Archives
10:48:00 AM EDT
Hearing Tonight I'll Be Lonely Too -- Alison Krauss
About That Whole Boycott Thing (Also: Journal/Blog Roundup 5/19/04)
Before today's Journal/Blog Roundup, a small rant:
Cklundesq appears to have gotten the same argin'-fargin' e-mail I've gotten about a million times about the Great Gasoline Boycott of 2004, which is supposed to be taking place today. The idea is that if we all refrain from buying gasoline today, it will send such a message that the oil companies will know we're serious about our cheap gas (or whatever). As it happens, I won't be buying any gas today, but that's probably because I won't be going anywhere today. Gas is just one on a list of many things I won't be buying.
I'm notably cynical, but I doubt a boycott like this will have any effect other than inconveniencing the few people who pattern their consumption behaviors on anonymous all-cap e-mails forwarded on en masse. A one-day boycott of gas will have almost no effect on the financial fortunes of the oil companies (though it might impact your local gas seller, who will make less income from the little snack shop, which is where he makes most his money, anyway). Most of the people not buying gas today bought it yesterday or will buy it tomorrow, so even if the boycott were successful the consumption for the week would probably be about the same (unless the boycotters corresondingly didn't use their cars, which seems unlikely). If you wanted the boycott to be effective you'd have to boycott for a month or so, and it's deeply unlikely people are going to do that. We don't like public transportation that much.
If you really want to protest high gas prices (prices which incidentally won't get you much sympathy anywhere else in the world), you might consider voting with your pocketbook and making your next car a hybrid, or calling your Congressperson and asking them why it's the 21st century and you still don't have your hydrogen fuel-cell-based SUV like all the science fiction writers promised you would have by now. In other words, do something useful instead of a dubious Internet thing.
Enough ranting. What else is going on out there:
* Bruce Miller wonders about some of President Bush's advisors.
* Koga of blogging.la marvels (and not in a good way) at some possibly draconian new driving laws in California. Upshot: Never swerve for any reason, ever.
* Charlie Stross confesses to typewriter nerdiness. I used a typewriter once in junior high. It was painful. Fortunately the Mac debuted my freshman year in high school and that was pretty much the end of that.
* Matthew Yglesias scoffs at the idea that the suburbs are "good for the kids" as opposed to living in the city. And I scoff at all of you! Rural living for the kids! That's the way to go!
* Transmogriflaw totally schools everyone who uses the "let's kill all the lawyers" line from Shakespeare.
* Speaking of a total schooling, if you're a writer (and you are. Come on, admit it), y'all want to watch book editor Teresa Nielsen Hayden utterly vaporize a writer who is passing on some very bad advice about writing cover letters. It's like watching a fine craftsman make a jewel setting.
* James Lileks imagines the world in which Unreal Tournament (a super violent shooting game, for those of you not up on the video games) would actually come into being. It's very amusing.
* Hope makes a salient point about children, no matter how wonderful they are. Anyone who has ever wondered where the kid's batteries are so you can take them out (which is every parent) will sympathize.
* Mary feels that not all change is good.
* One last thing for game geeks: An E3 retrospective from Technology Review's blog. All I know is I want my Half-Life 2. Like, now.
Written by johnmscalzi Blog about this entry |
Add to del.icio.us | 
digg this
-
Ditto on the gas rant. People also forget the impact oil has on the economy.
.....Kelli
5/19/04 5:48 PM
http://journals.aol.com/glops