Gas Prices

[HappyCamper]

Archenemy:

 

Check out the Cascade Bicycle Club message boards - lots of helpful posts for commuting, likely someone that shares your commute route posts on there. There are some real long distance commuters on there too. They aren't too keen on spray though ;-)

 

http://www.cascade.org/Community/Message_Boards.cfm

 

Watch out for on the road.

Edited May 3, 2006 by HappyCamper

[sexual_chocolate]

I just saw the Scott's link was to the Monthly Review. Those under 40 might not know the monthly review was a communist magazine for years edited by "marxist economist" Paul Sweezey. I can remember reading so called analysis of the 70s Oil Crisis from the Monthly Review back in the 70s. Go read them now and see how accurate they were.

 

Read it and you'll see just how apocalyptic cults can continue to exist after repeated prophesies have failed to come true.

 

I think one can read the information less for its predictive qualities and more for its contextualization of the "Iraq situation"; as such, it's much better than any prediction it might be making (what was the prediction, by the way?).

 

The political allegience of those who point out the truth has nothing to do with the quality of the truth itself. To say so is to fall in line with the worst of the McCarthy efforts.

 

I'm wondering if PP even read the article I linked...it seemed to me more of a historical perspective than some kind of "apocalyptic" prediction.

 

The Prediction (as I see it):

"The hour of the invasion draws near. As we write this, on December 28, 2002, the Iraqi government has told a solidarity conference in Baghdad that “he who attacks our country will lose. We will fight from village to village, from city to city and from street to street in every city....Iraq’s oil, nationalized by the president...from the hands of the British and the Americans in 1972...will remain in the hands of this people and this leadership.”

 

The Iraqi armed forces may not be able to put up extended resistance to the onslaught. But the Iraqi people have not buckled to American dictates for the past more than eleven years of torment. They will not meekly surrender to the imminent American-led military occupation of their country. And that fact itself carries grave consequences for American imperialism’s broader designs."

 

I doubt he read it either, but I don't think it would make any difference anyway.

 

I suppose the above would be the only "prediction" in the article, but one that I don't necessarily agree with, only because it lumps three quite separate factions into one "Iraqi" group.

 

At some future point, the US may see armed resistance from the Shiites and the Kurds, but I think that included in the current US machinations are mechanisms that will keep both in line for at least some time to come (I imagine they consist of both economic and security issues being used as leverage points for continued support for the US presence).

[Peter_Puget]

What I wrote:

 

I just saw the Scott's link was to the Monthly Review. Those under 40 might not know the monthly review was a communist magazine for years edited by "marxist economist" Paul Sweezey. I can remember reading so called analysis of the 70s Oil Crisis from the Monthly Review back in the 70s. Go read them now and see how accurate they were.

 

Read it and you'll see just how apocalyptic cults can continue to exist after repeated prophesies have failed to come true.

 

 

You guys crack me up. My discussion was about the MR in general and in particular about a series of articles (some copies of which are probably stuck somewhere in a box in my garage) that attempted to provide a rational “radical” analysis of the 1970s oil crisis. I suggested that you read them and judge for yourself. Of course you would look around and realize that the downfall of the market driven economies did not materialize as predicted.

 

That the magazine exists at all is a testament to how “apocalyptic cults can continue to exist after repeated prophesies have failed to come true.” By failed prophesies I was referring to the various attempts at analysis in the 70s. (Although the date range could easily be widened) I will say that the website has improved since PS’s death which by the way I posted here on CC.com.

 

SC Quote:

 

The political allegience of those who point out the truth has nothing to do with the quality of the truth itself. To say so is to fall in line with the worst of the McCarthy efforts.

 

It is not a question of political allegiance but rather one of common sense. If reading an article on the solar system one would certainly consider it important to know if the writer was a still a believer in the Copernican System with all its “cycles” and “epicycles” well after Kepler had advanced the theory of planetary motion. Consider “Labor theory of Value” as a cycle and “exploitation” as an epicycle. Then consider Marshall, Menger and others as kepler.

 

I do appreciate the McCarthy like way in which you smear me as being a McCarthyite.

 

[Mal_Con]

PP sorry your metahpor makes no sense because your science is off. Copernicus http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Science/Copernicus.htm propsed the heliocentric theroy which replaced the earlier earth centered view of the cosmos requiring the cycles and epicycles to reflect retrograde motion. Kepler corrected this theroy by establishing that planetary paths that are elipses are simpler.

[Peter_Puget]

I understand the relationship of C and K. I was considering Marx (along with Adam Smith) to be a classical economist. The classical economic theory represented a great improvement over let's say the mercantilists theory but some of their core foundations were not altogether accurate and lead some, like Marx, to develop equally inaccurate embellishments. Marginal analysis, like the elliptical orbits, significantly improved our understanding of the world.

[Norman_Clyde]

"Kepler was deeply religious and believed that understanding the geometry of the heavens would bring him closer to God. Kepler, like Copernicus, believed that Earth and the other planets traveled around the sun in circular orbits, and he worked diligently to match circular motions to Tycho's data...He attempted to find a unified model with a circular orbit, but in doing so he found that some of his predictions differed from Tycho's observations by as much as 8 arcminutes.

"Kepler surely was tempted to ignore these discrepancies and attribute them to errors by Tycho. After all, 8 arcminutes is barely one-fourth the diameter of the full moon. But Kepler trusted Tycho's careful work, and the misses by 8 arcminutes finally led him to abandon the idea of circular orbits-- and to find the correct solution to the ancient riddle of planetary motion.

"Some historians believe assert that Kepler's discovery represented the true birth of modern science because, for the first time, a scientist was willing to cast off long-held beliefs in a quest to match theory to observation."

[KaskadskyjKozak]

Gas prices suck. But we've brought it all on ourselves.

[TREETOAD]

3 bucks is a bloody luxury. It is about 4.50 for a US gallon here.

[ZimZam]

I've been riding my bike to work since last year when prices skyrocketed. It's 30 miles roundtrip and takes me about 2hrs. I've had to adjust for the time but it's a blast cruising past cars bogged down in traffic, and knowing that I'm saving $$$$. It works for the Nederlanders. When I do have to drive I use our 4 cyl. VW's. I spend the money I've saved on gear and

So you ride 15 miles to work in the morning and it takes and hour? Do you have to ride on the street or is there a bike path the whole way? I want to start riding my bike to work, but I am a little bit scared of getting mowed down by a driver.

 

Arch: I do most of my commute on roads. Your best bet is making yourself visible to drivers. I have a red flashing light under my seat, and wear loud ass red or yellow jerseys. Riding home in the dark is another matter, and then I'm lit up like a Christmas tree. That means lots of reflective anklets, arm bands, and stick ons (they go on the straps of my pack and flutter around) that look like a pack of lightning bugs. Be very wary of cars coming towards you. Don't be afraid to use your mouth either. On a bike I'm loud and vulgar, it gets their attention. I'm quick to shoot them a peacesign for acts of kindness though. Follow the road rules and be defensive and you'll be O-TAY.

[mattp]

Gas prices suck. But we've brought it all on ourselves.

 

I might agree, but please explain. (My inclination is to think that the evil corporations and our dastardly government have done it to us but maybe you are right: maybe it is "our" fault. And maybe the real price of gas, if you figure in all the military and political cost, is even more than we are currently paying!)

[markharf]

maybe the real price of gas, if you figure in all the military and political cost, is even more than we are currently paying!)

 

Bingo. The real price is—and has long been—far greater than the $3.09 I paid this afternoon. It's not just military and political costs: don't forget the subsidies and other distortions of reality that make our particular brand of petroleum-based lifestyle possible (interstate highways, say, or global warming, or the sorts of life-cycle costs related to other forms of environmental degradation). That stuff doesn't come cheap.

 

On the other hand, we get off easy compared to the Iraquis (for example), or those poor slobs unfortunate enough to be living at a subsistence level in Southern Nigeria or Chad. Let's not forget to count our blessings.

[Dechristo]

I have to wait for Happy Hours anymore to afford my addiction to Molotov Cocktails.

[Dechristo]

U.S. national gasoline price/gallon averages:

 

One year ago - $2.22

One month ago - $2.58

Today - $2.91

[archenemy]

I've been riding my bike to work since last year when prices skyrocketed. It's 30 miles roundtrip and takes me about 2hrs. I've had to adjust for the time but it's a blast cruising past cars bogged down in traffic, and knowing that I'm saving $$$$. It works for the Nederlanders. When I do have to drive I use our 4 cyl. VW's. I spend the money I've saved on gear and

So you ride 15 miles to work in the morning and it takes and hour? Do you have to ride on the street or is there a bike path the whole way? I want to start riding my bike to work, but I am a little bit scared of getting mowed down by a driver.

 

Arch: I do most of my commute on roads. Your best bet is making yourself visible to drivers. I have a red flashing light under my seat, and wear loud ass red or yellow jerseys. Riding home in the dark is another matter, and then I'm lit up like a Christmas tree. That means lots of reflective anklets, arm bands, and stick ons (they go on the straps of my pack and flutter around) that look like a pack of lightning bugs. Be very wary of cars coming towards you. Don't be afraid to use your mouth either. On a bike I'm loud and vulgar, it gets their attention. I'm quick to shoot them a peacesign for acts of kindness though. Follow the road rules and be defensive and you'll be O-TAY.

Thank you for the advice!

Tomorrow is going to be the first day I ride my bike to work. I am anxious, but then again, I was scared of riding even on dirt when I started last summer--and now I love it! So, if I don't post tomorrow, look in the papers for a story about some dumb chick getting squished by an angry Subaru-driving madman (there will be a Mountaineers sticker in the back window of the vehicle and my scalp in the front grill).