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Aggregator

· 09/24/2004 09:35 AM by Steve Gigl


Since I’m not being very useful as a writer right now, I’ll serve as an aggregator today, updating as I go.

  • First off, Mitch Berg explains why Kerry can’t really believe his own statements about involving other “allies” in Iraq.
  • Oh, and Mitch also links to an examination of Bush’s TANG service that everyone who talks in dark tones about missed physicals and Alabama should read.
  • Lileks is one of very few writers who can write the phrase “It was a short decade” and make perfect sense. And if you like music at all, today’s Bleat is a lot of fun.
  • This poll at the Strib website is interesting. Question: “What’s your strategy for dealing with high gas prices?” The leading responses right now are “Cut down on unnecessary trips (44%)” and “None of the above (40%” I’m sure this will be used in some column or blog post decrying the sad state of Minnesotan’s environmental and budgetary concerns, but let’s think about it. Our “gas-guzzling” SUV gets ~15MPG at its worst. It has a 22-gallon tank. That means a “fill-er-up” at $2/gal is $44, and that gets us at least 330 miles. When gas was $1.80 (last week; nice how the price can jump 10% in a week but never falls that fast, isn’t it?), we got at least 330 miles on $39.60. If rountrips are about 20 miles, that means it costs us a whole $0.20 more per rountrip for a large (oddly enough, also $0.20) increase in the price of gas. Looked at even simpler, it’s another $5 per week. Sorry, not gonna change things that much. (UPDATE: see comments for more…)
  • This interview with Gen. Michael DeLong at Command Post points out some reasons behind actions that the Bush administration is taking heat for. An example:

TCP: Sen. Kerry has said more than once that President Bush let Osama bin Laden escape at Tora Bora. In your book, to say the least, you explain it much differently.

DeLong: Sen. Kerry didn’t know what happened. He’s no more better informed than the armchair generals who went after us (on TV.) And what was going on at the time, where bin Laden was in the Tora Bora caves, there was a tribal area that was full of civilians. You couldn’t go up there with soldiers of any force – especially us – because we would have been fighting them to get to bin Laden. Whether we would have gotten to him remains to be seen. This was a tribe on the border, and the only people who were accepted up there was the Pakistani army. You know how tough guarding a border is – with Texas and New Mexico and Arizona for example.

Category: Blogging
Scope: World

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  1. Sounds like you are making acceptable excuses to yourself that a 15 mpg car is all right. You are right, in that the extra $5 per week will not kill you and the 15 mpg doesn’t hurt all that much, but once you consider that the other million people who think like you are just adding to the problem of vehicles on the road that are not as efficient as we can manufacture them. Err, that being said, I’m buying a Ford F-150 when I get to Texas. Hmm.
    — Dunlap    Sep 24, 11:09 AM    #
  2. The intent was to show why 40% of the respondents didn’t give a rat’s ass that the price of gas went up 10%. And actually, these vehicles ARE as efficient as we can manufacture them—within reason and cost—for the power, space, and performance they offer. I won’t argue that there aren’t a lot of people out there who don’t need a 275-HP SUV, but I also won’t feel bad because I want a car that can tow a trailer and haul drywall when we need it to. I really should write a whole post about this, although I probably have covered it in the past. (UPDATE: yep)

    And as for the F-150, well, you have to have a bigass pickup just to fit in near Austin, don’t you?
    — Steve Gigl    Sep 24, 11:18 AM    #
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