FOX NEWS HOST Eric Bolling test drove the Chevy Volt at the invitation of General Motors. For four days in a row, [he found] the fully charged battery lasted only 25 miles before the Volt switched to the reserve gasoline engine.

Bolling calculated the car got 30 mpg including the 25 miles it ran on the battery, so the range including the 9 gallon gas tank and the 16 kwh battery is approximately 270 miles. That equates to a gasoline efficiency of 27.2 mpg and an electric efficiency of 1.56 m/kwh.

At my home, gasoline is $3.60/gallon and electricity is $0.114/kwh, so a 'full tank' would cost $34.22 or 12.7 cents/mile driven. Using electricity only (limiting the Volt to 25 miles/day or less than 9,000 miles/year) the cost per mile drops to a low of 7.3 cents/mile.

For a 500-mile road trip (about 10 hours with stops for gas) my Honda Pilot will get an average of 22 mpg at a cost of roughly 16 cents/mile. Taking the same trip (10 hours, one gasoline-only fill up) in a Volt will cost roughly 13 cents/mile (475 miles at 27.2 mpg plus $1.82 for electricity). For a 500-mile road trip in full-economy mode (electricity only), plan on taking roughly 8 days (210 hours) at a cost of $1.67 per mile (including food and hotel costs, since it takes 10 hours to recharge the Volt’s battery every 25 miles or so). Average speed … a bit less than 3 mph.

My Honda cost about $26,000; the Volt is a $250,000 car that sells for $35,000 after Obama’s $10,000 rebate.

So Obama wants me to pay 35% more for a car that costs about 10 times as much to drive cross-country and takes about 17 times as long to get there?

Really?

[Amusing Note]: $170,000 is the average income of the relatively few buyers of the $40,000 Volt to date.... Only Mercedes-Benz drivers, at an average $174,000 a year, earn more than Volt drivers. Their high income puts Volt buyers in the top 7% of households, according to census data, and slightly above the rankings held by households with BMWs, Lexuses or Cadillacs. It does not seem likely the Occupy Wall Street crowd will be lining up at their local GM dealer any time soon.

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON on technology: "Use it — but beware that at best the speed, ease of use, and greater awareness at our fingertips simply accelerate, emphasize, and accentuate whether we are dunces and boors or pretty informed and decent folk. And at worst, it is more likely to make us the former rather than the latter."

NON-PARTISAN BUMPER STICKER: You can't fix stupid, but you can vote it out.

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: It's not about America, it's about him.

HOPE 'N CHANGE: after nearly 3 years of Obama ... here's your change! Click on the image to enlarge.


Sources:

(1) U.S. Energy Information Administration;
(2) Wall Street Journal;
(3) Bureau of Labor Statistics;
(4) Census Bureau;
(5) USDA;
(6) U.S. Dept. Of Labor;
(7) FHFA;
(8) Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller;
(9) RealtyTrac;
(10) Heritage Foundation and WSJ;
(11) The Conference Board;
(12) FDIC;
(13) Federal Reserve;
(14) U.S. Treasury

The friend who sent me this data wrote this: "I played with the numbers a little further and specifically looked at number of long-term unemployed that increased from 2.6 to 6.2 million. (assuminging one can measure it). If you include those people back into the unemployment rate calculation you get 12% instead of 9.4%. Not what we are being told. Do you think the Obama adminstration is playing with the unemployent statistics?"

Given the 'transparency' of the Obama administration, I wouldn't rule it out, but I think I have a simpler explanation: a booming underground (cash) economy.

WHAT ELSE IS NEW? The Washington Post tries to trash Newt Gingrich again.

THAT’S THE WAY WASHINGTON WORKS: taxpayers get the losses while private companies get the profits … and arrogant senators get to pat themselves on the back for “creating jobs.”

PROGRESSIVES and the politics of victimhood: "[I]f you’re a leftist you’re allowed to be a bigot. It’s practically required."

I particularly liked the comment that "you can't polish a turd." That reminded me of some long-ago bathroom graffiti: "Of course you can; use Turdle Wax."

INSURANCE INDUSTRY could take hit from birth control mandate. The "cost assurances" of the Obama administration are so much hogwash; despite their valiant spin, there is still no such thing as a free lunch.

The significant unanswered question, it seems to me, is what to do about those companies that self-insure. Can a large self-insured company whose owners are, say, devout Catholics also qualify for religious exemption? Or is the Obama exemption just so much window dressing?

OBAMA 2012 ELECTON POSTER


Speaks for itself.

IS RICK SANTORUM an improvement for conservatives? I think it's fair to say he is well right of mainstream America; but I think it's also fair to say he is not as far to the right of the mainstream as President Obama is to the left of it.

'TWAS THE MORNING after breakfast,


and all through the house,


not a critter was stirring,


not even the cats.