SO SICK of the DC metro area!!!! (Alexandria, Williamsburg: crime, how much)

[VT Hokie 2007]

LOL! The french. They'll surrender soon enough.

[Mike from back east]

Originally Posted by VT Hokie 2007

Mike, in 200 hundred years, the War in Iraq (actually, right now it's the occupation of Iraq) will be consumed by events of a greater war--the War on Terror and, I believe, World War III. Unfortunately, I believe that a clash of civilizations is inevitable. Hopefully, our history will not be written in Arabic.

Assuming what you say is inevitable, then while we still have the nuclear upper hand on N. Korea and Iran, let's turn them to rubble now and be done with the mess. If that nutjob in Tehran gets these weapons, it may be too late to stop major devastation. Then again, if India and Pakistan ever start lobbing them at each other, who know how that will play out, with China on the sidelines full of nukes, then Russia next to them, and back around to Europe with the French and British. If there is a coup in Pakistan, with the Islamofascists taking control of the nukes, look for a pre-emptive strike on those nukes by the Navy and/or USAF. Fun times. I suspect we will wait for a nuclear 9-11 before we get off our butts and smoke those lunatics. If we had stopped Hitler in 1935, it would've saved 44,000,000 lives and civilization as we know it probably would be much further advanced. Here we go again.

[htlong]

i agree blast them back into the stone age....oh wait they are there now...lets just blast them and let their towels fall where they may!!!

[VT Hokie 2007]

Mike, I'm a Democrat, but what you say is why I would urge my fellow Democrats to understand something--like you said, if the world's democracies had not appeased Hitler, probably 44 million lives would have been saved. These Islamic fascists, inspired by a passionate hate for liberal democracy and Judaism and an equally passionate adoration for Muhammad, Allah, the Qu'ran and the Hadith, are actively working to get ahold of a nuclear weapon and they will not hesitate to use it--they BELIEVE they have nothing to lose. The fascists read Mein Kamp like a holy text, deny the holocaust, and talk about finishing Hitler's "final solution," which means eradicating every single Jew on the planet. But once again, the world's liberal democracies, like they did in the 1930s, believed these beliefs to be the ramblings of mad men and smoke and mirrors. To me, the writing on the wall could not be clearer--the West is willfully letting history repeat itself and if we're not careful, another 44 million people--or 1 billion people--will die.

I believe this issue is the most important issue of our generation and I think it transcends political affiliation. This war against Islamic fascism is simply a war that America cannot lose.

[VCUgrad]

Road Rage is terrible here... and God forbid if you stop on a yellow light!!
The person behind you thinks this still a green light

[jmarkd]

I think we should levy a $20,000 per year tax on any personal (not business) vehicle registered in Fairfax County, Loudon, Prince William, etc. that gets less than 20 mpg city/highway. Dodge Chargers, Chevy Suburbans, Hummers, etc. are horrible wastes of resources. That tax would discourage wasteful automobiles and the $ could be used instead of raising property taxes on real property. I am so freakin' sick of people complaining about gas prices when every other household owns an SUV or an otherwise inefficient car. Let those who, combined, contribute greatly to America's dependence on Islamic fascist and psuedo-communist (Venezuela, Russia) oil compensate their coutry for their selfishness. Leave the land-owners alone.

I think $3 a gallon gas is punishment and tax enough.The only way to change the majority's behavior is through economics. I hope gas goes to $5 a gallon, then we'll see more folks carpool and adapt a "Wyoming in winter" lifestyle.
Besides, there is already a "gas guzzler" tax for cars like the Charger that runs $2000-3000. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_Tax_Act. Insanely, SUVs and trucks are exempt from this!
We could tax gas more, say $1 a gallon, and use the proceeds to finance all the extracirricular activites we have to conduct (wars) so you and I can drive to work ALONE and not wait 5 minutes for a carpool buddy.
A higher gas tax would punish everyone proportionally and thus be fair (unlike, say, our income tax).

[Electron]

Originally Posted by VT Hokie 2007

I think we should levy a $20,000 per year tax on any personal (not business) vehicle registered in Fairfax County, Loudon, Prince William, etc. that gets less than 20 mpg city/highway. Dodge Chargers, Chevy Suburbans, Hummers, etc. are horrible wastes of resources. That tax would discourage wasteful automobiles and the $ could be used instead of raising property taxes on real property. I am so freakin' sick of people complaining about gas prices when every other household owns an SUV or an otherwise inefficient car. Let those who, combined, contribute greatly to America's dependence on Islamic fascist and psuedo-communist (Venezuela, Russia) oil compensate their coutry for their selfishness. Leave the land-owners alone.

Interesting how you would prefer to punish citizens rather than require some accountability from your government. I saw many a Fairfax and Loudoun, even Arlington County government vehicles used for commuting purposes. Everything from Chevy Cavaliers to 1 ton trucks. Why should I be fined for putting my family in a vehicle that will protect them in a crash?

[Mike from back east]

A big part of our problem is our own Federal Government. I refer to elected types, Congress and the President, not rank & file feds sitting at a desk each day processing your Social Security forms.

In 2003, our president passed a law to allow any business person (i.e., self-employed person, small business, etc) to buy any SUV over 6000 pounds, and FULLY write it off (depreciation) in ONE year. (Digression: I assume this was the sort of thing Cheney discussed in his still-secret closed-door sessions with the energy industry, early in Bush's first term.) This is about the stupidest fiscal policy ever devised. One of my relatives, a photographer, with maybe 200 pounds of digital gear, bought one of these monsters. They wrote it off that year, reducing their taxes greatly. What this means is that the U.S. Treasury took a big hit on every 6000 pound SUV sold since then and been written off in one year by every AMWAY, Tupperware, and Mary Kay distributor, by every pizza shop owner, by every realtor tooling clients around in one of these elephants, by every doctor or lawyer or vet or...... What this does is drive up the federal deficit, meaning that YOU and I pay for this loophole via red ink, and most of your kids will be paying for this red ink, for a generation to come, maybe longer.

With millions of monster SUVs getting 9-12 MPG, it's no wonder we suck up as much of the world's gasoline supply as we do. With supply & demand now at work in a seller's market for gas, we pay through the nose yet another way, not just red ink in the Treasury. Auto companies laughed all the way to the bank, as did oil companies. Lobbyists who helped to write this bill for Tom Delay and Bush/Cheney got fat. But ask yourself, does YOUR wallet feel fatter now than it did 4 years ago? Do those auto workers who had lots of work for a few years feel so fat now that tens of thousands are PERMANENTLY out of work now that the SUV sales bubble has burst - thanks in part to high oil prices. Exxon, et al, are still reporting obscene profits and full employment, but few others are.

Reversing stupid tax policies can be done with the stroke of a pen, but it's going to take a change in administration. Tax incentives for electric cars, like that new TESLA car from Silicon Valley, are appropriate. Please don't think the Republicans are going to do this for you. It was Reagan-Bush who killed all of the Carter-era efforts (1976-1980) to wean us from foreign oil and find alternatives. Too bad, we've lost 25 years of time to solve the energy issues and get us weaned from the OPEC addiction. We could've solved it in 25 years, but here we are, starting over, and we're standing in a deeper hole than ever before......

s/Mike From Back East

[dullnboring]

All this talk about cars and gas has reminded me that I have to get my car inspected for it's annual Virginia State Inspection within the next week or so (before the end of the month). I didn't realize until several years ago that not all states require such inspections. In fact, I'm not even sure that Maryland does. I know that Michigan and Ohio don't, and that New Jersey required it but only every two or three years or so. I suppose it's a good thing in it's goal to protect drivers on the road from unsafe cars, but I'm just in a bad mood and it's seeming like such an inconvenient hassle at the moment. Plus, I'm afraid that with my clunker Ford Taurus that it will fail inspection (like it did last year) and require me to get hundreds of dollars worth of repairs to be up to the state's standard.

[stratos75]

I made the drastic mistake of moving here 8 months ago (DC Metro area) and work everyday toward getting my wife and I back to Upstate NY. It's all about the car you drive and the clothes you wear, all superficial. I work in Tysons Corner and the smugness nearly chokes me everyday. I have not met ONE person that has a bit of integrity or imagination here, let alone the ability to look you in the eye when you speak to them. IT IS REALLY THAT BAD. This is the punishment I get for chasing money. If you are going to move to this area, do yourself (and your family) a favor..check it out, go to the local stores, parks etc. before making your decision!