Friday, May 25, 2007

Gas Prices: Not Really So Bad

Here, from the Cato Institute, is a very interesting perspective on the cost of gasoline:
The fact is that high pump prices are not reducing demand very much because they are not imposing anything like the economic pain alleged by politicians. For instance, if we adjust nominal gasoline prices in 1949 (27 cents per gallon) by inflation, we get a price of $1.90 per gallon in today’s terms. If we further adjust those prices by mean disposal income, we find that gasoline prices would have to be $6.68 per gallon before they were taking the same bite out of our wallets as they were in 1949.

In 1962 -- a year writ large in the popular imagination as the quintessential year of muscle cars and cheap gasoline thanks to the movie American Graffiti -- gasoline prices averaged 31 cents per gallon. When we factor changes in disposable income, today’s gas would have to cost $4.48 to be a comparable burden.

The public likewise thinks of 1972 as the last year of energy innocence prior to the rise of OPEC and the onset of shortage. Fuel prices in 1972 averaged 36 cents per gallon, a hefty $2.77 per gallon in today’s terms. While still high, this price is not all that different than the prices we were paying earlier in the year.

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Hat tip: Boortz

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Motorcycle Wisdom

Most motorcycle problems are caused by the nut that connects the handlebars to the saddle.

Life may begin at 30, but it doesn't get real interesting until about 60 mph!

You start the game of life with a full pot of luck and an empty pot of experience. The object is to fill the pot of experience before you empty the pot of luck.

If you wait, all that happens is that you get older.

Midnight bugs taste just as bad as Noon time bugs.

Saddlebags can never hold everything you want, but they CAN hold everything you need.

It takes more love to share the saddle than it does to share the bed.

The only good view of a thunderstorm is in your rear view mirror.

Never be afraid to slow down.

Sometimes it takes a whole tankfull of fuel before you can think straight.

Riding faster than everyone else only guarantees you'll ride alone.

Never hesitate to ride past the last street light at the edge of town.

If you don't ride in the rain, you don't ride.

A bike on the road is worth two in the shed.

Respect the person who has seen the dark side of motorcycling and lived.

Young riders pick a destination and go...
Old riders pick a direction and go.

A good mechanic will let you watch without charging you for it.

Always back your bike into the curb, and sit where you can see it.

Work to ride & ride to work.

Whatever it is, it's better in the wind.

Two-lane blacktop isn't a highway - it's an attitude.

Winter is Nature's way of telling you to polish.

Keep your bike in good repair: Motorcycle boots are NOT comfortable for walking.

People are like Motorcycles: each is customized a bit differently.

Good coffee should be indistinguishable from 50 weight motor oil.

The best alarm clock is sunshine on chrome.

The twisties - not the superslabs - separate the riders from the Wanna Bees.

When you're riding lead, don't spit.

A friend is someone who'll get out of bed at 2 am to drive his Pickup to the middle of nowhere to get you when you're broken down. Without asking "What the hell were you doing?"

Catching a yellow jacket in your shirt at 70mph can double your vocabulary.

If you want to get somewhere before sundown, you can't stop at every tavern.

Everyone crashes. Some get back on. Some don't. Some can't.

Don't argue with an 18-wheeler.

A good long ride can clear your mind, restore your faith, and use up a lot of fuel.

If you ride like there's no tomorrow, there won't be.

Bikes parked out front, means good chicken-fried steak inside.

There are drunk riders.
There are old riders.
There are NO old, drunk riders.

You can forget what you do for a living when your knees are in the breeze.

Patience is the ability to keep your motor idling.

Only a Biker knows why a dog sticks his head out of a car window.

There are two types of people in this world, people who ride motorcycles and people who wish they could ride motorcycles.

Gray-haired riders don't get that way from pure luck

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Separated at Birth?



New York Yankee star Derek Jeter, and the Taco Bell Dog

Monday, May 14, 2007

This story confirms what I thought earlier in the year when I was shopping for a new SUV. I looked at the Ford Escape Hybrid, but ended up with a regular Ford Escape. I did the math on the mileage I estimated I would be driving with whatever the current gas price was then and figured it would take more than ten years to make back the additional money I would spend on the hybrid version. For what it's worth, my Mustang GT with it's V8 engine gets better gas mileage than the Escape with the V6 engine.

If they would just invent a car that would run on dog poo, I could save a ton of money!

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

I love stories like this. How stupid (or drunk in this case) do you have to be to think this would be a good idea? Yay for the giraffe!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Dennis Prager in his letter to our soldiers in Iraq, wraps up the Religion of Peace in a nice, tight little package:
You know that you are fighting the most vicious and primitive ideology in the world today. It is the belief that one's God wants his followers to maim, torture and murder in order to spread a system of laws that sends societies back to a moral and intellectual state that is pre-civilization.

They Must Be Looking For Freddie Mercury

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Can We Call them Hypocrites?

Next time a big time politician tells you what to drive, what light bulb to use, or what temperature to set the thermostat, consider the recent doings of the lovely Hillary Clinton:

Thursday afternoon: Clinton boards a Gulfstream II jet from Washington DC to Orangeburg, SC for a debate.
Thursday evening: Clinton takes the same Gulfstream back to DC.
Thursday evening: the Gulfstream returns to South Carolina empty to await Hillary!
Friday morning: Clinton hops aboard a Hawker 800 back down to Greenville, SC.
Friday morning: The Hawker is abandoned in Greenville, and the Gulfstream II ferries her highness to Columbia.
Friday afternoon: The Gulfstream II is rejected and traded in for a Gulfstream III, because Hillary! prefers the cabin configuration.

The subsequent weekend was spent jet-hopping from San Diego to San Jose to Reno to Van Nuys and finally "home" to NY. Then this:
Clinton, who has warned against global warming from the stump and hyped the need for alternative energy such as ethanol, burned through thousands of gallons of jet fuel swooping along the campaign trail - and it's not clear why she sent an empty plane to wait for her in South Carolina then flew a different jet from Washington the next day.

Suzy Would Have Enjoyed This One

My late wife Suzy always got a kick out of unusually named people in unusual situations. She laughed herself silly at the story of a lesbian woman who lost custody of her child. The woman's name? Sharon Bottoms.

Now, here's a story of politics in New Paltz, New York. The mayor there, Jason West, made national news by "marrying" gay couples in violation of state law. One of his big supporters in this effort? Judy Swallow.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Dispatch From the Religion of Peace

Here is "prayer" by Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council:
"Oh Allah, vanquish the Jews and their supporters. Oh Allah, count their numbers, and kill them all, down to the very last one. Oh Allah, show them a day of darkness. Oh Allah, who sent down His Book, the mover of the clouds, who defeated the enemies of the Prophet defeat the Jews and the Americans, and bring us victory over them."
Wow, that's some peaceful prayer. Thanks for the sentiment. But how did he preface his peaceful prayer?
Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One"
These are the people Jimmy Carter wants us to negotiate with? To broker "peace" with?