Garbanzo Toons

When Critical Thinking Skills are Allowed to Evaporate

The Detroit Free Press no longer questions the government. Now that The Obama is firmly ensconced in the White House with family and dog, any pronouncements that come from Washington D.C. contain nothing but the truth, even when he tries to rule by royal fiat. Regarding the new auto emissions mandate from the Obama administration for example,

But the sweeping deal announced Tuesday on auto emission and mileage standards does indeed appear to be good for just about everybody -- assuming the vehicles it spawns are appealing to consumers.

OK, so there is one caveat. However,

The requirements will add an estimated $1,300 to the cost of vehicles, but the government says that will be offset by savings in gasoline.

The government says? Wasn't it the job of newspapers, once long ago in the fading mists of time, to question what the government says? Especially now that they are telling the auto companies how to make cars and will soon be telling the consumer what to buy? Can I see the congressional engineering degrees? Can I see the grease under Obama's fingernails from endless hours working on the engine of his SUV? Or was it removed during his last manicure?

The upside for the nation is cleaner air, which could lead to lower health care costs, and less dependence on oil. At a time when this country is using 20 million barrels of oil a day, Obama said that the plan will yield a savings of 1.8 billion barrels by 2016, or about what America imported last year from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Venezuela and Nigeria combined.

Get that? Obama said. Yes, that Obama. And he says . . . so it must be true! It's Obama. If Obama mandates that all cars and trucks in the U.S. run on unicorn farts by 2017, the Free Press would fawn over that too. And this is a Detroit paper. Detroit and automobiles used to go together like lox and bagels. Now the auto industry has been replaced in the hearts of Free Press editors, by their one true love, Obama.

Meanwhile, there are places where clear and critical thinking is still the order of the day, where the official word of the government, even if it is the Obama government, is questioned. The editors at National Review Online understand what is passing over the heads of the sycophantic idiots at the Free Press.

Obama’s hard sell — “This is a winning proposition for folks looking to buy a car” — is premised on some sketchy math. For one thing, experts outside the administration say the added per-vehicle cost could go as high as $8,000. You can’t save money getting more miles to the gallon if you can’t afford the car in the first place. For another, those estimated savings are based on the administration’s ability to predict gas prices seven to ten years into the future. If gas is still as cheap as it is now, savings on better mileage could be minimal.

Even if gas prices go up, the savings Obama predicts might not materialize. Cars that are more fuel efficient are cheaper to drive, increasing the likelihood that people will drive more. That wouldn’t just offset the savings — it would also offset promised reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions and oil imports, to say nothing of adding to congestion.

There's more of course, but it's based on facts that the Free Press is willing to ignore in deference to the one they will not question.

And if Obama and his environmentalist pals had their way, this is what we'd all be driving.

Labels: auto industry, Detroit, Detroit Free Press, environment, National Review, Obama

posted by Harry @ 8:30 PM