Category Archives: Politics & News

“We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Thorsday Thorn

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gas priceLast week, I mentioned that gas prices have risen. Again. I’m surprised that announcement didn’t get any traction.

“You ought not be,” Liz Arden told me. “People are no longer caring, as gas prices and fluctuations and such have been so much news items and we’ve grown so used to near $4.00/gal prices. It’s ho hum.”

And therein lies the problem.

Gas prices nationally were below $1/gallon on and off in 1998; $1 was still the “price point.” Prices started spiking then although there was a drop below $1.20 in ’02. My gut reminds me that the price of hamburger has done about the same over the same period.

$4 is the price point now.

Has your paycheck quadrupled since gas cost a buck?


social security check

Liars Lie

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Why do people fib to us?

Gregory House, M.D., taught us “Everybody lies.” Oh, sure, we may start with the little “white” lies, but according to Dr. Gail Saltz everyone lies or “omits the truth” at least some of the time. “We start lying at around age 4 to 5 when children gain an awareness of the use and power of language. This first lying is not malicious, but rather to find out, or test, what can [be] manipulated in a child’s environment. Eventually children begin to use lying to get out of trouble or get something they want.”

It has gotten so bad that we expect some people to lie to us outright.

How do you tell if a politician/lawyer/used car dealer is lying? Their lips are moving.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center project FactCheck.org monitors TV political ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases for accuracy. The Washington Post grades politicians on their command of the facts with one to four “Pinocchios.” Each state Bar Association can tell you if an attorney is in good standing, what grievances have been filed, and so on. And databases like CarFax, AutoCheck, and the NICB VINCheck offer an accurate look at a used car’s history.

(On the other hand we expect scientists, the clergy, and our mothers to tell us the truth.)

I’m looking for a Corvette but I got caught up in a search for a nice, mid-size, generic, American-made convertible. Found this ad on Craigslist:

used carV6, Automatic,
ONLY 42K MILES
Power Everything!!! Leather, Alloy Wheels
Runs and Drives 100%
Power top, windows, locks. Auto. Cold Air.
Very clean and Needs Nothing

Wow! I ran a Carfax and emailed the seller some questions:

How long have you owned the car and why do you want to sell?
“I purchase it new. Sell because I need 4 doors car I have kids,” the seller responded.
Carfax reports the first owner drove only 31,000 miles in 10 years and the current owner has had it just 7 months.

What accident damage has been repaired?
“Car runs perfect.”
Carfax reports an accident (damage unknown) in 2006.

Is there an extended warranty and is it transferable?
No answer from the seller.
Carfax reports an ECM check, A/C system check and recharge, and a service contract purchased just last month.

I emailed the seller back to ask for the Vehicle Identification Number. I haven’t heard back.

Even if the liars we deal with don’t have a moral issue, why do we let them get away with it?

OK, don’t ask me how that dress fits.

Thorsday Thorn

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July 21. Gas prices went up a nickle here in the protected pocket with the highest gas prices in New England. I found out from an unconfirmed source that the station up near Jay with the lowest prices in Vermont at $3.319/gallon buys its gas from a Canadian distributor. So apparently does the Mobil distributor with the most stations here.

August 2. I paid $3.459/gallon for regular in Essex Junction. News says gas prices are going up again nationwide. I’ll burn five of those gallons today.

August 8. Gas prices are up sharply again. We saw $3.669-3.719/gallon pretty much everywhere we went, from North Puffin to Barre. Even (most of) the Essex Junction stations where I paid $3.459 on Thursday were at $3.599.

Price at the Pump 8/8/12

Roads to Riches

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I didn’t want to write this column but I snoozed through most of the Monday n00z.

Everybody’s writing about how Olympic “cyclists covered a 156 mile course through the English countryside and towns south of London including the town of Dorking, which is home to the world-famous Dorking Cockerel” and I’m tired of politics because none of those airheads is doing anything new. They all went to Dorking Cockerel, too, I think, but they didn’t stay there.

This photo is making the rounds on the Interwebs.


political poster

Half the blogosphere thinks President Obama is a traitor for trashing entrepreneurs and the other half thinks Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is a traitor for supporting entrepreneur-politician Mitt Romney.

What, are you nuts?

The least little reading of history — even a World Book Encyclopedia entry — not to mention economics should have taught us how American business followed the river, the trail, the railroad, and then the highway. See, you don’t have trade without transport.

Mile 0Business success drove some roads. Indiana entrepreneur Carl Fisher dreamed up the Lincoln Highway, a road that would make a bee-line coast-to-coast from Times Square to San Francisco. It was first officially recorded in 1913 only about 40 years after the first steam powered, carriage-sized “automobile” drove the existing wagon roads in Wisconsin. About the same time Mr. Fisher was pushing roughly along the 40th Parallel, the Atlantic Highway was established to connect Quebec and Miami. We know that road today as U.S. 1.

Mr. Fisher drove down the Atlantic Highway and did a little bit of real estate development around Miami. Fisher Island, for instance.

Automobile traffic increased. Trade grew. Trade increased. Automobile traffic grew. Planners started drawing a nationwide highway system in 1921. The New York parkway system, Route 66, and other famous routes were built in the twenties as local or state highway systems but we needed the interconnected national system to supplement the existing United States Numbered Highways system.

Yeah, yeah. Dr. Paul maybe wants to make the point that Korea builds roads for different reasons than we do. And the Rightie-Tighties apparently want to remind us that Mr. Obama wants to build more roads with our money.

Or something.

Regular visitors may recall that I abhor negative advertising. I dislike stupid advertising even more.

My grandfather would not use Dial soap because their TV ads trumpeted, “Don’t you wish everybody did?”

He didn’t wish that and so he didn’t use the product.

If your political ads piss off the voters, they won’t vote against the other guy. If your political ads lie to the voters, they won’t vote against the other guy. They simply won’t vote. And that’s a vote for the other guy.

Mr. Obama, speaking in Roanoke on July 13, said, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

The North Korean highway photo doesn’t answer that. The North Korean highway photo just annoys anyone even a little economically literate. At least posters like this one are a far better play on that theme:


political poster