Jon Prins' Tumblog or whatever

brewyork:

A ruling last month in a lawsuit that an out-of-state beer importer brought against the New York State Liquor Authority has ended a major tax and fee exemption for small brewers in the state, which will cost them millions of dollars in previously-waived costs.

The lawsuit was…

You & me both, Chris.

The transparent purpose of this law, which was pushed heavily by industry lobbyists, was to break a public sector union and privatize the mail industry. Before the 2006 act, the postal service did one thing, did it well, and, minus the need to generate profits and bonuses for executives, did it cheaply. It paid for itself and was not a burden to taxpayers.

Post offices also have a huge non-financial impact: In a lot of small towns, the post office is the town, and shutting them down will basically remove the only casual meeting place for people in mountain areas and remote farming villages and so on. Of course, there’s always one Wal-Mart for every dozen or so post offices, so people I guess can drive the extra twenty miles and meet there …

This is a classic example of private-sector lobbyists using the government to protect its profits and keep prices inflated. Sen. Sanders is pushing a bill that would delay the end of Saturday delivery for two years, and prevent a number of post-office closings, but the writing is on the wall, unless there’s a public outcry. So definitely write your congressman and ask him to roll back Bush’s idiotic law, and at least give the Post Office a chance to sink or swim on its own.

Know how to fix the post office?

Charge direct advertisers more for delivering cardpacks.

Seriously.

underpaidgenius:

High price of gas causing real change in driving?

Stefan Mufson via The Washington Post

As prices have neared and in some cases topped $4 a gallon, drivers have cut their consumption of gasoline to its lowest levels in a decade, driving less and buying cars that are more fuel-efficient.

The adjustment has slowed the climb in gasoline prices, which until last week had risen for 10 consecutive weeks, and could preserve some money for Americans to spend on other items as the economy struggles to recover more convincingly.

“Over the last four weeks, motor gasoline product supplied has averaged 8.6 million barrels per day, down by 4.0 percent from the same period last year,” the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said last week.

[…]

The Federal Highway Administration adds that the number of vehicle miles driven over a 12-month period ending January was lower than in any year since 2004.

So, we should have raised the gas taxes a few dollars ten years ago, obviously.

Related articles

• How High Gasoline Prices are Creating Jobs and Growing The Economy (triplepundit.com)
• How to beat high gas prices (realgreencleaning.wordpress.com)
• Let’s hear it for higher gasoline prices (energybulletin.net)
• As gas prices pinch, Obama targets oil speculators (hazimiai.wordpress.com)

jtotheizzoe:

Space Whiskey to Be Produced on the International Space Station.

Space Whiskey to Be Produced on the International Space Station.

Space Whiskey to Be Produced on the International Space Station.

It’s all been worth it, this space stuff.