Hummer Bashing on "Marketplace" public radio broadcast 4 Dec.

[SONA]

http://www.marketplace.org/comments/index.html here is the link for anyone who heard the negative comments about the Hummer on Marketplace on the evening of Dec 4. I was appalled that they had three consecutive segments in which each made negative comments about the Hummer. The middle segment ran a 2 minute satire of a mother taking her childrent to the local pool in her Hummer and getting into a shoot out with the local police. I emailed them a comment to the above link and expressed my displeasure with the bad press. The other segments made reference to the "poor" gas milage of the Hummer and another included the Hummer in a story about how the greens had vandlized "SUV"s in some northern states and said the vandles considered it a form of free speech and civil disobedience. So if anyone else heard this broadcast, please join me in emailing the show Marketplace in the above link. Thanks.

[MBK]

Hey, ease up! NPR may have run a few segments that you disagree with, but do some research before you bash them.

http://www.npr.org/about/place/corps...inancials.html

NPR barely gets any money from our tax dollars.

I don't think it's news to anyone that the H2 is quite thirsty. You can trust people of certain political leanings to harp on that, just as you can trust people of other leanings to harp on the NEA.

[TS]

m998, Does that mean you guys have the most number of donut shops per capita? [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]
Hummergirl, I read yesterday San Jose is the safest city of size according to FBI Crime stats, and we rival San Francisco in population. So all is not bad in California. However, we do have an overabundance of Starbucks.. which is a crime in itself.

[HummerGirl]

HA HA!!!

you guys are cracking me up....

~amy
Move it or Lose it...

[Steve R]

Hummergirl, in repsonse to your inquiry about the violence.....it's really just in the bad parts of downtown and in 'bad areas'. You can find trouble just about anywhere you go....I've managed to steer clear from it with no problems.

[SONA]

Frank Zappa.... Know the words... Hey I have been an NPR junky since 1982.... and yes even sent them money, does not change my last and core premise.... just another voice from the trees... Did I tell you I love my GUNS>>>>>> [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_cool.gif[/img]

"Let me show you my gun collection"

[SONA]

http://www.marketplace.org/comments/index.html here is the link for anyone who heard the negative comments about the Hummer on Marketplace on the evening of Dec 4. I was appalled that they had three consecutive segments in which each made negative comments about the Hummer. The middle segment ran a 2 minute satire of a mother taking her childrent to the local pool in her Hummer and getting into a shoot out with the local police. I emailed them a comment to the above link and expressed my displeasure with the bad press. The other segments made reference to the "poor" gas milage of the Hummer and another included the Hummer in a story about how the greens had vandlized "SUV"s in some northern states and said the vandles considered it a form of free speech and civil disobedience. So if anyone else heard this broadcast, please join me in emailing the show Marketplace in the above link. Thanks.

[sheag]

Klaus, you described NPR as "taxpayer-funded". 2% of an organization's revenues hardly qualifies them as "taxpayer-funded". Furthermore, NPR's annual report states "NPR receives no direct general operating support from any national or local government source". What they do to obtain that 2% of revenue is compete for federally-funded grants. Is this the "taxpayer funding" you are referring to??

At any rate, even if there was an issue there, $3 mil a year is a drop in the bucket, what is that, 30 cents a year per American? And how much do you spend in gas for your H2? Give me a break, I'm totally with you on lousy journalism, but screeching about how your 30 cents a year is getting spent rings incredibly hollow.

I have no doubt that you can find much more egregious use of taxpayer dollars and far more ridiculous federally-funded grants than the few nickles and dimes thrown to public radio.

At any rate, the point is that people who drive H2s are not all gun-toting nutbars who voted for Ross Perot and completely inappropriately apply the term "marxist", nor are they all knee-jerk liberal granola-crunching Bill-Clinton-loving tree-hugging wackos. The people who criticize H2s similarly do not all fall into one of those two neat little categories.

And if anybody comes near my H2, be it a Jesus-freak or an enviro-freak, I'll kick his ass. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_eek.gif[/img]

Shea

[SONA]

I emailed GM as well, just to let them know. Every other special interest tree huggin liberal uses the power of the word, But when us gun lovin, gas hog driving, rockin rollin folks stand up, suddenly were whinning.... what the @*%$

[TS]

Oaktown gets a bad rap. It is so much better than it used to be just 10 years ago, no one would have dreamed of hanging out at Jack London Square at night back then.

[Texas Red]

Rugged Individual??? why, thank you. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Jim
Red H2 in Texas

[MBK]

I don't mean to sound like a dork, but if NPR no longer took public money at all, wouldn't it then not really be National Public Radio?

Of course estimating taxes based on the "working" population is going to be off. There really isn't an accurate way to calculate this. But let's pretend that only millionaires actually pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits from the government. There are 4 million millionaires in the US. That would mean it only costs these imaginary cash-providing citizens about $.75 a year to help provide public radio to an entire nation.

But remember, according to Benjamin Disraeli there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

But rather than all of us sitting around here complaining we could be starting a radio program about wheeling. Maybe we could even get it on NPR....

[SONA]

now if that is not a mutual exchange of Hummers then you need some outside help.... I could be there in a few days...

"Let me show you my gun collection"

[SONA]

you are having way to much fun on my account.... just stop that or I will have to just hold my breath and make politically incorrect comments sure to offend tree huggers or conservitive hack, of which I am neither...... did I ever get a chance to show you my.....

"Let me show you my gun collection"

[Steve R]

Back to the subject at hand. I think we all have to get used to being in the sights & scope of environmental organizations. I myself won't deny their point, the H2 is large, heavy and not a terribly efficient vehicle...but let's look at the bigger picture here.

The H2 makes up an absolutely tiny almost non-existant fraction of the excessive energy consuming problem! Wanna take a guess at the type of fuel consumption huge freightliners get, or even the Cruiselinersave s? If we stopped the ridiculous and outrageous onslaught of products imported from China, the lack of oil burnt in those ships alone would thousands upon thousands of times be greater then the fuel we burn because we're a few mpg below standard. Let's not even mention all the jobs we'd keep here.

Here's one for ya: those environmentalist live in homes, the foundation of these homes cover ground. Let's get creative with numbers, but keeping it real, a 1,400 sq/ft home is not only typical, but it actually covers 201,600 square inches of ground that could otherwise support trees, grow food or even host millions of organisms. I say we burn their land-smothering homes to the ground to free mother-earth from their opporessive selfish needs! And oh my gosh...are those homes made from wood? when you buy a home made of wood, you support the murdering of trees!!!

My being an insulation contractor, I've saved millions of kilowatt hours of electricity and millions of cubic feet of gas for society. I've done my part to save more energy then all our H2's will burn in fuel beyond a super-mpg vehicle.

[m998]

Fortunately, out here in the LA area the gang bangers shoot anyone spray painting in there territory.
Unfortunately, I do believe, no matter how flawed, in democracy. Who was it that said "I may not agree with what you say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."
Oh yea, Voltaire
HEY …. The f#@%n guys a f#@$%n frecnchy…….forget whatever it was I just said!!!!
[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_mad.gif[/img]

[TonkaH2]

And I listen to NPR all the time, because they do more in depth reporting and in general are much less partisan than other media outlets. I actually laughed a lot at the comedy piece, and didn't think it was much of a knock.

But I WAS concerned about the vandalism -that I agree is the kind of psuedo-environmentalism that is completely misguided, and done by people who aren't the enviro-saints they pretend to be. Just like the anti-Hummer 'Christians' who, I assume, are all going to drive donkeys now. . .

I do care about the environment, and I do alot to try and save it. So I understand why people care -if there was a hybrid Hummer, I'd own be the first in line. But it's not the only evil around, and for what it can do, it gets damn good mileage if you ask me!

I'm just surprised that no politically correct holier-than-though type isn't upset that you can actually use the term 'Hummer' as something vilgar! Goodness! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

-Jack
Yellow H2 on order
"I think I can make it. D'OH!"

[sheag]

Sheesh people, ease up on the liberal-bashing. The H2 is also getting criticized by right-wing Christians in their "what would Jesus drive" campaign. It's one thing to rationally and clearly articulate inaccuracies in media reports, but frothing at the mouth over 'commies' on public message boards isn't going to help the H2 image at all. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_rolleyes.gif[/img]

Shea
"I vote green, but I bought orange"

[Klaus]

Let's see... NPR BARELY gets any money?

According to their web site, they get 2% from taxpayers. According to their 2000 figures, that amounts to $2,876,432.26.

Maybe that's not much money to you, but it certainly is to me!

Klaus

[Klaus]

Another example of why taxpayer funded "Public Radio" should come to an end.

Klaus