Author: Eric Peters

What are speed limits, exactly? I know … a number on a sign. Exactly.  But why pay any attention to them? I mean, assuming there isn’t a cop around? They’re not much use as far as advisories about the maximum safe velocity for a given road. If they were, then everyone (just about) wouldn’t be driving at least that fast. Probably, they’d be driving slower. If speed limits meant anything substantive, that is. Like the redline on a tachometer, for example. That is a real limit. Most people do not run their engines at or even near redline for more … Continue reading →

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A reader asked about “trading down” – lowering their car-related expenses (especially repair and maintenance expenses) by trading in their current vehicle (a luxury-brand vehicle) and rather than digging themselves a new and deeper hole by using the proceeds as partial payment on another such, using the proceeds from the sale of their old vehicle to buy something that costs less. Shortcode: Shortcode: Shortcode: Shortcode: Function: echo do_shortcode(”); Function: echo do_shortcode(”); Function: echo do_shortcode(”); Function: echo do_shortcode(”); Both to buy (outright, no payments) and to maintain. As Gomez Addams used to say: That’s a capital idea, old man! Cars are not investments. They are depreciating consumer appliances. … Continue reading →

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When an animal catches rabies, in the end, stages, it manifests bizarre, aggressive behaviour. A normally shy racoon will charge a human, growling and frothing at the mouth. There is only one treatment for a rabid racoon. How about humans afflicted with the disease called “environmentalism”? It is a form of rabies – and much more dangerous. California Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, for instance. This “environmentalist” (what’s the credential, exactly?) is pushing legislation that would require 15 percent of all new cars sold in California be “emissions free” by the model year 2025. This means electric cars, as only electric cars qualify … Continue reading →

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Now Harley’s being nailed to the cross. For “cheating” Uncle’s emissions rigmarole, like VW was accused of doing (and admitted to doing). This being like “cheating” speed traps by using a radar detector. In each case, there being no evidence of tangible harm caused to anyone. Except, of course, an aggrieved Uncle. And he’s not even real, just shorthand for the collection of apparatchiks who, collectively, comprise this entity called the government. But if they can’t produce a victim, what’s the evidence of harm? And if there’s no evidence of harm caused, how can there be a crime? Harley’s “crime” … Continue reading →

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Modern cars have been around a long time – at least three decades, since the mid-late 1980s. This was the period when the first electronic fuel injection systems and ECUs (the computer that controls the fuel injection and other functions) were installed in mass-produced cars. Cars built before the 1980s are not merely old, they are ancient. Literally, but also in a deeper sense. A car built in 1979 has more in common, design-wise and functionally, with a car made 70 years prior than a car made just five years later. The ’79 has no computer; it has a mechanical fuel-mixing device … Continue reading →

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Elon Musk may be the ultimate crony capitalist – the PT Barnum of our time. But to give PT his due, he was an honest con man. He never used the government to make his marks hand over their money. People stepped right up without a bayonet in their backs. Elon, on the other hand, depends entirely on the coercive power of government to line his pockets. Take that away and Musk goes away. Unfortunately, he’s not going away. He’s going deeper. Automotive News reports that Musk is not only fleecing taxpayers via multi-tiered subsidies for his electric turduckens. That’s old news. Here’s the latest news: … Continue reading →

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It’s one thing to be told you must obey the law. But what being told to obey a cop who is acting contrary to the law? This happens routinely – and (usually) without consequences. For the cop, that is. Here are a few examples: In many states, it is still legal to “open carry” – that is, to openly carry a firearm on one’s hip (in a holster) or a rifle slung over one’s back… and so on. That is the law. Cops are supposed to know the law as well as enforce the law. And, more to the point, to be bound … Continue reading →

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A reader – a Libertarian friend – chastises me for supporting Trump over Hillary; for supporting any candidate who isn’t a principled Libertarian. I thought some of you might be interested in a principled Libertarian’s thoughts on this business: Dear X – Here’s a stark difference to consider: Hillary is a murderer. A mass murderer. By proxy, yes – but a murderer, nonetheless. Eager to have people killed. Arguably, more guilty of murder than Julius Streicher – who was hanged for merely inciting murderous hatred. Hillary has ordered people killed. Has literally reveled in the murder-by-sodomy of Quaddafi, which she helped … Continue reading →

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Logic – let alone reasonableness – is not one of the government’s stronger suits. There are many examples of this, but here’s a newsie one: The use of public roads as test tracks for Tesla (and Google) self-driving car technology. On the one hand, government rigidly persecutes “speeders” on the basis (so it is claimed) that driving faster than a number on a sign might increase the chances of having an accident. This being unsafe and hence “speeding” being illegal. On the other, it gives the green light to Tesla racketeer Elon Musk to sell cars that encourage the driver to … Continue reading →

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Logic – let alone reasonableness – is not one of the government’s stronger suits. There are many examples of this, but here’s a newsie one: The use of public roads as test tracks for Tesla (and Google) self-driving car technology. On the one hand, government rigidly persecutes “speeders” on the basis (so it is claimed) that driving faster than a number on a sign might increase the chances of having an accident. This being unsafe and hence “speeding” being illegal. On the other, it gives the green light to Tesla racketeer Elon Musk to sell cars that encourage the driver to … Continue reading →

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A guy who smokes meth can pull a week of 15 hour days. But come next week… . That’s how artificial “incentives” work on the economy. On the macro level, it is the Boom – and Bust – business cycle, whose unnatural peaks and valleys are caused by manipulation of money and credit, which causes excessive and unwarranted “investment” that – inevitably – leads to a downturn (or even a crash) when the artificially induced supply is disproportionate to demand. The housing bubble of the early 2000s is an obvious example of this. Cash for Clunkers (same era) is another – … Continue reading →

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First, they came for the V8s. They were common, once. Most cars – ordinary family cars – usually had one under the hood. High school kids drove V8-powered used cars. Anyone Gen X or older will remember. And then they were gone. Well, not entirely. V8s are still around –  but they’re no longer common. They are found under the hoods of expensive luxury cars, mostly. GM’s Chevrolet division – which once included or at least offered a V8 in almost every car it sold – today offers one in just three models, all of them specialty high-performance cars and … Continue reading →

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And yes, it is a problem. Whether you are a “law and order” type or otherwise. In fact, especially if you are a “law and order” type. Because, simply put, cops are not subject to the same law and order as the rest of us – and that is a problem. For them as much as us. For them, because it has created an arrogance – a recklessness – that encourages the extra-legal excesses that we’re seeing on video almost every day (these videos probably capturing only a small slice of what actually goes on every day). For us, because we are … Continue reading →

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Apparently, it’s ok for Uncle to “cheat.” Not on emissions tests, as VW is being stoned to death for doing, but on federal fuel efficiency requirements (CAFE, in Uncle-speak). Would you believe he is not only going to triple the “gas guzzler” fines applied to any automaker that doesn’t make the CAFE cut – the mandatory minimum “fleet average” MPG, which is currently 35.5 MPG – but also that these fines will be applied retroactively – to the 2015 and 2016 model year – as well as to future model years? That’s two full model years before the 35.5 MPG mandatory went into … Continue reading →

The post The State Is Vicious and Irrational appeared first on LewRockwell.

Sexual assault is a crime… except when it’s done by an armed government worker (that is, a law enforcer). How else to describe the horror visited on a South Dakota man named Dirk Sparks? He was suspected of having ingested a “drug” arbitrarily decreed to be illegal by the same government that just as arbitrarily decrees other “drugs” to be legal – and when he declined to assist in his own incrimination by providing evidence that could and would be used against him in a court of law, was forcibly restrained, had his underwear pulled down, his penis exposed and … Continue reading →

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