In Response To

This post is in response to a rant about a rant brought up by a friend.

Underwater Plumes

"Oh please. Nobody with a lick of common sense believes what you put forward as a premise. But it makes for good internet-writer's theater-of-the-absurd."

The oil well cap can collect 630,000 gallons per day, less than the well-head is spewing. Currently much of the oil is gathering in underwater plumes, and while it's convenient to state that just because the excess oil is gathering in plumes, it won't continue to gather in plumes, currently we actually know that it is gathering in plumes, and nothing in the situation has changed other than the amount of oil being released into the ocean, and it's much more reasonable to make the claim that since released oil has been gathering in underwater plumes, it will continue to gather in underwater plumes as long as the oil continues to be released.

Mass Transit

"Really? What's particularly pathological about it? You have a form of transportation that, whether you like it or not, happens to be particularly-suited to our large land-mass and relatively low population-density across that landmass. This is in distinct contrast to other nations which are the converse, and where as a consequence mass transportation makes more sense."

Actually, our population density is not much different from other industrialized nations, as long as you ignore the unpopulated areas which don't have large amounts of commuter traffic.

Ad Hominem

"Where do you live Howard? Oh, Saratoga Springs is your PO box. But this back yard doesn't look like the sort of place you claim everyone else should live in, does it?"

and also

"I did you know - for a number of years. While running MCSNet in the 1990s I lived in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago. I owned a car but it didn't get driven all that much - I took the subway to work (it was hella-much cheaper than parking alone!), could (and did) walk to the store, there were a few bars within a couple of blocks. Utopia? No, but functional. And in the years before MCSNet, I lived there too and took that same train. Why? Because it was easier and cheaper. Again, I owned a car - but unless I wanted to go out to the suburbs for some reason, I didn't use it much."

No Ad hominem argument is relevant, no matter how cute and pithy.