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Never Mind About The Other 48

April 24, 2009 | Permalink

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heheh - good one! I lived in oregon more than anywhere else (kinda far from there now), and that really bugged me. But then I notice everywhere else there seem to be a lot of spills in the area where you stand while pumping your own gas (makes your shoes nasty). And yes, people do like to fill gas cans that are in their vehicles, causing a spark from the static discharge (since the car's not grounded) and starting fires.

Posted by: tpulley | Apr 24, 2009 6:37:46 AM

It's a crazy world, isn't it?

Yeah, those exploding gas cans, we read about it every day, across the USA. Pretty soon there won't be any gas stations, they're exploding left and right -- except, of course in Portland and Newark.

And, wow, the funfights -- er, gunfights, that we experience every day here in south Texas. Truly getting out of hand. It's not just the street corners, sometimes is happens mid-block.

Posted by: Bruce Oksol | Apr 24, 2009 7:21:37 AM

Here's a video of what I'm talking about re: filling up a gas can that's in the back of a truck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgAaj3DkA-w

By the way, if you ever find yourself in this situation, DO NOT PULL IT OUT OF THE CAN/TANK! (like that guy did, you'll see why)

I still think it's a stupid law. I always want to pump my own gas in the land of the free!

Posted by: tpulley | Apr 24, 2009 4:13:24 PM

I am a native Oregonian, and I--like the majority of my fellow statesmen (as it were)--prefer not to pump gas myself.

I can make all kinds of arguments why, but there's only one that matters: the people of the State of Oregon consistently decide, for themselves, that they don't want to have to pump gas themselves.

And that, my friends, is what it means to live in a republic: sovereignty rests with the people.

Posted by: Sparticus | Apr 25, 2009 12:18:40 AM

Yeah, I gotta admit it's nice to not pump your own gas, except for two things that make it a dealbreaker for me.
1. I've had a "fuel transfer technician" forget to put the cap back on. Not fun.
2. Sometimes it's annoying to have to wait when you could just do it yourself.

Often #2 is mere inconvenience, but I have a story and I swear it's 100% true: I broke my clavicle one time mountain biking in oak's botton (near sellwood), and no way am I trying to pay for an ambulance ride when I have friends with cars and a cell phone amirite? So I was able to get a ride but we were completely out of gas, so the closest place had no one outside (not like they were busy either), and they looked pretty vacant, through the lights were on and the doors were open.

So I just started pumping the gas myself, arm in a sling and everything. I have moments like that when I'm very comfortable with not giving a shit about laws to micromanage the mundanity of modern living.

I'd rather they put that energy into making licenses harder to get while providing viable alternatives for people who aren't good at driving. One way to look at it is: Every year there's a 9/11 worth of fatalities due to vehicle injuries, and many more injured. Why are people so relatively complacent with that?

Posted by: tpulley | Apr 26, 2009 7:37:12 AM

OMIGOSH WAIT HOLD EVERYTHING!!1

Shouldn't that read: "Never mind about the other 46"?

I'm surprised I didn't notice that sooner :/

Posted by: tpulley | Apr 26, 2009 8:04:16 AM

No, no, no. Tom means "the other 48" for each of the issues, i.e. the other 48 when it comes to pumping your own gas; the other 48 when it comes to carrying concealed weapons; and the other 48 states that have trees (exceptions being North Dakota and Nevada).

Posted by: Bruce Oksol | Apr 26, 2009 6:19:06 PM

No, you're both wrong. As The One We Have Been Waiting For informed us, it should have been "the other 55."

Posted by: Sparticus | Apr 27, 2009 11:03:41 PM

> I am a native Oregonian, and I--like the majority of my fellow statesmen (as it were)--prefer not to pump gas myself. And that, my friends, is what it means to live in a republic: sovereignty rests with the people.

Ahhh, Sparticus, while I usually find myself in agreement with you, you're wrong on this. Utterly wrong.

That isn't a republic, it's the worst aspect of democracy: The Tyranny of the Majority.

What is really happening there (other than "Fulle Employmente Forr Servis Station Attendantes") is a group of people dictating to others that they CANNOT pump their own gas.

The real fact is, that the laws in question force the stations to NOT offer self-service, which jacks up the price, across the board, which you people have to pay.

Your gas prices would be notably lower for self-service.

"Oh, but then we'd all have to do it, because self-service would disappear".

Not if ACTUALLY was as popular as you claim -- then some stations would have one, some stations the other, and some stations would have both. And each would cater to the percentage of people who wanted the additional service. MY bet is that a lot of people who VOTE for the full service would NOT actually do so if they weren't getting forced to by the law, once they were faced with the actual premium they pay for it -- a lot of people who voted for the law would turn around and save the 10 cents a gallon they save by doing it themselves, and the full-service stations would become an indisputable minority.

And that highlights the real point -- this isn't even a Tyranny of the Majority -- it's actually a tyranny of the MINORITY -- those who would mostly choose to use full service all the time.

And, by getting the idiots in the remainder of the majority to IMPROPERLY use the force of government to compel businesses towards an action which should be left to the natural system of supply and demand, they succeed in ramming it down everyone's throats.

Sorry: There ARE things properly within the sphere of governmental action -- who pumps friggin' GAS? Give me a BREAK.

P.J. O'Rourke wrote about this at the Federal level, but the reasoning he used is applicable towards a lot of things:

"One secret to balancing the budget is to remember that all tax revenue is the result of holding a gun to somebody's head. Not paying taxes is against the law. If you don't pay your taxes, you'll be fined. If you don't pay the fine, you'll be jailed. If you try to escape from jail, you''ll be shot. Thus I -- in my role as citizen and voter -- am going to shoot you -- in your role as taxpayer and ripe suck -- if you don't pay your share of the national tab. Therefore, every time the government spends money on anything, you have to ask yourself, 'Would I kill my kindly, gray-haired mother for this?' In the case of defense spending, the argument is simple: 'Come on, Gramma, everybody's in this together. If those Canadian hordes come down over the border, we'll all be dead meat. Pony Up.' In the case of helping cripples, orphans, and blind people, the argument is almost as persuasive: 'Granny, I know you don't know these people from Adam, but we've got five thousand years of Judeo-Christian-Muslim-Buddhist-Hindu-Confucian-animist-jungle-God morality going here. Fork over the dough.' But Day care doesn't fly: 'You're paying for the next-door neighbor's baby-sitter, or it's curtains for you, Lady."
- P. J. O'Rourke, 'Parliament of Whores' -

In the end, the government does what it does by threat of force.

======================================
The question you have to ask -- is the government, standing there holding a gun to your head, saying "No, *you* CAN'T pump your *own* gas!" a rational, reasonable image by any measure?
======================================

Posted by: Obloodyhell | May 2, 2009 9:22:03 AM

> One way to look at it is: Every year there's a 9/11 worth of fatalities due to vehicle injuries, and many more injured. Why are people so relatively complacent with that?

tp -- let me ask you something even better:

Do you support the deployment and use of solar panels?

Do you realize that they very much have to be cleaned off on a regular basis -- not just leaves but general atmospheric crud like snow and pollen deposits, all of these can massively reduce output.

What do you think is the third most common cause of accidental death in the USA, behind autos and accidental poisonings?

Try falls. Yes. *People fall down go boom!* //// sorry, make that "Dead".

Now, if we deploy enough solar panels to replace even 20% of the existing power infrastructure, that's *absolutely* NOT LESS than 1 BILLION square meters of panel surface (If you want to know the source for that, ask).

That's gonna have to be cleaned on a regular basis. Which means a lot more people climbing up on rooftops and assorted other surfaces -- often in less than spectacular conditions (like Ice and Snow), who thereby *vastly* increase the number of "people fall down go Dead."

Clean, safe power MY ASS.

There's *always* a tradeoff.

Posted by: Obloodyhell | May 2, 2009 9:36:19 AM

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