BLOG POSTS

Ongoing from my original post on the poor gas mileage of American Smart cars (see “Smart Car – But No Smart Gas Mileage In US”) the comments continue to arrive. Here is just one, from Jeff:

“I got one of the first ones in the States. I live in SF (hills), and I am averaging just 20 MPG with mine! I called the dealer today who verified that one other owner is having similar issues and they verified it getting just 22 MPG. I am going to force the manufacturer to give me a new one if they don’t find a fix.”

Good luck with that one, Jeff.

The subject of diesel cars, so popular in Europe, has already been well covered. Their lack of popularity in the US results from very successful anti-diesel marketing strategies by the manufacturers, the US government, and artificially inflated diesel prices throughout America. Also, until recently, gas was so cheap in the States that designing diesel cars seemed somewhat pointless.

That situation has now changed, probably permanently, and it’s time the American public began lobbying for diesel-engined cars in the US.

Here’s why:

On a recent vacation in Britain my wife and I hired a Volkswagon Golf 1.9L TDI. It was one of the best vehicles in its class that I have ever driven. The 1.9 liter turbo-diesel engine (103 bhp) though slightly ‘clacky’ on tickover, behaved beautifully during all aspects of driving, with a real belt from the back of the seat when accelerating strongly. All Golfs have six airbags as standard, stability control and anti-lock brakes linked to the latest electronic stopping aids, while active front head restraints help to minimize whiplash in the event of a rear-end shunt. Electric front windows and door mirrors, remote central locking, a CD player and air-conditioning are also standard items. The car we hired had cruise control that was precise and immediate in operation.

Best of all, having driven over 1,500 miles in three weeks, the engine returned 56 miles per Imperial gallon, which adjusted for the smaller US gallon would work out at 49 mpg.

The car is apparently available in the United States, though, gas mileage is quoted as 42 mpg, which is still a healthy return.

The Golf is no Smart car, but it has many advantages over the Smart, purchase price, unfortunately, not being one of them.

Filed under: US not so Smart

I would ask that you examine the picture below. Does it arouse strong sexual urges? Do you feel the need to scream hysterically for the censor? Is this naked child an embarrassment to you? Perhaps, for the sake of James Dobson’s apoplexy, its posterior could be hidden by a judiciously placed silver star?

I happen to like pictures of naked babies. I’m no pervert. I just find them cute. Probably 98% of the planet’s human population would agree with me. Of the other two percent, half would be tainted by perverted lust and the rest would demand a silver star for the sake of something they call “common decency”.

Whatever that is.

A certain supermarket chain in the UK, which shall remain nameless even though owned outright by US parent company, Wal-Mart, falls into the latter category. Mister Walton’s British management team consider such pictures may constitute pornography. Consequently, when the stores ran a promotion offering cakes from their bakery with a customer’s photograph printed onto the surface, one lady asked for a birthday cake featuring a photo of a five-month-old baby, in similar state of undress to the one above. The store refused citing a company policy of “no nudity”.

Eventually, a compromise was reached once mom had agreed to a large silver star being strategically placed onto the photo to obliterate baby’s bottom.^[1]

What have we become?

The answer is frighteningly simple, we’ve become a victim society.

A victim society occurs when civil liberties, freedom of speech and expression, suppression of natural feelings, are all curtailed to a large extent for fear of accusation.

The USA has perfected the victim society, though Britain is fast catching up. Basically, we create a victim society when we allow a tiny minority of criminal and perverted elements to affect, not only our daily lives, but the very manner of our thinking. Instead of accepting real, though extremely rare, dangers for what they are, we envisage every other being on the planet as harboring the potential to do us and ours harm. The result is a distrust of everyone, by everyone, and is undoubtedly the primary reason gun control in the United States is opposed by the majority, despite obvious evidence that guns contribute significantly to violent crime in the nation.

Since 9/11, the US government and its attendant media have pushed the victim society syndrome to its limits for political gain. We are all aware of the “terror threat” lurking around every corner.

Even colors considered vivid and beautiful when formed by the petals of a rose, become frightening when displayed in this manner. Yellow – be scared; Orange – be very scared; Red – take refuge in absolute hysteria.

The effect of such constant bombardment by fear and oppression is insidious. As a part-time school bus driver I am constantly warned by my bosses, “Never, never, touch a child”; “Don’t allow hugs”; “Avoid forms of affection”.

Some of my kids have ridden with me for four years. They were four and five years old and are now eight or nine. They feel they’ve known me all their lives, and almost they have. Yet, the minds of paranoid, heavily indoctrinated, adults can twist an innocent action into something that could cause the most appalling repercussions.

“Suffer little children to come unto me,” might well brand Jesus of Nazareth a pedophile in this Capitalist-Christian world of 2008.

The supermarket rule, “no naked photos on our cakes” is likely a ruling from the high and mighty Walton family themselves. A blanket law. Understandable, if I took a photo of myself in the buff, lying on a rug with my butt in the air. A silver star might certainly then be appropriate. Unless, of course, I was five months old, and not sixty-two.

But, after all, why condone any exception? Rules are rules and Heaven forbid the sales staff be given an opportunity to think – make decisions – for themselves, even those based on common sense. Blanket rules, blanket laws, allow no leeway in our victim societies. Corporate America, Corporate Europe, are in control. By keeping us in fear of each other they can manipulate us whichever way they desire.

And are we, the people, not our own worst enemies? We happily allow them to convince us that, above all, we must live in fear of each other.

^{[1] “Asda refuse to print baby snap…..because he’s naked”, Daily Mail, June 25th 2008}

Filed under: Bottoms up

……’cos you have to be asleep to believe it.” ~ George Carlin

They all laughed at your comedy, George, but no-one ever listened.

R.I.P.

Filed under: George Carlin 1937 – 2008