GOP: Seriously, what the heck?

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This can also go for places like Australia as well.

It's all very easy for people say, in the South East of England or Germany, the Netherlands or Belgium to lecture Americans on their use of petrol but the entire infrastructure is enormously different in these countries. In places like Benelux and Germany, public transport is very cheap, clean and very thorough and easily accessible. It's not like this in most of the UK.

In European terms, that's the same distance as going from London to Prague or from Manchester to Lyon in France. It's a long way and most people would fly to these places (with the exception of Londoners who have second homes in France). And again, Metropolitan France is a big country - driving from Surrey to Northern France would take a couple of hours. Driving to the south of France would take a lot longer.

You are both right that it needs a functioning public transport system to work properly. Ideally a significant proportion of fuel tax should be spent investing in an affordable public transport system.

Obviously that isn't really practically for a 800 mile journey, unless you are lucky enough for your starting point and destination to both be on the same major rail network. At that point, fuel taxes incentivise you to get an electric or hybrid car- obviously electric vehicles will only work long term if we have charging points installed everywhere.

I'd just like to say that I made a mistake, some liberals (i.e. Greens) do deny facts to further their agenda too.

It also only works if you're burning something OTHER then fossil Fuels to generate electricity to POWER those hybrid or Electric cars..... Honestly, the US still gets something like 40-50% of its electricity from the burning of coal. Another 20 Something % IIRC from natural gas.... Oh yea, alternative Electric cars are going to save the environment, yup.....

But IDK, I dont have any solutions either.... so w/e, just had to point out that throwing the baby out with the bathwater is almost as useful as burning more of the same to accomplish the same in the first place....
Aldran

To The-Walrus.

Right wingers are not the only people who deny science. In fact some right-wingers promote science. Consider for example, Edward Teller who was a rootin tootin right wing anti-communist (and who hated the Soviet Union thoroughly). He also led the program based on nuclear physics to develop the thermonuclear bomb (aka the H-Bomb).

Many liberals (left leaning types) believe in the perfectibility of man and society which is empirically falsifiable.

Many liberals believe in the intellectual equality of all major ethnic groups which is demonstrably false. I am sorry to relate to you, that as a group it has been shown Negroes have a lower average I.Q. than Caucasians (in the United States). So much for equality which is a liberal shiboleth and is believed in on less than scientific grounds.

(Just for the record, I am passionately against laws and procedures that disadvantage any ethnic group on legal grounds. I think the law should be color blind in its principles and applications). But differences exist and it is less than scientific to deny that they do.

ruveyn

I just watched Fareed Zacharia interview Niel Degrasse Tyson, and Dr. Tyson (a black man) isn't going to take a backseat to anyone else, intellectually.

-Bill,otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Every group in the world produces its share of geniuses. If you go more than two standard deviations away from the mean that leaves five percent of the population with 2.5 percent on the high end. If the mean is skewed to the low end even minimally that means even fewer people on the very high end.

Now look very carefully at the roster of world class physicists and mathematicians. What do you notice? Relatively few persons of color and a disproportionate number of Jews. About half the world's population are persons of color (India is the main contributor there). The number for such persons in the population of world class physicists and mathematicians is less than half.

ruveyn

Going by IQ scores and population sizes the top physicists should be 90%+ Chinese. But that's not the case. Because culture and economic opportunity and other factors are at play. If those factors are in play in China they will be in play with Jews and Blacks as well.

Teasing out where one influence ends and the other begins has not yet been accomplished.

Public transportation should definitely get greater funding but to hell with carbon taxes. They may deter yuppies from driving gas guzzlers all the time but it also penalizes inelastic demand and a hybrid or electric car isn't a feasible option for everyone. They not only cost more to buy, they also cost more to repair. On top of that, the insurance rates are higher. The benefits also diminish for long distance commuting so the savings aren't even worth it. Carbon taxes throw the baby out with the bathwater since it incentivizes yuppies at everyone else's expense.

Clearly both are at work.

ruveyn

But when it comes to achievements in the arts - in particular music - blacks have contributed more, and have had the most influence. And no one can tell me that the arts do not take brain power.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Good points well made. Personally I think that electric cars will become cheaper as technology improves and they become a mainstream mode of travel.


I don't deny that some right wingers are scientists, and I also realised after my first post that there is a group of liberals (Greens) who deny science.

I believe the IQ and test score gap between blacks and whites in America practically vanishes when you account for factors such as poverty and the education of parents. The history of slavery and segregation has meant that historically it was very difficult for African-Americans to do as well as whites, and now the legacy of that means that it is still very hard.

In Britain the effect is lessened, but is still there. Most black people in Britain come from immigrant families who didn't have very much. Once again, if you control for things like income and education of parents, the gap shrinks dramatically- I can't remember whether it disappears entirely or not.

I think as things improve for black people they will seem to become smarter. I can't say for sure that they'd be as intelligent as white people if everybody was averagely well off, but I can't see why not.

My ancestors were slaves in Egypt. That does not make me one less bit smarter than I am.

The fact is that slavery was legally ended in 1865 (147 years ago) and civil rights have been enforced for the past 48 years.

As Inspect Renault says in -Casablanca-, round up the usual suspects. And I say to you: round up the usual excuses.

ruveyn

But blacks have never been entirely accepted into mainstream American society since the end of slavery. Being born into second class status where you are expected to fail and to be less intelligent, and living your whole life in that social condition isn't going to do wonders for a person in intellectual achievement.
The ancient Hebrews were able to flee slavery and get their own country - where they immediately excluded everyone else. Black Americans have never had that fortune.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Come live in the Mississippi Delta for a year or two and see if you still feel that way.