Recent comments

I am working with a coalition to make sure Congress sends the president a strong energy bill with meaningful changes for our environment and planet. This legislation would be a monumental step toward stopping global warming.

Go to www.energybill2007.org.
and sign the petition. This is our chance for real progress, don't let Congress back down!

I know the author didnt intend to hurt anyones feelings and i know he just wanted to make us think and that is good,I dont like the comparison he used and i know he certainly didnt intend to get the responses he did. he just wanted to make us think!

I just dont want the struggles of people in the hood or the "ghetto" to be downplayed by statistics. and i know that he wasnt intending on that(after sitting down and fuming for awhile i came to that realization)and i am sure he knows now that this is a sore spot with alot of people.

I encourage everyone to entitle him to his oppinion and not judge him based on one article.
and i hope everyone will walk away from this both being careful how they drive and make decisions. as well as not downplaying the seriousness of the situation in this country as we speak in bad neighborhoods that desperately need help.

But as a last thought.
in my life i have learned statistics arent always accurate. and unfortunately there are worse things than death.some things can scar you for life and change you in a way you dont want to be changed. because my story is only one of many i have lived through and i have met so many good poeple who have had worse experiences than mine that make my horror stories sound like christmas carrols.
so in retrospect we should all be very greatful for what happiness we do have and we should never ever downplay the struggles of someone else because it can always be worse ...and thank god if it isnt.

We've already made the incandescent-to-fluorescent switch and use the curbside recycling program in our city. My resolutions for next year:

1) Take reusable bags to the grocery store instead of using plastic bags (I've tried it this year, but I keep forgetting the bags.....)
2) Switch to using 100% recycled materials for our paper goods (paper towels, printer paper, etc.) and use less paper in general.
3) Stop using toxic chemicals for household cleaning and start using eco-friendly solutions.

I own a business that sells fair trade and local products (shopghia.com), and I am looking at greener ways to do business, too. My thoughts:
1) Use a bike instead of a car for local deliveries.
2) Provide more organic and recycled products to my customers.
3) Use recycled materials for my business cards and stationery.

1) I started line drying my clothes. This is a HUGE savings to my gas bill. Plus my clothes dry less wrinkled. It's like a zen exercise in simplicity when line drying my clothes.

2) I've added a water heater blanket to the water heater. Unfortunately my house building codes can't support an on-demand water heater or solar water heater so I have to settle for the next best thing.

3) I stopped commuting. I talked my company to letting me telecommute. I saved over 12,000 miles of commuting and regained 15 hours a week for not being stuck in 1.5 hours of traffic each way. My company benefits by gaining more billable hours.

I estimated I slashed my carbon footprint by 75%.

I just found this site here that sells the program for only $99!!!

http://www.maxmyequity.com

This the most reasonable one (in terms of pricing) I've found so far.

I believe the last bit was set up. The man was possibly hyptomised prior to going to work, or it was totally set up. Having worked a cash register and sold some relatively high priced items 500-1000 dollars. If someone is buying a high priced item they rarely pay cash, and I'd assume it would be very rare to buy a 4500 dollar ring with cash. The first thing you think is why is the person paying cash, is it fake. You would examine every bill and test it with the marker. Come on...4500 in cash...and they guy doesn't count it or check it at all, what about the sales tax! it isn't going to be exactly 4500 dollars...I don't care who you are, there is just no way!

the numbers may say that its safer but its not.. i used to live in
the hood and i've lived in quite a few ghettos and then i moved to a really bad ghetto on the outskirts of city i will not name, it was extemely scary, having two young kids(girls) and riding the bus and walking down roads without street lights, in one neigborhood i lived down the street from a half way house that housed sex offenders and one night we were almost grabbed. after that i had to cab the two blocks to and from the bus stop. it was way to dangerous to cross that small area day or night...then we moved into a not really better place. it was all i could afford, i had no relatives to help me, i was working 16 hours a day 6 days a week and just barely making it for me and my girls.my porch light was constantly getting busted, my slum landlord refused to clean up all his 20 rental properties that became overrun with rats and termites( i lived in one of these equisite properties for 3 years) i'd have panic attacks because of frequent break ins. i had no family and welfare couldnt help me there was a huge waiting list for section 8 and the temporary shelters were no better than where i was living, and i was doing the best i could and had no choice..this was all i could afford...so i was forced to live in this ghetto with the rats termites and the break ins. over a three year span i spent a small fortune hiring terminex and buyin glue traps to no avail..i had to nail three 2 by fours into my slider door frame to keep the scum from breaking my patio door open. i had to nail ply wood in front of all the bedroom windows to keep my kids safe while they slept at night.
towards the end of it i was sleeping by the front door in a recliner with a full length mirror aimed at the door( so i could see if it opened) where i also had a full view of the bedrooms and the kitchen. while i snuggled up to a crow bar .while my oldest(who was 5 or 6 at the time) slept with a small hammer (just in case some sicko busted into the window through the ply wood and tried to assult her and her sister) i was so stressed out i had panic attacks that felt like heartattacks, going to the E.R only to find out its panic. i still have panic attacks and anxiety disorder to this day and have to go to therapy to work thru the trauma of it, both my kids had to go to therapy once we left this lovely place.and trust me i didnt live there by choice, i lived there out of neccessity. i called the cops several times and they'd patrol for a few weeks and stop, i had one cop that came to my house tell me to move or buy a gun. i was to terrified to buy a gun cause i had two small kids..so i slept with a crow bar!if you call that sleeping! my kids couldnt play outside, it wasnt safe for them to go in the back yard or walk to a friends house (even with me walking with them) then a pedophile moved across the street and the break ins increased (was this coinincdence?)my neighborhood was so bad that my regurlar cab drivers (two brothers from iraq) would sweep the house for me, checking every room, closet and window before they would let us out of the car! and now every place i live even thou i am out of the ghetto and living in a beautiful quiet place, i never feel safe. i am paranoid,keeping removeable wooden dowels in the inside of the windows with a security system with glass break because after going thru the horrible experience of not feeling safe now i never do, i get up several times a night just to check on my kids and look out the windows even thou now i live in middle class surburbia!
no offense
and i know you meant well.
but i would rather live in surburbia or some little country town that is somewhat safe then live in the hood or the ghetto.
at least now my kids can play in the back yard , we dont have to walk by drug dealers, sex offendors commuting from a local halfway house or deal with drug addicts and lushes begging for change.
the parks i take my children to now aren't littered with 40 ounce beer bottles and needles and used condoms and the air actually smells like air. they are no more nightly smells of dope wafting through the kitchen window from a neighbors house, there are no more bi weekly break ins, there are no more occasional shootings..there is no more obscene graffity drawn on fences that my kids have to look at on their way to day care or school.there are no more people trying to hustle me as i walk thru a parking lot or mow my grass! and thou i know that the only real safety in the world is in the palm of gods hand...i will say that its much better and safer to get as close to that as you can! you cant put a price or a statistic on how screwed up i am and how tramatized my kids are because of the experiences we have had to go thru.i would deal with commuting and take my chances then ever ever go thru that again.
my ex boy friend who has been to an inmate in several prisons (both state and federal) before he cleaned up his act told me that some of the cell blocks he lived in were safer than my neighborhood at times.
i would rather commute 5 hours to work, live on a island compareable to alcatraz with little more than a place to buy supplies get medicine and mail then ever ever live in a hood or ghetto like i have in the past, i would rather work three jobs so my kids can go out and play and see the sun then live in a place where my kids cant go outside even on their porch or in their pack yard or patio...i would rather work all holidays and commute two hours to anywhere then ever feel so unsafe that i am compelled to put furniture or ply wood infront of the windows.
and yes even thou i am sure it is statistaclly less dangerous than commuting and even less lethal..think about all the rapes,breakins,murders and assults that dont even get reported. and i'm sure if your added those up the commuting with be the safer option.
now i in no way want to offend the author of this article or anyone reading this or the website and i hope i dont get banned for writing my oppinion but i had to say it regardless of the penalty to represent a real voice of experience in the real world who has been there done that.so let me just appoligize now for offending anyone, but i do not appolgize for stating the truth

and before anyone says it (as several have to my face) no there was absoloutly no other choice! this was all i had to work with,all i could provide..i was a poor single mom who made two much to get assistance but not enough to provide a safe place for her kids! I got no childsupport from their dead beat father and i asked for no handouts! i worked often 3 jobs at a time just for us to survive and did whatever i had to do to feed and clothe them..My only other option was to give up and give up my kids up! and i wasnt going to do that...i struggled and made it through and now we're in a much better place! but my story isnt unique, it is only a taste of what so many other moms or dads who are single parents and poor in america could tell you. Most people just dont know it so well because you only hear it on the news..you are not directly touched by its misery that comes along with raising two kids or more in a ghetto or the hood working multiple minimum wage jobs in america without assistance .
i'm sorry telecommuting is safer and in my heart and soul would be the choice i would gladly take anytime above ever ever living in a dangerious neighborhood again.
thats my oppinion and my story...hopefully my oppinion will be respected and not get me in hot water!

Julie,

I do know that it does calculate everything for both the 1st and the HELOC.

It's the distilling part that's illegal. If you don't distill it, you've got wine, I guess (unless you included some grain in what you fermented, in which case I guess you'd call it beer). It probably won't taste very good, unless you were very careful about what you fermented (read one of the many books on making beer and making wine). It'd be safe to drink, though--people have been making wine and beer for at least a couple thousand years; it's not rocket science. The big win of distilling, I think, is that you've got a lot less liquid to drink to get your alcohol, making it both easier to get drunk and easier to mix it with something tastier.

I guess, though, whatever you'd be mixing it with would be mostly water, so I expect it would work perfectly well to skip distilling it (to remove the water) and then mixing it with juice or something (adding water back) and just go ahead and add powdered flavoring or juice concentrate straight to the fermented result. That actually makes a certain kind of sense.

If you use baker's yeast it's not going to be very strong--about 10% alcohol. If you buy brewer's yeast, and almost double the amount of sugar you use, you can get 15% or even 18% alcohol. Mix that with juice concentrate or powdered flavoring and you might have a palatable drink, if you like that sort of thing.

I am still skeptical because I am wondering if the calculations include all of the cash flow for both the mortgage and the HELOC -- you can pay the mortgage off faster than its term but will it be faster using the HELOC at a higher interest rate compared to my way?Well, you can pay off the mortgage balance faster but you'll be building a HELOC balance not only with the extra principal payments and the interest that will keep getting added to the balance. See #12 for my thoughts on this process (though you may have read through that already). Still, Tri, let us know how this works out for you, perhaps in 6 months or so.

I think it's the thought that counts. It's had me thinking a little differently ever since I read it.

Sure, stores will move in if there is a market... but will it be the sort of stores people want to shop at? People want to shop at the large supermarkets and box stores (around here it's hard to find a place to park at any of the larger stores - their massive parking lots are nearly full for large part of the day) because of the weekly sales and lower prices. I don't think that's going to change. People may buy more fuel efficient cars, and they may try to combine trips, but nothing on earth is going to make me do my shopping at some local grocery store operated by some opportunist who thinks he can gouge people on prices because he's within walking distance and the other stores are not (those are the types of folks who tended to set up shop in a couple of smaller towns I've lived in during my lifetime).

If the technology did not exist to build solar-powered cars, or to use wind or water or the temperature of the earth to produce energy, I would say maybe there's some reason to accept our fate of a future without plentiful energy. But such is not the case. Free energy abounds on this planet, much of it generated directly or indirectly by the sun. The problem has always been that it was too expensive to tap into it, and laws and government policies have always disfavored alternatives to petroleum-powered vehicles. Viable electric cars HAVE been built, why don't we see them on the road?

Please stop thinking that people are going to give up their cars and walk or bicycle everywhere. For one thing, many people (especially those of us no longer as young as we used to be) don't have the physical ability to do that. For another thing, it's not necessary - if gas prices go high enough it wouldn't surprise me to see American in rural areas doing "unauthorized" conversions to their vehicles to make them use less fuel, or to run off of cheaper fuel. I'm not suggesting anyone break the law, but you know it will happen.

If gas ever hits, say, $10 or $20 a gallon, I don't think people are going to say, "Oh, well, I guess I'll give up driving to work and to shop, and walk or bike instead" - especially not in rural areas, or hilly areas, or in the dead of winter in northern climates. What I think you may well see is an outbreak of civil war, and I'm serious as a heart attack. It sometimes doesn't take much to get people in cities to riot, and in most cases they aren't in danger of not having food or other needed supplies (such as medicine). What do you think will happen when people can't afford food, or to go get food, due to transportation costs or their own expense in getting to the store?

If you want to make positive change, please, encourage the exploration and development of alternative energy sources. Nobody is going back to a 1900's lifestyle willingly. There are a lot of people who'd rather be shot dead than live like that. Please give that some thought before you assume we'll all be willingly led down whatever path the anti-vehicle folks would like to take us. I'm not saying people won't endure some hardships and cutbacks in lifestyles, but unfortunately if fuel costs get out of hand it won't just be "some" cutbacks, it will be worse than the Great Depression, and even the folks who lived through that period probably are unwilling to go through that again (and we weren't nearly as reliant on modern technology back then, either).

Let me give you one thing to think about. Many electric power plants run on coal (especially in areas were there isn't adequate water flow for hydroelectric power). How do you suppose the coal gets to the power plants? It's not carried by horse and buggy, nor even by coal-burning ships. Now, if the coal can't get to the power plant, how will people wash their clothes? Do you really think modern folks are going to use an old-fashioned washboard, or go down to the (probably polluted) stream and beat their clothes over rocks? Start thinking about things like that, and you might understand why NOT developing alternatives to petroleum-based energy is simply not an option.