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Dan Korn | 1 Sep 2003 03:58

Re: Re: useful

"Jennings" <e.jennings@...>:
>Instead of having 500
> people driving to a place or taking taxis, there could be organized buses
> from various drop off points.

We have something like that in Chicago.  There is a regular, free bus
service that takes groups of people to a local destination, and these buses
run at all hours.  This service is used heavily by retirees and others who
don't have cars.

But this isn't a service of the local public transportation system, the
Chicago Transit Authority.  It's a private service run by the casinos in
Indiana, shuttling people back and forth from the city to gamble their
meager savings away.

A pyhrric victory at best for the car-free movement.

Dan

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De Clarke | 1 Sep 2003 19:36
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ironic "transit services", bus pass costs, etc

Dan Korn (dkorn@...) wrote:
> "Jennings" <e.jennings@...>:
> 
> But this isn't a service of the local public transportation system, the
> Chicago Transit Authority.  It's a private service run by the casinos in
> Indiana, shuttling people back and forth from the city to gamble their
> meager savings away.

ouch!  that's a painful irony.

I had a somewhat related disappointment on Big Island (Hawai'i) a few
years ago when I saw what appeared to be a regular bus service working
the Kona Coast, with fairly frequent headways and quite a lot of riders.
I was impressed -- until finding out that these buses were privately run 
by the big hotels to bus in (and out again) their low-wage local labour.

oh well.

the real public transit on Big Island (the "Hele-on" iirc) was not bad 20
years ago, but now offers very sparse service.  last time I was there
the island was full of SUVs... not just turistas renting 'em, but locals
driving 'em as well.  oh well again.

was in SF for a day this weekend and as always it was a pleasure to ride
a transit system that more or less works.  for a buck (soon to go up to
a buck and a quarter) you can ride all over the Muni for a couple of hours
(any number of transfers) and for a buck and a half you can make a quick
zap across the City by Bart.  the new BART station at Millbrae is open
for business, connecting the Caltrain to SF Airport and the rest of the
BART system.  once the Caltrain gets running normally again next spring
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Gene Edinger | 1 Sep 2003 17:02
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Labor Day and the abolition of work

      The following article seems appropriate this US Labor Day.  I became work-free about two years ago and
haven't looked back.  By not renting myself out to the highest bidder 8+ hours a day, I've been free to play in
my stained glass studio, become car-free and indulge my innate and positive desires.  
      Some of you may wish to investigate this site:
      http://www.whywork.org/rethinking/whywork/whywork.html
      The Abolition of Work
      by Bob Black, 1985  
      No one should ever work. 

      Work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Almost any evil you'd care to name comes from working
or from living in a world designed for work. In order to stop suffering, we have to stop working. 

      That doesn't mean we have to stop doing things. It does mean creating a new way of life based on play; in other
words, a ludic revolution. By "play" I mean also festivity, creativity, conviviality, commensality,
and maybe even art. There is more to play than child's play, as worthy as that is. I call for a collective
adventure in generalized joy and freely interdependent exuberance. Play isn't passive. Doubtless we
all need a lot more time for sheer sloth and slack than we ever enjoy now, regardless of income or
occupation, but once recovered from employment-induced exhaustion nearly all of us want to act. 

      The ludic life is totally incompatible with existing reality. So much the worse for "reality," the gravity
hole that sucks the vitality from the little in life that still distinguishes it from mere survival.
Curiously -- or maybe not -- all the old ideologies are conservative because they believe in work. Some of
them, like Marxism and most brands of anarchism, believe in work all the more fiercely because they
believe in so little else. 

      Liberals say we should end employment discrimination. I say we should end employment. Conservatives
support right-to-work laws. Following Karl Marx's wayward son-in-law Paul Lafargue, I support the
right to be lazy. Leftists favor full employment. Like the surrealists -- except that I'm not kidding -- I
favor full unemployment. Trotskyists agitate for permanent revolution. I agitate for permanent
revelry. But if all the ideologues (as they do) advocate work -- and not only because they plan to make other
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JamesJFitz | 2 Sep 2003 02:20
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Re: Labor Day and the abolition of work

I started to read that story but it began to feal like work!
Any co-inky-dink Labor Day is on the same day that WWII started?

Jim

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Robert J. Matter | 2 Sep 2003 10:42
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Elderly Driver Crashes Car In Santa Cruz, Injuring Pedestrians

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/kpix/20030902/lo_kpix/7667

Elderly Driver Crashes Car In Santa Cruz, Injuring Pedestrians 
Tue Sep 2,12:45 AM ET 

 
KCBS-AM  

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) -- A car struck four pedestrians after lurching out 
of control Monday afternoon near this seaside city's crowded wharf.  

Two victims, including a critically injured 92-year-old woman, were taken by 
helicopter to a San Jose trauma center, Santa Cruz police said.  

The driver, 85-year-old Robert Schmidt of Stockton, got behind the wheel of 
a car specially rigged with pedals for a handicapped driver, police said.  

Apparently unaccustomed to the system, he pressed the accelerator 
instead of the breaks, jolting forward and hitting two would-be passengers. 
As he reversed, Schmidt hit a 19-year-old Santa Cruz man riding a bicycle 
and a 6-year-old boy, police said.  

Schmidt was not arrested.  

Witnesses said the boardwalk was packed when the accident happened 
around 4 p.m.  

Pedestrians screamed and scattered as the car swerved about 150 feet, 
said Natalie Cottrell, a hostess at Gilda's Family Restaurant just across 
from where the car came to rest.
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Tecky Surawijaya | 3 Sep 2003 12:53
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Houston: Vandals hit SUVs at dealership

Quite surprising this can happen here in Houston, US oil capital and
one of the most carcentric & polluted city.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2079198

Vandals hit SUVs at dealership
Ecoterrorists suspected in 22-vehicle strike
By JANETTE RODRIGUES
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

An attack that damaged 22 automobiles, including 20 sport utility
vehicles, at a Humble car dealership early Tuesday may have been the
work of ecoterrorists, the dealership's managers said. 

While acknowledging that it is a possibility, police cautioned it would
be premature to blame militant environmentalists, who have been linked
to attacks on other dealerships and private owners of the popular
vehicles elsewhere in the country. 

In Tuesday's vandalism, a BB pistol was used to shoot out the rear and
side windows of some vehicles, tires were punctured with a knife, and
paint was scratched sometime overnight, said officials at All American
Pontiac Buick GMC at 18225 Eastex Freeway. 

"The strange thing is, they took nothing out of the vehicles," said
Don. L. Wolfe, dealership president. "And some of the vehicles have CD
(players), radios, DVD players and videocassette players. All they
wanted to do was damage." 

The total damage was estimated at $60,000 on the new 2003 and 2004 GMC
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Steven Schoeffler | 3 Sep 2003 17:27

Re: Houston: Vandals hit SUVs at dealership

What I want to know is how is damaging a few SUVs terrorism?

Oops, I'm on someone's list now.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tecky Surawijaya" <t0s9476@...>
To: <carfree@...>
Sent: Wednesday, September 03, 2003 5:53 AM
Subject: [CF] Houston: Vandals hit SUVs at dealership

> Quite surprising this can happen here in Houston, US oil capital and
> one of the most carcentric & polluted city.
>
> http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2079198
>
> Vandals hit SUVs at dealership
> Ecoterrorists suspected in 22-vehicle strike
> By JANETTE RODRIGUES
> Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle
>
> An attack that damaged 22 automobiles, including 20 sport utility
> vehicles, at a Humble car dealership early Tuesday may have been the
> work of ecoterrorists, the dealership's managers said.
>
> While acknowledging that it is a possibility, police cautioned it would
> be premature to blame militant environmentalists, who have been linked
> to attacks on other dealerships and private owners of the popular
> vehicles elsewhere in the country.
>
> In Tuesday's vandalism, a BB pistol was used to shoot out the rear and
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David Hansen | 3 Sep 2003 17:42
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Re: Houston: Vandals hit SUVs at dealership

On 3 Sep 2003 at 10:27, Steven Schoeffler wrote:

> > http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2079198
> >
> > He said police will conduct an analysis of recent crimes to see if
> > similar incidents have happened at other local dealerships. If
> > detectives find that the vandalism was ecoterrorism, the FBI would
> > enter the investigation.
>
> What I want to know is how is damaging a few SUVs terrorism?

It follows in a long line of officials trying to demonise anyone who disagrees with the 
perfection of the USA.

http://www.judibari.org/ is an example of how far officials will go.

--
  David Hansen, Edinburgh | PGP email preferred-key number F566DA0E
 I will *always* explain why I revoke a key, unless the UK 
 government prevents me using the RIP Act 2000.

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Paul Cooley | 3 Sep 2003 18:41

Re: China Goes Car Crazy

I've been thinking about this article since it was posted.  It is very 
disturbing that a place with an active carfree lifestyle should suddenly get 
caught up in such a car buying frenzy.  (And I am sure "getting caught up in" 
is in large part due to advertisers and manufacturers).

I've been wondering if there are any opportunities for cross-cultural 
communication with China.  Are there Chinese Carfree websites?  Are there any 
anti-car, we-like-our-bicycles-fine activists?  Are there any Chinese 
magazines or papers one could submit a carfree article to, and hopefully have 
someone translate it accurately into Chinese?  Or is the country so 
politically repressed that such voices are silenced?

And then there is the problem of appearing to say "We here in the West have 
cars, but you shouldn't."  I missed my opportunity to work in the Peace Corps 
because my last concern that I voiced in my interview was that I was 
concerned about spreading Western culture to indigenous groups.  My example 
was bringing electricity, therefore T.V., therefore advertising to developing 
countries.  My interviewer practically started shouting at me, saying that it 
was all fine and good for me to decide not to have a T.V. because I had the 
choice whereas people in poor countries didn't have a choice.  (She was from 
Taiwan).  After shouting at me, she said, "Well, you're not really 
qualified."  I thought every college graduate was qualified for the Peace 
Corp!

But back on topic, is there anyway to communicate to the Chinese that cars 
aren't all they appear to be, and are, in fact, much worse?

Paul

On Sunday 31 August 2003 01:31, Robert J. Matter wrote:
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Jym Dyer | 3 Sep 2003 18:37
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Re: Houston: Vandals hit SUVs at dealership

>> What I want to know is how is damaging a few SUVs terrorism?

=v= The word "terrorism" arouses fear and dependence, which is
why politicians such as George W. Bush use it in nearly every
sentence.

=v= Before 9/11, the FBI was working hard to justify its bloated
budget and callous disregard for due process, so they were
making extravagant claims about "eco-terrorism" in the U.S.
On their list were such groups as Reclaim The Streets, who hold
parties on public streets, and such actions as putting stickers
on private property.

=v= One could make a convoluted rationalization that property
damage makes people afraid, and is therefore terrorism, but
let's be real here:  that sort of thing is *not* what the word
was coined for, nor is it what most people fear when they hear
the word.  The whole point is to transfer the fear from where
it belongs to where it has political uses.

=v= That said, I have to admit that while I shed no tears over
wrecked SUVs, I don't personally approve of ELF tactics that
involve the use of fire.  Fire *does* strike fear in the hearts
of people, for good reason.

> http://www.judibari.org/
> is an example of how far officials will go.

=v= The case of Judi Bari is instructive.  She was firebombed
and then accused of the attempt on her own life.  In fact, Earth
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Gmane