If Only the U.S. Congress Was So Circumspect…

I have to call bullshit on this "too expensive / too rollover prone" line of thinking. We're not talking about a freaking roll cage here. To put it in perspective: The Scion tC is one of a half-dozen cars that already meets ALL of the available proposed standards, including the 4X-weight "A plane landed on my car" doomsday scenario. Yes, you read that currectly: currently meets them. Call me crazy if I don't think "expensive" OR "top-heavy" when I think of the tC. Like all reasonable adults, I think "exhaust opening large enough to insert my foot." Mileage isn't bad either, now that you mention it. Oh, those wacky Scions - everything you need in a car, provided you don't mind being seen in it! As a correction to those who say it can be done: it IS being done.

faster_than_rabbit is correct. We all have PCBs in our bodies as well as loads of other chemicals. Despite billions spent on cancer research, we're losing ground. What's touted as progress in cancer survival, after detection, is mostly bullshit. Unless 'rare' diseases like thyroid disorders, ALS, etc. hit somebody we know, and we are thus educated, most of us are ignorant of trends. Some of these things can be traced to certain genes, but genes can be altered by environmental factors. Genetic research is a gold mine for researchers versus calling the problem to be environmental which ends the project. So chasing the genetic 'cause' pays the mortgage and avoids the opposition from polluters that identifying the true cause would bring.

@1996MEditio: Yes, capitalists hate consumers….we just want to screw them Some corporations, and individuals, continually demonstrate a willingness to sacrifice the safety of their customers in the interest of greater profits. Rocket fuel is essentially hydrogen burned in oxygen….what does that make? If it’s in my water, sure makes it tasty…I have some of the best well water ever… Perchlorate is very harmful even in minute amounts in water. Yes, again…mad cow disease is an epidemic!!! I think the USDA does swell job….cook your meat! Cooking does not destroy the prions involved in mad cow disease. I could go on.

Gosh, we libertarians sure have taken a bad rap lately. Somehow we've destroyed the economy, poisoned the water and given children mad cow disease infested lead toys to chew on, all without being in power in any way, shape or form. Sure, you can claim the republicans are libertarians, but, speaking as a lib, I really don't think they are, as the bailout BS proves, not to mention the war on (some) drug users and any other giant waste of taxpayer money you want to point at, including the entirety of US foreign policy. Personally, I think the problem is the other way around. I think people assume "the government" will protect them, that because there is an FDA/USDA that the food will be safe - which for the most part it is, I must admit, although there is the one meat producer that wanted to test 100% of their cattle for mad cow but were told to knock it off because it would make other meat producers look bad. A truly libertarian govt would let people test their meat as they wished. Water, too. I'm sure the fact that some companies get away with polluting water has nothing to do with the tax revenues (or political contributions they provide). As for the toys, instead of assuming the CPSC will test everything, maybe toy retailers and consumers should encourage independent testing of toys, both imported and domestically produced, not just because it's the right thing to do but because it will help retailers avoid being sued for negligently selling dangerous toys - although I will grant that the retailers were defrauded by the manufacturers, but good luck suing someone in China because of it. As a libertarian, I agree with George Washington's dictum: "Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." Nonetheless, it is not just because of this that I believe in as free a market as possible - it is because time and again we see that the freer a market the more wealthy that society as a whole becomes. The more constrained by regulation and interference (like the bailout), the less the market produces wealth for all. This does not mean that companies should get away with murder. It does mean that companies should be held accountable by consumers/citizens, who should sue companies that sell unsafe products, who pollute the environment: capitalism, not corporatism.