HOYA SWALLOWS PENTAX !

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:48:25 -0500, Pudentame
wrote:

I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking. There's no bus service at that time
of night, and damn little at any other time. And the streets I'd have to
walk do not have sidewalks for over half that distance.

Got a bicycle?

Yes, but no place to secure it at work. Also no desire to ride up and
down that blind hill & curve at 2:30am, and especially not at 12:00 noon
coming home. It's a *VERY* busy street then, and there's a lot of
scofflaws who don't give a hoot about speed limits.

I've had to walk that way a couple of times when for some reason or
another I couldn't use my car.

OK. You prefer your car. I don't blame you. But when we pass beyond
these very few generations when personal powered transport has been
available to citizens of rich countries, you'll manage on a bicycle.
Next?

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:27:00 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

And by what you do for a living, and where you have to do it, and by many
other variables that usually grow along with your other choices, so changing
overnight is quite impossible, and certainly shouldn't be expected of a
whole nation of breadwinners.......

If we have to, it will be possible. It could happen tomorrow. Our
attempts to control the oil-producing countries may backfire even more
seriously than they have already. If the Saudis fall out of our
pocket and align with their kin we could be in real trouble. Doubtless
if America added its resources (though they'd doubtless dump us) we
could annihilate them. But WINNING the war without destroying the
resources would be harder.

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:55:32 -0600, Ron Hunter
wrote:

Technology WILL come through when the motivation reaches the necessary
level.

Oh, that's all right then :-)

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:09:17 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

No, but their needs require the use of a car at all hours of the day and
night......Lets put it this way.....If I had to do without a car, I wouldn't
have four cats, I wouldn't have either photography or trumpet playing as a
hobby, and my life style would have developed in a totally different
direction from the way it has developed......I am now locked into an
individual transportation system, whether gasoline oriented or not.......

OK. We'll let you have one then.

All these people who argue as if their personal needs and preferences
are in the slightest relevant..... you've gotta laugh!

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:17:20 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

Right now, both me and
millions of other Americans are virtually locked into personalized
transportation vehicles of one type or another....This isn't going to change
overnight. Their character may change. Their fuel source may change. But
millions of people can't just suddenly step into electric busses overnight
because of some law or other....To believe such a thing shows lack of basic
reasoning ability........


"I REALLY want personal transport. Therefore something will turn up
that enables me to continue having it".

Now, THAT'S lack of reasoning ability.

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 22:36:18 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

I live in, and believe in, a free market economy. Whatever I have is for
sale at any time to the highest bidder, and I hold no manufactured item that
I possess too holy to be replaced by a new one, or a more updated version.
If people have been selling me gasoline at 1/2 the European price for the
last 40 years, whose fault is that? - Certainly not mine. I suggest that
they offer it to me at twice the price. Perhaps then I will buy less of
it.......


You're for real, aren't you? Jesus Christ...

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:27:00 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

And by what you do for a living, and where you have to do it, and by many
other variables that usually grow along with your other choices, so changing
overnight is quite impossible, and certainly shouldn't be expected of a
whole nation of breadwinners.......

If we have to, it will be possible. It could happen tomorrow. Our
attempts to control the oil-producing countries may backfire even more
seriously than they have already. If the Saudis fall out of our
pocket and align with their kin we could be in real trouble. Doubtless
if America added its resources (though they'd doubtless dump us) we
could annihilate them. But WINNING the war without destroying the
resources would be harder.

The best approach is to spend some money up-front, say on the order of
the Manhattan Project, and find a way to power our economy without
reference to petroleum. It WILL happen, doing it now would be cheaper,
and even a small (10%) reduction in our usage would make using our own
oil resources feasible, making the Middle East not a concern. It would
probably cost a LOT less than what the US will spend in Iraq next year.

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:09:17 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

No, but their needs require the use of a car at all hours of the day and
night......Lets put it this way.....If I had to do without a car, I wouldn't
have four cats, I wouldn't have either photography or trumpet playing as a
hobby, and my life style would have developed in a totally different
direction from the way it has developed......I am now locked into an
individual transportation system, whether gasoline oriented or not.......

OK. We'll let you have one then.

All these people who argue as if their personal needs and preferences
are in the slightest relevant..... you've gotta laugh!

They are, to the person involved, and, big surprise, YOURS aren't
relevant, to me.

Laurence Payne wrote:
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 20:17:20 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

Right now, both me and
millions of other Americans are virtually locked into personalized
transportation vehicles of one type or another....This isn't going to change
overnight. Their character may change. Their fuel source may change. But
millions of people can't just suddenly step into electric busses overnight
because of some law or other....To believe such a thing shows lack of basic
reasoning ability........


"I REALLY want personal transport. Therefore something will turn up
that enables me to continue having it".

Now, THAT'S lack of reasoning ability.

You know, there is the flaw in your reasoning. What YOU want is
important, and reasonable, but if it isn't way YOU want, then it is
unimportant, and unreasonable. Frankly, I am happy you like a
regimented, schedule-driven, life. If it makes your life satisfying,
that is fine with me. Now explain how the fact that I wouldn't like
such a lifestyle threatens you to the point you consider it a lack of
reasoning ability.

In article ,
Ron Hunter wrote:

You are testimony to the the theory that living in NYC tends to make one
somewhat less than rational.

Actual research shows that Manhattanites are among the sanest people in
the world, but don't let reality check you.


Owning a car in NYC (and many large cities) is not practical. However,
NOT owning a car in places like Beeville, Tx. is worse than not
practical, it is probably fatal unless one can hire a full time
caregiver. My sister lives 6 miles from the nearest grocery store,
Doctor, pharmacy, etc. She is 76 years old. I doubt she would be able
to ride a bicycle 12 miles to get groceries, or to take her brother in
law who lives across the highway to his many doctor's appointments in
Corpus Christi, or San Antonio.


She's old enough to be retired which means she could move to a city with
good public transportation or a small town with a active downtown. And
there's Raleigh Court in Roanoke, Virginia. She's chosen her addiction.

If her brother-in-law rode a bicycle, he'd be in better health. British
studies show that riding a bicycle prolongs life by well more than the
dangers of accidents.