Connie, that's a killer story. I don't really have any family members who've been in trouble with the law, except for the brother who was wild as a teen and in college and now has more letters after his name than the rest of the family put together. And he's saving the world from bioterrorism. So.

Gud, as for your link -- air quality may well have improved over the last 35 years. But what Rush fails to recognize that "better" isn't "good", necessarily. And what limited advances we have made in the US are in direct conflict with air quality damages in places like China.

For myself, I'm more concerned about water -- water quality, water use, water conservation. Conflicts between consumptive uses (domestic, industry, irrigation) and habitat uses, which require consistent instream flows. Endless development in the west is causing no end of conflict over water rights, and the same is going on in places all over the world.

Water, they say, is the new oil.

A Chevy Prizm is really a Toyota Corolla with a Chevy nameplate so it is way cheaper, but just as reliable. Also, try looking for a used car from a rental company, like Enterprise. All have 4-doors and air, low milage and are usually pretty cheap.

My brother has bought his last 3 cars online. So if Seattle is oddly pricey, that might be an option. Sorta. I still think it is weird. He drove down to Raleigh last weekend to get the latest one (his old one was totalled when someone rear ended his parked & on a jack car.)

My parents got a new 75 honda civic when I was born. It was ORANGE. It was a lemon year, though. We managed to limp it along (though several head gaskets) for nearly a decade. It had no A/C and my mom's clearest memory of being pregnant with my brother is driving across NM in August during a heat wave, 6 months pregnant, pouring cups of ice water from McDonalds over her head.

My parents never had AC in a car until I was 12 or so. Not coincidentally, that was the first time they bought a car in the summer. In the winter, it just seemed like an extravagance.

Also, try looking for a used car from a rental company, like Enterprise. All have 4-doors and air, low milage and are usually pretty cheap.

Just chiming in - be careful with the rental stuff just because sometimes rentals are so abused by renters ("Who cares? It's just a rental!" As they go offroading in a Taurus). However, that being said, I bought my truck from a Budget lot, but it was a lease-end thing. Great price, only two yers old, have had it 6 years now and almost zero problems with it (knock wood).

Just chiming in - be careful with the rental stuff just because sometimes rentals are so abused by renters ("Who cares? It's just a rental!" As they go offroading in a Taurus). However, that being said, I bought my truck from a Budget lot, but it was a lease-end thing.

I agree, always get the CarFax report before any money talk happens.

"Who cares? It's just a rental!"

Yes. This. I can say with certainty that there is one out there whose seat has been nibbled by a camel trying to climb in, its fender kicked by an ostrich and oh yeah, a giraffe tried to remove the steering wheel. I won't even get into the donkeys. So if it comes from Killeen, you probably should be suspicious.

From Gud's link:

If environmentalists declare victory, it would be political suicide for their movement and those who have set up nice lives by themselves by braying at corporate America and the conspicuous consumption of fossil fuel.

There is money in this? Where?

Have you ever wondered why so many of the environmentalist wackos say, "We need to get back to a more pristine lifestyle! We need to shut down all this technological advancement. We need to live more like they do in the Third World because that pollutes less?"

Who is he talking to? Or rather who makes up this shit? There can be a balance between using technology to reduce pollution and doing whatever makes the most profit.

Meanwhile, the free market is taking care of any problems.

The problem with this reasoning is it leads to thinking that is too short term, whereas Mother Nature is seriously into the long term.

Oh, and no one in my immediate family has had problems with the law (though my brother cut something realclose in his early 20's), I have a cousin who's been in and out of prison for petty-theft-type-stuff pretty much his whole life. And I just got done emailing an author who's got info about my Irish Mafia great-grandfather who was running all the bootleg beer in New Jersey before he got gunned down by a rival gang (which from 3 generations removed is such a cool story).

This just in: Yoda+Chewbacca=comedy gold!