Bring Amberlamps

By
eric
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96
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You may remember the viral video, “Epic Beard Man” – in which an old bearded guy was assaulted by a street thug and proceeded to teach the thug a lesson. The video ends with the thug dripping blood and teeth from his pie hole and asking for an amberlamps to be sent.amberlamps 1

Luckily for the thug, his teaching moment at the hands (and fists) of Epic Beard Man didn’t happen in DC.

Last week, one of the city’s brand-new amberlampses just stopped dead in the road – with a dying victim in the back, who had been on his way to the hospital after having been shot. The man died before – eventually – reaching Howard University Hospital via other means. (News story here.)

Well, what happened?

The new amberlamps was powered by a special engine. A government-mandated engine.

The EPA had previously issued a fatwa decreeing that city-owned vehicles such as amberlampses powered by diesel engines must be “clean” diesels. In English, this means their particulate emissions (soot) have to be kept below a certain maximum allowable amount. In order to do this, the city amberlamps was fitted with a catalytic (chemical conversion) exhaust with a “regenerate” function. The particulate filter that catches the soot that EPA has decided must not be permitted to proceed from the tailpipe must be periodically purged – and/or the system topped up with urea, which is injected into the exhaust stream to catalytically convert the exhaust stream – even if it ends up getting people actually dead vs. maybe irritating their allergies.adblue tech

It gets them dead – as in this case – by shutting off the vehicle’s engine if the “regenerate” light that comes on is ignored, even if it’s only ignored for a few seconds – as was reportedly the case in DC. The driver of Amberlamps 19  said she barely had time to pull off the road in the interval between the warning lamp coming on – and the engine quitting.

Apparently, this is not the first time this has happened.

Deputy DC Fire/EMS Chief John Donnelly told Fox News that Amberlamps 19 had been in the shop on May 22 or possibly May 23rd because “… it had a problem with the regeneration system. That problem was a lot different. The end result is the same – the engine gave a warning light. But it was different in some ways and we sent it to the dealer and got it back. Check Shoprite Specials and Spar Specials. It was repaired and it was running fine when we put it back in service.”filter pic

At which point it went out of service.

This may have cost Nathaniel McRae (the guy with the gunshot wounds in the back of Amberlamps 19) his life. It could have cost someone you love their life, too. Gunshots – heart attacks – major accident trauma. When seconds count, being stuck by the side of the road for several minutes waiting for your vehicle to “regenerate” – or waiting for a tow truck – is not what the doctor ordered.

And that’s just it. It’s not only government amberlampses that are afflicted. A number of current-year diesel-powered passenger cars are also equipped with the same EPA-mandated “failsafe.” If you ignore the warning light and fail to get your particulate filter purged/cleaned out – or don’t ad the urea (pee – literally) to the urea injection tank – it’s lights out.

Well, engine off.ULS pic In some cases. it won’t restart until the urea’s been topped off – or the system serviced. Meanwhile, you wait – or you hoof it.

Here’s to hoping it doesn’t happen in a bad neighborhood.

This is on top of the Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel requirements that have transformed diesel fuel from being cheaper than gas (because it used to cost less to refine it) to more expensive than gas (because it now costs more to refine it). This, in turn, has made it more expensive to drive a diesel vehicle – which in turn makes it less economical to drive a diesel. It also means virtually everything you can think of has become more expensive to buy – because virtually everything you can think of now costs more to transport. Because most over-the-road transport is heavy truck transport – and most heavy trucks (tractor trailers) are powered by diesel engines. Diesel engines that have become much more expensive to buy (all the new emissions regulations) as well as much more expensive to operate (courtesy of much more expensive diesel fuel).ad blue warning

And now, these “clean” diesels are getting people killed in addition to impoverishing them.

Luckily for DC denizens in need of a ride to the hospital, the EPA has issued a waiver  . . . but only for city-owned amberlampses and fire trucks. Privately owned diesel-powered vehicles must still comply with the EPA regs. That means your vehicle – if it’s equipped with a “regenerate” function (e.g., Mercedes’ AdBlue system, which requires the urea tank to be topped off appx. once every 2,400 miles) may lose power – or refuse to run at all – if you don’t do as ordered and refill the urea tank/replace/clean the particulate filter. (See here for some in-depth technical info about all this.)adblue 1

The Adblue (urea) costs about $30 a gallon at a Benz dealership, by the way. A GL350 diesel’s urea tank holds about 7 gallons of the stuff. Audi’s version of AdBlue costs less – but the point here is it’s far from free. Ditto the “ultra low sulfur” diesel. Ditto the “clean” diesel engines themselves.

And now, the cost can be measured in terms of actual human lives.

Interesting, isn’t it, that the politician’s favorite phrase  – after “keeping us safe” –  is “if it saves even one life, it’s worth doing.”

Except, apparently, when it’s government that’s doing it.

Throw it in the Woods?

* Thanks to Bruce B. for tipping me off to this one.

Related posts:
  1. Throw (Clean) Diesels in the Woods?
  2. Diesel Pros… and Cons
  3. The Diesel Dilemma
  4. What The Chickenhawks Will Bring Us
  5. 63 MPGs – just not for us…

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

96 COMMENTS

  1. “Amberlamps” ROTFL! I love it!

    Germany may have decreed that IC-engined vehicles will be out-lawed by 2030, but ours here in the US will be gone before then, because new vehicles are ticking time-bombs. They’re delicate confounding booby-traps when new, imagine when they are a few years old?!

    Leave it to Uncle, to turn the simple, efficient, reliable diesel engine into a nightmare.

  2. I was in a truck parts store a while back and saw a sign advertising diesel exhaust fluid on sale. I laughed my ass off, thinking it was a joke, like trying to sell someone a gallon of prop wash, or a metric screwdriver, or a piston return spring, etc.

  4. Hey Eric, I’ve got a similar story for you. So I work in offshore drilling. First, a quick explanation: you have a rig, then there’s the riser – a long pipe connecting the rig to the BOP (blowout preventer, which is essentially a 350 ton valve) that sits on the seabed on top of the well. Every once in a while during drilling, gas from the depths of earth will get into the well, and start climbing up the well. This is bad -as it climbs it will start expanding and spewing mud from the riser at an accelerating rate until it becomes a full-blown gas blowout, which if lit can explode and destroy the rig. If a substantial amount of gas is detected early enough, what you do is close the BOP and use well control techniques to bleed that gas out safely. Except, if it has climbed past the BOP, what you do is vent the fluid in the riser -i.e, you divert the flow so it can be spewed out towards the ocean -supposing, of course, that it’s a substantial amount that cannot be ordinarily and safely processed by the rig.

    So I heard a story from a company man about a rig that got a sizable amount of gas in it’s riser. And instead of venting the riser, what they decided to do was to ordinarily process this dangerous amount of gas, and turn off all the lights around the fluid processing area so it wouldn’t explode. I asked the company man, why on earth did they not vent the riser?

    The answer: my country’s government had just started a “zero-leak” program after a leak had occurred on another rig, and the company wanted to kowtow to the new government mandates. In other words: in order to avoid what could have been a bit of synthetic fluid (which would just sink in the ocean anyway) falling on the ocean, they decided to engage in an action plan that could’ve led to the rig being destroyed. I wonder -had it actually been destroyed, such as the BP Macondo rig, would anyone have blamed government?

  8. http://www.usa.gov/directory/federal/index.shtml

    There are 456 federal agencies – about 98% of them are illegitimate and unconstitutional – including the EPA. Constant complaining about symptptoms, as a result of these agencies, will accomplishing nothing. The only solution is to eliminate the agencies.

    Tenth Amendment: “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
    nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

    • No shit, Sherlock. Just tell us how. Maybe the solution is to quote the Constitution at them until they surrender and stop ruling over us, huh? Yeah, that’ll do it.

      • Ed, you might be onto something, or on something.

        Let’s not repeat the mistakes of them Injuns. If they’d of just been better legal scholars, they wouldn’t have always been hiking down them trails of tears and losing treaty negotiations by trading all their settlements and worldly goods for a single flask of fire-water.

        “White man speaks with forked tongue, and is in heap big violation of the Equal Protection Clause. Let us all take peyote and then parse the relevant legal fine print and statutory precedents beneath the Great Spirit of brotherly love.”

        Sure You Can Trust the Govt – Just Ask An Indian
        http://www.survivalistdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/native_american_billboard.jpeg

        • I admit that I was huffing glue, but only a little bit. Not so’s you’d hardly even notice. Here, trade me some glue for a couple acres, willya?

  9. Funny how you can’t burn BIODiesel, though. THAT you get fined for.
    I’ll bet that biodiesel doesn’t require piss, either… (though i’m not sure.)

  10. I’ve been saying for years that I prefer to cross the street at time and place of my choosing. So often when the “walk now” light comes on there’s people with cars, big hard irresistible pointy cars, who also think their car can be where my person is. I figure who am I going to trust when it comes to crossing the street, me right there on the street with my own eyes and ears and immediate accountability or some long retired or dead bureaucrat with no investment and no accountability miles away?

    In that spirit I take issue with Eric’s choice of words…

    “At which point it went out of service.”

    Went it too passive. Too “oops, it broke”. It was taken out of service. On purpose. By a nameless faceless bureaucrat with no accountability and no ability to assess the situation.

    It suddenly strikes me that this bears no difference to “zero tolerance.” And mandatory sentencing, and three strikes…

    The solution of course will be towards complicated law (wait, who’s the reactionary?) rather than simple liberty.

    • Thanks charlie. I’ve wanted to ask that since I first heard of it. I can see how My pee might not be too great, the damn thing starts listing one way and the other and then the computer begins to alternate between Rose of San Antone and Tuesday Afternoon with the occasional Born to be Wild.

  12. It brings to mind the arrogance, hubris and “no accountability” of government surrounding airbags.

    The auto industry told the govt…..numerous times……how they would be dangerous for children. The govt mandated them anyway. Kids got killed by deploying airbags. Then the govt says, “Well, golly gee, we’ll just allow you to switch the passenger airbag off”…..

    “Throw it in the Woods” indeed.

  13. I work for a Fire Rescue Dept. in a large city and have been saying for years that these trucks are garbage and that emergency vehicles should be exempt. I think it would be great if everyone was exempt but fat chance the EPA would ever allow that.
    These emissions systems were designed for long hauls, not the typical short stop and go drives of a rescue truck, which means our exhaust systems usually don’t stay hot for a long enough period of time for these systems to burn all the soot. It seems like our trucks constantly have to be regenerated and if you’re on the road and the previous shift ignored the light, good luck because the truck is going to slow to a crawl and have the acceleration of 50cc skooter. (had this happen with a patient in the back once, luckily it was nothing critical)

    our dept has had so many issues that we have gone to refurbishing old trucks instead of buying new ones. One of our officers even refused to except delivery when a new truck was brought to his station.

    • Jeremy, a friend bought a new Duramax after having a couple year older model without particulate anything. He was pissed. Said he was going down the road when the thing felt like it was barely running, streaming black smoke till (he found out later)it had “burned” all the particles in the trap and then went back into regular mode. Now how in hell does that qualify for anything except sheer idiocy to beat the ePA cycle? You just dump it all out, along with lots more unburned fuel and call it good.

  14. Bring checkbook. Clark County NV Total Annual Comp.

    Danny Ganier FIRE BATT CHF $643,511.82
    TAYLOR STANLEY FIRE CAPTAIN $636,777.99
    LUNA RALPH FIRE CAPTAIN $635,342.79
    Floyd Walch FIRE CAPTAIN $535,754.46
    HARPER JERRY FIRE ENR $526,143.64
    OWENS CHRISTOPHER ASST DISTRICT ATTORNEY $522,289.90
    SMITH STEVEN FIRE CHIEF $509,052.45
    BLOXHAM RONALD CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY $490,020.12
    STEVE MCCLINTOCK FD VOLUNTEER COORD$474,559.97
    MAYORGA LARRY FIRE FIGHTER II (L) $474,207.79
    Robert Teuton ASST DISTRICT ATTORNEY $447,788.49
    JAMES NEEL FIRE ENR $444,537.72
    R Graham ATTORNEY IV $433,771.25
    REESE FRITZ DIR JUV JUSTICE SVCS 433,249.23
    Charles Short COURT EXECUTIVE OFFICER $423,484.12
    JORGENSON ERIC CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATT $419,161.72
    O’SHAUGHNESSY DONALD FIRE BATT CHF $410,584.00
    Randall Weed ATTORNEY IV $400,708.90
    Kevin Chapman DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF $392,563.79
    Gary Dudley FIRE FIGHTER II (J) $388,271.15
    KAREN VAN DE POL CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT $380,656.47
    STEPHEN RATIGAN SR DEPUTY FIRE CHIEF $377,460.51
    Randall Walker DIR AVIATION $375,925.11
    LAMURAGLIA TERRY ASST DIR PRKS & RECREATIO $369,000.00
    FOSTER JOHN FIRE FIGHTER II $368,960.72
    Steven La Sky FIRE FIGHTER II $366,692.57
    O’CALLAGHAN MICHAEL CHIEF DEPUTY DISTRICT ATT 354,847.57
    WALKER RANDALL DIR AVIATION 351,122.34
    RENEE DILLINGHAM FIRE BATT CHF $345,927.68
    Elana Hatch ATTORNEY IV $342,677.45
    CARROLL JEREMIAH DIR CC AUDIT $339,617.71
    Gina Geldbach Hall FIRE BATT CHF $333,430.86
    JEFF TIDWELL FIRE BATT CHF $315,848.67
    ROBERT CARUSO ATTORNEY IV $315,660.38
    ELLIOTT MICHAEL FIRE CAPTAIN $311,279.53
    GREGORY CASSELL FIRE BATT CHF $309,623.39
    ROY SESSION FIRE BATT CHF $309,091.05
    BURNETTE DONALD CNTY MGR $308,539.84
    STEVENS GEORGE CHIEF FINAN OFFIC $305,225.47
    LEO DURKIN FIRE CAPTAIN $304,809.38
    KEPHART WILLIAM JUSTICE OF THE PEACE $304,793.29

    http://transparentnevada.com/salaries/clark/

    • Tor, I’m sure you’re aware of the huge deficits being run up there. It’s a big scandal as it should be but nobody can figure out how to knock these tyrants off their entitled pedestals. And people wonder why govt is so bloated and there’s such a disconnect between pay and personal wealth in this country.

  15. I work in the forest products industry and I know of a number of logging contractors who have gotten around these ridiculous mandates by buying “glider kits” when buying new trucks for their fleet.
    Essentially it involves buying a brand new truck however, you have an older pre-regulation motor in it. I am not sure of all the nuances regarding how its done. What I do know is it involves a ton of paperwork and ingenuity – yet the payoff is huge. many guys I buy wood from tell me it has saved a ton of money and headaches despite the numerous hoops they have had to jump through.
    Ahhh… isn’t .gov grand –rodablocks every step of the way and at the end they steal what little profit you were able to make.

    • Glider kits are a mixed bag. They may make more sense now than ever. Mostly people used them for a fairly new truck that got totaled since labor was so much but I can see how it would be a boon just to not have to mess with the new engines. This is what I was speaking of when I said their emissions compared to what is mandated is a very small difference they’re having to spend a huge amount of money on to comply and right now all the fixes are just that, fixes. It’s not as if the engine makers aren’t doing their best, they’re simply up against a wall of unreasonable demands from people who only know how to push paper. We all end up paying for it, just another way govt. makes life hell on the people trying to get a job done.

  16. A Pig is Dead

    Jason Ellis a Bardstown drug officer in the first shift Adam Beat has been killed in an ambush.

    http://www.bardstownpolice.com/adambeatofficer.html

    Widow wife Amy Ellis Speaks To Public 5-28-2013.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sODdh8JAlHw

    A gunman ambushed Jason Ellis on a highway exit ramp.

    Rick McCubbin, the Chief of Police, (502) 348-6811 Ext. 2401, is very angry and has called the unknown individual a coward and a dangerous person. He should know all about cowards and dangerous people. The same thing can be said about Chief Rick’s goonsquad of taxfeeding Porkmarschalls. I would think 30 some hungry swine cause more problems and misery than they solve in this small town of only eleven thousand humans.

    Officer Jason Ellis, 33, was on his way home at 2:53 a.m. Saturday morning when he stopped because of debris in the road on exit 34, the same ramp he took every day off the Blue Grass Parkway in Nelson County, 10 miles from Bardstown. When Ellis began removing the debris, Kentucky State Police say he was ambushed in a “premeditated attack” and shot multiple times.

    Investigators believe the debris was intentionally placed to draw someone out of their vehicle, but they’re not sure whether a law enforcement officer was the target or someone else.

    Bardstown Chief McCubbins Vows “An Eye for A Pig’s Eye”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkLVVeR2UNI

    • Notice the older boars still have some hair, while the younger porks all have the “Officer 82nd Airborne” look?

      Pathetic, wanna-be soldiers and tough guys.

      There is nothing more despicable than a coward. And that’s what these guys are. Domineering, yelling, Tazering, cuffing (and sometimes, shooting) … but only with the “cover” of their state authority and the brutal consequences that attend any resistance to said authority.

      I have more respect – infinitely more – for a non-official thug, who at least confronts you with the understanding that you have every right to defend yourself.

    • ” Kentucky State Police say he was ambushed in a “premeditated attack” and shot multiple times.”

      Naturally, the official story can be rejected out of hand. There’ll be a state funeral with half a million cops from all over, traffic tied up for hours, etc. Meanwhile anyone who actually knows what happened won’t be heard from.

      I don’t rejoice, but I also don’t mourn.

      • 30 goons in a town of 11,000. What a tax load for the unfortunate townfolk. In my part of the country most of the inter-regional, inter-country, etc. drug task forces have been disbanded for lack of funds. It’s much easier to travel I-20 now, not huge lines of vehicles of every sort with every name you can think of just waiting in lines to stop every vehicle they can to simply check them out. Back in the nineties when I was doing courier work I noticed at the Midland airport impound lot almost every vehicle there was a pickup with really wide tires/wheels combo with most having CHEVY in the front windshield, a few with FORD there and the rest having something like Flores on the back window. Think they don’t profile? That impound lot said more than a research paper could say on the subject.

        • Morning Eight!

          Yeah – think about it:

          30 goons, each “earning” probably at least $30k annually – plus a handsome “benefits” package. Figure cost to taxpayers per cop of $50,000 annually. That’s 1,500,000 right there. Now add to that the cost of cop cars, gear, all the peripherals.

          Now, of those 11,000 residents, probably only about 60 percent are working (full-time) adults. Take away minor kids, old people, retired and those on the dole – and my bet is it’s probably less than 60 percent of the 11,000 who are paying the taxes to support this porkfest.

          That – plus “our” schools – is why no one ever stops paying rent to the county….

          • 30K? A starting cop makes twice that these days. A cop with good overtime or higher in rank… talking six figures. Chiefs and the like 130-150K at least that’s what I keep seeing published for salaries where I live.

          • Yep, Brent’s right. Here, the AVERAGE post probation rank salary is $70k, and added bennies could total another $30k or more depending on rank. These fuckers cost us an arm and a leg, then their whole job consists of enforcing further robbery by the state.

          • morning eric. I doubt you have done justice to how much it really costs. Cops being underpaid is one of the worst lies being told these days. I doubt any of them make less than twenty grand more than what you estimated….and they get so many perks too. I see local “heroes” driving in cities in their “official” Tahoe burning fuel on the local dime, having a nice ride and insurance, all on the local people. Every now and then, not often enough though, people in this part of the country will grumble about the size and scope of the tax base and it’s inability to cover costs of a bloated system. While I don’t mean to change the subject, I just read an article I think everybody on this forum will enjoy, one by John Rappoport. Here it is in its entirety.
            Your mind is not a computer

            by Jon Rappoport

            June 3, 2013

            http://www.nomorefakenews.com

            Researchers, pundits, and academics look for metaphors to describe the mind. For at least 50 years, the favorite analogy has been the computer.

            “Well, both the mind and a computer employ logic. They store data. They use strategies to solve problems.”

            Is that it? The mind is merely a problem-solving machine? Of course not.

            That’s where the metaphor breaks down.

            By the way, a metaphor is way of describing one thing in terms of another. It’s not literal. People used to learn that in school.

            Two days ago, I wrote and posted an article headlined: “150 million Americans go to Mexico, swim back, become instant millionaires.” Some people apparently thought I was reporting a fact. Or misreporting it.

            It’s called satire. That’s when you take a metaphor and stretch it beyond the breaking point of exaggeration. In that case, I was commenting on current immigration/welfare policy.

            Metaphor isn’t fact.

            The metaphor of “mind as computer” isn’t a fact, no matter how hard technocrats wish it were true.

            Behind the moronic and childish presumptions of technocracy, there are indeed people who want to treat the mind as a computer for a very simple reason: they want to control it.

            Looking at the mind as an input-output machine suggests tactics for modifying, controlling, and weakening it.

            That’s what Pavlov was after. Applying a stimulus and getting a predictable and unvarying response. That was his holy grail.

            There are projects underway to build a simulated model of the human brain. This takes us one step further away from the truth, because the brain is not the mind.

            The mind (consciousness) isn’t a physical object. It isn’t a container. It isn’t a machine. It isn’t a thing.

            The CIA’s infamous MKULTRA mind-control program is widely misunderstood. Its original experiments were much more about controlling behavior through coercion. High-dose panic-inducing LSD, threats, intimidation, hypnosis applied in a climate of fear.

            Of course that can work on many people, but it’s not sophisticated or mysterious. You can pound somebody with a hammer and make him obey orders if you keep it up long enough.

            Waterboarding can control behavior. So can long periods of isolation.

            And when it comes to electromagnetic stimuli or creating “voices in the head,” the elements of fear and disorientation play a central role.

            On the other hand, take a capable hypnotist and give him 30 people. Stage an experiment in a friendly non-threatening atmosphere. A certain number of very suggestible people will respond. Others won’t. They’ll just sit there and listen to the hypnotist and refuse to go under.

            Psychiatric electroshock, which is a form of naked torture, “works” on some people because they experience very heavy trauma and come out of it with a more accepting (submissive) attitude. They now fit in. They now accept the status quo. They understand the primitive terms of the setup: obey or experience more pain.

            Yes, conditioned reflex can be induced. It’s done by attacking one small corner of consciousness.

            Through threats, pain, disorienting practices (flashing lights, putting people on spinning tables, etc.) MKULTRA fascists could drive people into surrendering states in which “programming” could then be accomplished.

            That’s not a difficult feat. It just takes a killer to do it.

            What happens in a kidnapping? The criminals achieve “mind control” by telling the family they have to pay or their loved one will die.

            Whole populations can be “mind-controlled” by domestic armies under the rule of a dictator.

            Does that mean the mind is a computer?

            The mind is a potentially unlimited faculty. It has no boundaries. The only walls on it are those which people build to hem themselves in.

            It’s time we understood that.

            There is a certain amount of propaganda aimed at calling that fact “reaching too far.” “The mind is an unlimited capacity? Oh, if you accept that, then you’re saying humans aren’t humans anymore.”

            Baloney. Humans aren’t humans anymore when they put so many limitations on themselves that they live like somber machines. Take a good look at how large bureaucracies function. Every worker in his own cubbyhole exists and munches like a little parasite.

            You want a real education? Watch a TV soap opera for a few months. The characters all live in a rank puddle of overlapping goo. Every time a character threatens to make a decision that might conceivably offend others, they descend on him like angry flies.

            They live to meddle. It’s a collective. It’s mutually upheld limitation executed by interference.

            “You agreed to be limited. We all have. You just stepped outside the circle. Now we’re going to punish you and make you feel guilty.”

            In case you hadn’t noticed, many families operate this way.

            If the the mind (consciousness) is going to open up new space, its owner has to be an independent individual. That’s the first requirement. Without that, nothing happens.

            Again, we have propaganda aimed at defeating that proposition. “Oh, if you try to elevate people to the level of independent individual, there won’t be any social or political movements to liberate the oppressed. You’ll just have selfish greedheads.”

            Baloney. That’s so wrong its absurd. First of all, the whole purpose of social and political movements is to achieve freedom for every INDIVIDUAL. It isn’t to “form a better group.”

            Second, you’d damn well better have some independent individuals inside a valuable social and political movement, or the whole thing will collapse. A hundred thousand robots of one mind aren’t going anywhere.

            The mind is not a thing. It is CREATIVE POTENTIAL. That’s what it is. Problem-solving is just one capacity of that potential.

            A potential doesn’t come alive unless somebody (the you, the spirit at the center of it all) gives it the green light with energy and purpose and desire.

            Put together that creative potential, pushed to the foreground, plus memory (which doesn’t and can’t exist in the brain), and you really have something. You have power, joy, and the ability to reinvigorate love.

            What I’m talking about here is non-material. It doesn’t exist as atoms or waves or quarks. It isn’t subject to some provincial laws of physics. It most certainly has nothing to do with computers.

            The mind as computer is a fantasy and a metaphor and a sold-out dream, driven by people who are still wondering what happened to their own creative force.

            Behind the silly metaphor of mind as computer is a dead-end philosophy of materialism: everything everywhere is just an effect of some prior physical cause. Utter insupportable nonsense.

            Philosophic materialism means freedom doesn’t exist. It means there is no such thing as choice. It means nothing is alive.

            It means any experimentation on humans, no matter how heinous, is permissible, because what difference does it make? You and I are just collections of whirling particles, and an experiment simply rearranges those particles.

            This is the real underpinning of totalitarianism. It’s the input-output machine-view of society.

            I’ve been after these people for a long time, since I put a lid on my study of the history of Western philosophy, in 1958. What I saw then and see now is an attempt to obscure the fatal flaws in materialism.

            Starting at the end of the 19th century, materialists claimed they were applying the scientific method to the world, civilization, and the human being, and through their “lens of understanding,” they could definitively say: there were no leaks; all life at every level was made of physical matter.

            The mumbo-jumbo intentionally distorted and reduced Asian philosophy that was imported into America in the 1960s did nothing to slow down these materialists. They went to work on the brain—and they are just getting started.

            They aim for control. They love the idea. They want to put the brain through paces, ruling it from their elite perches, and they use “the mind is a computer” as their cover.

            They promote that lie over and over. They use collectivism as the social justification for their “research.”

            That’s what they’re talking about when they say “we’re all in this together.” On the far shore of their ambition, they see brains linked as computers would be linked.

            When the subject of true individual and human potential arises, they try to discredit it by calling it some kind of heresy against The Group.

            They preach a numbing “equality” as the final solution. And it is. For them.

            Here’s another metaphor: “There is a very large room. And it’s filled and crowded with an astonishing number of objects. They’re piled up on the floor, on shelves, hung from the walls, suspended from the ceiling. They interact with one another in wondrous but very specific ways. It’s a fascinating mystery. We’re just beginning to understand the processes involved. We haven’t even cataloged all the things in the room yet. But we’re making progress. Soon we’ll have a handle on the basic algorithms of the operation. Then, we’ll make miracles occur…”

            That’s how brain researchers and psychiatrists and technocrats see the mind. That’s their picture. It’s about as accurate as a map of Europe drawn by a microbe that lives a hundred miles under the surface of Jupiter.

            When they stall, when they suffer a setback and can’t successfully float lies about “breakthroughs,” they fall back on: “Everything is connected to everything, we just don’t know quite how yet.”

            No, Virginia, everything isn’t connected to everything. The principal thing that isn’t connected is the unlimited creative potential of the individual.

            And neither is freedom connected to everything. Freedom is the power of choice. It isn’t in the causal chain. It’s free.

            That absolutely upsets the apple carts of physicists and brain researchers. They want to draw all of reality into their net. But it doesn’t work.

            If it did work, and if your mind were nothing but your brain, and if your brain were nothing more than atoms in motion, atoms like all other atoms floating around the universe, you wouldn’t be able to read anything on this page. You wouldn’t be able to understand meaning at all. Atoms don’t possess understanding. In fact, there wouldn’t be a you or a me.

            But there is you. There is me.

            We’re here. We aren’t just atoms.

            We’re not made out of matter.

            That’s what happens when you strip away the lies of materialism.

            The danger, to the status quo, is human beings becoming what they are actually are.

            You can pretend you’re a bunch of atoms for only so long, and then it becomes tiring. Foolish. Self-defeating. Stunningly crazy.

            “The cooking vessel of the soul takes in everything, everything can become soul; and by taking into its imagination any and all events, psychic space grows.”

            James Hillman, co-author, “We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Therapy—and the World’s Getting Worse”

          • Today’s fark.com cop of the day… ok I made that up but I got the link from fark.
            http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/possible_motive_emerges_in_edi.html

            After setting fire to the police captain’s house they decided this guy is a real problem. He is suspended without his $118,000/yr pay.

            And then people wonder why kids don’t go into engineering and science in the USA anymore but instead there’s law enforcement majors everywhere. Perhaps it has to do with the reward/work ratio.

      • Hello Tormunkov,

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        • Awwww, Tor. You made them cry, you big meanie. I’m not all that heartbroken about the article myself, but then I’m an insensitive prick anyway……;-)

          • There’s plenty of resources for everyone. Even the worst of us. Why beat swords into plowshares? Or citizens into serfs? If you start anew with fresh material we all get richer.

            But what do I know. They arrested me and they put me in jail. And called my pappy to throw my bail. He said “Son, you’re gonna to drive me to drinkin. If you don’t stop drivin’ that Hot Rod Lincoln”

            Have you heard the story of the hot rod race
            Where the Fords and Lincolns were settin’ the pace? That story is true I’m here to say
            I was drivin’ that model A. It’s got a Lincoln motor and it’s really souped up That a Model A body makes it look like a pup. It’s got eight cylinders and uses ’em all. Got overdrive, just won’t stall. With a four barrel carb and dual exhausts With four-eleven gears you can really get lost. Got safety tubes, but I ain’t scared. The brakes are good, the tires fair…

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDbON8udTPo

        • Tor, you can’t speak to the truth of the situation. I wish my wife had never found that damned site or BBC either, just hate both of them. She gets off the computer and I close all that shit out. I don’t even want to hear their version of anything and wish to hell LRC would quit using them as a source. And why did you post my ringtone? I never have to worry about anyone else mistaking my phone for theirs. Johnny Bond rules….although I don’t have his version so I use AATW’s.

          • Worlds most read paper? Yomiuri Shimbun
            http://the-japan-news.com/

            2 Asahi Shimbun, 3 The Times of India
            4 Mainichi Shimbun 5 Nihon Keizai Shimbun
            6 Bild 7 The Sun 9 WSJ 12 Daily Mail

            Johnny Bond 1960
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdo4lzw5eUQ

            All the Dukes Jumps Seasons 1-6
            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4W7E5BlLGM

            Just two good ole boys, Never meaning no harm. Beats all you never saw, been in trouble with the law. Since the day they was born.

            Straightenin’ the curves, Flattenin’ the hills.
            Someday the mountain might get ’em but the law never will. Makin’ their wayyyyyy, the only way they know how. Well, that’s just a little bit more than the law will allow.

            Just two good ole boys, Wouldn’t change if they could. Fightin’ the system like two modern day Robin Hoods

          • True, that, Eight. Notice how they worded the email: “We have received a number of complaints “. A number. Zero is a number ain’t it, or is it just a numeral? So, they could have gotten zero complaints or one complaint…………….

            Yeah, LRC links to some annoyingly ridiculous sources, such as: Dr. Edward Group, Daily Mail UK, the Art of Manliness, the Survival Mom, Slate, Mother Jones, the Guardian UK and several others. The trick is to judge for yourself, which is what you’re doing.

            If you saw what my wife reads online (when she isn’t glued to the TV), you’d probably shit a yard of bobwire. 😉

          • Ed, reckon that’s just what I had until about a year ago when our free DTV went away and a big storm took down the antenna. I thought the old lady might crack w/o tv but she managed to pull through. I showed her how to access RSS feeds never imagining of all I have, it would be those she’d read but I guess that was just lack of insight on my part. Wish I could find some LSD so we could “re-adjust” our old ladies but the govt. has quit making it so there’s that. I think it was ’73 or 4 when Yellow Submarine was first broadcast on tv. An old college friend came to visit and we all sat down with a good dose of mescaline and watched the entire movie. We were amazed at all the great colors and the music was a boon too. Hours later we realized we had seen it on a B&W tv. Oh well….The last time I saw any acid was the early 80’s when some friends kids came home from school with a note warning the parents of a new batch of really strong acid circulating. Naturally we got the kids to get us some and it was really good stuff. The kids weren’t interested.

          • Ride, ride my see saw, take my place on this trip, it’s for free. I might not live through a good dose any more but I’d like to try. I found out I was more than a shitkicker and concert trombonist, I could fly.

  17. Too bad that wasn’t some pissant congresscritter in the back of the ambulance; bet they’d revise those regs in a hurry. Of course our masters have doctors on hot standby wherever they go, it’s only us mundanes that get put in the “amberlamps”.

    • Hmph, I never thought about that before, mike. You never do hear about congressmen getting shuffled off in amberlamps. At least * I * have never heard of such.

      • What’s the difference between a dead dog and a dead legislator on the freeway?
        Skid marks in front of the dog.
        Skid marks are BEHIND the legislator, ’cause they had to back up and make sure.

        • Jean, the difference is I’ll stop and render aid to the dog and if he’s dead I’ll remove him from the roadway, maybe even load him up and seek his owners if he has a collar with ID on. The legislator? Bump, bump.

          • That is a shame Ed. One advantage of driving a one ton pickup is you can be looking off to the side and barely feel a body in the road. GM’s are really smooth riding. They should bring back that old obstacle course with the really bad bumps but use politicians instead of concrete. Local politicians will do fine although some might cause a brief high center condition. Not to worry, skid plates.

          • Well, these Virginia politicians are fat, so they’d make good moguls. Maybe a few dozen of those ramshackly senators and delegates piled up at a dirt race track out in the sticks would cheer up the good people around here who like to have their truck jumpin’s and tractor pulls.

            You have hit on a killer idea, old dog.

          • Killer Idea…indeed. Just pick out two rougher ones and have them stake down the rest, tell ’em stakers ain’t takers and then surprise em when they’re through.

          • Two rougher ones? They’re all a bunch of fat sissies. That’s like trying to get the two turds with the nicest shade of brown. Don’t worry, I’ll figure something out

    • Eightsouthman, your link didn’t take me to a specific comment, just the article.
      I read the whole thread. … I’m glad to say I feel like I’m going round and round, only it’s one of those ever widening circles that includes more and more people at every turn.

      Also (this is more at the thought Ed had) – I will never give up.
      I might take a pause now and then, but I’ll be damned if the bastards ever get me to give up. Fuck them and their whole power trip.

      • Yes, I thought the article made sort of one specific point even though it was a compendium of points. No DS, I won’t be falling over for them for damned sure. I get discouraged but for me it’s actually an ongoing thing and there isn’t a break for me, just keep on and looking over my shoulder. Ok, I’ll say it, I hate the MF’s and everything they represent. All inclusive, hate all of them no matter what brand they wear. Just so we’re straight.

    • Yes, what the man says is true. The great majority of people don’t see those headlines. They see a little blurb here or there, all of it misrepresented in the news media. Most don’t do any digging for further info. The absence of curiosity is a bad sign. People who aren’t curious about what the news media isn’t telling or about whether what the news twits report makes any sense at all, will be looking the wrong way when something bad happens to all of us.

  19. I have always thought DC was the US’s most perfect prison city. Everybody too broke and dependent on big gov’s teat to leave and become productive workers, citizens even. When I read the comments on this blog, I am reminded how much of a minority we must be. Seems like 10% of the people feeling like we do would be enough, but then again, we’re too civilized I guess, no riots anymore and those were the good old days. Democratic convention, 1968, run ’em out of their offices.

    • Yes, we’re too civilized by half. Some days, I just give up on the whole shitaree. Today, I was looking over the situation we’re all in and I had to just change the subject in my mind. It’s fuckin’ demoralizin’ as Tony Soprano said.

  20. Another point made in the original article on the GSW victim dying due to the engine shutdown is that the victim was shot several times by cops. The fauxnews article says that he was wounded in a shootout with DC cops. ‘Course, the news media will claim it was a shootout when someone was gunned down by the Poe Lease. We all know that’s the only reason anyone gets shot by cops, they fired first.

    Ok, so I’m off topic. Don’t shoot me. I don’t know if my local rescue squad has a reliable engine in the ambalamps.

    • Who are the Poe Lease? What is a typical background of officer fascist?

      They were the second stringers on their high school football team.

      They rarely, if ever, got the good looking girl.

      Typically, at least one of their parents was in the public sector and often, both parents. Thus, there is a genetic predisposition to be a parasite.

      They were never the best and the brightest. Intellectual curiosity is not an attribute typically possessed by a pig.

      They do not make or produce anything upon a consensual, voluntary basis.

      They do not tend to be inventors.

      They do not tend to be entrepreneurs, in the laissez faire sense. Sure, some of them run drug rackets and the like, but we know that is a black market.

      They do not tend to provide great service as people in the public sector typically fail miserably in truly competitive markets.

  21. A minor issue to note is the price increase may not count as inflation as it is an’improvement’ according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. If I remember right they did that with ethanol added to gas.

  22. Looking over the quotes in the sourced article, we have the spokesmen of the DC FD saying that nobody who works for them is at fault, and then a union rep saying it’s the fault of somebody who isn’t in the union. Naturally none of them fucked up, though they’re actually just the lower level people who weren’t the ones who decided to buy these shitty engines.

    DC has the extreme disadvantage of having a hyper-politicized city government directly ruled by Congress and the executive branch agencies. Though there’s very little in the way of actual interposition going on at the level of state governments, at least with a state government in place, other cities do have a little buffer between their functions and federal oversight.

    DC is an excellent example of how micromanagement of local government by the federal overlords results in disaster, every time.

    • Ed, that’s the reason they have such good schools and low crime. Just a big, happy family, 1000 people on the hill makes as much as the rest of the city.

  23. I remember reading of this a few days ago on another site. My immediate response was that the EPA should be held fully responsible for this. The US EPA is practically a law unto themselves and hold industry to ransom with vast tomes or red tape. It’s no wonder the USSA is going downhill and there’s so many unemployed.

    In Australia it’s more to do with Health and Saaaaaafety. Their ridiculous edicts do the same as US EPA.

  24. There is a hilarious audio of a vibrant diverse comrade of the glorious 1000 year rainbow hopetopia who picks up a deer in the road and proceeds to put it in the back seat of his hooptie. The deer was not dead and starts kicking the shit out of everything. The good comrade calls for a “mamberlamps” on a pay phone. This happened before the days of free tax payer funded sail fawns from Uncle Sugar.

  25. eric, being in the trucking industry I can tell you that this blue DEF emissions stuff is just another pain in the ass, cost raiser. And it drives the mechanics insane too; even though they are trained on it many will tell you that the way regeneration is supposed to work and why it does not is baffling.

    But hey, a bureaucrat somewhere in the bowels of gubment demands it all so we must obey.

    • skunk, it’s completely ridiculous to compare the exhaust without the urea and with, very little difference, just enough for a bureaucrat to be able to exert some “power” from his little hellhole. A friend bought a new one ton dually Dodge and got one of the last 12’s since the 13’s have the injection. Dodge sold a wad of diesels just on that alone in the last few years. This year forward, you’re screwed.

  26. Great post and thanks for letting me relive the bearded dude kickin’ the shit out of the loud mouth, punk-ass, pussy, fat-ass, dreadlock loser on the bus!!!

    The point of this post to me is not about the cost of the “piss in a bottle,” it’s about the fact that the Big Government, ultra-control ideas ALWAYS have unintended, unforeseen or ignored consequences that far outweigh any meager, potential benefits they ALWAYS imagine when they work their “magic” and pass this CONSTANT STREAM of legislation that runs (and ruins) our lives and gradually erodes our freedom to the point that almost everything you do is controlled in some way by some Libtard in government.

    You can’t even make this crap up. Pelosi tells us “You’ll have to pass ObamaCare to find out what’s in it.” Would you even THINK of making a dumb-ass argument like that at your place of work? WTF?? How is that moronic statement even uttered let alone ACCEPTED by the masses? Is everyone a moron today? How did she get elected and re-elected ad nauseum? Who are these morons who would vote for someone as dumb as that?

    A smaller point to this post is that the power elites always exclude themselves from the onerous laws. What the hell is that? If it’s such a greater damn idea for everyone else, why in the hell don’t they set a good example and do it themselves first and PROVE how great it is? Could it be any more obvious that all this crap is utter B.S.?

    It takes large cajones to post anti-BG stuff like this these days. Frankly, an IRS audit is a REAL threat for anyone who runs a blog like this. So, for that, THANKS for having the stones, man!!! Everyone should be thankful for people like Eric who shed light on all this utter nonsense…

    I have not idea where it ends, but it don’t look good at this point.

    • Freeman, Pelosi learned to say that after the Republicans said the same about the Patriot Act(sic). These people are so retarded and have such lack of imagination it’s hard to believe they had the perseverance to run for office. Of course, most times they only have to give a few speeches, let someone else write “policy” for them and mainly, look better somehow than they ever could without a couple experts coiffing and putting on exactly the right make-up to appeal to their constituency, who the hell ever that might be.

      • ” exactly the right make-up to appeal to their constituency, who the hell ever that might be.”

        Good point, Eight. If we look for who their constituency actually is, we can go by the basic rule that it ain’t anyone who cast a vote in their election.

  27. What about the tens of thousands of diesel-electric locomotives hauling stuff around the country? Do all these requirements apply to them?

    • Nope, along with farm equipment (farm diesel is generally 30-50¢ cheaper because it isn’t taxed, also has a red die so that the revenuers can spot it in your car’s fuel lines), backup generators, big trucks and construction equipment. You know, the diesel engines that run for 12+ hours a day.

      But thank God and Barry we have all these systems in place to prevent my 6-8 hours of driving a week from destroying the atmosphere around Los Angles (even though I live in Colorado and have only been to LA once, which was more than enough).

  28. Funny vid, that one. Pops is definitely a SWP. Thug is sobbing…”bring a ambalamps”.. Remember, thugs. Pops got that old by out toughin’ young pups like you. ahaha

  29. No need to pay Mercedes prices on the Urea (Diesel Exhaust Fluid, or DEF) — Walmart has it for $14 for 2.5 gallons. It even comes with a flexible nozzle.

    I imagine that it is even cheaper when purchased at truck stops.

    • True – but let’s do some maff:

      $14 for 2.5 gallons. System needs about 7 gallons, so let’s say about $35 for a fill-up from empty.

      The mileage interval between refills is about 2,400 miles. Assuming 12k miles a year, that’s five fill-ups per year – or $175 per year.

      Let’s say you keep the vehicle for eight years. That’s an additional $1,400.

      Not a petty sum.

      • I’d have to ask around, but I don’t think it’s as often as every 2400 miles – I want to say it needs to be refilled right about when you’re due for an oil change. Which on modern cars is 9-10,000 miles.

        Something that’s not clear from the story is whether the DEF levels were low, or if the particulate filter needed a regeneration cycle. If the DEF fluid was low, then the operator is at fault for not performing their maintenance checks to ensure the vehicle was ready to go (irregardless of the expense of buying DEF — they’d just pass that cost onto us anyway…)

      • eric, the diesel signage you showed is not the one I normally see and have seen for years. The most common one says Not recommended for use in vehicles made before 2007, may cause engine damage. Now that’s reassuring. Time to break out the diesel conditioner, a not cheap item also.

    • Big trucks don’t have urea injection, just cars. Some manufacturers (VW/Audi) REQUIRE you to go back to the dealer to get urea so they can reset the warning light. You have 5 starts after the warning comes up to get it to the dealer. It’s my understanding if you don’t use VW urea you will void your warranty.

      The nice thing about the 2.5L TDI engines is they don’t need a urea injection system, but they do have a fuel economy stealing catalyst that needs to be blown out once in a while. But there’s nothing needed to be done other than maybe push the pedal down once in a while.

      • Actually, medium and large truck engines DO have urea injection systems and have for the last couple years. International tried to get around this by using ‘Advanced EGR’ and it ‘advanced’ them to huge warranty expenses and angry customers. I’ve been a Diesel mechanic at an International dealer for the last 20 years and have never seen so many ‘big bore’ (13 liter and up) engines with heads off getting soot removed as we do now. EGR coolers plug so badly we have a special machine to clean them. International had to change their design and also give customers the option of a Cummins ISX 15 liter engine with DEF injection to sell class 8 trucks. This whole disaster is a result of gov’t bureaucrats mandating miniscule reductions in emissions that are horribly expensive to reach. It’s a logarithmic scale of cost vs. reduction of smoke. The cost line is going near vertical now…..

        • Greg,

          Thanks for your input on this; I’d heard the new regs had imposed huge cost/hassle on heavy trucks – and you’ve given us first-person confirmation.

        • I stand corrected. I figured they’d be exempt. Does the same apply to farm equipment and construction vehicles?

          Also, I’ve noticed most trucks on the 75MPH sections of I70 are going about 65-70 these days, and I’m noticing more “wind cheater” devices all over the trailers. I’m sure that’s got everything to do with fuel economy.

        • I work in a Caterpillar truck shop and worked at a Peterbilt shop for several years. Many trucks use DEF including the Paccar engines imported from Europe for Peterbilt/Kenworth. The new emissions systems actually dump raw fuel into the exhaust system or burn it to heat up the particulate filter. The mileage has steadily gone down over the years. You could get 6.5 MPG with a 1994 caterpillar model 3406B truck engine. If you have a 2007 caterpillar C15 engine, you’ll likely get closer to 4 MPG hauling the same load.
          I worked on a fire tower truck recently that was shutting down for emissions related codes. They run for 30 seconds and then shut down. Cycle the key and you get another 30 seconds. Not good when the tower is up in the air over a burning building and the wind changes direction.

      • Big trucks DO have urea injection, trust me, we have been a Peterbilt dealer for 30 years and this technology presents a number of problems associated with initial cost, downtime, running costs (reduced fuel mileage on the new engines) as well as the aformentioned urea costs. Cummins, Paccar, Detroit all use urea injection as well as other engine manufacturers and now this technology has been mandated in most offroad diesels as well construction equipment etc. etc.

        • I wonder if the city buses that run around empty all day have the urea injection? Ever notice how the buses all seem to have limo tinted windows? That’s probably to keep anyone from seeing that they’re empty most of the time while they block the streets and belch black smoke everywhere.

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