One of my best ??? Feb 09

RON'S RUMINATIONS'
By Ron Dupuis

Does anyone else beside me, your succinct yet mildly humorous host, anticipate how Ed and Elaine Brown must feel now that tax cheat Tim Guithner has been placed in charge of the I.R.S? For those of you with short memories, the Browns are the convicted tax evaders of Plainville New Hampshire currently serving time for not paying their fair share. Surely they must be anticipating the list of names soon to be provided by Swiss bank officials as too who has the most hidden, tax free funds on deposit. Democrats or Republicans?

Another subject: President Obama recently stated that our troops will soon be “disengaged” in the occupation of Iraq. Would someone please inform our President that our troops have been engaged” in the occupation of Germany, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, for over fifty years and may have to stay in Iraq in some capacity for an equal amount of time.

Still another subject: Attorney General Eric Holder is way off base in his statement that America is a “nation of cowards” when it comes to conversations on race relations. It has been the experience of many people that have spoken to me in the last few days that black people do not want to hear the word black in any conversation what-so-ever.

One final subject: Candidate Obama promised a “transparency in Government”. In order to question President Obama one must paraphrase “Dr Phil” and ask “How’s that working out for you?” Between Cabinet nominees with questionable jobs (non lawyer Tom Daschle as a “facilitator” at a Washington law firm at 1 million a year to several other questionable nominees with an array of tax issues) and a promise to post on line the final Stimulus package for all to see, President Obama’s “transparency in government” campaign promise seems a little transparent right now.


Ron Dupuis is a long time New Hampshire resident, a former State Representative, and a freelance writer. He may be contacted at drcdupuis@comcast.net
Posted by Ron Dupuis at 10:26 AM 0 comments

End of Single Family Homes?

(Pffft. what's a foam peanut to do? Where IS everyone this summer?)

In an interview, author Christopher Steiner, predicted the single family detached home would be doomed by rising oil prices. The interview was about his book: "$20 per Gallon: How the inevitable rise in the price of gasoline will change our lives for the better."  

Steiner sounds correct enough in predicting that when the price of gasoline hits certain "tipping points", people will change how they do things. That's hardly Nostradamus stuff.  At $4/gallon, people stopped buying Hummers. They carpooled. They bought more hybrid cars.  At $6/gallon, we'd see more of that.

What perked my ears up was Steiner's prediction that high oil prices spelled doom for the single family detached home.  "Our pattern of the single family home, sitting on a quarter acre lot, was built around (automobiles)..."  Really?  Our suburban lifestyle, Steiner said, is built around being able to get in our cars and go do things.  What he sees as the "sustainable" housing pattern of the future amounts to urban apartment buildings. Everything needs to be within walking distance. I suspect Steiner is an urban apartment dweller, so has a hard time imagining living any other way.

He would be right about most suburban developments since WWII. They definitely catered to the automobile. But the single-family detached house is far FAR older than the automobile. As I drive through "downtown" Chester, I pass a half-dozen single-family detached homes that date back to the early 1800s.  THOSE families didn't have automobiles. How could they have possibly survived?

For one, their lifestyle was different. They didn't jump on their horse(s) and ride into town every evening to eat out. They cooked. They didn't jump on their horse and ride into town for a jar of pickles because they ran out. They waited. They didn't sit around their single family homes complaining that they were bored. "Let's jump on our horses and gallop around the countryside for awhile, just for something to do."

If/when gasoline does hit $20 gallon, our wasteful lifestyles will have to change. But, the single family home is not so clearly doomed.  It worked before oil. It can work after oil.