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Obama on Boston Drivers

Barack Obama, in Berlin, on the perils of an inter-connected world:

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Wow. Now how am I supposed to sleep at night?

I suppose "drivers in Oklahoma City" wouldn't have the same alliterative appeal. But picking on a dense, transit-rich city seems like a cheap shot - and provokes the suspicion that we simply topped the list of "recognizable B-cities in reliably blue states."


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Comments

He'll win Massachusetts no matter what he says. Oklahoma, maybe not.

No one wants to be the one called out in the example.

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Maybe his displeasure with our failing transportation system and throwing Billions into a 1.4 tunnel?

one can hope....

:)

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trains in Teplice, buses in Bangkok, ships in Singapore ...

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Maybe he's just a Tonic Sol Fa fan?

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.

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I wouldn't call it a cheap shot. Our cars spew as much gas as cars elsewhere in the country. Let's not be so insecure.

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Well we did vote for Hillary during the primaries, which I supported, so reason number one to zing us.

Reason number two is the fact that we are always the one to get sucker punched, no matter who it is. He really should have said like Houston or LA. Boston has one of the better non automotive cultures out there.

Low blow because he cold get away with it , plain and simple.

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Victim complex much?

Try living in Akron.

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He said Boston only because of alliteration with Beijing. It's got nothing to do with Boston.

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Pretty much yes. Doesnt have the same ring to it if he used Boise. ;)

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He is completely utilitarian. Carbon Dioxide, the poison of our times. It's what trees and all plantlife breathe.

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ragweed and poison ivy, which get more toxic as the CO2 levels in the atmosphere climb.

Water can also be poisonous, as can oxygen. Just because something is useful or even necessary at one level of exposure, doesn't make it benign when too highly concentrated.

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Silly but serious question...

If Poison Ivy becomes more toxic as C02 climbs does that mean some other plant life, like vegtebles, will become more potent as well?

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Ragweed makes more pollen near roadways and when given higher CO2 in a greenhouse. Poison ivy makes more urishol and also grows much faster.

As for other plants, extra CO2 might make them grow faster - or it could make them grow in a way that isn't beneficial to us. In any case, it is moot if climate change claims their habitats.

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Nope, Boston / Cambridge et. al. voted for Mr. Obama.

You can thank the cesspool that is north west 495 corridor for swinging the state Hillary way.

(and yes I'm bitter, that where my stolen car ended up)

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I wonder what Boston/Cambridge et-al means exactly? Arlington,Watertown, Waltham and the North Shore all gave Hillary the nod. Also Quincy, Needham, Milton, Medford and many others that actually border Boston (like Canton) all went with Hillary. When you add the numbers up Greater Boston went for Hillary. If we are talking Boston proper then sure Obama won, but Im assuming the Europeans dont exactly see Quincy, Framingham and Medford as not being part of Boston.

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/2008/primaries...

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Why the unusual alliteration? (Boston/Beijing Kansas/Kenya).
You usually hear this sort of thing with "from A-Z", not B-K.
Subliminal advertising for Burger King?

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No, he may be a corporatist (god I hope he's not) like Bush, McCain, and Hillary but that's not the motivation here. I'll take a run at it: Boston was the seat of the American Revolution. Beijing, China is the 21 century superpower. Kansas was the home of his mother, and Kenya, the home of his father.

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