Free Republic

Gas is much cheaper than electric. I worked in a plant until recently that has been given the mandate from Corporate to start moving all our gas fired equipment to electric to satisfy their ESG commitments. The big hang up is that at a plant that is already the biggest electricity consumer in the county will see a massive increase in utility costs by using electric power in addition to the capital costs of changing over.

Natural gas in this country is cheap and is the source of much of our electricity. Properly installed and maintained it is safe. I recognize the efficiency of heat pumps as my house is all electric, though I question their actual economy and reliability especially with the newer refrigerants and scroll pumps. More expensive to buy and replace and shorter life.

Working as an engineer in a factory, the lengths the Health and Safety team will make us go to make up for operator stupidity is incredible. They want everything fool proofed to the point that it is impossible for someone even trying to hurt themselves. People like this are why.

Why are they interviewing a busybody with no direct knowledge and who’s tangential relationship is being the neighbor of a student who “is devastated, I’m sure.” How useless can an article get?

The whole point of the article is that they waste the fruit and only use the seeds. It seems to me like a marketing problem.

Personally, I avoid sugary foods like fruit and chocolate. I don’t have a dog in this fight.

If the fruit is really sweet and nutritious, it seems to me all they really need is a good marketing campaign. Packaging the meat of the fruit and selling it seems easier than creating a while new process and selling that.

Problem: How do we as consumers know we are getting real, high quality olive oil and not fake, adulterated oil? We have limited information on what is in the bottle except what the label claims. I believe a lot of the stores don’t even have the means to verify what they are selling is actually in the bottle. There is a massive imbalance in information to the disadvantage of the customer side of the transaction.

Never mind that the Ottomans went on violent, genocidal purge of Christians. They were ethnically diverse and tolerant, while the British empire were brutal colonialists who left behind a legacy of meritocracy and rule of law. If only those evil brits have just genocided throughout their empire they could be looked up to like the Ottomans. /sarc

He flamed out too early. His empire broke up immediately after he died. He disrupted a lot of existing powers, but didn’t have much influence beyond that.

More like you are an officer on foot patrol who happens upon robbers speeding at you in a car and have no time to do anything but jump out of the way. The failures here belong to the Secret Service and they are so blatant I can’t help but wonder if someone in charge deliberately left security holes so that something like this could happen.

I just want him to make it to the DNC convention before he falls apart. The longer he lingers the more difficult it will be for them to replace him in the election. Not knowing who replaces him on the ballot is a wildcard that is difficult to account for.

Advice for actually buying a car:
Figure out what you need and what you can afford. Your car must land in the intersection between those. Do you r research on pricing and reliability.

Toyota and Honda make long lived, reliable cars, but you are going to pay a premium on the used market for them. Hyundais, Kias, Nissans, Minis, Fiats, Dodges, Chryslers, and some others can look really appealing based on price, but you will probably regret it in the long run because they have poor reliability. I am a little bit of a Ford guy so I lean towards old Rangers and Crown Victoria/Grand Marquis/Town Cars. Mazda also makes some excellent cars.

TAKE IT TO A MECHANIC FOR AN PREPURCHASE INSPECTION! If you don’t know a lot about cars, you will overlook big problems to end up with and expensive lemon.

You will pay more at a dealer. I have bought all my used cars from private parties and never been scammed, but I have seen dealers scamming. They are professionals at selling cars and they know the ins and outs of titling and financing, but that is where their utility ends. Buying private means you need to do a little more work yourself to make sure the paperwork is in order, but you will probably get a better deal. It helps if you have some skill reading people.

The problem with not affording to fix something like a tire is you put yourself in the position of now having to figure out how afford a car. Do you think your friend will actually learn that they need to spend money to care for a car? If not, they will keep finding themselves in the same position.

The best decision we could hope for. Blanket immunity would be a bad precedent for an already overpowered presidential office, but presidents need some latitude to act without constant legal jeopardy.

The Left need to keep in mind that if they got what they wanted as soon as Trump or another Republican wins office, Obama would likely get dragged into court (not that he doesn’t deserve it). Every future president would have to write a pardon for himself on his way out of office or be subject to continuous prosecution and legal harassment as soon as the opposing party comes into office.

I suspect it may be like the drunk who thinks he is fine. Biden’s mental impairment keeps him from recognizing his mental impairment. It is not helped when the people around him depend on him remaining his position to maintain their own positions.

First, the Gospel of Thomas is not considered canon by any Christian sect since the Gnostic heretics. Second, this story isn’t new. It is one of the first anecdotes from the Gospel of Thomas I ever heard about.

Number 1 vetting criteria Trump should use to pick a VP: “is the Deep State as afraid or more of this person as president than they are of me?” His VP pick is his life insurance policy. Too many people on this list fail and the Deep State would love to have them ascend to the Presidency if something happened to Trump.

I am not opposed hybrids, but the environmentalist lobby does not like them. They are also a lot more complicated and expensive due to the duplication of powertrain functions for the two modes of operation. I do believe that to have any possibility of making these new economy standards, automakers’ fleets will have to be all hybrids and pure electric.

Those modules are what make a lot of the 90s and newer automotive technologies possible and actually make the cars more reliable and easier to troubleshoot and maintain. If not for the CAN BUS that those modules communicate through, the huge bundles of wiring would make it difficult if not impossible to trace and troubleshoot problems, incredibly heavy and on the whole less reliable. Because of the CAN BUS you can plug a diagnostic computer in and figure out most of the problems in the system. If a failing module is taking down the whole car, a good diagnostician can quickly isolate and identify the cause.

The downside is that because those modules are so specialized, and their function is difficult and expensive to copy or duplicate they will ultimately doom the car as it gets older. After a few years the only way to get a replacement for a bad module is from the used or reconditioned parts market. As those markets dry up over the years, and especially for lower production run cars, you ultimately will not be able to keep the car going at any reasonable cost. That said, my cars range from 16 to 32 years old and I still have been able to get any module part I need.

EVs have a useful niche in the automotive market. For people with short to moderate commutes, a garage or parking place they can charge at home and another vehicle to take on long trips, an electric car is a viable option. If you have a long commute, live in a city or apartment that you can’t charge at, live in a climate with extremely cold winters or only have one vehicle the usage case is not so great. The problem is that governments are trying to shove them down our throats.

So many aspects of the market are not ready for the mass migration to electrics either. Oh well. 1970s redux.

I agree with all the objections to new cars. Too expensive and too many “improvements” that detract from the driving experience, increase costs of ownership and maintenance well beyond the value of gas saved, and reduce the useful life of the car.

The average age of my cars is 23 years. My family’s newest vehicle is an almost 16-year-old Toyota minivan. It was the last new car we bought. The next oldest vehicle is 19 years old and now my oldest, who is the same age, drives it. My own daily driver is a 2003 Lincoln Towncar with only 105k on the odometer, drives like a dream, has all the options I really want in a car and I bought it used for 90% off the original sticker. Other vehicles include a 1999 Ford truck for use as a beater/hauler, a giant 2000 Chevy Express for family trips and a 1992 Miata for fun drives on nice days. I can get into any one of them right now and have no worries taking it on a long trip but to buy all of them together today would be less than the cost of the average new car and the maintenance cost of those 6 vehicles together is easily less than half of the loan payment for the new car. Why buy new?