WIB faithful, I almost forgot to tell you. I had an article published in the Nov. 24 issue of the Bellingham Weekly. The article's about a staple downtown business moving around the corner. Ground-breaking investigative journalism, I say. If you can't pick up the paper in town, you can download the PDF. The story's on page 27.
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Getting Hyped About Hybrids
If I were to buy another car, for argument's sake, I'd get a hybrid. Why you ask? Because they're fuel-efficient, and that means I'd be helping out the environment, or at least I'd balance out Scott's environmental destruction.
According to new proposals in Congress, saving the environment could be the only benefit of owning a hybrid soon. Not to downplay environmental preservation, but I'm drawn to the financial breaks. That's a big reason why people buy hybrids. But those financial breaks are burning out faster than fossil fuels.
2005 is the last year car purchasers can claim the full $2,000 tax break that's been offered since 2002. And worse yet, hybrid drivers may be taxed higher for buying less fuel. That's right - drivers may be punished for buying less fuel. Less fuel consumption decreases the income Uncle Sam receives the from federal gas tax, which is deposited in the federal Highway Trust Fund. According to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce report, the federal Highway Trust Fund is running out of money and Congress has to look for alternatives.
According to the AP, last year, the House Transportation Committee suggested raising the 18.4 cent per gallon federal gas tax, set in 1993, 4 or 5 cents to accommodate inflation. However, W. threatened to veto any tax raises at that time, and it didn't happen. The Highway Trust Fund needs $500 billion for road and bridge maintenance through 2015. So, the House Transportation Committee will propose raising the federal gas tax again, expanding tolling and bonding use and taxing hybrid car drivers.
Despite the urgency for these funds, I don't think this is the time to punish people for owning hybrids. Removing the $2,000 tax break (which will drop to $500 in 2006 and be phased out in 2007) is enough already. The hybrid market is still in its infancy, and Congress should support any market that steers Americans away from fuel consumption.
Drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge is nearly inevitable (it passed in the Senate, but halted in the House), but such habitats wouldn't have to be victimized if legislation supported fuel efficient or fuel alternative technology. Lay off the hybrid car tax and give car buyers the green light to buy fuel-efficient vehicles.
Christmas List, Yo
Paolo's Christmas List:
- Starbucks gift cards
- Black or white Pumas (size 10.5)
- Family Guy season 4, volume 3 DVD
- Seinfeld season 5 DVD (not the "Puffy Shirt" collector's edition)
- Seinfeld season 6 DVD (not the "Puffy Shirt" collector's edition)
- Batman Begins DVD
- "The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century" by Thomas Friedman
- "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything" by Steven Levitt
- "Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix" by Charles Cross
- "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac
- 1 GB Compact Flash card
- Umbrella
Happy Thanksgiving!
I'm off to battle southbound traffic to spend the holiday with my folks. Scott threatens to drag me out to Circuit City at 4 a.m. on Black Friday to wait in line for a $299 laptop. It's a good deal for him - not so much for me.
I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving. Please utilize the comments for this post to tell everyone what you're thankful for. I'll kick it off.
Shooting at Tacoma Mall
This is 20-year-old Dominick Maldonado, the man who decided that his childhood was so difficult that he had to walk into the Tacoma Mall and shoot up the place.
He injured six people including 68-year-old Air Force veteran Frank Stiles, who was shot in the arm. Stiles told the P-I: "It hurt like the dickens. It made me very angry. I wanted to shoot back, and I didn't have anything to shoot back with. As far as I was concerned, I was hoping the cops were going to take him out."
I wish the cops took him out, too - if only for the now paralyzed Brendan McKown, who took a bullet in the abdomen.
After holding four hostages in Sam Goody, Maldonado eventually "melted in a distraught, crying heap on the floor of a music store and surrendered his two guns to his hostages," according to the P-I (which sadly wrote a better story than the Tacoma News-Tribune).
He was apparently "devastated" when he later learned from police that (correction amended) he wounded people. I don't understand how suprised you can be when you fire off 20 rounds at a crowded location and learn you hit people. But if he was stupid enough to do what he did, he can be stupid enough to figure no one would get hurt.
I have no witty, closing statement to make. Many Americans lack an appreciation for the quality of life we can live, compared to other parts of the world. We have a stretched armed forces protecting us from external threats to civilian safety so that all we have to worry about is our "tough childhoods." Thus, tough childhoods seem to be the reason for the kinds of incidents that cause us to be weary of the mall and walking to our cars at night. I guess this is a reminder why parenting is the most important job in America(?).