Stupid decisions by the courts

[Lisa O'Brien]

The Supreme Court just ruled a family could sue Mazda over the death of a family member because Mazda did not install shoulder/lap belts in the rear seats of the vehicle - even though the National Highway and traffic safety Administration did not require them. To me this is ridiculous - if your in a head on collision and all but 1 survive you should count yourselves lucky - not trying to assign blame to the car manufacturer for not providing shoulder/lap belts.  If safety was such a huge concern to them, they should have bought a vehicle that had shoulder/lap belts (the article mentions other manufacturers were doing this). I'm sure (even though it does not mention it) they sued the other vehicle - is this not enough? must everybody pay? if they go to court and win the only losers will be the consumers who buy mazda products as the cost of the lawsuit will be passed on to them. I wish this country would put a stop to frivolous lawsuits.

 

http://www.detnews.com/article/20110223/AUTO01/102230407/1361/Court...

What are your opinions on this.

[J.B]

Lisa how are you going to pay road tax's if you do not use oil.

[Lisa O'Brien]

 

I think I would fix the roads with all the money we saved by not giving foreign aid. According to wiki answers we gave Mexico 60 million in 2007, 1.2 billion to Egypt in 2010 - how accurate the numbers are who knows? But we should become a self reliant country in my opinion.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

The problem with becoming self reliant is in the process of catering to all of the environmental groups and special interests the congress with the aid of past presidents has crippled us. 

 

We  produce less than 25 percent of what we use oil wise. Environmentalists have made Coal, and Natural gas four letter words. And Even though realists in the U.S population are starting to tip the opinion on nuclear power back to a major positive. I am sure the the current administration will be in no large hurry to license and such endeavors. Keep in mind in the case of oil or nuclear even if we did the "drill baby drill thing starting now the oil would not be online in a big way for 3-7 years. And nuclear plants take from conception to operation between 5-10 years now with all of the bureaucratic red tape also.

The issues here is it is rarely elected members of congress that make the choices, about what plants are built of wells are drill it is bureaucrats. And most of those are .. lets say it in unison... Democrats. They have positioned themselves to decide these matters not by popular election but my stringent ideology.

 

Lisa very very good point about the importance of becoming self reliant. But the world is not lacking in Oil or Gas or other forms of energy we are just hobbled by special interests.

 

http://www.physorg.com/news80491301.html

[Lisa O'Brien]

Ok - but no one wants to pay $10 - 100 a gallon for gas.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Sure your right.. but if special interests did not get in the way of what means of energy we used those costs would again come down as other sources of energy competed for the spot as Americas favorite fuel of choice.

[Lisa O'Brien]

Guido,

A little irony for you. The wave of the future.

 

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/75548.html

 

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Amen Lisa...

 

And the one other thing the congressman did not say but is a fact. They cost far more than a regular incandescent bulb although as a pure capitalist I recognize the fact the costs would go down as competition and mass production ramp up... hmmm... Competition is that words we would have heard 20 years ago about China or japan?

[Lisa O'Brien]

I must admit I do buy them, but I don't like being told I have to buy them. I buy them out of convenience all the lights in my apartment are ceiling mounted fixtures so I bought them in hopes I wouldn't have to be standing and stretching on chairs changing lights every couple of months.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Oh I buy them also as expensive as electricity is getting with our choices not to build efficient energy plants I am trying to save every watt I can. But I would much rather congress get a clue and as the congressman in your video point out develop a real and doable energy policy based on common sense and not on what econuts think might work.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

I mentioned in another thread up here how few plants it would take to produce enough energy to replace every car and train on the road with electric vehicles. If every person in America driveing a gasoline engine car bought on of the new electic cars the result would be a failed electric grid as we are already very close to capacity in the summers. This can be evidenced by the brown outs or black outs in major cities in the summer AC seasons.

[Sweater Cows!]

And why do people think they need A/C in houses all the time, I don't get it. I hate being stuck in someones house with A/C. It is bad enough we are trapped inside with the windows and doors all shut up during the winter, no way in H I will do that in the summer too. At least in the north. Up here we have very few days that a person really NEEDS A/c on in a house.

[Lisa O'Brien]

I live in NYC and I definitely need my a/c - hell I even used it last week. But that is basically because of how the housing is set up one right next to the other sometime sharing a common wall. There is no way to get any airflow. My apartment is constantly hot - any I very rarely turn on the radiator - I think I turned it on in the living room 4x this winter and never in the bedrooms.