warriorchick

As a whole, we took very few expensive family trips with our four kids. We focused on education and their sports. Far too much money sent on soccer and hockey, but it was a trade off on bigger trips. We actually took our biggest family trip when all four kids were still single and over the age of 21. We went to Vail for a long weekend to celebrate my wife's 50th birthday. It was a fantastic trip and even better because all of the tuition bills had been paid.

Don't forget fluoride in the water.

OK gang, for the record, I lived in a state for 14 years that fought stuff like this and cringed everything I saw it. To suggest this of me and those of us who have reservations about EVs is disingenuous at a minimum and insulting at most.

If you folks want to go back to a 16th century lifestyle where we take every single man-made pollutant out of the environment, then ban internal combustion engines. While you're at it, plan on banning anything even remotely related to the use and consumption of petrochemicals and carbon-based fuels. Among those things you'll be banning are medical devices, pharmaceuticals, fertilizers, the predominant means of generating electric power not to mention basically all of the industry and commerce that have made modern life comfortable. Oh, and there's nine billion people on this planet. We'll be burning an awful lot of trees!

Keep in mind that the power to recharge your car has to come from somewhere. We don't produce anywhere near enough electricity from renewables to meet America's demand and to change that will require decades. Likewise, if we want everyone on EVs by the California deadline, I'll ask the question I've asked before: Where's the power going to come from?

If you don't want to go back to the 16th century, then our nation and our world has to make choices. Maybe someday, we'll figure out how to use renewables to generate sufficient electric power for places like Chicago or Duluth or Buffalo, to name three Northern cities where I see no way renewables work today. We have a lot of ingenuity in our nation and I'm confident the private sector will get there.

I would note two things to those of you who think I'm an evil polluter who resists technological progress. First, we could reduce our carbon emissions to zero in this nation and it won't matter unless China, India, Vietnam and a host of other emerging industrial countries do the same. Most of these countries are led by authoritarian regimes who said it's their right to pollute because, well after all, we've done it for 200 years. Now it's their turn. Short of using U.S. economic and military might to ostracize these countries, there is nothing we can do to change this behavior. As we build solar and switch to natural gas, China has opened more coal power plants than we have coal plants in the United States.

The second reason is that most of you in here are too young to remember what this country was like before 1970. We gave very little credence to any type of environmental concern. Ironically, it was an evil Republican, Richard Nixon, who created the Environmental Protection Agency. It was the evil Republican who signed into law the Clean Air Act of 1970 and the Clean Water Act of 1972. It was Jimmy Carter, the most conservative Democratic President of the postwar era, who signed  CERCLA in 1980. We're not through but we've come a long way and we Republicans have stood with our Presidents in support of these environmental acts.

One other thought you guys who ridicule me need to keep in mind. The first car I owned had one pollution control device, a PCV valve. My car got about 15 miles in the city and, if I had a good tailwind, 23 miles on the highway. Every car I currently own does better than my first car did on the road, in stop and go traffic. Again, we're not through but we've come a long way.

While WDW is not high on my list of places to vacation at, I have always hoped any person/family that has ever wanted to go there gets the chance to visit. It is a special place for making family memories.

Well, he can't find something to back up his belief. So the gubmint must have suppressed debate and science. But also allowed the science disproving his point to go through. The gubmint is somehow incredibly effective at this one thing.

And, hilariously, it was HIS chosen gubmint.

roQQet's hero chose Fauci as the U.S. leader in the fight against Covid. roQQet's hero played down the seriousness of Covid. roQQet's hero then locked down the country. And finally, roQQet's hero pushed Operation Warp Speed - indeed, that was his the one thing his hero did as president that actually helped most Americans.

How can roQQet continue to support that gubmint leader?

It's a personal choice. Why do some people spend so much money on a nice car, or golfing, or alcohol. I get the appeal. Watching Disney movies with the kids, then spending quality time with them at WDW. It is also a way to look back at one's childhood, and the enjoyment (or lack thereof) with their parents.

That's fair. People spend their money on all kinds of things that other people might not "get."

I've done WDW, Universal and Disneyland multiple times. We had one especially enjoyable family trip to WSW. But I, personally, am over it. I don't begrudge others' right to go whole Disney hog.