Really, Volkswagen?

[MajGenl.Meade]

I am appalled at the latest VW commercial playing on my TV. Sexist and woman hating; that's what it is

A man and his two sons in their Passat - the phone rings, screen ID says it's "mom" and the man ignores it. The background singer warbles that the guys are "too busy" to answer the phone right now... and they go through an entire day playing games and so on. On the way home in the near dark, dad texts his wife - "What can I do?" It's milk she wants.

F-ing good job it wasn't "help - I've fallen down and can't get up" or "the house is on fire" or "I feel ill - can you help?"

Is this the 21st century or is VW still living in the day of the kubelwagen?

[Crackpot]

What do expect from a company that was unaware that that we want our vehicle emission tests to reflect the emissions of the vehicle during normal operation.

[Guinevere]

You're being incredibly generous. Purposefully and willfully blind might be more accurate.

And yes, that ad is stupid and ignorant. I loved my VW but I will never ever buy another.

[Crackpot]

That was the CEOs claim at the Auto Show.

[Guinevere]

He is a bald-faced liar.

[Crackpot]

You think?

[Crackpot]

I think he's hoping that the new rules for raising the burden of proof in white collar crime cases to proving intent to break the law to be in effect by the time the lawsuits make it to trial.

If not I think he'll fall back on "translation error"

[Guinevere]

I'm not sure they would apply retroactively to his conduct. I think the DA must charge based on the laws in place at the time the conduct occurred, for due process reasons.

And I hope it doesn't happen anyway - what a total crock.

[oldr_n_wsr]

What did we all do before we had cell phones? (that we can now ignore, or as I do, turn off when I get into the car).

And as far a the diesel scandal, here is somehitng I found ineresting.

Even rigged Volkswagens are cleaner than ethanol

By Robert Bryce, (c) 2016, Bloomberg View
(c) 2016, Bloomberg View

January 20, 2016, 11:20 PM

With the Iowa caucuses less than two weeks away, here's a newsflash: The corn-ethanol mandates, which are always a pivotal issue in that state, are more deadly than the emissions from those cheating Volkswagens. Four times more deadly, to be precise.

By now, most Americans are probably aware that Volkswagen AG, the world's second-largest automaker, is facing legal woes both in the U.S. and abroad for installing software on its cars that allowed the vehicles to defeat emissions-control tests. Two weeks ago, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the German company for violating the Clean Air Act by outfitting more than half a million cars with the software. In the U.S. alone, VW could face fines of as much as $90 billion.

The vehicles in question produced 10 to 40 times more nitrogen oxides than the law allowed. And those increased emissions will cause about 60 premature deaths a year in the U.S., according to a study by researchers at MIT and Harvard University.

Shortly after it was discovered that VW had been cheating, Cynthia Giles, the Environmental Protection Agency's assistant administrator for the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, denounced the company's effort to "evade clean air standards" as "illegal and a threat to public health."

But corn ethanol is an even bigger threat, as the EPA's own research shows. In 2010, the agency detailed the environmental and economic effects of the Renewable Fuel Standard, the federal mandate that requires retailers to blend ethanol into the gasoline they sell. Adding ethanol to gasoline causes higher emissions including nitrogen oxides, the same pollutants at issue in the VW case.

Ethanol-blended fuel also increases "emissions of hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and other pollutants," the EPA found, and that will "lead to increases in population-weighted annual average ambient PM [particulate matter] and ozone concentrations, which in turn are anticipated to lead to up to 245 cases of adult premature mortality."

Thus, the corn ethanol mandates are more than four times as deadly to the American public as the VWs. Yet the frontrunners for the presidency are marching in lockstep in favor of ethanol. Indeed, their nearly unanimous support for the mandate is like no other issue in American politics. The reason for their fealty to Big Corn is obvious: No presidential candidate has ever won the Iowa Caucuses while opposing corn ethanol.

Donald Trump, a leading Republican candidate in Iowa, has said "Ethanol is terrific … I am totally in favor of ethanol, 100 percent. And I will support it."

Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in Iowa, is also an ethanol booster. Never mind that as a U.S. senator, she voted against ethanol 17 times. Last August, she said, "We need to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard" and expand "the overall contribution that renewable fuels make to our national fuel supply."

The only current candidate who has dared stray from ethanol orthodoxy has been Ted Cruz, but even he is backpedaling. About two weeks ago, he published an op-ed article in the Des Moines Register saying it was "utter nonsense" that he was opposed to ethanol.

While it may be too much to hope for bravery among presidential candidates during their quadrennial pilgrimages to the Hawkeye State, the EPA should be protecting the public from ethanol, not promoting it. Alas, that's just what the agency is doing. In November, despite its own findings that ethanol- blended fuel is resulting in the premature death of more than 200 Americans per year, the agency actually increased the amount of ethanol that must be blended into domestic fuel supplies each year by more than 1 billion gallons.

If the federal government is going to fine Volkswagen billions of dollars for knowingly increasing air pollution, it should take similar action against the corn ethanol industry. Better yet, the EPA should eliminate the ethanol mandate.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... story.html

I know that with the increased ethanol content of our "winter" gasoline, I get between 3-5mpg less that I get the rest of the year.

[rubato]

The article does not mention ozone which is a major reason for seasonally adding Ethanol as an oxygenate. Ozone is very destructive of lung, and every other sort of tissue.


yrs,
rubato

[kmccune]

Have to agree with Rubato and its a funny thing ,I always thought the newer VW diesels smelled peculiar .Diesels are not the end all answer ,the new standards while verging on the ridiculous are still designed to make it easier to breathe.I bet one of these diesels in a fairly large auditorium would foul the air pretty quickly .The nature of Diesel combustion process ,makes for some pretty interesting high temperature hydrocarbon chemistry .

[MajGenl.Meade]

Thanks to Guin for devoting one sentence to the issue of this thread in Philosophy and Religion

Suck an egg Guin for diverting to a different (and very dull) issue suitable for Hardware

It's the power - it goes to one's head which uneasily wears a crown. Or tiara and that reminds me...

[Guinevere]

Excuse me, but Crackpot diverted first. I responded to *both* of you.

And what does sexism and mysogny in a car commercial have to do with "philosophy and *religion"anyway? It's more "Lifestyle" for the ad companies and the Neanderthals that run them.....

*Purposefully excluding my religion is sexist and mysognistic soap box for now....

[MajGenl.Meade]

Excuse me, but Crackpot diverted first. I responded to *both* of you.

And what does sexism and mysogny in a car commercial have to do with "philosophy and *religion"anyway? It's more "Lifestyle" for the ad companies and the Neanderthals that run them.....

*Purposefully excluding my religion is sexist and mysognistic soap box for now....

Yes, dear.

What does that last sentence mean?

[wesw]

I haven t seen the new ad, but it seems an obvious "fuck you" to the regulators and says that rule breaking is ok, and the nanny state is a drag.


I personally think that it will backfire. I m a half ass outlaw myself but I don t appreciate being deceived and I see volkswagon as the bad guy.


as far as being "woman hating"..... sheesh, get a life...

if you want to help women, concentrate on the muslim world, American women are hardly oppressed...

...except for Hillary of course. she is just hated because she is a woman...., just ask her.

Obama is disliked because he is black...,

trumps supporters are racist....

white people are just evil

and other liberal themes......

[Guinevere]

Newsflash Wes - I've never said any of the things you seem to continue to ascribe to me.

As for sexism and mysogny, I speak based on my vast experience as a woman. Can you say the same? No, I didn't think so.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Well, be fair. It could be said but it would be as accurate, informative and useful as everything else he posts

PS what did that last sentence mean... the one about a soap-box?

[Lord Jim]

I speak based on my vast experience as a woman. Can you say the same?

No, he can't...

His experience as a woman is fairly limited...(just occasional bar-hopping evenings, and some karaoke performances...)

[wesw]

um..., "woman hating" was meade s....

I don t see where I attributed any of the above to you.

liberals are a widely varying group. it ain t always about you....

[Sue U]

PS what did that last sentence mean... the one about a soap-box?

I think some added punctuation might help:

*Purposefully excluding my "religion-is-sexist-and-mysognistic" soap box for now....

Is that better?