So this article shows up today on Ars Technica, about how great the future’s gonna be when the cars can drive themselves. Matthew Yglesias weighs in to discuss how this will affect transportation and city planning. Ryan Avent riffs on this, speculating about how these self-piloting cars will be a shared-resource, and make suburban density more appealing, and what a great thing they’ll be for urban areas. Then someone disagrees with Ryan’s vision, positing his own wild speculation, which gets a thoughtful reply.

And the whole thing got me thinking about something James Kunstler said, about how most people’s thoughts about the future revolve around what we’re gonna put in our cars after the gasoline’s gone, and what it says about what people think is coming in the future. So I said so in the comments at Matt’s place, and this was one reply:

Kunstler is an idiot.

There was a short mention of how the author of The Geography of Nowhere and The Long Emergency (as well as several novels) was “not a reasonable analyst about the things he’s analyzing”.

And then everyone went back to speculating, discussing, agreeing with some assertions, contesting others, and generally trying to predict what colors our unitards will come in during the next phase, the Age of Happier Motoring, when the cars will be driving themselves.

The Internet is a funny, funny place.

Y’ever get the feeling that all the hubbub about energy independence, even if earnest, is missing the mark?

James Kunstler’s got that feeling:

The reason our energy debate is so hollow and idiotic is because we can’t face this basic reality. The fantasy-du-jour among both political parties is that we can become “energy independent.” By this they mean we can keep on living the way we do by means other than oil. This is just not true. We have to make profound changes in everything we do from the way we inhabit the landscape to the way we produce our food. Lately, the only change we’ve shown any interest in is changing what our cars run on. But that is not going to rescue us, not even a little. Our inability to talk about anything else except the cars will drag us down into poverty and turmoil.

I turn to the estimable Lawrence for my response:

Peter Gibbons: Yeah. I guess… I don’t know. Sometimes I get the feeling like she’s cheating on me.

Lawrence: Yeah, I get that feeling too, man.

Okay, so this doesn’t have anything to do with Twin Peaks, but it is about a coop.

Via SurlyBlog, check out these photos from Eastside Egg Co-op at Zenger Farm of Portland, Oregon. This beautiful portable chicken coop is outfitted with a heavy heavy bad-ass Surly wheelset (Surly hubs, Large Marge rims and Endomorph tires), mounted to ISO-558-74 Chicken Coop Forks (fabricated by Sacha White of Vanilla Cycles).

Sustainable farming, pastured chickens, human powered farm equipment, bike geek participation… that right there’s a vision of a future that doesn’t suck, folks. Big salute to everyone involved, nice work, and great pics!

Mmmm eggs. And flour, lard, and sugar. And cherries. And coffee.

Want a better name for it? How about, Holiday from Reason and Good Sense, That Promises To Have Absolutely No Beneficial Effects For Anyone? Or, better still, The American Voter Is a Fucking Chump? Because that’s what this idiotic proposal really says: you think that we’re chumps.

So, candidates, if you want to prove to me that you’re:

• incapable of distinguishing good policy from bad
• incapable of supporting good policy by taking a stand and explaining to America why a bad policy is bad
• capable of pushing really, really stupid policy in pursuit of a demagogue-alicious tactical advantage over your opponents
• think that I and my fellow Americans are idiots that will respond positively to this sort of bullshit

Then just keep this stupid shit up.

We’ve had almost 8 years of putting food on our families and making the pie higher. A top priority for me in selecting the next president is whether or not he or she can make some serious traction reducing the myriad mountains of residual stupid we’re going to inherit from the Bush administration. The thought that he or she is going to put whipped cream and cherries on top of them is fucking infuriating.

Cut it out.

Update: Well stated, by hilzoy:

Clinton is presently making a big deal about the fact that she is “a fighter”. After this primary season, I don’t think there can be any doubt about her willingness to fight. What Clinton’s gas tax proposal tells me is what she’s willing to fight for. She is not willing to fight for what she thinks is right in the face of public pressure. She’s not even willing to restrict her compromises to cases in which public pressure to do something stupid already exists. She will sacrifice principle and the public good when it’s expedient for her to do so.

Update 2: I’d thought that the Gas Tax Hollandaise was about as stupid as pandering, half-assed populist proposals were going to get this season. How wrong I was (h/t John Cole).

“We’re going to go after OPEC which remember is a monopoly cartel,” Clinton said. “There’s nothing free-market about it. They sit in some conference room a couple of times a year and decide how much oil they are going to produce and how much they are going to charge for it. So lets change our laws so we can sue them on anti-trust reasons.”

We’re going to break up OPEC’s cartel, comprised of sovereign nations. We’re going to use U.S. federal antitrust laws to do it. By suing them. Somewhere.

Looks like someone’s trying to lock up the “Idiot Voter” block. The next pander should be aimed squarely at the block of folks who vote for candidates based on weather-related phenomena.

China has taken over our position (h/t The Editors) as the biggest carbon dioxide producer in the world, although we still produce 5 to 6 times as much per capita. What’s scarier is the fact that the China’s average yearly income is less than $2000, so I don’t think they’re looking to slow down on the “progress”. I did particularly enjoyed this quote:

“But there is no sense pointing a finger at the Chinese. They are trying to pull people out of poverty and they clearly need help.

“The only solution is for a massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West.”

He acknowledged that this eventuality was unlikely.

I don’t know about the technology, we’re still talking about peeling mountains like apples to get at the dirty, dirty coal. But a massive transfer of wealth from the West to China? Unlikely?

Evidently, the man’s never been to WalMart.