SUVs are dumb.

[Atsuko73]

www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/06/10/france.suvs/index.html

SUVs are retarded, and I'm so happy that if they ever pull this off, I am so out of here. I have always thought a law of this nature was needed, but never thought it would even get this far.
My favorite passage: "The proposal, certain to be opposed by motoring groups, follows similar remarks by the mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, who in May month described SUVs as 'bad for London -- completely unnecessary' and called their owners 'complete idiots.'" It's so exciting for me to hear someone with power echo my thoughts. I also like the survey about how many people don't freaking use their SUVs for ANYTHING. This will probably never happen in america, but I'm glad at least Europe is waking up a bit...

[Seany-D]

I feel your angst.

SUV's are perfect vehicles for offroading, camping, wilderness travel, or life out in the sticks. But that's not how they are used; mostly, they are a status symbol. A friend of mine states that she likes hers because "she can ride over top of others" and she "feels more in control".

She needs self confidence, not an SUV.

Or a pickup truck, or a van, both of which would provide the same "height advantage" without sacrificing fuel economy. Repairs and other operating costs would be cheaper as well.

But that's not the US style, is it?

Sadly, we buy vehicles much larger than we need which consume more of our finite combustable resources while pumping out kids we can't feed. This depresses me. But before you point in my direction and scream "LIBERAL!", I'd like to point out that nuclear power is a lot safer than left-wingers make it out to be, and a lot cleaner. Emissions over the eastern US dropped significantly during the blackout of last year. We don't have the technology to rely on solar, nor wind, nor hydroelectric, nor hydrogen-cell power sources. They are supplements at best, currently. And we cannot optimistically spout lines like "we just need more research to develop these technologies". Sure, it couldn't hurt, but we need to also take action. Like avenging the ghosts of Three Mile Island (most of you kids weren't alive for that anyway!) and giving nuclear power a try. And, at minimum, funding to increase fuel efficiency for road vehicles must be enacted. Mass transit should be encouragd in cities. Buses are not the answer; rail transport is a must in larger cities.

Ummmm, but yeah, Renee, SUVs suck BFDD.

Sean "wants to knock any SUV without a hint of mud on it off the road" Davis

[ebonywnd]

Renee, Sean, I am firmly on your side. SUVs serve no real purpose, except in rare occasions. I mean...how much of America can be considered "off-road" anyway? (Yeah, yeah, I know there are plenty of places. I am just sick of how people keep destroying the wild places still left. )

Um, yeah. SUV bad.

-Laura

[Hmmm]

Actually, I've always been under the impression that solar collectors are sufficient for individual households and any business that alone occupies one medium size or smaller building and that it is just industry that cannot abide. Sun, air, and running water are NOT hard to come by. The reason these aren't our power sources is because, like everyone else, big power is in bed with the republicans. When you get your $200 electric bill, what percentage of that do you think it had actually cost your power company? 50%? 25%? 10%?

No one is willing to let that kind of money go, just so that we "still have a habitible planet," sometime in the future. You can't spend a clean tomorrow, but you can certainly spend cash.

[Hmmm]

Oh yeah... and I hate SUVs.

[Seany-D]

Solar collector technology is more suited towards basic hot water heating and home/office heating through thermal storage in a transport fluid than (electrical) power production at this stage of the game. For electrical needs, they are at best a supplement to conventional combustion energy. Solar power requires an initial outlay that is more expensive than maintaining a 100% commitment to fossil fuels, but the savings is often recouped in 5 or less years. If folks are seriously interested in saving energy costs, start off by properly insulating your abode; replace inefficient windows; stop leaving your goddamn Playstation on all day; and minimize unnecessary use of high-drain appliances.

Oh, and get off of the "big business is in the back pocket of the GOP" canard. Technically true, but misleading. The Dems love big business too, they just pretend to stand apart from the GOP in that regard. As long as the utilities PAC themselves into writing legislation, which would be passed by either faction, pushing alternative energy will be an uphill battle until the public outcry over energy inflation forces someone's hand.

If you want to bitch, say "deregulation is a crock" instead.

Sean "wishes he could harness the gas from the Lansing Chili Cookoff" Davis

[Harm]

As a Candidate for State Representative for Downtown/Oldtown Lansing, I try to keep in touch with the interests of the organizations in the Lansing Area, student or otherwise, and I noticed your discussion. Are you aware of the newly developed Thermo-Depolymerization Technology? The technology transforms carbon-rich garbage into crude oil without releasing any pollution in the process. The amount of greenhouse gases released by using the oil is actually less than the amount that would have been released by the natural decay process if the garbage had been stored in a landfill.

'Turkey waste turned into oil' - New York Newsday - New TDP plant generating a positive cash flow while selling crude oil converted from garbage at a price 10% less than equivalent oil produced at a conventional refinery.
www.nynewsday.com/technology/ny-liturk073836915jun07,0,1109501.story?coll=ny-technology-headlines

'Missouri plant begins making oil from farm waste’ – Waste News - Crude oil No. 4, produced from agricultural waste products, put on the market.
www.wastenews.com/headlines2.html?id=1085160729

'Turkey Fuel? Factory to Turn Guts into Crude Oil' - National Geographic - Details how a Carthage plant is converting turkey waste into crude oil and its potential to solve many of America's waste disposal problems while making us less dependant on foreign oil.
news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/11/1125_031125_turkeyoil.html

'Researchers turn manure into crude oil' - MSNBC News - Researcher Yanhui Zhang of the University of Illinois has successfully converted pig manure into oil in small batches. He uses a similar process to the one already being used by a plant in Carthage, Mo., that converts tons of waste material, such as feathers and entrails, from a nearby Butterball Turkey plant into light crude oil.
msnbc.msn.com/id/4732398/

'Anything into Oil' - Discover Magazine - Details the technology used in the Carthage plant that converts the waste material, such as turkey guts, into crude oil. Discover charges a small fee for access to its archived online articles. The article is in Vol. 24, No. 05, May 2003.
www.discover.com/issues/may-03/features/featoil/

Successful Result of a California Pilot Thermo-Depolymerization Plant in the Philadelphia Navy Yard on the California Energy Commission's government website
www.energy.ca.gov/pier/indust/descriptions/100_98_003_3.html

Mark Harm
Candidate for State Representative - Michigan
www.markharm.com

[Seany-D]

I am aware of the technology. Thermodynamically, I am intrigued by the efficiency of the whole process. If it behaves as advertised, than we have a source of light crude *and* a method of waste condensation. My initial questions would be:

-- does this method hinge on the same issues as recycling, i.e., does the act of sorting out the different input refuse and subsequent recalibration of the depolymerization process outweigh the benefits of sucking oil from chicken shit?

-- how much post-processing is required to render the oil useful for, say, the automotive industry? This isn't coming out as gasoline; then again, the sludge pumped up from Venezuela or the mid-east isn't either. Is it useful as a fuel oil? As a power-plant supplier?

-- how feasible is a scaled-up operation that could produce light crude in sufficient quantities to run a Megawatt power plant?

All in all, it's an interesting process that deserves more funding. Rendering oil from waste and condensing the byproducts, all the while minimizing toxic discharge while eradicating pathological vectors abundant in the waste that is used as input ... that's intriguing.

I'd be interested in finding academic articles on this topic. Perhaps I'll have the time soon to literature search the subject.

But, as for your web site, Mark, why are you highlighting the trangender nature of one of your opponent's challengers on your website? What do you anticipating that buying you, politically?

Also, your brief on continuing the war on drugs, unaltered in its current form, relies on fear of gene therapy as your main reason to continue an arguably failing program? That isn't a logical argument. Current methods of drug interdiction and rehabilitation have proven mediocre at best in solving the problem. A radical strategy is needed to curb the use of such substances, either through elimination of the source (unlikely), mollification of the effects of the more dangerous drugs, or social reform based on changing the ways that the public views drug use. Fear of what might happen down the road is a frail method for instituting change, and is at best, a method of coercion, as I see it.

Sean "if we can turn chicken shit into oil, can we turn chicken shit into chicken salad?" Davis

[Rama]

Actually, it's a known fact that drug prohibition has little to no effect on long term drug use rates. We learned this lesson in the 20's with alcohol prohibition, and every single study of decriminalized societies (such as the Netherlands') has reinforced this fact.
After the end of prohibition drug use spikes for a period of several years, then dies right back down to where it was before.
And besides, drugs don't hurt people. People hurt people, sometimes using drugs to do so.
I couldn't count on one hand the number of regular drug using students I know who are also on the dean's/president's list (myself being one of them).
Drug use is a medical concern, not a criminal concern.
You're an idiot if you disagree, for more reasons than those previously stated.