I feel your pain. I'm over 50 and got laid off in Dec. I am done with high tech. I've started my own business that has nothing to do with anything that can be outsourced to China, India, Vietnam, etc. Thank goodness I took enough accounting to run a small business and accumulated enough capital to get started.

Actually, my point is quite germane to the topic. You imply that motor vehicles are a net negative for humanity. Nothing could be further from the truth. You can fantasize about hydrogen/electric vehicles all you want, but they are unsafe, generating hydrogen takes a huge amount of energy, and electric vehicles are no different from coal/nuclear/hydro/natural gas fired vehicles. If you think this is not the case, feel free to invest your own capital in hydrogen vehicles capable of transporting the needs of society. You'll be firmly in the upper echelons of the top .001% if you are successful.

You could always use the "trucker bomb" method: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7912...

Really? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... https://www.youtube.com/watch?... For those too lazy to click on the links, these are two black truck drivers with their own youtube channels, one male and one female. I see *lots* of non-white truck drivers. But for morons who live behind a screen and keyboard, you need to get out more. PS. I have even heard of blacks who enjoy *gasp* NASCAR!

DOT hours of service rules say a driver can only drive for 11 hours in 24, can only drive for 8 hours straight, then must take a 30 minute break. You can only drive 60 hours in a week, which only resets after a minimum of 34 hours off duty. Staying awake under these conditions is pretty straightforward.

Two trends are working to move more freight to trucks away from rail. First is that businesses are more aggressively managing their working capital. Nobody carries inventory anymore. When I worked at a top 5 contract manufacturer in supply chain, we were expected to turn our working capital at least 9X a year. The only way to do that is to have trucks show up every day. Lots of businesses are managed this way. Restaurants, grocery stores, auto parts stores, clothing, etc. The more expensive the item, the less you want on your shelf. Second is e-commerce. When people order off Amazon Prime, the item has to come from a warehouse to a shipper to a conveyance, to a freight yard, and out to the customer's neighborhood. Waiting for a train to ship a book is not going to make for happy customers. This is why the big shippers like UPS and FedEx have trucks and airplanes.

And food delivered by trucks keeps 100% of us alive. Something that rarely gets a mention.

So River Rat, tell me which scientific paper convinced *you* that AGW is "true". Don't yammer on about body of work or overwhelming evidence, I want an actual paper, in a refereed journal. I will review the paper and get back to you. I will warn you that unlike you, I have an actual degree in physics, with a minor in math. I will read your paper, find 1) least squares curve fitting, 2) cooked computer models, and 3) copious amounts of hand waving. Then I will point out that none of these things ever was accepted as scientific proof pre-AGW hysteria, and still don't among serious scientists. Begin.

I think the oil companies should get together and only sell oil and gas to people who believe that AGW is an unproven theory. If you are a true believer, you shouldn't be putting gasoline in an internal combustion engine. You get to walk, bicycle, ride a horse, etc. No electric cars unless you can prove that no hydrocarbons were used to move those electrons. Maybe the Amish would sell you a buggy.

CAFE standards have cost the lives of between 41,600 to 124,800 people. VW are strictly amateurs compared to the US government.

For this we can thank Madeline HalfBright and BJ Clinton. Thanks guys! In about ten years, we will be having the same conversation, except about Iran , Hillary, and BHO.

Well, if you really believe that the government is doing exhaustive vetting of would-be immigrants, this should be a fairly easy determination to make. If you believe that the vetting is synonymous with rubber-stamping, maybe this would be a good reason to shut down *all* immigration. Lots of very successful countries do this. Japan, for instance. http://www.infowars.com/islami...

You might have a point. Illegal alien Mexicans are culturally Christian and they kill way more people in the US than do Muslims. I am not sure how to compare criminal acts like gang-related murder, robbery and rape to acts of terrorism like the Boston bombing and the shooting in CA last week. There were long periods in US history where there was no immigration. Maybe that is the answer.

DiFi was the one who wanted to reclassify your Ruger 10/22 as an NFA weapon (i.e. machine gun). She is evil.

The first amendment does not apply to foreigners on foreign soil. In this context, immigration, it is helpful if you consider Islam to be not merely a religion, but also a political ideology. And a scary one at that. The problem is that we cannot tell religious Muslims from political ones since there is most definitely a wide spectrum, and religions followers sometimes migrate toward the political side, then they start blowing things up or shooting people. The risk profile is not favorable to allowing immigration of Muslims. Sure, most won't turn violent, but every one that does will lead to a number of dead Americans. I would rather see a million Muslims turned away than a single American lying in a pool of blood. ISIS has publicly stated that they intend to seed terrorists into the pool of immigrants

I will also note that a democrat signed into law the following:

"8 U.S. Code 1182 - Inadmissible aliens

(f) Suspension of entry or imposition of restrictions by President

Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate."