Thursday 1/9/14

The Last Acceptable Bigotry
Coming between a woman and her doctor
If terrorism is the enemy, why must we feed it?
…But liars can figure
Downfall of the Republic?
2,734,000
Pope Francis’ economics in historic context

Jetta TDI Sportswagen

I bought a new car. My Passat sedan is gone, replaced by a Jetta TDI Sportwagen.

I’m not going to go all introspective on you, but I still have a little trouble keeping car buying decisions entirely rational. The rational thing, in terms of pure personal/familial economics, would have been to drive the Passat “into the ground” and then replace it with something even more fuel efficient (the Passat got 18-31 MPG in my experience; the TDI, a diesel, should be good per EPA figures for 30 in the city, 42 on the highway).

But the TDI is simultaneously:

Sportier (it has a slightly rakish look and a sunroof that goes on forever)
More practical (station wagon in slight disguise; my older brother said of his that he feels like a teenage boy with his first pickup truck: “Can I take a bunch of stuff to Goodwill?”
Obviously, much more fuel efficient.

I’m aware, however, that it’s still a part of the great, ultimately-unsustainable, Happy Motoring Great American Auto Scam. It even comes with a tax rebate for energy efficiency.

Sigh.

Well, gotta go now. The road beckons.

Alternate energy follies – and a cold slap in the face about current cars

The Wall Street Journal must have an imp running around the office tying knots in knickers.

First, in The Price of Wind, the Editorial Board (I assume; it’s unsigned) inveighs about wind power at Nantucket Sound. It’s not because they’re NIMBY liberals, who have ferociously opposed it (seemingly for selfish aesthetic reasons), but because of the intricate subsidies and the cost of the power produced – double power from conventional sources.

There’s comic irony in this clean energy revolution getting devoured by the archaic regulations of previous clean energy revolutions. But given that taxpayers will be required to pay to build Cape Wind and then required to buy its product at prices twice normal rates, opponents might have more success if they simply pointed out what a lousy deal it is.

Then Homan Jenkins greets the reader with “Congratulations. You’re about to buy a fancy new Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt . . . for someone else.” He is shocked that the first wave of electric cars won’t cost $40,000 after all, but roughly 70% of that, because of – gasp! – subsidies!

And so a boondoggle is born. Last month, after a meeting with White House Car Czar Ron Bloom, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers produced a multipoint proposal for how the handouts can be made to flow more or less in perpetuity.

“In perpetuity“? Can you think of another transportation subsidy that’s perpetual (until the collapse that’s surely coming)? No, not Amtrak. Bigger than that.

How about roads, highways, streets, block after block of lovely downtown buildings leveled to make room for public surface parking or parking garages, and such? Do you think that our auto-centric communities happened naturally and spontaneously? Gimme a break!