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I thought this was a pretty cool article. Just an FYI
Columbus Underground Messageboard » General Columbus Discussion
The omnivore's dilemma
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coolbuckeye
South Clintonville
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Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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joev wrote
berdawn wrote Just saw Richardson was appointed to Commerce. What a waste. Apparently, he had to shave off the beard, tho. what another waste.
In what regard?
I thought he would be a great SoS. AND he looked hot with the beard.
Posted 3 years ago # -
joev
Merion Village
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berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote Just saw Richardson was appointed to Commerce. What a waste. Apparently, he had to shave off the beard, tho. what another waste.
In what regard?
I thought he would be a great SoS. AND he looked hot with the beard.
I like him too - Commerce does seem to be fairly obscure as far as Cabinet positions go. He might have had more visibility in New Mexico running for Senate when his governorship was over.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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joev wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote Just saw Richardson was appointed to Commerce. What a waste. Apparently, he had to shave off the beard, tho. what another waste.
In what regard?
I thought he would be a great SoS. AND he looked hot with the beard.
I like him too - Commerce does seem to be fairly obscure as far as Cabinet positions go. He might have had more visibility in New Mexico running for Senate when his governorship was over.
It may be that he is to work on central and south american trade agreements.
Posted 3 years ago # -
joev
Merion Village
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berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote Just saw Richardson was appointed to Commerce. What a waste. Apparently, he had to shave off the beard, tho. what another waste.
In what regard?
I thought he would be a great SoS. AND he looked hot with the beard.
I like him too - Commerce does seem to be fairly obscure as far as Cabinet positions go. He might have had more visibility in New Mexico running for Senate when his governorship was over.
It may be that he is to work on central and south american trade agreements.
I thought those were doomed with Democrats everywhere and Obama talkig about renegotiating NAFTA. Seriously, free trade is one of very few issues I strongly disagree with the Democrats on. A Free Trade Area of the Americas would be such an incredible economic boon, but congressional Democrats are so anti-trade it's disgusting.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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joev wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote
berdawn wrote Just saw Richardson was appointed to Commerce. What a waste. Apparently, he had to shave off the beard, tho. what another waste.
In what regard?
I thought he would be a great SoS. AND he looked hot with the beard.
I like him too - Commerce does seem to be fairly obscure as far as Cabinet positions go. He might have had more visibility in New Mexico running for Senate when his governorship was over.
It may be that he is to work on central and south american trade agreements.
I thought those were doomed with Democrats everywhere and Obama talkig about renegotiating NAFTA. Seriously, free trade is one of very few issues I strongly disagree with the Democrats on. A Free Trade Area of the Americas would be such an incredible economic boon, but congressional Democrats are so anti-trade it's disgusting.
I seriously doubt there won't be some major push for it, especially considering the current economy. I'm anti-trade, though, in terms of the lack of worker-safety protections in current agreements and the anti-union bias.
Posted 3 years ago # -
joev
Merion Village
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Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit. Worker protection is important. A government can do more than a union could, though. All this anti-trade stuff is too political. Everyone knows it would work, but supporting it could endanger a congress member's standing with unions.
Getting more back to the point of the original post: why is it that we have to pay an exorbitant tarrif on imported cane sugar ethanol from Brazil (where it actually substitutes for gasoline in a majority of cars) so that inefficient domestic corn ethanol producers can compete? Better to pay Brazil to grow our fuel so they can get rich and buy our services, no?
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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joev wrote Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit.
yeah, their crappy cars had nothing to do with it...
joev wrote Worker protection is important. A government can do more than a union could, though. All this anti-trade stuff is too political. Everyone knows it would work, but supporting it could endanger a congress member's standing with unions.
Governments could, but they seem to have little interest in it; christ, it's like Bush is staying up late looking for things to fuck up before he goes out the door!
joev wrote Getting more back to the point of the original post: why is it that we have to pay an exorbitant tarrif on imported cane sugar ethanol from Brazil (where it actually substitutes for gasoline in a majority of cars) so that inefficient domestic corn ethanol producers can compete? Better to pay Brazil to grow our fuel so they can get rich and buy our services, no?
absolutely...assuming that what we are buying wasn't produced with the equivalent of slave labor and grown on former rainforest.
Posted 3 years ago # -
drew
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berdawn wrote
joev wrote Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit.
yeah, their crappy cars had nothing to do with it...
This gets my vote for most mind-bendingly moronic post ever.
The reason that domestic cars are crappy is because the excessive costs of labor are recovered by using substandard quality parts and materials. And this isn't because the imports are using slave labor.
Import manufacturers use American employees to build Hondas, etc., in the US, and they pay their employees around half of what the big 3 does - and the employees are making approx $35/hr on average, or $70k/year.
Do the math, and think about how silly it is that GM workers are getting paid what they are to do what often amounts to repeatedly pulling a lever.
The only debate to be had is whether unions are killing the big 3, or if they have killed them already. Anyone with a shred of concern for the future of unions in general would do well to denounce the excesses of the UAW.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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Drew wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit.
yeah, their crappy cars had nothing to do with it...
This gets my vote for most mind-bendingly moronic post ever.
The reason that domestic cars are crappy is because the excessive costs of labor are recovered by using substandard quality parts and materials. And this isn't because the imports are using slave labor.
Import manufacturers use American employees to build Hondas, etc., in the US, and they pay their employees around half of what the big 3 does - and the employees are making approx $35/hr on average, or $70k/year.
Do the math, and think about how silly it is that GM workers are getting paid what they are to do what often amounts to repeatedly pulling a lever.
The only debate to be had is whether unions are killing the big 3, or if they have killed them already.
and yours gets my vote for assholism: having both an insult AND a typo. What a charmer!
If I read your post correctly, the reason that Detroit has only offered cars of poor reliability and gas guzzling SUVs is because they could not afford better parts because they have to pay union wages? what bullshit. They repeatedly have made poor management decisions and put their eggs in the SUV basket. One of my co-workers bought the entry level Chevy Cobolt. It has CRANK WINDOWS. You can't pin that kind of fucked up design on unions no matter how poorly you think individuals with only a HS diploma should be paid.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Mercurius
First Avenue
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Drew wrote
I agree.berdawn wrote
joev wrote Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit.
yeah, their crappy cars had nothing to do with it...
This gets my vote for most mind-bendingly moronic post ever.
The reason that domestic cars are crappy is because the excessive costs of labor are recovered by using substandard quality parts and materials. And this isn't because the imports are using slave labor.
Import manufacturers use American employees to build Hondas, etc., in the US, and they pay their employees around half of what the big 3 does - and the employees are making approx $35/hr on average, or $70k/year.
Do the math, and think about how silly it is that GM workers are getting paid what they are to do what often amounts to repeatedly pulling a lever.
The only debate to be had is whether unions are killing the big 3, or if they have killed them already.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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Drew wrote
berdawn wrote
joev wrote Union-schmunion. What good have unions done in the past 30 years? Help kill Detroit.
yeah, their crappy cars had nothing to do with it...
This gets my vote for most mind-bendingly moronic post ever.
The reason that domestic cars are crappy is because the excessive costs of labor are recovered by using substandard quality parts and materials. And this isn't because the imports are using slave labor.
Import manufacturers use American employees to build Hondas, etc., in the US, and they pay their employees around half of what the big 3 does - and the employees are making approx $35/hr on average, or $70k/year.
Do the math, and think about how silly it is that GM workers are getting paid what they are to do what often amounts to repeatedly pulling a lever.
The only debate to be had is whether unions are killing the big 3, or if they have killed them already. Anyone with a shred of concern for the future of unions in general would do well to denounce the excesses of the UAW.
so maybe it's no typos, but assholrific, nonetheless.
Posted 3 years ago # -
berdawn
near that stretch of N. High Street in the Short North
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Mercurius wrote http://chryslerlabortalks07.com/Economic_Data.rtf
They sell a lot of SUVs, trucks, and minivans. If only they made CARS that people wanted.
Posted 3 years ago # -
joev
Merion Village
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berdawn wrote
Mercurius wrote http://chryslerlabortalks07.com/Economic_Data.rtf
They sell a lot of SUVs, trucks, and minivans. If only they made CARS that people wanted.
People wanted SUVs, trucks and minivans for the entire decade of the 1990s. The American auto makers built plants to build those types of autos. When retooling and restructuring was needed to switch over to more cars and fuel efficient vehicles, the union structure was to a large extent to blame for preventing those necessary reforms and plant closings.
Posted 3 years ago # -
michaelcoyote
!seabus
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Nice how we got so off topic so quickly....
I know that the Pollan article heads off into the "tl;dr" territory, but you guys could have at least mentioned food (grow an attention span already).
here's a nice rundown of the points made by Pollan in the original article by food author Michael Ruhlman.
michael ruhlman wrote
—Train a new generation of farmers, spread them throughout the land, and make farming a revered profession.
—Preserve every acre of farmland we have and make it accessible to these farmers.
—Build an infrastructure for a regional food economy—one that can encourage and support the farms and distribute what they grow (rebuild or create regional distribution systems).
—Provide cities grants with which to build structures for year-round farmers markets.
—Ease federal production regulations, designed to control multi-national food companies but that hog tie small producers.
—Create local meat-inspection corps so that we can create more regional slaughter facilities, perhaps the biggest impediment to our being able to find local hand raised meat. (This is huge.)
—Establish a grain reserve to prevent huge swings in commodity markets.
—Require federal institutions that prepare food (school lunches, prisons, military bases, etc.) to buy a minimum percentage of that food locally.
—Create a Federal definition of food, to encourage people to think about what is food and what is not, stuff we consume that has no caloric value (“junk food†should not be considered food).
—Food stamp debit cards should double in value when swiped at a framers’ market; give farmers’ market vouchers to low-income women and children (why does he exclude men, I wonder; a different subject perhaps).
—Make changes in our daily lives: teach children how to cook; plant gardens in every primary school and equip them with kitchens; pay for culinary tuitions (or forgive loans) by requiring culinary graduates to give some service back to such undertakings such as teaching kids how to cook; increase school lunch spending by $1 a day; grow more of our own food and prepare and eat our food together at a table; accept the fact that food may be more expensive and eat less of it.
—Make our food production system as transparent as possible: have a second calorie listing how many fossil fuel calories went into its production so that consumers could discourage production of fuel expensive food by not buying it.
—Finally, there should be a White House vegetable garden and our President should set the first example. Our founding fathers were largely farmers. This would be a good symbolic return.
Posted 3 years ago # -
drew
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berdawn wrote If I read your post correctly, the reason that Detroit has only offered cars of poor reliability and gas guzzling SUVs is because they could not afford better parts because they have to pay union wages? what bullshit.
Only someone living under a rock could come to that conclusion.
berdawn wrote One of my co-workers bought the entry level Chevy Cobolt. It has CRANK WINDOWS. You can't pin that kind of fucked up design on unions no matter how poorly you think individuals with only a HS diploma should be paid.
Sure you can. It's not a design decision, it's a cost savings decision.
The stupidity of your anecdote lies in buying a car with crank windows and complaining about it.
Posted 3 years ago #
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