Free Republic

sweet.

The advantage of the T-Rex three-wheeler though is it's based on a ubiqitous standard-issue Japanese motorcycle 4-cylinder drivetrain: maintenance simplicity. Many/most of them use the drivetrain from my bike - Kawasaki ZZR1200 (~145hp). Dunno what they're using now that Kawi has discontinued the ZZR, perhaps the ZX12R motor.

Although I suppose if you can afford a toy like that, you're not worried about maintenance.

Can you imagine what an 850lb car feels like on a high bridge with a stiff crosswind?

Depends on the aerodynamics.

Amen, and aerodynamics is this thing's focus. I don't understand all the whining about wind. If I can ride a motorcycle comfortably at highway speeds and cope with crosswinds and tractor-trailer wakes, I just don't see an issue with this extremely slippery three-wheeler.

This hybrid weighs about the same as a Honda Goldwing touring bike or a Harley Electra Glide.

By comparison, my Kawasaki ZZR1200 and my wife's Yamaha FJR1300 (both large sport/tourers) weigh about 600 pounds wet.

The safety problem I see with a vehicle this small and light is that people are apt to drive it with the same mindset as regular cagers (car/truck/suv drivers). For the most part, people who drive standard cages basically suck. They don't pay attention, they're rude, they think they own the road, and they drive offensively.

Motorcyclists operate on a completely different conscious plane, or at least, they do if they want to stay alive.

This hybrid is way, way safer than any motorcycle simply by virtue of the fact that it doesn't have to balance.

Thanks BikerNY, I'll do that. I ride too, which is part of the reason I'm so interested in this. I do everything I can to reduce the potential for injury and increase my odds of surviving a crash (always wear a helmet & armor, ride defensively and with caution, never drink & ride, etc). But nevertheless, if my luck runs out I most certainly do not want to be kept in a state like Terri Schiavo for 15 years.

Jeb, grow a set of B*lls and rescue this woman, NOW, do it now.......

WTF? Rescue? "Rescue" how? What you call "rescue" seems more like "condemn to another who-knows-how-many decades of hopeless bed-ridden imprisonment" to me.

I've never found myself in such overwhelming disagreement with the general Free Republic opinion as I have in this case.

I guess I better hurry up and get a living will written, lest I have an accident and a bunch of holier-than-thou do-gooders take it upon themselves to condemn me or my empty shell to a state of perpetual hopelessness while torturing and vilifying my spouse.

Michael Schaivo will get what's coming to him. Surely later but perhaps sooner.

I don't get it. What is "coming to him"? If this were your wife, would you keep her "alive" in this state for 15 years? 40 years? What if she had expressed to you that she didn't want to live in that state indefinitely, but you never bothered to get it in writing?

What if it were you? Personally, if it were me, I'd want the tube pulled. If I'm just a brain stem, I'm sure not going to be aware that I'm starving to death. Even worse, if I were consciously aware but otherwise trapped in a dead body with no way to communicate and no hope of recovery, I'd be praying for two weeks of starvation leading, finally, to the end of that 15 years of living hell.

Michael isn't the one with no heart; it's everybody else with a morbid fascination in keeping this poor woman "alive" that has no heart.

So why on Earth does he refuse to allow CFS to take custody of Terri? What's his payoff?

I think this is the point - Michael Shiavo is not looking for a payoff. Didn't somebody offer him a million bucks to sign over custody to Teri's parents? I think this guy is getting a really bum rap. The only reason he'd have for doing what he's doing is because he knows Teri isn't going to recover and that she would not have wanted to "live" this way indefinitely.

Come on people, she's been like this for fifteen years. She's just running on brain stem.

*sigh*

It's so embarassing being a Massachusetts resident.

I think I need to go find me one of those nice yellow Caterpillar hats.

"In fact, the foundation for the first brick-and-mortar structure designated for Army housing has been laid. Its first occupants will likely be members of the 12th Aviation Brigade from Giebelstadt, Germany."

Redeployment ping. Good news.

The MSM's non-coverage of this shows that their political bias trumps even the free-market profit motive.

As we've seen here in the blogosphere, these protests are bountiful with Lebanese Freedom Babes... that the MSM would willfully miss such a market opportunity speaks volumes about their motives.

I'm not going to believe anybody really cares about the price of oil until the day when I'm able to actually find my little 30mpg 4-dr sedan amongst the sea of huge 14mpg SUVs in the grocery store parking lot.

Went to a big boat show a couple weeks ago. The sailboats were tucked in one small corner of the exhibition hall; >90% of the boats on display were huge powerboats with monstrous twin inboards or gas outboards the size of cars stood on end. And this was in Boston - supposed liberal bastion of environmentally-conscious greenfreaks. Freakin' hypocrits.

By and large, America just doesn't care about the price of oil, or the suppressive effect that gratuitous consumption of it has on the overall economy. Apparently, our conspicuous displays of status are more important. That's Ok though; this is America and we're free to set our own priorities. I just can't wait 'til the weather improves so I can start commuting on my 50mpg motorcycle again.

No kidding. I cringe every fall when it's time for back-to-school shopping for our two daughters. It's really hard to find clothes that aren't slutty.

But it's not the fault of the stores. They are just carrying what people want to buy - it's entirely the fault of so-called "parents" that let MTV raise their kids and let the kids run their house.

we bought our house, 3200sf on 2+ acres in MA, only five years ago. It has since nearly doubled in value according to comparable recent sales and a recent appraisal.

I'm not complaining, but it's absolutely nuts. I couldn't afford the house I now own if I were trying to buy today. If only I didn't need a place to live, I'd love to sell it and rake in the obscene profit. I feel sorry for folks trying to buy today.

Let's not encourage anyone from California, NY, or Mass. to move to Texas...O.K.?, First thing you know, they'll be wanting to outlaw concealed carry laws, etc. I, for one, don't want their liberal attitudes in this part of the country.

Whoa there Maria, that's a mighty broad brush you're swinging! Shoot, I'd love to move to TX or some other warmer, "conservativer" state, and when I *do*, you won't have to worry about this life-long MA resident polluting your politics! Concealed carry, real marriage, family values, anti-nanny-state, etc.; all good things in my book. In fact, reasons like that are exactly why I'll someday move south - to GET AWAY FROM liberal politics!

Wow! This was a fantastic piece! I just had to write an email to Cinnamon praising her eloquence and bravery.

Indeed, I think this domestic cultural war is actually a greater danger than the external enemy. It takes nothing more than the weather to kill you, if you are tied down to the ground.

I believe that I would have left them stranded after hearing that BS.

Yeah, we might have done that, but she didn't crack her little joke 'til after we got back with the new tire. I kinda regret not informing them that we're Bush voters though; I'm sure it wouldn't have changed their political orientation, but at least it might have made them question their own prejudgements about us evil knuckle-dragging rethuglicans. I wonder how many of her fellow liberals just drove right by them and ignored their situation?

Seems to me that homosexuals don't like being identified as a "vulnerable population", which is ironic seeing as how they are so comfortable playing the victim card for political gain.

A a couple weeks ago, a local homosexual lawyer murdered his lover with 5 shots to the head, called his brother to tell him what he had just done and asked him to take care of their mother, then put one in his own head.

Naw, no emotional unstability there!

Dean's problem is this...Vermont, however, beautiful to the eye, is a very remote state filled with former hippies from New York and Boston. The only minorities in Vermont are those Vermonters who were born and raised in Vermont.

So true. My liberal Vermonter story:

Last fall my wife and I were riding our motorcycles and came upon a crunchy middle-aged couple from Vermont on bicycles who were riding from Vermont to their son's house in Boston. They were royally screwed because the woman had a flat and the gash in the tire was so big that patching the tube was fruitless. They didn't know the area so they couldn't even find a bike shop.

We did the good samaritan thing and rode a few miles to the closest bike shop and brought them back a new tire a couple more spare tubes.

While chatting, the woman made a disparaging remark about Bush and Cheney, likening them to her two sore, troublesome knees. I didn't have the heart to tell them that their bacon was just saved by a couple of staunch Bush-voting motorcyclists. You could tell that it never even occurred to them that we didn't necessarily share their liberal convictions.

Ignorance truly is bliss, and liberals have a corner on that market.

One missile? Makes no sense.

My guess: Iran just tested an operational low-yield nuke of their own, and this is a cover story.

I thought Boston was already flooding due to the low quality of the "Big Dig Project"!

Yep. That, and the ancient water mains that keep bursting and flooding subway stations, etc.

Boston is already drowning.