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Interestedforeigner

Listed below are comments made by Interestedforeigner between Thursday, 26th November 2009 and Sunday, 29th November 2009.

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A very different Black Friday 5:59pm on 29 Nov 2009 23. Carolina Lady

That was a good post.

The list of Do's and Don'ts is really good advice, all year round.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 3:46pm on 29 Nov 2009 166. At 3:43pm on 28 Nov 2009, IanJayGermaine wrote:

"Obama is not real when it comes to the "Global Warming,Climate Change"
matter. Only to the extent that he feels exalted by saying so. His purpose is that of self-promotion, not thinking the least of those who elected him. There is a must succeed in that kingdom so as to further the Marxist, Leninist agenda he plans. This is not to contrude with Socialism alone, but much deeper, into the Leninist and Stalinist mentality if need be."
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Please provide a definition for the word "contrude".

Please define Socialism.

Please provide a concrete example of "socialism".

Please explain how seeking to take action against global warming constitutes "self-promotion".

Please explain the factual basis upon which you infer that the majority of those who elected President Obama oppose measures to address global warming.

Please explain what "There is a must succeed in that kingdom" is trying to say. What kingdom?

Please define Marxism.

Please define Maxist Leninism.

What is the difference between Marxism and Leninism?

What is the difference between Marxism and Socialism?

Please identify the factual basis upon which you conclude that anybody, let alone President Obama, has a "Marxist, Leninist" agenda.

Please identify a location or other source by which this "agenda" may be reviewed. Is it posted on the web?

Please define Stalinism.

Please explain the difference between "Stalinism" and "Leninism".

Please explain the factual basis upon which you assert that President Obama has a "Leninist" mentality.

Please explain the factual basis upon which you assert that President Obama has a "Stalinist" mentality.

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I'm figuring that almost anybody reading this blog (and at this point in the life of a string you can be thankful it is very, very few) can see that you have no idea of what any of these terms mean, and that you have no idea of what you are talking about.

In contrast to the mindless ranting that goes on in many internet blogs, by and large most of the people who post here engage in tolerably thoughtful discussion. A wide range of viewpoints presented here. If you read carefully you will note that those viewpoints tend to be presented in a rational manner.

In my view, your posting is not the kind of thing that is written by a rational well-educated adult.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 5:41pm on 27 Nov 2009 142. At 3:17pm on 27 Nov 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:

... A Marcus classic: "Damn those negative externalities, full speed ahead."
Is Obama serious about climate change? 05:05am on 27 Nov 2009 122. At 04:01am on 27 Nov 2009, MKEGUSA wrote:

"Hate to break it to you, dearie, but the open road is no myth: you need a car if you ever want to LEAVE the city or its immediate environs. I have driven from West Texas to L.A. and I can report there are parts of that drive where you are almost totally isolated from society. Out there the only thing to greet you is the occasional distant bighorn sheep climbing up a craggy mesa, or if you are heading through the Cerbats a wild horse. This is a side of my own country I would never have seen if I had taken a train...and it reminds me of what the land is worth."
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Yeah, and every commuter spends 250 days a year "up a craggy mesa".
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Personally I am all for high speed trains to cut down on gas emissions, but I outright refuse to be made totally dependent on public transportation.
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Missed the point there pretty badly. You use public transit in the crowded downtown core, and leave your car at home. You don't get rid of the car, but you use it far less frequently. We use the SUV when it is needed and appropriate. You don't need to use a 3700 lb SUV to crawl downtown at its least efficient operating point to take a 130 lb woman to work, then sit in a parking lot all day, and then crawl back.
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"I like the idea of getting in my car and going when I want, not when the train leaves. I like popping in a Sting CD and listening to the song Desert Rose as loud as I like, gazing out at the shadows of the desert and wondering at how song and scenery are a perfect match. I like connecting with my surroundings, and I wouldn't trade it for all the Toyota Hybrids in the world, ditto my countrymen."
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And your concern for your country and respect for your neighbours screams out from your writing, too.

Luckily Toyota (and others) have a fair bit of expertise in figuring out what consumers are actually interested in buying, and what kinds of vehicles correspond to their needs.

Toyota has sold well over a million Prius, and almost every other car company wishes it had come up with the idea first. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ...

You might try driving one for a while before you make silly statements. They are surprisingly large inside - they carry almost as much as a small station wagon - they cost very little to maintain, and they are extremely handy cars in tight spaces. They're ok on the highway, but they are designed to really shine in urban use, where, typically, they use half as much fuel as a standard sedan, and about a third as much as our SUV. We use it on the highway 6 times a year. We use it in the city hundreds of times a year.
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"The people that do live in rural areas of this country actually DO need pickup trucks and the like to make their living and to deny them such a "luxury" is downright snobbish and elitist: ..."

Enough with setting up straw men.
Who said that people who need light trucks should be denied them? We kept our SUV for a reason, too. But virtually nobody needs an SUV to commute downtown.

It took me quite a while to really understand how great a design the Prius is, but the more I drive it, the more I think Toyota picked the right strategy, (at least for now), and then executed that strategy with an outstanding design.
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"The bottom line is that if an American manufacturer came up with an affordable pickup (earth to Ford!!) and also came out with a car that could take the long hauls required to go BETWEEN cities as well as IN them they'd be richer than Croesus."
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No, they would go bankrupt.
GM flogged that strategy to death.
Ford already makes lots of good pickups. You think that maybe, just maybe, among GM's many failings they had the same mis-perception of the market presented in your post?
Is Obama serious about climate change? 04:34am on 27 Nov 2009 122. At 04:01am on 27 Nov 2009, MKEGUSA wrote:

"What a load of horsecrap. New York City has a transportation system ... Chicago is a an island ... "
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If you had been reading more carefully you might have noted that New York and Chicago are identified as cities having very good public transit because the core of their systems were laid down in the first golden age of railroads.

My statement was correct: The majority of us live in urban areas, and many major urban areas in North America have pitifully poor public transit. The examples I gave were the Southern Ontario conurbation, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Denver, Seattle.
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"Personally, I think we are more than adequate for rail services and the bus business is booming: Chinese immigrants are forming their own supercheap bus services on both coasts that link a whole slew of cities and making a fortune."

Luckily your views on rail transport are not shared by the transportation departments or an awful lot of urban areas. The fastest growing sector of the railroad business is commuter light rail, heavy rail commuter. Bombardier is selling trains everywhere.

Why? Because they can't solve their congestion problems any other way.

And as for your bus story, first, some people might see in it an indication of unmet demand for public transit; second, just wait until one of those informal bus services has a really bad crash, and fifteen people are killed. Can you think why they are supercheap? Maybe they don't carry adequate public liability insurance? Maybe they don't have any assets to satisfy judgment? Maybe the drivers are undocumented aliens? Maybe they're paid cash? Ya think? There will be a public outcry for proper supervision and regulation.

They aren't making "a fortune". Those are survival jobs. There's a reason why you aren't in any hurry to trade places with one of those min-bus drivers.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 02:06am on 27 Nov 2009 118. MarcusAureliusII

Now you're talking my language.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 00:16am on 27 Nov 2009 112. At 11:41pm on 26 Nov 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:

"Deep in the Cellar, uninformed foreigner, you don't like my postings about so called energy savings projects."

"But have you ever worked on one?"

Yes.
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"Have you ever done a detailed analysis that is accurate and independent of what others tell you taking all factors into consideration in your calculations?"

Yes.
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"And most of them are pure lies."

Many presentations are dubious, 'tis true. Pure lies? No, there is usually at least a grain of truth there somewhere - that's what makes them beguiling. Most? No, I doubt that. Some certainly have no shortage of wishful thinking.
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"The real numbers are very different from what is promised."
True, often enough.

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"Most make no sense at all. And some will not even work."
Also true, often enough.

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I am not as young as I used to be, and it is a long time since I have wielded my calculator in battle, but I can say that to this day in no instance in which I was responsible for calculations in the thermodynamics, heat transfer, vibration or shock fields did the design in question ever fail to work at least as well as I said it would work.

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But I have worked with plenty of people who refused to take no for an answer, who refused to accept the defeatist attitudes of others, and kept working until they found a successful solution.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 7:36pm on 26 Nov 2009 107. At 7:11pm on 26 Nov 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:

"If you were an engineer and worked in the energy industry, had some sound scientific or engineerings solutions that sounded sensible, I'd listen to you. But you're not. I am. And that is a very big difference."
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Ah, the ironies in that statement. But I'll just let it pass.

In the meantime, I'm still waiting to hear how any of the things noted in the postings above are going to cause the economy to shrink by 17%.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 4:22pm on 26 Nov 2009 94. At 3:29pm on 26 Nov 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:

"And the United States Senate told them and their friends in the US like President Clinton to go to hell by a vote of 95-0 which killed any chance for Kyoto in America. If President Obama conspires with the Europeans in Copenhagen next month to do the same, I expect the United States Senate to repeat the message loud and clear."

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Now here you have more of a point.

For some time I have wondered if the Obama presidency risk the fate of the Wilson presidency. That fate needs to be avoided.
Is Obama serious about climate change? 4:15pm on 26 Nov 2009 94. At 3:29pm on 26 Nov 2009, MarcusAureliusII wrote:

"Had the Europeans made a scientific case out of climate change 25 or 30 years ago the way scientists made a case for CFCs damaging the ozone layer, it might have been possible to have made major improvements and new developments that would be in the process of implimentation by now and the coming catastrophe might have been averted. But OH NO they used it as a political club to bash America demanding that it destroy its economy because Europe couldn't compete with it any other way."

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Or maybe the Oil & Gas and Coal industries have a lot more clout to resist change than R-12 manufacturers.

The petroleum industry is behaving today the same way the Tobacco industry has behaved for the last half century.

And with just as pure motives.

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