We Don’t Need No Stinking Sparky Cars

Alternative Subsidy 39 Comments

If you can’t sell stupid to Californians, well….

“We were early supporters of electric cars, going back as far as 15 years. But nobody ever uses them,” said Dennis Hoover, the general manager for Costco in northern California, in a telephone interview. “At our Folsom store, the manager said he hadn’t seen anybody using the E.V. charging in a full year. At our store in Vacaville, where we had six chargers, one person plugged in once a week.”

They can’t pay them to keep the things.

The Costco outlets are also outdated by current standards, but a state-supported program stands ready to upgrade them at no cost to Costco.
That was one impetus for a $2.3 million program supported by the California Energy Commission and overseen by the charging companies Clipper Creek and EV Connect, which would have 600 to 650 so-called legacy E.V. chargers upgraded. According to Will Barrett, a Clipper Creek program manager, 30 new chargers have been installed since the program began operations in July. Mr. Barrett said that Costco decided not to participate in the state program last March.
Mr. Hoover said the company was aware of the state-funded upgrade program, but did not see a compelling reason to take advantage of it.
“Why should we have anybody spend money on a program that nobody’s thought through?” he said.

Related – Throughout July, a whopping 125 Chevy Volts were sold, making the seemingly low 281 units sold in February a groundbreaking month.

Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?

Gopher News 26 Comments

Thanks, Mr.President!

The utterly feckless Obama administration just handed our chief grain export competitor a market of almost 50 million, second largest in South America. Most Canadian wheat is exported from Vancouver, whence it is an easy run to Buenaventura, one of the best Colombian grain ports. This is a totally unforced error from the current administration, one of depressingly many.

Oops…

Passing trade deals is something that “Congress can do right now,” remarked President Obama Monday at a town hall meeting in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Not so fast. The truth is that Congress can’t do anything on free trade agreements “right now,” because the President has yet to send the agreements to Congress for final approval, despite receiving recommendations on the agreements from Congress on July 7.

My CBC Is…

Vast Right Wing Conspiracy 88 Comments

CBC’s 75th anniversary slogan is “Yours to celebrate.” Plenty of celebrations are being scheduled for the anniversary, all of them designed to encourage audiences to express what the CBC means to them.
In that spirit, we’re asking you to help get the ball rolling in anticipation of the anniversary festivities. We’d like to hear what the CBC means to you, by asking you to complete the following sentence: My CBC is…

Heh.
Update: A CBC comments thread goes horribly wrong….
h/t Rich

America’s Fiscal Reality

entitlement generation 38 Comments

A friend of mine in Texas republished some recent financial numbers:
    U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
    Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
    New debt: $1,650,000,000,000
    National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
    Recent budget cut: $38,500,000,000
Most people glaze over such numbers so he then equated it in simpler terms:
    Annual family income: $21,700
    Money the family spent: $38,200
    New debt on the credit card: $16,500
    Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
    Total budget cuts: $385
Finally, he wrote: “This is an impossible way for a family to survive. Bankruptcy is the only way out. This family is headed for complete failure.”
P.S. Keep in mind that anyone who “dares” suggest that much more should be done to get America’s fiscal house in order: is mentally unstable, wants to destroy their country, is a terrorist, and/or is a right-wing extremist. So says Obama’s foot soldiers in government and in the MSM.

A “useful idiot of the chattering classes”

Baiting The Left No Comments

Hurl:

…
In a now infamous 1994 interview with journalist Michael Ignatieff [that’s how he’s remembered in the WSJ today], the historian was asked if the murder of “15, 20 million people might have been justified” in establishing a Marxist paradise. “Yes,” Mr. Hobsbawm replied. Asked the same question the following year, he reiterated his support for the “sacrifice of millions of lives” in pursuit of a vague egalitarianism. That such comments caused surprise is itself surprising; Mr. Hobsbawm’s lifelong commitment to the Party testified to his approval of the Soviet experience, whatever its crimes. It’s not that he didn’t know what was going on in the dank basements of the Lubyanka and on the frozen steppes of Siberia. It’s that he didn’t much care…

More on the fine fellow (no, not Mickey I.) here, and here.

“A robotic Sustainer-in-Chief with an eerie inhumanity will not satisfy.”

Political Animal 11 Comments

Quite. And here’s how “immigration reform” is working out through administrative fiat (the Gray Lady likes it):

The White House has just taken a large step toward a more sensible and lawful policy on illegal immigration. The administration said that it would stop deporting illegal immigrants who pose no threat to public safety or national security so that it can focus on catching and expelling criminals who do…

Janeane Garofalo Knows Best

Baiting The Left 38 Comments

If you’re an African-American and don’t think the way Janeane Garofalo insists you must, then you are clearly corrupt or mentally ill. This is precisely what she said about Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain, on a recent appearance on Al Gore’s Current TV network. On Keith Olbermann’s new show, Garofalo insisted that Cain must have been paid off or “has a touch of Stockholm Syndrome“.   More here.
Pause for a moment to consider what reaction there’d be if Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Stephen Harper said the following:

“If _________* don’t support conservative principles then they must be getting paid off by someone or are mentally ill.”
Note: * = Asians, Blacks, Latinos, Quebecers, or Jews.

Do you think the MSM footsoldiers of Obama (or the Liberal Party of Canada) would remain silent then?   Doubtful.
P.S. In a related narrative, just over 2 years ago, Garofalo & Olbermann discussed Tea Party members.

Oy, ‘Oos This Virgil Bloke?

entitlement generation 9 Comments

One hopes Publius is right:

The End is Not Nigh
…
A falling off in educational, political and social standards is certainly evident. The Leviathan of the British state is a grave threat to the future of the country. But we’ve been here before too, in the 1930s and 1970s. In those times were was still a British Establishment worthy of the name. Politicians could quote Virgil while making public speeches and be understood [I’m not sure by how many, actually]. Britain emerged once from Hogarthian squalor, it can do so again. There has always been a great deal of ruin in the country, even in the good old days.

The Sound Of Settled Science

Climate Cult 10 Comments

Anthony Watts;

Dr. Richard Lindzen writes to me with news of this significant new paper saying “It has taken almost 2 years to get this out. “. Part of that problem appears to be hostile reviewers in earlier submissions to JGR, something we’ve seen recently with other skeptical papers, such as O’Donnell’s rebuttal to Steig et al (Antarctica is warming) where Steig himself inappropriately served as a reviewer, and a hostile one at that.
Hostile reviewers aside, the paper will now be published in an upcoming issue of the Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences and I am honored to be able to be able to present it here.

Link fixed, thanks all.

Y2Kyoto: War Of The Worlds

Climate Cult 55 Comments

The world still has too many scientists;

It may not rank as the most compelling reason to curb greenhouse gases, but reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim.
Watching from afar, extraterrestrial beings might view changes in Earth’s atmosphere as symptomatic of a civilisation growing out of control – and take drastic action to keep us from becoming a more serious threat, the researchers explain.

Via

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