Treating the Symptom is Not the Same as Curing the Disease

This past weekend, I had a conversation with my mother during a long drive. I was contending that vehicle safety isn't as important as proper driver training and safety. My premise was that if our society focused on preventing accidents, insurance costs would be lower, people would be safer, and vehicles would last longer. I see this as a boon to everyone (except for people selling cars and insurance).

In Germany, driver's ed isn't a 3 week course that you can coast through. It is almost a year long process that costs A LOT of money to complete. However, participants actually learn how to drive in many different situations, and since it is such a long process, they get a chance to learn to drive in all weather conditions. If you don't pass, you can't get your license, and you have to start allllllllll over again. Not to mention, pay again. This causes people to actually learn in driver's ed, rather than slack off in the back of a high school classroom while the gym or shop teacher sits up front, drinks his coffee, and talks to the athletes in the class.

But would this solve all of the problems we have? Not quite, but it would create a huge impact. My mother's main argument was “well, you can't control everyone else”. No, you can't. But if everyone goes through this intense driver training (not Driver's Ed, Driver's Training.), then the likelihood of someone else causing an accident is greatly lowered. Granted, there will always be stupid drivers, but with a more rigorous training and licensing program, we could help weed out poor drivers.

“But what about people driving without licenses?” Simple. No license- No car. How are you going to drive without a car? Borrow someone else's vehicle? Doubtful- Some auto makers are already doing this in very very limited quantities, but new security systems may incorporate finger or thumb print analysis instead of a key. New Drivers would have to be added at dealerships, and you could make it so that only licensed drivers could be added, and thus, only trained, and licensed drivers could drive your vehicle.

That brings up the issue of emergencies. This is a touchy area, and I usually hate it, but there could be an “emergency circuit”, or bypass where the driver could use his ID to start the vehicle, press a button, have the non-licensed driver use their ID, and then whatever mistakes are made will be on the licensed Driver. Kind of like a learner's permit.

This would be great, but there are some situations where you have no control, such as wildlife jumping in front of your vehicle. If you've ever seen a car hit a deer, you know that it's just as bad as hitting another vehicle. That's why I'm not saying safety devices are useless, just that they shouldn't be the main focus.

But what's wrong with making safety devices the main focus?

Well, it makes drivers feel invincible when driving, for one. “We've got 37 airbags in this baby- I can hit a flaming spike at the bottom of a 3 mile drop, and as long as I'm wearing my safety belt, I can get out and walk away” Granted, that's a hyperbole, but you get the point. The fact is, Supplemental Restraint Systems (SRS- Look at the airbags in your car) are just that- SUPPLIMENTAL- they can only do so much. Even with these, you aren't assured safe passage through many wrecks. People have been killed in SRS equipped cars, even in newer, multi airbag vehicles. Even while wearing their safety belts.

There are other factors that go into vehicle safety- suspension tuning, chassis rigidity (this can be both a good and bad thing, as too rigid of a chassis will fail to lengthen the time it takes the vehicle to decelerate in a wreck), Electronic Stability Programs, Traction Control Programs, etc, etc. Most of these focus on accident avoidance in one way or another, which is good. But the ones that don't (crumple zones, intrusion beams, etc) simply add to the false sense of security that many drivers have in their vehicles (ESPECIALLY GIANT SUV's).

The point is, we need more rigid driving laws. More specifically, WHO can drive. Many states only license their drivers once a decade- twice at best. I've seen drivers health, especially older drivers, take a turn for the worse in a matter of years, even months.

Face it- Driving is a privilege, not a right. This goes against EVERYTHING that I normally stand for, but there are certain instances where government regulation is pretty much necessary. States have failed to create safe drivers- In Kansas, you have to take a driving test ONCE in your entire life. And that test consists of literally driving around the block, and parking in a perpendicular parking space. No Highway, no curvy roads, no high speed driving. Not even a parallel parking test. You can pass the test by simply driving on the correct side of the road on some side streets, and obeying the speed limit.

In summation, safe driving is just as important, if not more important than safe vehicles. Please, learn to drive, and don't be stupid. You're not only putting yourself in danger, but you're putting everyone around you in danger.

Larry.Burger@gmail.com

The Archimedes Screw: How America's Foreign Policy Culture Has Managed to Stand Still Over the Last 55 Years.

The Archimedes Screw is one of the oldest machines in existence. Originally used to pump water, modern applications include self-stoking coal burners and ice dispensers. The screw looks like it's moving, due to it's rotation, but in reality, it's perfectly stationary. It's a visual lie. It's tricking the viewer into thinking it's progressing, while it's simply standing still.

This is similar to how America's foreign policy culture has acted since the Korean war in the early 1950's. We have allowed our country to stagnate in a state of global terrorism for half a century, blinded by claims of defending freedom.

Now, before you quit reading hear me out. What was the American military's role in every conflict in the last half of the 20^th century? We were trying to force OUR beliefs onto other cultures. First, we couldn't have communism spreading, leading to conflicts in Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and a slew of Central American countries. We propped up and tore down a series of dictators, despots, and mass murderers to achieve our goals, which, we rarely achieved. In the 1980's and 90's, America continued this tradition in Africa the Middle East, and western Asia. We supplied gorilla fighters with weapons, ignored acts of genocide, and shook hands with leaders we would later use as feeble excuses to go to war in the 21^st century.

What is it about other cultures that threatens US interests? Is it the fact that we want to dominate the world? I seriously doubt it. But, if you look at our military history, we have been unable and unwilling to deal with other cultures or admit mistakes. It's easier to defend killing for “freedom”, than what is really going on (neo-colonialism).

It usually begins innocently enough. “Military Advisers”, “Peace Keeping Missions” and training local forces are how most of the conflicts in the last half of the 20^th century began. Of course, there were all out invasions, some of which failed (Bay of pigs). But the same theme is there. Raise Oil prices, have a system different than capitalism, try to develop a means to defend yourself, you get bombed. You get US, UN, and NATO troops kicking in doors, stealing people away in the night, holding them incommunicado for months, even years.

The US and it's allies have been at this for 50 years. They're good at it- or should I say, they're good at not looking like they're doing anything wrong.

But how is this wrong? Granted, a lot of the leaders and governments we've displaced really are the “bad guys”, but how is replacing one despot with another any better? In the US's eyes, as long as they do what we want, it's better. But this has backfired in the past. We've seen US placed DICTATORS commit horrible atrocities. In my mind, it's just the US acting through a “proxy server”- that is, not doing the work itself, but somehow getting someone else to do the wet work. How about this- any war crime or human rights abuse that these dictators have committed, the US should be held accountable for. Maybe that would lead to better leader selection when we invade sovergn nations. We knew that these guys would do things like this- we even enabled them (Giving chemical weapons to Hussein) – yet we still put them into power, for one reason or another. In Hussein's case, it was because he was a secular Muslim. Wow, that worked out well.

The thing we need to realize is, America is not a global government. America is the 48 contiguous states, Alaska, Hawaii, and our “territories” (that's a whole other issue). We should not be imposing our will on a global scale. One extreme view of what's going on is that “America is doing what Hitler couldn't, just at a slower pace and through more subtle means”. I don't necessarily subscribe to this beliefs, but it is not hard to see how people think this.

Just one last thing, and I promised myself I wouldn't mention any specific leaders in this essay, since I wanted to analyze the problems, not place blame.

In a recent article posted on Unknownnews.com, Syed Saleem Shahzad of Asia Times wrote about sources saying that the US will be arming Suni Rebels in southern Iraq. It seems that old habits die hard (well, harder than “dissidents”, at least). You can view the article here.

Standing still while moving. The Archimedes Screw does it. So does US foreign policy.

OpenOffice 1.1.4- First Impressions

Everyone Experiments in college. Some with Drugs, Alcohol, or Sexuality. Others in their perception of the world. Even more try new political thought systems. It's good that this happens- without experimentation, no one would know about anything new or unusual. As for myself, I've been experimenting with open-source software.

I was wanting a powerful office suite, but didn't want to pay Microsoft's outrageous (at least to a college student) prices, and I didn't want to “steal” MS office via a P2P program such as Kazaa, Limewire, Etc..., so I turned to open source software.

I had heard some buzz about OpenOffice on forums, and even on television. I had heard great things about it- it would end bulky, high priced suites such as MS Office and WordPerfect, but for some reason a “free” program that was THAT good, well, seemed TOO good. We'll find out. This is the first in a long term trial of a few open-source programs that I'll be testing over the next few months, so don't expect super in-depth analysis of all of the functions (yet).

But what I will do is give my first impressions of OpenOffice.

Right now I'm using the Word Processor to type this post, and it seems to be going smoothly. I've used it for all of my posts so far, with little trouble. I do like how it is set up, and the very first thing I noticed is that it's fairly bare bones. No fancy graphics, no Office Assistant (THANK GOD), and everything that's commonly used is easily accessible. Formating pages, paragraphs and text is easy and quick, and without silly wizards holding your hand through simple processes such as creating a table.

One thing that I really like are the tool bars. They really are set up better. Items are organized better than MS Word, you have access to everything you'll need, and the icons are easily recognizable. Some may say there's too many tool bars, but hey, that's why it's customizable.

Also included are a spreadsheet program (MS Excel), a “Presentation maker” (Powerpoint), a Drawing tool (MS Paint on BGH), and an HTML Publisher (Weak Frontpage).

The one thing that is missing is a Database tool. If this suite had something that could compare with MS Access, I'd say that I'd even pay for it. But no Database, no buy.

To be honest, I mostly use the Word Processor, since most of my work is typed documents. I'll be using the Presentation Maker more in the future for class work, and I'll give an in-depth look at it then. The Drawing Tool is somewhat useless, but it's still nice to have in case you want to doodle with something a little more powerful than MS Paint. The spreadsheet app is, well, it's a spreadsheet app. It's Excel without that damnable paper clip popping up every 5 seconds. It's nice.

I'd say I'm happy with the suite so far, as it hasn't given me any real trouble, but I'm certain, just like every other program, the problems will become more apparent as I use it more. I've only noticed one issue that needs to be corrected so far, which is the fact that there are sometimes formatting issues going between OpenOffice and MS Office and visa versa. Simple page formatting problems that can be fixed in seconds in both programs. Nothing big, but I figure I'd throw in the bad with the good.

I'd recommend this suite to anyone that needs an inexpensive, comprehensive package, and knows a thing or two about using the individual MS Office programs. It's a nice change of pace to not have things dumbed down for you, and the average PC user will find it easy to use.

Visit the OpenOffice web site for more info and a free download.

Untill Next Time,

Larry

Keep it in the Family...

Timothy Burger has a political site that deals with both national and Kansas policy, as well as several other subjects. He has a great head for finance, and in my opinion, gives a great, if somewhat different perspective on some issues that you'll see here in the future.

Check out TimothyBurger.com

Where Will You Be When the Headlights Go Out?

One thing that keeps coming up in conversation are fuel prices. I've heard more people complain about how we need to just take over Mid-Eastern oil fields and we need to drill in our National Parks system, and all sorts of ridiculous solutions for our “high” oil prices. The only problem with these solutions is that they are all VERY short term.

Not because they won't lower oil prices for as long as we control the supply, but because there's such a small cache of oil left in the world. Industry experts, who generally look on the sunny side of things, are making grim predictions about how long we are going to have a reliable supply of oil, and that's at TODAY'S consumption rates.

But consumption is not going to stay the same. China is fast becoming the largest consumer of hydrocarbon fuels. Americans are being pushed from many sides to buy bigger, less efficient vehicles such as Ford Expeditions, Toyota Sequoias, Chevrolet Suburbans, Etc. From keeping up with the Joneses, to getting a TAX CREDIT for buying a less efficient vehicle, there's plenty of reason to buy the expensive, ugly, and wasteful monsters you see driving down the road, taking up two lanes. Plus, they're great for carrying single passengers, and consumers realize that- just think how often you see one- maybe two people in a SUV driving down the road.

So, with our consumption of oil, it's no wonder that the prices are high- it's simple economic theory. As more people want something, the price of that good or service will increase. The Idea that it's OPEC hating Americans is ridiculous, since those prices are not just for Americans, they're for everyone in the world.

But where is this going?

I'm suggesting rather than seeking cheap oil, why not look for ways to stretch each gallon of oil over more miles? Japan, Germany, Korea, and numerous other European and Asian countries have been doing it for years. Small engines=Great efficiency.

But smaller displacement engines generally have meant smaller horsepower numbers, and Americans want power. Ok, got it.

So we want Great Efficiency and plenty of power. Sounds impossible, right?

Wrong.

Gas-Electric Hybrids have been around for many years, and in production since 1997. Granted, the first hybrids were undeniably underpowered, even for daily transit, but recent advancements in the power-sharing technology has boosted both power and efficiency. This is achieved by a patented power splitter that sends power from the gas engine either to a generator/motor or to the wheels, wherever it's needed most.

Toyota is the undisputed leader in the field, but they have competition from Honda, General Motors, Daimler/Chrysler and Ford Motor Corp. Hopefully this competition will spur innovation in the field, but only time can tell. However, with Ford's announcement of their diesel hybrid “sport wagon” and Honda's Accord V6 hybrid, it seems that performance is becoming a point of focus for hybrid engineers.

Is it possible that in 25 or 30 years, if we use our resources responsibly, we still may run out of fuels distilled from crude oil. It is inevitable, but can be delayed. Hybrids are an easy way to do this. They're being proven reliable, and palatable to Americans right now with vehicles like the Accord Hybrid, Highlander Hybrid, the Toyota Prius, and Honda Civic Hybrid. The days of hybrids being the little odd looking cars that get great mileage are over. More and more, manufacturers are building “regular” models with hybrid platforms, and I think that will continue their success, and maybe, just maybe help stretch every drop of oil that we have.

That's about it for the moment. Hopefully this has been informative and interesting in some way, and for more information, google “Hybrid Vehicle” or “Alternative Fuels”

Larry

America the, well, not beautiful, but pretty

Well, since this is my first “real” post, as in, first post with some meaty content, I'd better make it good- It had better create some kind of drama.

I'd like to take a moment to consider something. Why is it that everyone wants to be moderate these days? I mean, I'm all for compromise, but when you let your core values be blended into the taupe colored sludge that is moderate politics, well, you loose all credibility. You loose all sense of any kind of passion.

“I'm passionate about, well, mediocrity!”

C'mon. Today's politicians seem to want to be just liberal enough to not be a bible thumping fundamentalist, and just conservative enough to not be poorly aging hippies. Honestly, that makes for ineffective politics- on the “conservative” side, you have no real defense of morals and spending that would put any Democrat's head in a spin. On the liberal side you have no real defense of civil rights, since that's too “liberal” an issue to take up without ending up a pariah, and you won't spend what's needed where.

Why can't we have REAL stances. As much as I detest him and his body of work, at least Strom Thurman had a sense of what he was: a conservative- 100%. There's many die hard liberals that haven't fallen victim to malicious redistricting, but they are slowly being replaced by mediocre, moderate, and incompetent legislators.

Even look at our Presidential Campaign. Kerry was constantly battered by his “liberal” stances and his “un-patriotic” Global Test. Now, that, to me seems like a very moderate, compromising position. Exactly what our country does not need at the moment.

You Support Bush???

An emphatic NO to that question. I haven't come close to supporting him since 2000. I would have voted for Bush in 2000, but that was before I knew that he'd go back on SEVERAL planks of his platform (Nation Building, Spending, Etc, Etc....)

What would you suggest, then?

Well, part of me wants to say, “Let's have true Democracy! Vote For the Candidate you think is best!” But then I stop, think about how that would ensure more moderate victories across the nation.

Perhaps the best solution, in my opinion, is for the Democrats to run a real liberal. Scout from the Green Party. Scout from Socialist, or even (and this would be my choice) the Libertarian Party.

I know, when you think Libertarian you don't really think “liberal”, but think about it- In today's political climate, Libertarians are becoming more and more liberal, rather than conservative. The traditional Libertarian value of personal freedom is becoming less and less a “conservative” agenda item. “Conservatives” seem more interested into peeking into bedrooms, kitchens, televisions and computers than actually thinking about how there's such a thing as privacy rights in this country. Libertarians are in favor of a more sensible drug policy. For more info head over to www.lp.org www.ssdp.org , www.csdp.org, and www.efsdp.org .

In summation, don't settle for a mediocre candidate. I know that this is a little bit late for November 2004, but there are local elections on a regular basis, and you CAN make a difference.

Well, thus begins the blog. That was pretty painless, and not too deep of analysis, but I promise that we'll get into deeper political theory (though not often, unless I find something that really lights a fire under me, since I realize it's pretty dry material).

Until next time,

Larry

So, this is me. Not the most flatterting pic, since I look crosseyed, but other than that, it's pretty damn sexy, in my opinion.

Well, this is a fresh beginning!

So, I've found myself looking for a new place to publish my thoughts on a variety of things, rather than a place to post for 16 year olds *cough*XANGA*cough*.

I've decided to have a place where I share my thoughts on recent scientific developments, literature, music, and my guilty pleasure, the automotive industry. Since this is my first post, I guess it would be only right of me to tell all you wonderful readers a little bit about myself, so here goes....

I'm a student at Pittsburg State University in the bustling town of Pittsburg, Kansas. By Bustling, I mean 4 bars, a mall that's really an indoor strip mall, and more dead people than live.

I'm studying Automotive Service Management. I know, sounds like a Vo-Tech certificate, right? Well, it's not. Think Bachelor's of Business mixed with an Associate's of Automotive Technology.

I've also studied business at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, but, well, that place really is crap. Poor management and Professors more interested in writing their next book than teaching a decent course.

Well, hopefully you trust me to put up stimiulating material enough to keep coming back! That's all for the moment, but I'm certain I'll have an update soon!