be nice if we could cut and run" and that, because of the same rules of supply and demand discussed above, the ultimate effect on petroleum usage is minimal. Show me where past CAFE increases resulted in lower overall petroleum imports.

If and when a hydrogen economy is economical, it will happen regardless of the amount of federal tax on gasoline.

governor: tube-launched, optically-tracked, wire-guided.

Gov:

Tube-launched, Optically-tracked, Wire-guided.

I have a college buddy who is a captain in the USMC and during Gulf War I, he had a bunch of these under his command. He stated that they were extremely lethal to intended targets.

Gov, pchuck: (self ref alert) In my earlier Army Armored Cav. days, we trained w/ the BGM-71D's (sans warhead of course). They're quite reliable and wickedly accurate. You put the 'X' on what you want to hit and keep it there - whether the target is moving or not - and the missile flys to the X. Once you train out the natural tendancy shift optical focus to the rocket flame in the tail of the missile (instead of maintaining the crosshairs on the target), you simply can't miss.

I must be having a dyslexic day. It's even worse than my usual senior moments because I think what I'm reading is the TOW missile when fired goes quick as bunny right to its target trailing about two miles of wire from the launch area on top of the Humvee (the real kind the military uses) to the effete aging hippie's old rusted out Dodge Dart covered in McGovern bumper stickers and reduces it to the kind of treasure trove favored by Palestinian citizen/cum looters.

Is this anywhere near correct?

erp: Yes, ma'am. That's about it. (the expendable wire is quite fine and you can shear it after impact or dump the spool case to make your get away). I've only seen first hand what an inert round will do to an already-pounded T-72 tank. So, I can only imagine what the Dart (or the VW bus) would look like.

TOW missiles would be such a great accessory even on non-Hummers to take care of the annoying slow driver in front of you on the highway -- either that, or figure out a way to shoot a couple of cruise missiles into the rear of the vehicle before igniting, and sending the offending driver and car/truck/SUV up above the highway and off towards the horizon at several hundred miles per hour.

pcharles,

Do you have an 11-Hotel background or are you just an efficient Googler?

JP

Jefferson Park: the latter. One of the great regrets of my life, no military experience.

I think a TOW missile is just too limited a weapon. I would want and would only buy an H-1 or H-2 if it were equipped with a 50 caliber machine gun. That will suffice for most unarmored vehicles and be much more useful for dealing with pedestrians.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 15, 2005 6:16 PM

Mr. Schwartz:
Like the nitwits in Hanover, NH who basically throw themselves into traffic safe in the knowledge that they are immune to cars. Get some!

pchuck:
I know how you feel, and I feel the same way sometimes. But I was such a nitwit at 18 that there's no way I could have survived the military. I look at the kids who are in the military today and think, "Wow, these kids have got their act together!"

Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided? Except for the kaboom at the end it's just a spitball with a college education.

Gov: Must be endemic to college towns. In Northampton, the cross walks downtown have little signs in the middle that say "State Law: Vehicles must yield to pedestrians in crosswalk." That is understood by both pedestrians and most drivers to mean that if a pedestrian approaches the curb from the sidewalk -- regardless of whether there is a crosswalk anywhere close -- drivers on both sides of the divided Main Street must immediately stand on their breaks and then wait until the pedestrian has completed his or her crossing.

Helluva spitball. Helluva kaboom.

Gov: I will drive you can man the 50.

Posted by: Robert Schwartz at September 15, 2005 11:12 PM