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2008-07-11 -Short Attention Span Theater-

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Posted by badanov 2008-07-11 07:30|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 We really have idiots writing for newspapers now. It's sad.

Posted by gromky 2008-07-11 08:45|| 2008-07-11 08:45|| Front Page Top

#2 Sure, $8 gas is unfair to poor people, but so is all of capitalism.

Given that the LA Times is in a death spiral with their east coast cousin, you can grasp the writers wish to live in an alternate reality. However, like your usual limousine socialist, they choose not to live in Cuba, North Korea, or other ~~hellholes~~ examples of workers paradise. The word that comes to mind is parasite.

Posted by Procopius2k 2008-07-11 08:57|| 2008-07-11 08:57|| Front Page Top

#3 So Joel walks to work I take it? In LA?

Posted by tu3031 2008-07-11 09:32|| 2008-07-11 09:32|| Front Page Top

#4 Seems this people don't know basic economics: when transportation of goods becomes impossible then everything has to be produced locally. If you want to know what happens to standards of life look at what hapened at the fall of Roman Empire when nobility was less affluent than your average roman citizen and people starved to death by the tens of thousands.

Posted by JFM">JFM 2008-07-11 10:23|| 2008-07-11 10:23|| Front Page Top

#5 We spent 50 years using government money to build the freeways that led to the driving-centric, mall-rat lifestyle I grew up with

This is what it boils down to...an Oedipal hatred of the older generation who actually built things and got things done.

Failure and underacheiving fuels resentment. Deep down Joel must realize that the (to us unknown) man who drove the steamroller to tamp down the bed of the freeway contributed more to America and to civilization than all the words that Joel could ever hope to write.

Posted by JDB 2008-07-11 11:30|| 2008-07-11 11:30|| Front Page Top

#6 First of all, why isn't this piece of crap under 'Opinion', where it belongs? Secondly, does this idiot live in a bubble? If the government deliberately set out to raise gasoline prices, there would be a revolution the next day. Raising gasoline and diesel prices raises the price of EVERYTHING ELSE, since everything can't be grown or produced locally (try growing oranges in Grand County, Colorado, home of the "Icebox of the nation", the town of Frasier). The increased cost wouldn't be added only once, but once on raw materials, on interim products, on final products, on wholesale delivery, and on retail delivery. Finally, the schmuck at the end gets to pay the higher price all these added costs pile on the original price of the product. Quality of life goes down, because a larger portion of the average income has to be spent on essentials - food, clothing, housing, utilities and transportation. Things not absolutely essential are eliminated. So are the jobs manufacturing, transporting, and selling those non-essentials. Unemployment goes up, and so does the cost of government. Thomas Sowell would give this idiot a failing grade in Econ 101.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2008-07-11 13:00|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2008-07-11 13:00|| Front Page Top

#7 But boy does he not want to admit it.

Posted by lotp 2008-07-11 13:02|| 2008-07-11 13:02|| Front Page Top

#8 Just another elitist dickweed who believes that everyone else should suffer for the greater glory of his great society.

Hey, Joel, what kind of car do you drive - or do you get chauffered around town wherever you go being the hotshot columnist? Do you take an airplane whenever you go back to NYC to visit your buddies at the Gray Lady or do you take a private jet chartered for the LAT?

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2008-07-11 17:22|| 2008-07-11 17:22|| Front Page Top

#9 Wonder what joel thinks about denver stuffing all the homeless onto buses so that all the convention goers, and the people who actually ride the bus to work, will have to drive?

Posted by swksvolFF 2008-07-11 17:30|| 2008-07-11 17:30|| Front Page Top

#10 It occurs to me that Joel here is also arguing against personal ownership of motor vehicles and against the capability of an individual to travel where he wants, when he wants, and how he wants.

In the Old West it used to be a hanging offense to steal horses. A horse was a man's life blood. A horse was his muscle. A horse was his freedom to travel where he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted. Stealing a man's horse was equivalent to stealing the man's life and ability to make a living in some cases. If you stole a man's horse anywhere outside of a 15-20 mile radius of civilization you were probably condemning the man to a slow, lingering death due to dehydration in some areas.

Stealing a people's ability travel freely puts the citizens of this country in the same boat as Soviet Russia and China. Nazi Germany limited freedom of travel for its non-party member citizens as well.

Is that what you want, Joel? Really? A society where freedom of travel is restricted to the very elite and the very rich? Where travel is restricted except to a special few or those possessing the proper "papers"?

'Cause that's what you're really saying here from my POV.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2008-07-11 17:32|| 2008-07-11 17:32|| Front Page Top

#11 Great bumper sticker:

Vote For Any Democrat
If You Want $10 Gas!

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-07-11 17:44|| 2008-07-11 17:44|| Front Page Top

#12 Translation: Things would be a whole lot better if we were to just go back to living on the Government's plantation, doing what the government tells us to do (for very little money since Gov't will take most of it in taxes) so that the Government can get rich off the sweat of our brow.

Didn't we already try that with a good segment of our population - back in pre-civil war days in the 'old south'?

Posted by CrazyFool 2008-07-11 18:15|| 2008-07-11 18:15|| Front Page Top

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