Interstate Cooperation
The Times reports that several states are considering raising their gas tax.
Politicians in California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Illinois and Oregon, for example, are introducing bills that would raise gasoline taxes for road and bridge repair, as state legislatures around the country begin their new sessions.
Here is a New Federalist opportunity for Governors Arnold Schwarzenegger of California and Deval Patrick of Massachusetts to show some leadership and help increase fuel conservation. The two governors should call all of their 48 other colleagues and propose a 20 cent per gallon gas tax increase for every state. The U.S. consumes 386 million gallons of gas per day, so this would bring almost $80 million per day into the collective state coffers. By working in concert, so that the rise was the same, people who lived near a state border would not attempt to game the system. The money would stay in the states and so they would require less federal bailout funds. Given that gas prices have fallen by $2 in the last 4 months, the consumer could bear the extra 20 cents.
One last thought. I believe the taxes should go into the state’s general revenue funds and not just be segregated for building and repairing highways. Many years ago the machinations of the oil, auto and tire industry managed to destroy many of the public transportation systems (picture, above) in our cities and set us on a course of suburban sprawl fed by freeways and 20 MPG cars occupied by one person. It’s time to reverse course on this scandal.
No better time to introduce a gas tax than the moment gasoline prices have just fallen by more than 50%. A 12-alarm fiscal emergency might just help justify it to voters.
No better time to introduce a gas tax than the moment gasoline prices have just fallen by more than 50%. A 12-alarm fiscal emergency might just help justify it to voters.
Interregnum, hey?
One wonders if we today here in this very country might be on our way to another interregnum of the kind that ran from, say, 550 AD through some indeterminate date of “awakening” and “rebirth” in, say, the 14th century MCE.
Complete with little fortified villas and then villages and then towns and city-states and larger and looser feudal subdivisions, all supported by a Real Economy of virtual slave labor by serfs, the profist from which were largely used to arm the military forces of each of those little polities. Wandering bands of mercenaries, temporarily unemployed between wars big and small but well-armed compared to the average serf or townsman, pretty much took what they wanted, occasionally displacing local warlords and sometimes becoming by force of arms and passage of time, “nobility.” Like the Bush family.
You might want to read Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror,” a wonderful scholarly and humane book about the good old days. And then take a look at this little spot:
http://www.publicgood.org/reports/nosodist/
Once again, we must thank the NRA for positioning some 200 million of us Nacerimas to protect OUR homes and castles with weapons ranging from .22 derringers to anti-tank weapons. Wonder where I can get me a Stinger or three to protect against those Black Helicopters? and some Hellfires to mount on my truck?
As the Great Wheel turns, all those little polities get brought under the “protection” of a Great Lord, and we start the cycle all over again. Could that be the fate of a New Federalism?
Query: is this Great Cycle a kind of epitrochoid, or is it some kind of curve that has an outer boundary?
Interregnum, hey?
One wonders if we today here in this very country might be on our way to another interregnum of the kind that ran from, say, 550 AD through some indeterminate date of “awakening” and “rebirth” in, say, the 14th century MCE.
Complete with little fortified villas and then villages and then towns and city-states and larger and looser feudal subdivisions, all supported by a Real Economy of virtual slave labor by serfs, the profist from which were largely used to arm the military forces of each of those little polities. Wandering bands of mercenaries, temporarily unemployed between wars big and small but well-armed compared to the average serf or townsman, pretty much took what they wanted, occasionally displacing local warlords and sometimes becoming by force of arms and passage of time, “nobility.” Like the Bush family.
You might want to read Barbara Tuchman’s “A Distant Mirror,” a wonderful scholarly and humane book about the good old days. And then take a look at this little spot:
http://www.publicgood.org/reports/nosodist/
Once again, we must thank the NRA for positioning some 200 million of us Nacerimas to protect OUR homes and castles with weapons ranging from .22 derringers to anti-tank weapons. Wonder where I can get me a Stinger or three to protect against those Black Helicopters? and some Hellfires to mount on my truck?
As the Great Wheel turns, all those little polities get brought under the “protection” of a Great Lord, and we start the cycle all over again. Could that be the fate of a New Federalism?
Query: is this Great Cycle a kind of epitrochoid, or is it some kind of curve that has an outer boundary?
Isn’t that photograph you’ve posted one of the saddest things? Talk about folly. Los Angeles had such a huge network, too: http://www.geocities.com/sccosel/Pacific_Electric.htm
Isn’t that photograph you’ve posted one of the saddest things? Talk about folly. Los Angeles had such a huge network, too: http://www.geocities.com/sccosel/Pacific_Electric.htm
Yes, and the E train was about a nickel round trip from Pasadena to Long Beach and back. Some of the jagged scar from those days runs by my shop and can still be seen on a google map of Hollywood. One of the depots is still intact also. Very sad in retrospect…..time marches on. But you can never relive the past, it just isn’t there.
Jt, I always loved my RX-7 Wankel and my Ruger mini14 as well. Hope I’m a good Nacirema.
Yes, and the E train was about a nickel round trip from Pasadena to Long Beach and back. Some of the jagged scar from those days runs by my shop and can still be seen on a google map of Hollywood. One of the depots is still intact also. Very sad in retrospect…..time marches on. But you can never relive the past, it just isn’t there.
Jt, I always loved my RX-7 Wankel and my Ruger mini14 as well. Hope I’m a good Nacirema.
Dav, is the Ruger stainless with a folding stock? Who supplies your clips, and have you ever had trouble with Wolf ammo? Got a scope or laser pointer for it? Mine’s just plain old “looks like an M-1″ wooden-stock blued-steel open-sight type. Us folks who live on small incomes have to economize, y’know. While we’re trying to stay ready for whatever the Interregnum may bring.
My Kool Kar was the British Racing Green 1968 MGB ragtop that I bought with what Uncle Sam paid me to do that trip to Vietnam. Wonder what this year’s GI guys and gals will do with their combat pay and any forced-re-enlistment and “extension” bonuses they get handed “for their service?” Buy Dodge Rams? Speaking of Bone-us…
Hey, part of the car-oil-tire companies’ plan in buying up the interurbans and trollies was to tear up and parcel out the rights-of-way so public transit could never rise again, because it would be too dam’ expensive to buy or condemn the real estate again. Now that RE pricies are on the skids, and we are stealing trillions from the Real Economy our kids will have to work from, would it be a good time to divert some of those Tax Anticipation Funny Munny Dollars we are gifting to bank execs etc., and buy up those tracts again? Or ones that make sense in light of the landscape changes wrought by our collective auto eroticism?
Dav, is the Ruger stainless with a folding stock? Who supplies your clips, and have you ever had trouble with Wolf ammo? Got a scope or laser pointer for it? Mine’s just plain old “looks like an M-1″ wooden-stock blued-steel open-sight type. Us folks who live on small incomes have to economize, y’know. While we’re trying to stay ready for whatever the Interregnum may bring.
My Kool Kar was the British Racing Green 1968 MGB ragtop that I bought with what Uncle Sam paid me to do that trip to Vietnam. Wonder what this year’s GI guys and gals will do with their combat pay and any forced-re-enlistment and “extension” bonuses they get handed “for their service?” Buy Dodge Rams? Speaking of Bone-us…
Hey, part of the car-oil-tire companies’ plan in buying up the interurbans and trollies was to tear up and parcel out the rights-of-way so public transit could never rise again, because it would be too dam’ expensive to buy or condemn the real estate again. Now that RE pricies are on the skids, and we are stealing trillions from the Real Economy our kids will have to work from, would it be a good time to divert some of those Tax Anticipation Funny Munny Dollars we are gifting to bank execs etc., and buy up those tracts again? Or ones that make sense in light of the landscape changes wrought by our collective auto eroticism?
JT, mine’s the bicentennial model, wood stock, non folding. It had a scope but not worth a shit. I took it off, I don’t really need a scope per se. I’ve got one small clip and two 16 round clips. I’ve only used Remington ammo, actually, never heard of Wolf. I’ll ask my ex cop client about it. I’d say we’re both ready for Interregnum whatever it comes to. I’ve even got friends on the Navajo Reservation!
Also, I had a 1970 MGB-GT hardtop. That car taught me how to be a mechanic. I got a Chilton manual and a set of metric sockets to keep it running. Yeah, work on it all week and drive it on the weekends. The Wankel was about your epitrochoid!
Ha, you’re priceless man!
JT, mine’s the bicentennial model, wood stock, non folding. It had a scope but not worth a shit. I took it off, I don’t really need a scope per se. I’ve got one small clip and two 16 round clips. I’ve only used Remington ammo, actually, never heard of Wolf. I’ll ask my ex cop client about it. I’d say we’re both ready for Interregnum whatever it comes to. I’ve even got friends on the Navajo Reservation!
Also, I had a 1970 MGB-GT hardtop. That car taught me how to be a mechanic. I got a Chilton manual and a set of metric sockets to keep it running. Yeah, work on it all week and drive it on the weekends. The Wankel was about your epitrochoid!
Ha, you’re priceless man!
I like the Remington cartridge too. Got a bunch of Lexan 30-round mags that have worked real well, and have tried a 100 round drum mag which jammed too much to be useful. I understand there’s a conversion for full auto, you can get it from the guy in the trench coat at your local Gun Show, but I never saw much use for anything other than aimed direct fire. None of this holding the rifle out at arm’s length to fire over a wall or around a corner.
You must know the Lucas English theory of automotive electricity, then. The elctric substance is smoke — and when the wires or alternator or wiper motor let the smoke out, you have a failure of electric flow.
Ever change the points on the electric fuel pump while parked in the middle of a snowy cloverleaf in January? My B was mostly BS — speaking now of nuts and bolts to the British Standard system. Some of which (11 mm-7/16″ English measure) were metric-compatible. Won a bunch of trophies Autocrossing against TRs and Elvas and Alfas and even Porsche Speedsters.
Life is good.
I like the Remington cartridge too. Got a bunch of Lexan 30-round mags that have worked real well, and have tried a 100 round drum mag which jammed too much to be useful. I understand there’s a conversion for full auto, you can get it from the guy in the trench coat at your local Gun Show, but I never saw much use for anything other than aimed direct fire. None of this holding the rifle out at arm’s length to fire over a wall or around a corner.
You must know the Lucas English theory of automotive electricity, then. The elctric substance is smoke — and when the wires or alternator or wiper motor let the smoke out, you have a failure of electric flow.
Ever change the points on the electric fuel pump while parked in the middle of a snowy cloverleaf in January? My B was mostly BS — speaking now of nuts and bolts to the British Standard system. Some of which (11 mm-7/16″ English measure) were metric-compatible. Won a bunch of trophies Autocrossing against TRs and Elvas and Alfas and even Porsche Speedsters.
Life is good.
I got off to a screwed up start back in the Tennessee hills as a boy shooting from the hip. Even my 20 gauge Mossberg fells better so I only shoulder my rifle to really play soldier. When I was after quail, you just don’t have time to shoulder and aim so I guess that’s how it started.
Yeah, Lucas had a tendency to wire the switches on the low side of ground instead of the positive high side. I found out one evening when I hit the rocker switch to turn the headlights on. The whole thing popped off in my hand and shorted out bringing the whole car to a halt on a country lane. I walked up to a farmhouse and called for my buddies truck and a chain to get home. I later used that schematic to rewire guitar pickups. It made me a fortune for me years later.
AND, what about that hydraulic clutch…..
I got off to a screwed up start back in the Tennessee hills as a boy shooting from the hip. Even my 20 gauge Mossberg fells better so I only shoulder my rifle to really play soldier. When I was after quail, you just don’t have time to shoulder and aim so I guess that’s how it started.
Yeah, Lucas had a tendency to wire the switches on the low side of ground instead of the positive high side. I found out one evening when I hit the rocker switch to turn the headlights on. The whole thing popped off in my hand and shorted out bringing the whole car to a halt on a country lane. I walked up to a farmhouse and called for my buddies truck and a chain to get home. I later used that schematic to rewire guitar pickups. It made me a fortune for me years later.
AND, what about that hydraulic clutch…..
And oh yeah, the overdrive rear end. I never used it because I didn’t trust it or want to repair it.
And oh yeah, the overdrive rear end. I never used it because I didn’t trust it or want to repair it.
Jon,
I just read a (quite sobering) interview with James Howard Kunstler here: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/01/interview-with-james-howard-ku.html
I think it’s worth mentioning in relation to this blog entry. He too says that “We need to start rebuilding the American passenger railroad system — and ancillary light rail public transit — immediately.” as well as claims “we’ve constructed an infrastructure for daily life with no future. [...] I customarily refer to this as the greatest misallocation off (sic) resources in the history of the world.”
(Brought to my attention through Tim O’Reilly on Twitter – well worth following, IMHO; here if you don’t do it already: http://twitter.com/timoreilly)
Jon,
I just read a (quite sobering) interview with James Howard Kunstler here: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2009/01/interview-with-james-howard-ku.html
I think it’s worth mentioning in relation to this blog entry. He too says that “We need to start rebuilding the American passenger railroad system — and ancillary light rail public transit — immediately.” as well as claims “we’ve constructed an infrastructure for daily life with no future. [...] I customarily refer to this as the greatest misallocation off (sic) resources in the history of the world.”
(Brought to my attention through Tim O’Reilly on Twitter – well worth following, IMHO; here if you don’t do it already: http://twitter.com/timoreilly)
I’m for the gas tax, and the idea of all states doing it is very interesting. However I would still want restrictions on how the tax money would be spent instead of going into the state’s general fund. Public transport, public spaces, and roads… some type of limits. Without limits the money would go to god knows what with House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi in charge… paying off legal fees for family or something.
I’m for the gas tax, and the idea of all states doing it is very interesting. However I would still want restrictions on how the tax money would be spent instead of going into the state’s general fund. Public transport, public spaces, and roads… some type of limits. Without limits the money would go to god knows what with House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi in charge… paying off legal fees for family or something.
Another former “B” owner…’72 rag top. Had the engine blueprinted. Put in Huffaker gas shocks. Got it up to 115 on a country road and then I couldn’t feel the pavement through the steering wheel ’cause the lift took the car almost airborne. Very dangerous… Realized that the car shouldn’t go that fast without air dams and all that crap. Slowed down. Got a funky truck. Drive a really boring car now. Love to have a Morgan 3 wheeler, though…
Another former “B” owner…’72 rag top. Had the engine blueprinted. Put in Huffaker gas shocks. Got it up to 115 on a country road and then I couldn’t feel the pavement through the steering wheel ’cause the lift took the car almost airborne. Very dangerous… Realized that the car shouldn’t go that fast without air dams and all that crap. Slowed down. Got a funky truck. Drive a really boring car now. Love to have a Morgan 3 wheeler, though…