Ramblings of a Jackhole

Did anyone run the numbers on Cash For Clunkers?

An average Cash for Clunkers vehicle received 15 mpg. At 12,000 miles per year that’s 800 gallons a year of gasoline.

An average replacement vehicle receives 25 mpg. At12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.

Therefore, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year per clunker.

The President and Congress tells us that 700,000 “clunkers” were taken off of the road under this program. So that’s a TOTAL savings of 224 million gallons / year.  Wow.  224 million.  BIG NUMBER.

Now, on average, a barrel of oil can be refined down to 19.5 gallons of gasoline. That equates to a bit over 11.5 million barrels of oil. Wow, yet another BIG number?

Well, the annual oil consumption in the US is about 7.5 BILLION barrels of oil. So “Cash for Clunkers” will decrease our annual oil usage by 0.16%, our about half a day of the total US oil consumption every year.

Still, we all must care about foreign dependency and even this savings should be desirable right?

Sure, but at what cost? Let us see.

From the buyers perspective, the current nationwide average price for a gallon of gas is just under $2.50. That means the average clunker owners will save $800 a year in gas costs.  The National Automobile Dealers Association tells us the average cost of a new car is $28,400.  J.D. Power tells us that the average auto loan is for 64 months (five years, four months).  Bankrate.com shows the average interest rate to be over 8%.  That means the average clunker buyer will be spending over $6500 in interest for their loan (over $1300 a year).  The AAA estimates the average depreciation of a vehicle around $3400 a year, or $17,000 in five years.  That means that after five years the average “cash for clunkers” buyer spent over $23,500 to save $4000, for a loss of $18,500. Even if gas goes to $5.00 a gallon they will have lost over $15,000 in five years. And we’re encouraging our citizens to do this?  Why would we even think about it?  Won’t this just make them MORE dependent on government hand outs?  Would the President and Congress ever really WANT that?  Hmmmm….

Well, the President and Congress thought it was a good idea to spend $3 billion to decrease the annual need of 11.5 million barrels of oil, which costs $775 million at today’s rates.  One might argue at we’ll “break even” after five years, but that is ignoring the fact that even without cash for clunkers US consumers will eventually trade in their cars for more efficient ones.  All the “Cash for Clunkers” program did was to speed this process up by a year or two at the most.  Even if this sped up the trade-in rates by TWO years, the $3 BILLION would prevent the buying of less than $1.5 BILLION over the two years.  And that isn’t money that the government would have spent, but oil companies.

How is investing in a program that encourages citizens to go into debt and come out behind a good idea?  How is spending $3 billion on reducing consumption by less the 1/700th of our use a good idea?

And they wonder why we don’t trust them with our health care spending…

Chicago attorney William P. Smith, of McDermott, Will & Emery, appeared in the Southern District of Florida bankruptcy case before Judge Laurel Isicoff. Apparently, Mr. Smith didn’t think too highly of the her understanding of the situation at hand and decided to tell the Judge that her thinking was “a few fries short of a happy meal.”

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Mr. Smith is to be back in Judge Isicoff’s court on June 28th explaining why he should not be suspended from practice before the court for violating the rules of professional conduct. If he doesn’t behave, the judge may just supersize her sanction.

On May 27, 1999 at the Rayburn House office building in Washington, D.C Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, addressed the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee at their invitation. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress is high poignant and painfully truthful.

While reportedly Mr. Scott’s message was not well received, I believe his message should be heard by all. Mr. Scott shared a very heartfelt and personal testimony to a seemingly hostile audience concerning what be views as the reason why his daughter’s life as taken a Columbine. Testimonies such as these are part of all ages and it is not uncommon for those in power to ignore them. However, hopefully, by reading and sharing this with others, each of us will not on listen to Mr. Scott’s message, but hear it as well.

The following is a portion of the transcript:

Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain’s heart.

In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA, because I don’t believe that they are responsible for my daughter’s death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel’s murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy. It was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers, themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best. This was written way before I knew I would be speaking here today:

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage,
You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question ‘Why?’
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politicians to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!

My daughter’s death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!

Do what the media did not. Let the nation hear this man’s speech.

…The third thing I want to talk about very briefly is the genuine danger of terrorism, in particular terrorists using weapons of mass destruction and weapons of mass murder, nuclear and biological weapons. And I want to suggest to you that right now we should be impaneling people to look seriously at a level of supervision that we would never dream of if it weren’t for the scale of threat. Let me give you two examples.

When the British this summer arrested people who were planning to blow up ten airliners in one day, they arrested a couple who were going to use their six month old baby in order to hide the bomb as baby milk.

Now, if I come to you tonight and say that there are people on the planet who hate you, and they are 15-25 year old males who are willing to die as long as they get to kill you, I’ve simply described the warrior culture which has been true historically for 6 or 7 thousand years. But, if I come to you and say that there is a couple that hates you so much that they will kill their six month old baby in order to kill you, I am describing a level of ferocity, and a level of savagery beyond anything we have tried to deal with. And, what is truly frightening about the British experience is they are arresting British citizens, born in Britain, speaking English, who went to British schools, live in British housing, and have good jobs.

This is a serious long term war, and it will inevitably lead us to want to know what is said in every suspect place in the country, that will lead us to learn how to close down every website that is dangerous, and it will lead us to a very severe approach to people who advocate the killing of Americans and advocate the use of nuclear or biological weapons. And, my prediction to you is that either before we lose a city, or if we are truly stupid, after we lose a city, we will adopt rules of engagement that use every technology we can find to break up their capacity to use the Internet, to break up their capacity to use free speech, and to go after people who want to kill us to stop them from recruiting people before they get to reach out and convince young people to destroy their lives while destroying us.

This is a serious problem that will lead to a serious debate about the first amendment, but I think that the national security threat of losing an American city to a nuclear weapon, or losing several million Americans to a biological attack is so real that we need to proactively, now, develop the appropriate rules of engagement. And, I further think that we should propose a Geneva convention for fighting terrorism which makes very clear that those who would fight outside the rules of law, those who would use weapons of mass destruction, and those who would target civilians are in fact subject to a totally different set of rules that allow us to protect civilization by defeating barbarism before it gains so much strength that it is truly horrendous.

This is a sober topic, but I think it is a topic we need a national dialogue about, and we need to get ahead of the curve rather than wait until actually we literary lose a city which could literally happen within the next decade if we are unfortunate.

This is a very sober description of the Islamic terrorist threat we are faced with. We are NOW at war with a culture that wants, not to take over our land, but to KILL us.

While the rest of the nation was watching last Sunday with great expectation the Season premier of the hit series 24, the viewers in the Michiana area (southwest Michigan, Northwest Indiana, including South Bend, IN) watched a frozen screen for about 12 minutes in disbelief and, for some (including The Jackhole’s loving bride) in extreme anger. While the show did return before the end, what transpired is still a mystery to the viewers. Apparently, just like the mystery to FOX and FOX28 WSJV to why the signal was lost.

According to David Gooding, Chief Engineer for FOX28 WSJV:

The problem has not been diagnosed yet but Fox is working on it. They control the receivers in our building that bring in the Fox programming via phone lines. There is really no control we have other than taking their signal and putting it on air. Last night for that 10 minutes or so there was simply no signal available to us. They have a backup receiver but it was out as well. We anticipate no problems tonight and I am told the producers of 24 have control over the program (as far as a re-airing). WSJV and Fox have no say as to such a re-airing. Thanks for your interest.

While this appears that FOX28 may understand that someone missing out on such a large portion of the premier show might want to see it reaired to understand what was missed.

However not everyone at FOX28 seems to have the same empathy for its viewing public for the missed portion. Mr. Stephen Morris, Station Manager and General Sales Manager for FOX28 WSJV wrote:

7 minutes of content was missed. It will likely not be re-broadcast. Fox offices are closed today for MLK Day so we don’t know for sure. We will make an announcement if we are to re-air it.

Clearly, if Mr. Morris is married, his wife isn’t the same kind of fan of “24″ as The Jackhole’s beautiful bride. No accounting for taste!

Back in September the Roanoke paper reported that a Ms. Melissa Williamson, 35, was indignent about street construction noise outside her home in southeast Roanoke. Ms. Williamson was especially concerned abou the jackhammers, which she fully believed would have a harmful effect on her unborn child, which was seven months along. However, as shown in the attached picture, Ms. Williams aparently has blowing a bit of smoke as she was shown smoking a cigarette. After all, if she truly cared about her child’s health due to the construction noise, she certainly wouldn’t be smoking.

Of course, this story ignited a firestorm of reader mail (no pun intended). I’m sure someone will propose a law soon.

The Daily Iowan reported today that former UI teaching assistant Frederick “Dick” Williams forced her to watch him mastrubate after telling him that she “would do anything to get a better grade in the class in which she was struggling but was required to pass for her nursing major.”

Frederick Williams gave her the option of a “two-minute plan” where she would sit next to a naked Williams and touch his penis or a “five minute plan” where he would sit naked, but further away from her while she watched him please himself.

“He had his arm around my chair, and he kept asking me if I’d ever seen this before,” she said. “He then put my hand on his penis and told me to squeeze,” she said, adding that he ejaculated into her hand and a handkerchief. “I told him that was disgusting, and he said, ‘I’m sorry’ and that he didn’t want to take my virginity.”

Thomas’ defense denies that the alleged event ever happened.

However, anonymous sources have reported to the Jackhole that the woman’s grade was raised to a “C mynuts.”

DULUTH, Minn. – An exasperated resident turned the tables on a company that hounded him with telemarketing calls, calling it more than 100 times in two days.

Marc Plaisted said he started calling Minnesota Auto Glass after the St. Peter-based company’s telemarketers called him up to three times a day — even after he asked them not to.

Plaisted had figured the calls would stop when he signed on to Minnesota’s “do-not-call” list months ago.

“I’m following the law and asking them to be taken off the list and they ignore me and then, on top of it, start swearing at me,” he said. “That was where they flipped the switch with me and I said, ‘Enough is enough. I’m going after you guys now.”

Plaisted started calling the Minnesota Auto Glass’s Duluth office last Thursday, and placed more than 100 calls, he said.

“I just called them every five minutes and let them know that, no, I don’t have a crack in my windshield, because this seems to be something they are very concerned about,” Plaisted said.

A Minnesota Auto Glass manager in Duluth said Plaisted’s number had been removed from its list and that proof of the removal would be put in writing.

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