He's On To Something

d-squared says in this essay:

lots of important economic quantities can't be measured in a non-question-begging way, and this is just one more Damned Problem; it's very arguable that many important economic phenomena just are Damned Things that happen to be that way because they happened to get that way.

And he's at it again (on Thursday 29aug2002, but I can't get the link to work),

Or maybe, we should grow up a bit and accept that History is just one Damned Thing after another; it is a horrendous engine that eats unrealised possibilities. We the living are the tiny, lucky tip of an enormous iceberg of disastrous outcomes and missed opportunities, and there is more or less nothing that anyone can do about it.

5:17:23 PM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Payback Time

In the morning, says he, It's payback time! And there's a rattle of dog tags and a clatter of claws on the living room floor and the bedroom door opens a crack and into the previous silence comes a bounding dog, wag-tailing and face-kissing and jumping around where he's not allowed to be.

Payback time.

Whatever did I do?

10:32:42 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []  

Oil!

What's good for Oil is good for America! And electric vehicles don't fit the bill.

The future of zero-emission vehicles is grim:

when the camera lights go out, the auto companies roll these vehicles back into moth balls and come up with a pre-arranged set of excuses as to how they failed to develop and market them

Indeed, as discussed this Salon article, GM and Ford and Honda have pulled their electric vehicles from the market.

The big boys behind the surge in the high-polluntant, high-capacity, high-cost, high-profit SUV/truck market have whined that there is no market for electric vehicles. Meanwhile, Salon points out that their energies (and substantial resources) have been focused elsewhere:

California state regulators forced automakers to bring electric cars to market. [...]

The automakers and dealers currently have state and federal lawsuits pending to prevent the California regulations from going into effect [...] even though those requirements represent a significant retreat from California's original zero-emissions vehicle mandate of 1990

And while all this is going on, look what's going on on the other side of the world: it's time to have another war! The Guardian has a provocative piece on how to interpret the latest:

Since September 11, however, it has become increasingly apparent to the US administration that the Saudi regime is vulnerable. [...] The love affair with America is ending. [...] The possibility of the world's largest oil reserves falling into the hands of an anti-American, militant Islamist government is becoming ever more likely - and this is unacceptable.

The Americans know they cannot stop such a revolution. They must therefore hope that they can control the Saudi oil fields, if not the government.

9:24:13 AM   permalink: []   feedback:   comments: []