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Old 11-27-2009, 04:41 PM   #221 (permalink)
imag
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Location: Oakland, CA
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[QUOTE=1slow370;295074]
I wasn't going to start a cali fight here but could you look a person in the eye and honestly say that C.A.R.B regulations are good for the automotive aftermarket and that you in no way didn't wish that you didn't have to find someway around the LAW in order to customize your vehicle the way you want? When the law keeps you from doing something you want to do that doesn't directly endanger others(Co2 isn't going to jump out and knife a baby especially when the airlines and power plants produce an amount that makes the performance car market simple a political buffalo) I'm sorry but I and the rest of America call that ghey and an impingement of my FREEDOMS.
/QUOTE]

People said the same thing when smog stuff came on the market. However, go to a big city in the US and compare the air to a big city in China. Yeah, you're right - this looks like a pretty sweet way to live:

http://employees.oneonta.edu/allenth...TracyAllen.JPG

I, for one, am glad we can actually see the sun here. We work around the smog stuff and lose a few horsepower, but cars are still faster today than they ever have been.

And you people on the freedom high horse have obviously never heard of the Tragedy of the Commons (Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia), which shows how everyone will exploit personal benefit to the detriment of all (including, in the end, themselves). The *only* solution to the tragedy of the commons is some form of group regulation. Personally, I don't like governments, but they have their place (like, say, fire departments). And one of those places is governance of the commons. Since your decision to dump crap into the air, rivers, and oceans affects me, I want us all to agree on a standard we want our air, rivers, and oceans to live up to, and implement appropriate regulations. In a highly populated state, those regulations will need to be more restrictive than a place with lower population density.

I know my opinion is unpopular with childish blowhards like Beck and Limbaugh, who want you to think that all regulations are scary and that evil taxes are bad (unless they want to steal our money to fight pointless wars) - but regulations and taxes are how we have air that is breathable, clean water to drink, and yes, roads to drive on (damned commie interstate highway system, stealing money from people who don't even drive!).

That same regurgitated Ayn Randian BS will tell you that everyone else is out to get you, forgetting all the good you get from public commons. Your ability to make a good living: that comes from regulation. The fact that if your house catches on fire, someone will come to put it out: regulation. The fact that you are defended and allowed to spout absurdity on a message board: that comes from regulation too. Laws can be freedom-creating as well as freedom-impinging, and we need to stand up as Americans and say that a better world is good for all of us, and that it doesn't mean communism.

So I'm sorry that California laws have hampered your ability to get pretty toys - I don't see them hampering that ability by much. And since you're using Ghey as a derogative, I'll let you in on a little secret: if you want to support freedom, then why not support other people's right to marry whomever the h-ll they want without draconian Christian mythology about Sodom and Gomorrah determining who can bugger who and in what orifice.

I guess I'm a hippie commie because I don't want to live in a wasteland where people screw each other over at every turn to get some two-bit trinket.
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Last edited by imag; 11-27-2009 at 05:01 PM.
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