black car ban & rush limbaugh lies

ah, as usual, conservative blowhard rush limbaugh is telling half truths, or perhaps even outright lies and sticking to them. you see, his website proclaimed that "tyrants want to ban black cars." rush falsely claims that california lawmakers want to ban black auto paint due to the fact that it's hotter, and will cause more people to use a/c and thus be less fuel efficient.

the problem with his claim: it's bullshit. it's an attempt to start a fire where there isn't even smoke yet. it's rush trying to say, "look at these crazies in california, interfering with your freeeedom. they're socialists."

but even in his own article, he shows how he is full of it. he gives part of what is actually proposed for cars, and here it is, "California Air Resources Board. CARB wants to mandate the phase-in of heat-reflecting paints on vehicle exteriors beginning with the '12 model year, with all colors meeting a 20% reflectivity requirement by the '16 model year."

hmm, where does that say black? oh, that's right. it doesn't. it says that we should use more reflective paint. that doesn't rule out any color, but rather pushes for paints of all colors that reflect energy.
his kicker...obama and stars drive black cars, so them crazy liberals can't even do it themselves.

but here's the truth about what the california air resources board was studying and proposing, "One solution: lower the temperature inside parked cars, thereby reducing the amount of air conditioning — and engine power and gasoline — needed to keep the occupants cool and comfortable.

CARB looked at two possible ways to achieve this: mandating the use of reflective paints that reduce the amount of solar heat absorbed by a vehicle, and requiring manufacturers to install glass with reflective coatings to achieve the same purpose."

reflective glass and reflective paint. nothing about color. and, when the air board realized that paint technology wasn't efficient enough they just went with the reflective glass coating, which adds about $30-$50 per car. not much money to keep your car a lot cooler.


*this is cross posted over @ left turn only, a new blog that i'm a co-author on. check it out.

bill o'reilly hates black people (or media matters is full of it)

scary. for once, i may actually agree with bill o'reilly. i know, i'm surprised, too. but, you see, o'reilly made some comments. and then media matters picked up on. they wrote an article. other people (nbc, cnn, alternet, etc.) picked up on their article and wrote their own. or they just passed it off as fact. and it goes on and on and on.

o'reilly is a bigot.

well, maybe he is. i don't know. what i do know is that media matters is guilty of yellow journalism. they butchered what he said terribly. they took comments completely out of context. hey, o'reilly's probably guilty of the same thing at times. but here, he's being smeared. and, i've got to think it's for publicity and to back an agenda. it's not for the sake of truth.

listen to the segment. the segment is 35 minutes, but i think all that was lifted was in the first 7-10 minutes. maybe another one is later, i can't remember. try your hardest to forget who is speaking and just listen to what is being said. you won't agree with everything. but, you should agree that it's not what is being attributed to him.

i'm not saying this excuses everything that o'reilly has done or said. heaven forbid that. but, it's not here now. here's a cut and paste of media matter's own summary:

Summary: Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "

uhhh, that's a piss poor summary. condensing 35 minutes into 3 sentences using out of context quotes is hardly a summary. especially that last line. there he's commenting on rap, not on blacks or black culture in general, literally seven minutes later in the segment. he references back to his previous restaurant story, saying how the cultural presentation of blacks is being dominated by rappers rather than normal, upstanding people like he met at the restaurant. and frankly, i wouldn't be surprised to hear snoop, luda, 50, etc. saying "m-fer, i want more iced tea." not every rapper. but it definitely fits the character of some.

so you don't really like it

this psa made me laugh, think of adam corolla and his rants on the subject, and wonder what they are really trying to say.