Another Reason To Consider... - EPautos

Another Reason To Consider...

Voting against Hillary.

You may have heard that a California appellate court (see below) has ruled in favor of California laws that give government bureaucrats the power to deny citizens the right to carry a concealed weapon unless they show “good cause.” This “good cause” to be defined by the government bureaucrats and which definition does not include ordinary self-defense.

The bureaucrats use the “good cause” verbiage to effectively outlaw concealed carry (and thus, armed self-defense outside the home) for ordinary citizens.

It is the polar opposite of “shall issue” requirements (as in my state, VA) which compelthe government to issue a permit to any citizen who applies, who has not been convicted of a felony.

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The Choice - EPautos

The Choice

Libertarians face a tough choice this fall – chiefly because Libertarians have no desire to choose a “leader” for themselves or anyone else. The ideal choice would be to not have to choose at all. For us each to make choices for ourselves only – and leave everyone else alone.

Unfortunately, we’ll be forced to make a different choice. Note the italics.

We’ll be forced to choose.

Voting in a coercive/collectivist society – which is the type of society we live in – is a defensive act. Like putting up your hands when someone throws a punch at you. Sometimes, you have to do it. When you haven’t got any other choice.

Voting for Trump may fall into this category.

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A Libertarian Lexicon - EPautos

A Libertarian Lexicon

Well, an EPautos Libertarian Lexicon!

I get asked frequently about the meaning of some commonly used terms, known to EPautos regulars but less well-known to people new to this corner of the Libertarian universe. These form the core lingua franca of the dialogue here, but much more important, they serve as a convenient shorthand for conveying certain concepts easily and efficiently – without the need to go into a long explanation. Ideally, they will become anti-authoritarian/pro-liberty memes.

Help spread the word!

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Affronting Huitzilopochtli - EPautos

Affronting Huitzilopochtli

With real crimes – that is, actions that result in real harm to real people – it is easy enough to objectively define the crime.

You either did – or didn’t take something that belongs to someone else.

You either did – or did not – hurt someone else.

If you did, then it’s right and reasonable that you – the causer of the harm – be held accountable.

“Speeding,” on the other hand, is an odd sort of crime.

In most cases, no harm has been caused to anyone. A statute has been offended, nothing more.

To whom must the “guilty” party make amends?

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The Crony Capitalist King - EPautos

The Crony Capitalist King

If Elon Musk’s various projects are so Iron Man fabulous, why do they all need so much government “help”? Shouldn’t Tesla – and Solar City and SpaceX – be able to stand on their merits… if they actually have merit?

Tesla fanbois – and Musk himself – will tell you all about the virtues of his electric cars. They are sleek and speedy. This is true. But they are also expensive (the least expensive model, the pending Model X, will reportedly start around $35k, about the same price as a luxury sedan like the Lexus ES350) and come standard with a number of significant functional deficits such as a best-case range about half that of most conventional cars and recharge times at least 4-5 times as long as it takes to refuel a conventional car.

That’s if you can find a Tesla “supercharger” station.

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When Seconds Count, a Cop is Just Minutes Away - EPautos

When Seconds Count, a Cop is Just Minutes Away


Last night was another object lesson in the uselessness of cops for other than random tax collecting and general harassment.


Traveling home on the Blue Ridge Parkway – where it seems there is always a cop available to ticket you for “speeding” – I came upon the scene of a motorcycle accident. I am still not sure exactly what happened – probably because for me the immediate concern was what to do about the injured cyclist.


There were three riders, one of them (a woman) having lost control or misjudged her line or maybe she swerved to avoid a deer or the bike had a mechanical failure. I still don’t know.


What was immediately obvious was the one rider was down and badly injured. Her companions could’t do anything more for her than call 911 – which they’d done about 10 minutes prior, apparently.


But no one appeared to be coming and time was of the essence, as it always in emergencies.


The woman’s friend and I decided further waiting was not in the woman’s best interests. We helped her into my car – and we took off to the hospital. On the way, I called a number the woman gave me – her family – and let them know who I was, what had happened and that she would be at the hospital in minutes.


Which she was.


I drove the Mustang press car like Rick in Walking Dead would.


Got there in less than 10 minutes.


I hope she’s ok.


I did not get her full name. I left after the emergency room people came out and got her inside.


I drove home the way I had come and came once again to the scene of the accident.


A cop was there now.


Probably trying to figure out whom to ticket. Making arrangements to have the wrecked bike – still there – impounded.


When seconds count… .


If collecting revenue and general harassment were not the primary activities of law enforcement (their favored term, let’s not forget) perhaps they’d be more available to help people actually hurt as opposed to laws affronted.


But then, there’s no money (or power) in that.

A Randian Derides "Libertarians" Who Don't Support Ted Cruz - EPautos

A Randian Derides "Libertarians" Who Don't Support Ted Cruz

My recent column, A Long, Hot summer (here) which wasn’t so much a defense of Donald Trump as it was a celebration of the salutary effect Trump’s candidacy is having on the irremediably corrupt GOP establishment, brought forth some defenders of (of all things) Ted Cruz. Now that the other frontman for the irremediably corrupt GOP establishment has been Trumped, all Hope is pinned on the former Bush Machine operator, who is – with an effrontery that would startle Borat – touted as an “outsider” who will rescue “our freedoms” from the grasping talons of the dread Hildebeast.

One such defender of Cruz questions the “Libertarian” (his air quotes) credentials of those who dare to criticize Cruz.

I thought perhaps it might be of interest to print – and then dissect – his missives.

Here goes:

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Another Bubble... On The Verge of Popping - EPautos

Another Bubble... On The Verge of Popping

Termites start low and work their way up. By the time you notice them, it’s often already too late to save the place. All you can do is rebuild, start over.

This analogy may be useful in terms of understanding what’s going on in the car business… on the lower end of that business. And what that could portend for the rest of the business – ostensibly “doing gangbusters,” according to mainstream media accounts.

You know … like the housing market was “doing gangbusters” a few years back.

Until, of course, it wasn’t.

Well, check this:

The number of “subprime” car loans being sold is increasing – and so is the number ofdelinquencies on those loans. They are up to 5.16 percent, the highest level in 20 years.

Consider what this means.

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A Long, Hot Summer is Coming - EPautos

A Long, Hot Summer is Coming


Whatever happens, it’s going to get ugly.

If Trump is nominated, there will be riots – the Perpetually (and professionally) Aggrieved will take to the streets.

If Trump is denied the nomination, there will be riots – as the people come face to face with the true nature of the system they were taught to respect since childhood.

Not since 1861 has America been so clearly divided. These divisions transcend mere political differences of opinion over this or that policy. There is a fundamental schism. Irreconcilable differences. The two sides detest each other, have almost nothing in common. And so can no longer live together.

Trump has been likened to Hitler – which is unfair. He is no Hitler. He is a crony capitalist and some other things, too. Mussolini, maybe.

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Mittens and the Media - EPautos

Mittens and the Media


Have you noticed that major media web sites like CNN no longer publish reader replies to their stories? Could it be that they realized the false consensus maintained by print media was being eroded by allowing people to openly disagree with and question the propaganda being peddled by them? Mittens


No question.


It wasn’t just that people disagreed. It was that thousands disagreed. Each MSM story typically had a tsunami of contrary reader responses so lopsided that it clearly indicated the public and the MSM are profoundly at loggerheads on major (and minor) issues. This public divergence encouraged individuals who, previously, felt very alone – that “everyone” agreed with the major media/party line about whatever the topic du jour happened to be.


Unlike the letters-to-the-editor page of a print newspaper, they had no control over what people wrote online in response to their dreck. And most of what the readers wrote radiated contempt for the “stories” published by the MSM, which typically left out critical facts and were (and still are) suffused with pro-state/pro-authority premises.


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The Nihilism of The State - EPautos

The Nihilism of The State

The public has been very effectively conditioned to literally worship cops (e.g., “New York’s Finest”) as “heroes” …”the thin blue line”… this ludicrous image of a cohort of self-sacrificing Spartans staving off the ravening hordes.

In fact, it is they who raven us.

The typical cop is a nihilistic job-holder … at best, morally indifferent to spending his days handing out tickets and untroubled by putting people in handcuffs and taking them to jail for “crimes” that have no victim. He is just doing his job; he doesn’t write the laws, etc. Doesn’t think about things very much; just want to put in his 20 and collect his pension at 50.

At worst, he’s a thug who enjoys the work.

And who has been given legal sanction to brutalize people who are legally sanctioned if they attempt to defend themselves in any way, even if it’s only just trying to run away.

Most of us – probably more than 90 percent of us – have never hurt anyone in a criminal sense. Yet almost all of us have been hurt in a criminal sense by a cop. We have not done anything to harm anyone else, were minding our own business… yet an armed stranger has accosted us, used violent threats to obtain our submission to his demands.

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Morlocks Need Eloi - EPautos

Morlocks Need Eloi



Automated braking, Lane Keep Assist, Park Assist, Back-Up Cameras, Traction Control, ABS… all this technology is, is idiot-proofing.Eloi lead



It operates at the level of an idiot, too.



A skilled/competent driver not only doesn’t need it, he can often outperform it.



Skill and competence, are, however, not what’s wanted. They are the opposite of what’s wanted.



What’s being engineered, arguably.Eloi and Morlocks



You get what you encourage. And less of what’s discouraged.



The automated braking systems soon to be mandated decelerate the car when it’s either not necessary or so prematurely it’s preposterous. Like there’s an old lady (or a Clover) underneath the dashboard somewhere.



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Take Your Pick of the "Isms" - EPautos

Take Your Pick of the "Isms"



Is this con really going to sell… again?Il Duce



The neo-con intellectual Francis Fukuyama claimed the “end of history” after the fall of the Soviet Union. The ascendance – in perpetuity – of authoritarian democracy (there can be no other kind) as the new order of the ages.



But based on last night’s political happenings, it appears we’re going back a few chapters for a remedial lesson in other forms of authoritarianism.



Leave-me-be-ism is off the table. Very few takers.



Once again, the populace is presented with – take your pick – strutting, bullying fascism (in the form of America’s business-suited Duce, Donald Trump) or the rumple-suited friendly-sounding socialism of America’s take on Leon Trotsky, Bernie Sanders.



Such a nice old man! He cares about us!



Or (cue the Duce) he will lead us!



Heads or tails, authoritarianism always wins.



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Cheap Gas... Big Problems - EPautos

Cheap Gas... Big Problems



Some happy news: Gas is officially cheaper than it’s ever been.as prices lead



In my area – southwest Virginia – it is about $1.59 per gallon as of Feb. 7. Of this, about 60 cents (18.4 cents federal, 36 cents state)  is taxes, so the actual gas costs about $1 right now. Back in 1967, the low water mark for cheap gas, it cost about 30 cents … in 1967 money.



That 30 cents – in 2016 money (inflation-adjusted) is $2.13.  In other words, gas currently costs us about half what it cost back in ’67, almost 50 years ago.



It is the one necessity of life that – for now – costs less now than it used to.



But, it’s weird – like a 70 degree January afternoon up here in the hills of the Blue Ridge (we’ve had that, too).



Makes you wonder.



Is it a bad omen of not-so-happy things to come? Like the out-rushing tide, just before a tsunami arrives?



Yes, I think it is.gas prices in '67



I know for a fact the car industry is having a quiet meltdown. They – the car companies, all of them – have sunk multiple Trump sums into the future, as they perceived it, of the electric car and also the hybrid car. And of the economy car. But what is the motivation for the purchase of such when the cost of a gallon of gas is – literally – less than the cost of an equivalent measure of bottled water?



Go to any 7-11 and see for yourself. How much are they charging for a quart bottle of “filtered” (and Mad Men-marketed) tap water?



Which is a way to measure the cost of buying a hybrid, or an electric car or an economy car.



Why do so?



Why not treat yourself to size, power – fun! – instead?



Expecting people – most of them –  to purchase “sensible” cars when gas is nearly free is akin to expecting them to down a plate of boiled Kale when a plate of cheese fries beckons.54.5 MPG CAFE



Meanwhile, CAFE regs – the federal mandates requiring each car company’s fleet to achieve a certain average MPG – are set to uptick to almost 55 (54.5) MPG by 2025 (see here) which is not only not far from now it is very close to now in terms of product planning.



This is the car business term for the development process of tomorrow’s cars. They are typically working about five years out from now, meaning that the cars they expect to have in showrooms come 2020 are being designed and tested and generally being made ready for their not-too-distant launch right now. And they are thinking – hard – about 2025.



They stuff they are selling at the moment may be “new” – but it’s already old.



The car companies must bet on what the market will be like tomorrow rather than how it is today. And if they bet wrong… .



You can perhaps see the problem.



Ford (just one example) bet long on its new line of micro-sized but heavily turbocharged “EcoBoost” engines, banking (they hoped) that the 3-4 MPG advantage these engines offered over a comparably powerful (but larger and thirstier) engine would balance out the much higher cost of the engines themselves. Which it might, if a gallon of gas cost $4 or even $3.



But not $1.



Whoops.Obama CAFE



GM was smart (or lucky) enough to stick with its conventional (and simpler, cheaper to make and to sell) big V8s sans turbos in trucks and such. But was dumb enough to “invest” in shit statue-carving craziness such as the $37,000 Bolt electric car (more on that here).



Which could only make sense if gas cost $8 a gallon.



The root cause of it all is the LSD-like distortion of natural market signals by our friend Uncle. He issued the most recent fuel-efficiency fatwa back in 2012 – when gas prices were high (because Uncle) and seemed destined to remain so – and even become more so.



But what now, brown cow?   



The market discovered lots of oil. Which is why gasoline is very cheap now.



Obama crowed that his 54.5 MPG fatwa would result in savings to the consumer “comparable to lowering the price of gas by $1 per gallon.”



Well, the market just did that for him. Without him.



In spite of him.



Meanwhile, the costs imposed by the 54.5 MPG fatwa will most definitely be imposed on the American consumer – in the form of more expensive “fuel saving” technologies – as well as loser technologies like the electric car and (arguably) the hybrid car.wrecked Smartcar



A not-happy-with-me (for writing publicly about the Bolt’s absurdity as a transportation device) GM engineer noted – correctly – that they (GM) committed all that capital and all those engineering resources to the Bolt idiocy not because of public demand for such but because of government’s demands for such.



Exactly.



And the government’s demands grow more cognitively dissonant, more out of tune with reality, the lower gas prices go.



A train wreck is about to happen … a big one.