[spdrun]

The deal of a lifetime was when gas prices initially shot up big time (then sticker shock of paying $4+/gallon)…

Wonder the following: if average gas prices hit $2.50/gal in the US, will we have a lot of good deals on Fiat 500s, Prii, and Jetta TDIs? (I happen to like small efficient cars for reasons other than gas mileage.)

I saw gas for about $2.85 when I was in NJ the other day. (Sadly, I take diesel which was about $3.50)

[spdrun]

If there was such a thing as a California state human
it would be a poser.

But there will never be such a thing, maybe ten such things, since CA is about 10 states ranging from Wyoming to New York to Alabama all rolled into one.

[spdrun]

Might be specific to CA — the 2013 number is what it is nationally. I also live in the land of automotive comfortable shoes, utilivans, and taxicabs, so maybe I’m not seeing this 🙂

Same old crappy cars parked on my street as last year for the most part.

[spdrun]

Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner! And people would still be able to buy supplemental (“Medigap?”) insurance, so that should satisfy the death panel sceptics.

[spdrun]

I suspect that delinquency rates are low because more people are driving older, paid-off cars. Average age of a car on US roads is the highest it’s ever been. Glad that Oh-bummer’s Cash for Clunkers didn’t really work in reducing that number!

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/06/autos/age-of-cars/

[spdrun]

That’s fine, but not every department is the LAPD.

[spdrun]

That might be true in California, but it’s certainly not true for all states. About a year ago, there was a sad case in a small city in Virginia. A cop had shot an older lady in her car in a parking lot, then totally lied about the circumstances. (He eventually got a prison sentence.)

He had a history of being a violent drunk (was “allowed” to leave the Marines with an honorable discharge because of that), was in multiple accidents on the job while possibly drunk. He was only hired because his mother was a secretary to the police chief, and despite the better judgement of the psychologist who interviewed him.

Google Daniel Harmon-Wright for some disturbing reading about what is allowed to go on in small-town PDs.

[spdrun]

I’m not sure if solely stopping the war on drugs will really solve that much as far as gross police misconduct. Sociopaths will always find a way to get their jollies. If it’s not drugs, they’ll “suspect” that the guy has gun parts up his bum, if not gun parts, then smuggled gold.

What we do need is some method of personality testing new hire police so as to weed out the predators and over-zealous do-gooders BEFORE they hurt the public.

This being said, I’m all for ending the “War on Some Drugs”, and moving to a strategy of treating the addicts.

And to be clear, I’m not really a keen supporter of the death penalty, but this story was far, far, beyond the pale of what should EVER happen in a constitutional democracy.

The “rape” was only part of it; they could have killed the man if he was anesthetized and he had an undiagnosed heart defect or an allergy to the drugs.

[spdrun]

Good. One small step to repealing the Idiot Chimp’s misbegotten 2001 tax cuts and returning to Clinton-era tax rates. Which, along with some defense cuts, would solve the budget-deficit problem virtually overnight.

[spdrun]

More likely this won’t have as much effect as you think. This is a bid by banks to jump into the former FHA and 3% down Fannie markets if/when housing agency reform happens; it will be a replacement rather than an expansion.

[spdrun]

In the NM incident, the cops and doctors conspired to commit a capital offense under Federal law. Deprivation of rights under color of law where sex offenses are involved carries the possibility of the death penalty.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/242

If it came to that, I’d be the first to volunteer to pull the switch, turn on the gas, trip the noose, whatever it takes on those pieces of shit. Every single petty Mengele involved in this incident should also be stripped of their medical licensure.

[spdrun]

Simple solution then: cut funding to the uni(n)formed, overpaid parasites, spend it on schools.

[spdrun]

For condos, sure, since the condo shares structure and walls with other homes.

For houses, I don’t care, since in my book, any homeowner that buys a detached SFR with an HOA is barking mad.

[spdrun]

I’m early-30s and my rates aren’t going up a lot next year. Thing is that NY has had community rating for a few decades now, so the “Obamacare” model already exists here on paper.

[spdrun]

I’m perfectly heathy, active, young looking, and young at heart. But I do think that dick Cheney has a better standard of living than I do.
You miss the point. Academics, economists and policy makers look at the aggregate, not individual cases.

No: I get your point. I just think you’re wrong. 🙂

As far as the policy makers, the output is influenced by the input — it’s a lot easier to use “the most toys per capita” as an input and desired end state, rather than a more complex mixture of conditions. I’m exaggerating a bit, of course, since no one is really that single-minded…

I wouldn’t trade places with Dick Cheney if you paid me ten million and gave me all the iPads in the world to do so. Life’s too short to go through it with angina, a limp dick, an unsteady aim, and an alienated daughter…

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