Opinions=Assholes+Love

[Salty]

Another thing about Alty is that he is in fact so short that he gets more air (the atmosphere being denser down at his height), which gives him almost limitless energy with which to get angry.

Air + Badger = Problems.

I am a mountain of a man. You have no idea how many people say things like, "There goes Alty, that guy sure is great. And tall. And so...unike a badger." They say that, all the time. I have this little plaque that reminds me to remember that.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Another thing about Alty is that he is in fact so short that he gets more air (the atmosphere being denser down at his height), which gives him almost limitless energy with which to get angry.

Air + Badger = Problems.

I am a mountain of a man. You have no idea how many people say things like, "There goes Alty, that guy sure is great. And tall. And so...unike a badger." They say that, all the time. I have this little plaque that reminds me to remember that.

No, I've met you, and you're tiny.  A tiny ball of hate.  Like a shrew.  Tiny and vicious.

Like a badger shrew.  Which is a real animal.  I have researched a study on the horrible little bastards.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey, does anybody remember when I called you all white? That was super unpopular.

Anyway, my opinion on cars as individual forms of transportation: most of the time, I don't need one, and when I DO need one, 99% of the time it's because my city, like all cities everywhere in America, is fundamentally designed around automobile use. If it weren't, I would likely only use my car to go places that are inaccessible to me without my car, such as the farms on Sauvie Island or the beach at Hayden Island, or for other such more extensive traveling.

For the average family, it's probably important to remember how fucked our infrastructure is for getting people around without a car. Consider, for example, my situation when I finally got my first car. I was 29 years old, newly single, and had an infant and a toddler. I lived in Northeast Portland, had a job in Southeast Portland, and had free babysitting... FREE FREE FREE... without which I could not have survived. In Beaverton. That's the city just to the West of Portland, on the other side of the small mountain range we call the West Hills.

I used mass transit for a while. I got up at 5 am and bundled up the kids, hopped on the bus at 5:45 and transferred to the train and met my ex-husband's mom at the transit center in Beaverton, gave her the kids, hopped back on the train, transferred to the bus, got to work by 8:30, opened the store, got off work at 5, back in Beaverton around 6:30, home usually by 7:30, make a rushed dinner, baths, storytime, tuck in, bed. Start over in the morning. Every day. See, a civilized society would have a childcare subsidy so that I could afford a daycare near my work, or even pay the subsidy to my company so it would be AT my work, and there would be streetcars spaced about 12 blocks apart everywhere in the city (the streetcar tracks that the oil companies paid the city to either pave over or tear up, remember those?) so that it would have been a simple matter of eating a leisurely breakfast and hopping on a streetcar at 8, and then not only could I eat lunch with the kids, but also we could be home by 5:30 or so for a little relaxation and family time as I prepared something fun and delicious, maybe we would even have a little daylight time to go to the park after work. But that isn't how it is, and so we're stuck in this catch-22 where people who can least afford a car can also least afford NOT to have a car, and we're fucking ourselves over all the while.

Also, check out the bus pass rates here: http://trimet.org/fares/

That's almost $3000 per year for all five of us to ride the bus. THAT'S INSANE.

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, cars are fucked. But a lot of people are between a rock and a hard place because of the way our infrastructure is designed, and until we fix THAT, most of the US isn't going to be able, from a practical perspective, to get rid of their cars.

[Pæs]

Listen, who are you going to trust?

This deviant:


Or this fine American:

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Also, I keep telling you people that Arizona is uninhabitable. When will you ever learn?

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Also, I keep telling you people that Arizona is uninhabitable. When will you ever learn?

If you're dead, that's not really an issue.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, cars are fucked. But a lot of people are between a rock and a hard place because of the way our infrastructure is designed, and until we fix THAT, most of the US isn't going to be able, from a practical perspective, to get rid of their cars.

There's a word for that:  Hypermodernity.  I can't pronounce it.  But still.

Cities aren't designed for people, they're designed for commerce.  Roads are designed to move goods through and around the inside of cities, as anyone who's ever driven in Chicago can attest.  Commerce is life; humans are a difficult & inconvenient part of commerce.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Listen, who are you going to trust?

This deviant:


Or this fine American:

Not fair.  I was all fucked up on Saffron.

[Salty]

Hey, does anybody remember when I called you all white? That was super unpopular.

Anyway, my opinion on cars as individual forms of transportation: most of the time, I don't need one, and when I DO need one, 99% of the time it's because my city, like all cities everywhere in America, is fundamentally designed around automobile use. If it weren't, I would likely only use my car to go places that are inaccessible to me without my car, such as the farms on Sauvie Island or the beach at Hayden Island, or for other such more extensive traveling.

For the average family, it's probably important to remember how fucked our infrastructure is for getting people around without a car. Consider, for example, my situation when I finally got my first car. I was 29 years old, newly single, and had an infant and a toddler. I lived in Northeast Portland, had a job in Southeast Portland, and had free babysitting... FREE FREE FREE... without which I could not have survived. In Beaverton. That's the city just to the West of Portland, on the other side of the small mountain range we call the West Hills.

I used mass transit for a while. I got up at 5 am and bundled up the kids, hopped on the bus at 5:45 and transferred to the train and met my ex-husband's mom at the transit center in Beaverton, gave her the kids, hopped back on the train, transferred to the bus, got to work by 8:30, opened the store, got off work at 5, back in Beaverton around 6:30, home usually by 7:30, make a rushed dinner, baths, storytime, tuck in, bed. Start over in the morning. Every day. See, a civilized society would have a childcare subsidy so that I could afford a daycare near my work, or even pay the subsidy to my company so it would be AT my work, and there would be streetcars spaced about 12 blocks apart everywhere in the city (the streetcar tracks that the oil companies paid the city to either pave over or tear up, remember those?) so that it would have been a simple matter of eating a leisurely breakfast and hopping on a streetcar at 8, and then not only could I eat lunch with the kids, but also we could be home by 5:30 or so for a little relaxation and family time as I prepared something fun and delicious, maybe we would even have a little daylight time to go to the park after work. But that isn't how it is, and so we're stuck in this catch-22 where people who can least afford a car can also least afford NOT to have a car, and we're fucking ourselves over all the while.

Also, check out the bus pass rates here: http://trimet.org/fares/

That's almost $3000 per year for all five of us to ride the bus. THAT'S INSANE.

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, cars are fucked. But a lot of people are between a rock and a hard place because of the way our infrastructure is designed, and until we fix THAT, most of the US isn't going to be able, from a practical perspective, to get rid of their cars.

I'm going to have to get back to my laptop to repond properly.

However, before I present my reasonable, if impractical, assertions;* I would like to ask:

Do you have any practical exp...oh I see you do. Hm, I cant see how that would alter my view. Do you have any lin- oh right, ok. Would you mind if I just reworded my own arguments slightly and just pasted them back into this.little box over and over again?


*BEHOLD MY MASTERY OVER ALL LINGUISTICS.

[Salty]

I'm not going to be much good at hating on you Alty, I haven't owned a car for about four years and have mostly walked everywhere I've gone since then. Currently I live near work, so that's not such a thing, but other times it involved a 2+ hour walk daily to/from work and my walking pace is insane.

Well that fits my worl-ah, but do you see the danger inherent in a car? The evil that issues from it like so much Gloria Estefan through rattly speakers?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Hey, does anybody remember when I called you all white? That was super unpopular.

Anyway, my opinion on cars as individual forms of transportation: most of the time, I don't need one, and when I DO need one, 99% of the time it's because my city, like all cities everywhere in America, is fundamentally designed around automobile use. If it weren't, I would likely only use my car to go places that are inaccessible to me without my car, such as the farms on Sauvie Island or the beach at Hayden Island, or for other such more extensive traveling.

For the average family, it's probably important to remember how fucked our infrastructure is for getting people around without a car. Consider, for example, my situation when I finally got my first car. I was 29 years old, newly single, and had an infant and a toddler. I lived in Northeast Portland, had a job in Southeast Portland, and had free babysitting... FREE FREE FREE... without which I could not have survived. In Beaverton. That's the city just to the West of Portland, on the other side of the small mountain range we call the West Hills.

I used mass transit for a while. I got up at 5 am and bundled up the kids, hopped on the bus at 5:45 and transferred to the train and met my ex-husband's mom at the transit center in Beaverton, gave her the kids, hopped back on the train, transferred to the bus, got to work by 8:30, opened the store, got off work at 5, back in Beaverton around 6:30, home usually by 7:30, make a rushed dinner, baths, storytime, tuck in, bed. Start over in the morning. Every day. See, a civilized society would have a childcare subsidy so that I could afford a daycare near my work, or even pay the subsidy to my company so it would be AT my work, and there would be streetcars spaced about 12 blocks apart everywhere in the city (the streetcar tracks that the oil companies paid the city to either pave over or tear up, remember those?) so that it would have been a simple matter of eating a leisurely breakfast and hopping on a streetcar at 8, and then not only could I eat lunch with the kids, but also we could be home by 5:30 or so for a little relaxation and family time as I prepared something fun and delicious, maybe we would even have a little daylight time to go to the park after work. But that isn't how it is, and so we're stuck in this catch-22 where people who can least afford a car can also least afford NOT to have a car, and we're fucking ourselves over all the while.

Also, check out the bus pass rates here: http://trimet.org/fares/

That's almost $3000 per year for all five of us to ride the bus. THAT'S INSANE.

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, cars are fucked. But a lot of people are between a rock and a hard place because of the way our infrastructure is designed, and until we fix THAT, most of the US isn't going to be able, from a practical perspective, to get rid of their cars.

I'm going to have to get back to my laptop to repond properly.

However, before I present my reasonable, if impractical, assertions;* I would like to ask:

Do you have any practical exp...oh I see you do. Hm, I cant see how that would alter my view. Do you have any lin- oh right, ok. Would you mind if I just reworded my own arguments slightly and just pasted them back into this.little box over and over again?


*BEHOLD MY MASTERY OVER ALL LINGUISTICS.

If you do it enough times, you can argue that you're being persecuted for your views when people get frustrated with it!

[Salty]

Hey, does anybody remember when I called you all white? That was super unpopular.

Anyway, my opinion on cars as individual forms of transportation: most of the time, I don't need one, and when I DO need one, 99% of the time it's because my city, like all cities everywhere in America, is fundamentally designed around automobile use. If it weren't, I would likely only use my car to go places that are inaccessible to me without my car, such as the farms on Sauvie Island or the beach at Hayden Island, or for other such more extensive traveling.

For the average family, it's probably important to remember how fucked our infrastructure is for getting people around without a car. Consider, for example, my situation when I finally got my first car. I was 29 years old, newly single, and had an infant and a toddler. I lived in Northeast Portland, had a job in Southeast Portland, and had free babysitting... FREE FREE FREE... without which I could not have survived. In Beaverton. That's the city just to the West of Portland, on the other side of the small mountain range we call the West Hills.

I used mass transit for a while. I got up at 5 am and bundled up the kids, hopped on the bus at 5:45 and transferred to the train and met my ex-husband's mom at the transit center in Beaverton, gave her the kids, hopped back on the train, transferred to the bus, got to work by 8:30, opened the store, got off work at 5, back in Beaverton around 6:30, home usually by 7:30, make a rushed dinner, baths, storytime, tuck in, bed. Start over in the morning. Every day. See, a civilized society would have a childcare subsidy so that I could afford a daycare near my work, or even pay the subsidy to my company so it would be AT my work, and there would be streetcars spaced about 12 blocks apart everywhere in the city (the streetcar tracks that the oil companies paid the city to either pave over or tear up, remember those?) so that it would have been a simple matter of eating a leisurely breakfast and hopping on a streetcar at 8, and then not only could I eat lunch with the kids, but also we could be home by 5:30 or so for a little relaxation and family time as I prepared something fun and delicious, maybe we would even have a little daylight time to go to the park after work. But that isn't how it is, and so we're stuck in this catch-22 where people who can least afford a car can also least afford NOT to have a car, and we're fucking ourselves over all the while.

Also, check out the bus pass rates here: http://trimet.org/fares/

That's almost $3000 per year for all five of us to ride the bus. THAT'S INSANE.

Basically what I'm saying is that I agree with you, cars are fucked. But a lot of people are between a rock and a hard place because of the way our infrastructure is designed, and until we fix THAT, most of the US isn't going to be able, from a practical perspective, to get rid of their cars.

I'm going to have to get back to my laptop to repond properly.

However, before I present my reasonable, if impractical, assertions;* I would like to ask:

Do you have any practical exp...oh I see you do. Hm, I cant see how that would alter my view. Do you have any lin- oh right, ok. Would you mind if I just reworded my own arguments slightly and just pasted them back into this.little box over and over again?


*BEHOLD MY MASTERY OVER ALL LINGUISTICS.

If you do it enough times, you can argue that you're being persecuted for your views when people get frustrated with it!

IMA TRY IT!

[East Coast Hustle]

I actually completely agree with the OP.

But then I drive a '94 Explorer and love it, so my agreement is both academic and somewhat hypocritical. So I guess at this point the only gratuitous personal attack I can muster is to point out the kind of undesirable person that agrees with your views.