News Roundup

Well its been a long time since I've done this but here are some stories I've seen today that think are worth reading over lunch.

The traditional yule fear factor, James Lileks talks about how the word Christmas is becoming the un-word for the season. Because other holidays are celebrated at this time of year, stores seem to be reluctant to wish people a Merry Christmas so as not to offend anyone.

This falls under the Oops category. One of the electors from Minnesota made a mistake on their ballot and cast an electoral vote for John Edwards instead of John Kerry. None of the electors admitted to the mistake and once the vote is made, it can't be changed. It will become a footnote in history that John Edwards received 1 electoral vote in the 2004 election. But just think if the election was tied at 269 for Bush and 269 for Kerry. This mistake would have cost Kerry the election.

And finally, an interesting article on ethics.

THIS year witnessed the beginning of an ethical revolution. Voters in Australia and the US overwhelmingly endorsed the proposition that doing good is radically different from feeling good. This U-turn away from sentimentality is also taking hold in Britain.

My property taxes are paying for THIS?????

I paid my property taxes Monday night and part of the total was a special assessment to keep the County trauma centers in the South Bay part of Los Angeles open. We were told if the assessment didn't pass a few years ago, the main County trauma center (Harbor UCLA) would likely be closed due to budget cuts. So most folks I know, including homeowners, voted for the assessment. I did not vote for the assessment because I figured the County Board of Supervisors would still close the trauma center once the tax increase was passed by the voters. I'm glad that I've been proven incorrect so far, I hope I will continued to be proven incorrect in the future.

Another large County hospital not too far away from Harbor UCLA is King/Drew Medical Center. The hospital has had a large number of medical and financial problems which has led to the hospital's accreditation as a teaching hospital and as a place that qualifies to treat Medicare and Medical patients has been in jeopardy. I don't know if King/Drew has actually lost their accreditation as of this time, but if they have a large part of their funding has been lost.

The LA Times (yes, I'm quoting the LA Times, a rarity) has a long story on an investigation into King/Drew and some of the problems the hospital has had. It appears that a number of the people who work at King/Drew are treating the hospital as their own private piggy bank and expect the government to keep spending money without question. Now that the trauma Center at King/Drew is scheduled to be closed, and if things don't improve the entire hospital could be closed, some of the mismanagement is coming to light. Its sad that a number of people working at the hospital and/or on the governing body of the hospital have chosen to work towards their own enrichment instead of the good of the community, as was one of the purposes of the hospital being built in the first place.

I hope the County, State and Federal governments will look into the practices of not only King/Drew, but also all County hospitals so the waste and fraud will be minimized so the money the county allocates for public health will be available to treat patients and not pay for workers who don't show up, file false worker's comp claims or are paid for work they are not doing. Since the County workers are paid by our taxes, we the taxpayers need to remind them and us, they work for us and we can and should demand accountability for our money.

Was Terminator based on reality???

Wired News has a story on armed battlefield robots the military will be sending to Iraq in the Spring.

As early as March or April, 18 units of the Talon -- a model armed with automatic weapons -- are scheduled to report for duty in Iraq. Around the same time, the first prototypes of a new, unmanned ambulance should be ready for the Army to start testing.

"Putting something like this into the field, we're about to start something that's never been done before," said Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos, waving to the black, 2-foot-six-inch robot rolling around the carpeted floor on twin treads, an M249 machine gun cradled in its mechanical grip.

This would be great for our troops, the robots can check the houses for bad guys and if the bad guys decide to blow themselves up, we lose a robot not a troop. The bad guys facing the robots will be in for a nasty shock, instead of them taking out infidels, they will be taking out machines. Also, the machines that will be hunting the bad guys won't feel fear or pain or get tired or feel compassion for the bad guys. I just hope they work out as planned.

Does this surprise anyone??

Scotsman has an article about Joseph Mengele and how new letters and diaries show he was unrepentant till the end. He was a true believer in the Nazi cause until his death in 1979.

If you are not aware of who Joseph Mengele is, please Google his name, but I wouldn't recommend doing it over lunch, you might lose your appetite.

After the war, he escaped justice by fleeing to South America and ended up in Brazil. Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay do need to look at their pasts and answer to the world why they sheltered Mengele and his ilk for so many decades after the war. Hiding these people makes these countries accomplices in the crimes these men committed.

Hybrids

I saw an entry by Orin Kerr at The Volokh Conspiracy about Hybrid cars and how they are not all they are claimed to be. Kerr said he did not know about Bob Elton, the author, or the website, but that it could be plausible. It could be but I do disagree.

In December 2003, I put an order in for my Toyota Prius and took delivery of it in late June 2004. Having driven it for almost 5 months now, I would like to make some comments about my car and some of the comments made against hybrids.

1. The gas mileage people actually get isn't as good as the EPA mileage.
My answer, no kidding. I have read about ANY car where the general public get the same mileage as the EPA. That means all the SUV's that have an EPA of 18 or 20 MPG are really getting something like 10 to 15 MPG.

So what type of mileage can a hybrid get? Well it depends on the driver. Another Prius owner I know has a (self admitted) heavy foot and only gets 28 - 30 MPG in the city. Think about that for a moment. By driving hard, quick acceleration, hard stops etc. he is able to get better mileage then many cars EPA mileage.

For me, I have a lighter foot and so I normally get 48 to 50 MPG in city driving. This latest tank of gas isn't doing as well and I'm only averaging 46 MPG, time to check tires or something. No, I'm not getting the EPA city driving of 60 MPG but I am definitely not complaining about the mileage I'm getting.

Oh yeah, for the record, I use my AC, radio, navigation system which increases my energy usage. If I didn't use them, my mileage would most likely increase.

2. Hybrid gasoline engines don't have any power or pickup.
Well, compared to a sports car that is true. Compared to our other car, a 98 Toyota Corolla or our previous car a 94 Nissan Altima, the Hybrid has plenty of acceleration and power.

No hybrid will win off the line or in the quarter mile stretch. If its horse power you want, buy a corvette or 300Z or something like that.

I've taken the car on some longer road trips and it can keep up with the traffic on the interstate without trouble, and actually has more power climbing some of the passes that one must go through to get out of the Southern California area.

So from my personal experience, the Prius has as much power with its gasoline engine as most other 4 cylinder engine cars.

3. If one would drive without the AC or better yet walk, one wouldn't need to buy a Hybrid to help the environment.

Well, since I live to far to walk to work that isn't an option. As for turning off the AC, well in city driving that doesn't help much. Before we got the Prius, I was driving the 98 Corolla to work. In the city, I was getting 23 to 25 MPG, no air conditioning and trying to get the best mileage I could. I'm now getting twice the mileage by driving the Prius. My wife is now driving the Corolla and has to drive the freeways to get to her work. The Corolla gets 36 MPG on the highway, much better then the 28 the Altima was getting when we got rid of it.

So by getting a Prius, I've doubled my MPG, or to look at it another way, I've cut my gasoline consumption in half. My wife has cut her gasoline consumption by 22%. Those type of savings don't come from turning off the air conditioning.

As to the disposals of the batteries, they will have to be recycled and not put into the landfill when they need to be replaced. But since these are not lead acid but rather Nickel-Metal Hydride they are not as dangerous and easier to recycle.

So while Hybrids are not the perfect vehicle, they will not by themselves end the US dependence on oil imports and they will not end air pollution, they are a step in the right direction.

As gasoline prices stay over $2.00 a gallon, more and more people will be interested in hybrids. As more and more people become interested and want to purchase them, manufactures will increase production to eliminate the waiting time and it will reduce the premium that dealers are currently able to charge for the cars.

The reason I ordered one a year ago is the same reason I still like the car today. The technology is neat, the car is a lot of fun to drive and I don't have to visit the pump as often as before. I purchased it because of the technology, everything else is just a bonus as far as I'm concerned.

The election - last item

There are two articles about the elections which I think are useful to read.

The first is by Tish Durkin at The New York Observer. As a Kerry supporter she has some wise words for Democrats to win the next election. Its well written and worth reading.

The second article is an open letter to Maureen Dowd, a columnist at the NY Times from J. Matt Barber at Canada Free Press. He tries to help Dowd understand why the red States voted the way they did. Its humorous and well written.

Yesterday I was driving by Home Depot and saw the petition gathers ALREADY at work. I mean the election has only been over for TWO WEEKS and people are already working on the next election. A humble plea . . . . . can't the political battles wait until January? Lets take a short break so we can concentrate on more important things for a few months.

The election

Yes the election is over but I do have one more thing to say about it and two articles to link to it.

Yesterday, Sunday, my Pastor asked the congregation what we are thankful for. One person said he was thankful for the election, that we went through a "spirited" election cycle (if you read American history you will see this was not a dirty or vindictive campaign compared to the 1800's) and the election was peaceful. As I thought about that, I had to agree with him. We have just come through an election and there were not riots in the cities, people were not informed they or their family would be killed or imprisoned if they did not vote a certain way, the party that lost has not been rounded up and herded off to prison or the firing line and there are no creditable allegations of wide scale fraud.

Was the election perfect? Of course not. Some who were registered were not allowed to vote because their registration was lost or not processed properly. In a few cases this was done deliberately, in most it was due to human error. Some people claim they were intimidated from voting because poll monitors rolled their eyes or the voter might be asked to provide identification. In all honesty, those people need to grow up and read what intimidation is. Intimidation is where if you vote, you or your family will be harmed by others who don't want you to vote. Asking John Doe to produce a drivers license or an ID card or a voter registration card isn't too much to ask I personally think. After all we didn't have the Taliban threaten to kill all the women who voted or threaten to attack polling stations. We didn't have the rebels in El Salvador (1984) threaten to kill anyone who dared to vote in the country (over 80% of the people voted in that election inspite of the threats). And we didn't have employers or political operatives watching us AS WE VOTED to see who we voted for (see Austria in 1938 when the Nazi's had an "election to ratify the union between Germany and Austria).

So the election was a success, and even if your candidate didn't not win, Bush is still your President. Well, that is as long as your a US Citizen he is. One does not have to agree with the President and many can and will work against his plans, that is not only legal but is desirable in a democracy. A healthy debate will help us find the best answers to our questions and problems.