“Hey, can we just swing back around so I can pick it up?”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081118/ap_on_sc/space_shuttle

By now, most of you have probably seen this.

http://www.nytimes-se.com/

A spoof version of the New York times, with all of the satire of the Onion without any of the humor.  In other words, this is Critique, capital C, and biting at that.  I love it.

So for years the American automobile industry has created mammoth cars, giant trucks and tank-like SUVs that are some of this planet’s greatest polluters, and then when the economy takes a turn for the worse and people prefer small, more fuel-efficient cars (of which US manufacturers make few), they look to the government to bail them out.  “Woe is us!” they shout from their Michigan hideouts.  “We support one in ten jobs in this country!  You can’t let us fail!”  This is the same industry that lobbied against higher fuel efficiency standards because it would be “unfair” to their business.  I say, it’s time to stop babying the auto industry.

My suggestion: give them the money.  We can’t allow the ripple effects to trickle through the economy.  But do so with a stipulation.  That Detroit needs to produce X number of fuel efficient, hybrid, or battery-powered cars by 20XX, that they need to eventually pay the US back in full, and they must go on the record and verbally pledge to America that they will produce green cars for the next century.  It would be prudent for our country to lead in the production of green cars, and it would make sure that we’re not just bailing out the auto industry, but America, from decades of reliance on expensive, polluting, and war-starting gasoline.

Addendum: looks like Paulson and I actually agree.

Won’t you please take a moment out of your busy day to donate $1 to Farrago’s Wainsot, an online speculative fiction magazine celebrating its second year?  They’ve been publishing great fiction since their inception, and I for one would like to see them continue.  You can support them here.

You have stop whatever you are doing and watch this.  Thanks to Stephen Segal for the link.