As IF Times

link Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret.

We see this often these days.  People are so smart that they are actually dumb.   From the very first time that Cro-Magnon man picked up a stick to beat up an adversary, necessity has always been the mother of invention.  That’s the way it works.  People will always tinker with things just for the intellectual amusement of tinkering, but for the most part, inventions make it to general usage because there’s a practical and commercial utility to it.  Some inventions are really of marginal utility; they exist only because someone sold the idea of its usefulness.  The electric toothbrush is such an example.  I’m sure many would be lost if they had to manually brush their teeth.  Up, down, up, down, oh the humanity.   Still, it does fulfill some consumer need.

For this reason, my invention of a gas powered pillow fluffer never took off as I had originally anticipated.  Neither did my solar powered dog polisher,  or hand cranked nose hair plucker.   Because of the mass delusion that has been foisted on a naive public by global warming zealots over the past few generations,  vast resources have been given to people preaching the quixotic vision of green power.   While it’s hard to argue with the general intent of this vision, the free market has not adopted the results of the “innovations” thus far.  In the case of many consumer items today, the populace have come to embrace the whole notion of green/sustainable/organic/natural items.  It’s only a matter of time before they start selling shoes made of seaweed at Whole Foods.  They’re only good for about 300 steps, but at least they are green.  In the case of battery powered green cars, the resources put in compared to the results achieved are truly dismal despite what the optimists claim.

Spending $40,000 to buy an electric vehicle with the lofty range of 60 miles would have no commercial takers unless you were a) an idiot, b) a zealot, c) too rich for your own good, or d) all of the above, the worst possible combination.   Instead of spending untold billions of taxpayer dollars to fund technology that is inherently flawed, the simplest solution is right in front of us.

Buy cars with smaller engines.  The internal combustion engine has been around for a long time and has gone through numerous refinements by all manufacturers.  They have never been more efficient in power transmission and continue to be cleaner burning as well.  Porsche goes as far as to claim that the air going in to their engines is not as clean as the air coming out of their exhaust pipes.  That may be a stretch, but if you’ve ever breathed the air in Beijing or Shanghai, it’s somewhat believable.  Regardless, the technology already exists for fuel sipping small displacement engines that are as efficient as some so called green electric vehicles, especially when factoring in the cost of battery production.  More importantly,  the biggest advantage of existing gas powered cars is that people can actually afford them and are able to plan trips beyond the range of what their eyes can see.   A road trip in an electric car is essentially a ride to the city limits.

In this day and age, with a gas station every mile or so in most cities, idiots still manage to run out of gas.  What makes people think there will be charging stations available when the battery goes kaput while on their way to a doctor’s appointment?  The irony is that they will call the automobile club for a rescue.  They of course will show up with a gas powered car.   If people really want to push the green powered nonsense, maybe they can bring back horses and covered wagons.  We know horses are good for at least 60 miles, although acceleration is nothing to brag about.

link Former Oakland man, aspiring rapper, killed in shooting on Vegas Strip – San Jose Mercury News.

What’s the difference between a rapper and an aspiring rapper? Is there a threshold of earnings that has to be crossed?  Number of mentions on TMZ? Hits on YouTube? Value of exotic vehicles owned?  Maybe the criteria involves length of criminal rap sheet;  I wonder if that’s where the rap moniker comes from.

Is there a rap school where aspirants can learn their craft as ballet dancers and jugglers would?  And finally, is there an endless demand for essentially the same tribal bellicose beat tunes about violence, racism, misogyny and drugs?  Or is rap just the easiest of music to get into since all you need to do is chant words that generally rhyme? And not even real words; often the letter ‘g’ is eliminated altogether for convenience.  Just sayin’.

As is obvious by now, any artistic expression of rap also requires  the necessity of having the rap imagery and lifestyle.  Rappers can’t be wearing J Crew and Sperrys.  There has to be the standard garb of aviator shades, gold chains, earrings and the obligatory expensive vehicles and entourage of thugs and slutty women.   Most people know by now that this is a schtick.  Think back to the 60’s when all bands had the obligatory beatles haircut; the 70’s when big hair and moustaches were the standard costume.  In the 80’s it was the druggy/metal look which some relics like Steven Tyler insist on wearing to this day.  The fedex commercial in which a band manager complains about his guys carrying golf clubs instead of expressing hate and death hits it right on the head.

But the rap culture is a bit different.  Apparently, to have the look isn’t enough, the artists must have street cred.  So it’s good for business to get into the odd gang shoot out, crash the odd car, or beat up some of your competition.  Having a criminal record is even better.  Only then will the music have any legitimate meaning.  The music has to be about urban anger, overt racism and supposed disenfranchisement.  Seems to me if you can afford gold chains and drive fancy cars, there’s not that much to be angry about.  Here’s an oldie but goodie from 2004:

“…We gonna order take out and when we see the driver We gonna stick the 25 up in his face…… White boy in the wrong place at the right time Soon as the car door open up he mine We roll up quick and put the pistol to his nose By the look on his face he probably shitted in his clothes You know what this is, it’s a stick up Gimme the do’ from your pickups You ran into the wrong niggaz…” Artist: DEAD PREZ Song: HELL YEAH Album: RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta Genre: Hip-hop Label: SONY Released: 2004

 

Not exactly “and I’d really love to see you tonight” or ” I want to hold your hand”.  On any given week, the media will have a story about some ‘rapper’ being shot, arrested or getting notoriety in some way.   It’s hard to understand why this is even news.  They could at least report the headline as it should be without the embellishment of the artist label.  Instead of:

” Aspiring rapper killed”, it should more accurately read,

” Pretend gangster killed by real gangster”

As for all those ‘aspiring’ rappers out there here’s an original rap composition:

Now this is a warning,

To one and all ya’s

Posin’ as a rap star

Yo’ sho to be fall ya’s

Yo think yo’ gon’ be all mean and gangsta

Someone bigga gonna kick yo’ assa

Tryin’ to build some street tough cred’

All’s ya gonna do is wind up dead.