Well... Smog. What can I tell you about it here. If you already live here, or have visited here, you know what it's like. You know what it does to your eyes, sinuses, lungs, not to mention what it does do things like car tires and rubber products. In short ... it's killing you slowly. Who knows how many years it takes off your life? YOU won't know, because you'll be DEAD. Recent studies have concluded that 1,600 people in L.A. County DIE from causes brought on by air pollution alone, per year. Think your 'healthy' for not smoking cigarettes? Not in L.A. buddy. Other studies have shown that breathing the air in L.A. is about the same as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Now if you already smoke, AND breath this putrid air, you're in deep shit now.
They say that the smog is not as bad as it used to be, say 30 years ago... but it's kind of like asking yourself "Do I want to get shot by a .357 magnum, or just a .38"?? You may be torn up more quickly by one, but even with the 'lesser', your still getting torn up. Just maybe not as severe. But both will still kill you ...
When I was young and in Elementary School (in the 60's) I can remember the smog being so bad that you literally could not see more than a quarter-mile away during the spring and summer months. If you played out in the school-yard for more than about 30 minutes, you could not take a deep breath afterwards because it caused too much pain. That's right ... your lungs hurt too much ... and I mean REALLY hurt! I wonder how many years THAT has taken off my life. What a lucky kid I was to live in such a wonderful place!
Although according to the stat's, the air quality is suppose to be alot better than it was back then, just by looking around on any spring or summer day now days, you sure as hell could could fool me! It looks as bad as it ever has, with the exception that you can almost see the mountains a few more days of the year than before. There are not too many days around here that you can actually see the mountains 'crystal-clear' around here. And they're not that far away!
Every so often there will be a 'buy-back' of older, and more polluting cars, usually sponsored by some kind of
'major' company. (Union 76 comes to mind...) They usually give you something like $500 for a pre-1970 car ... something
along those lines. This is a good thing, and I support efforts like this because it can only help.
Now, as the AQMD claims that the older cars are the major contributors to air pollution, (the last stat I saw was that 10% of the cars were creating 50% of vehicle caused pollution) and the idea is to try to get them
off the road, WHY can't the California Dept. of Motor Vehicles fall into the same mind-set and make it an advantage to
buy a new car and to get rid of that poison-spewing junk-heap?? These morons have it all ass-backwards! I have two
cars that are not over two years old. One of them, the registration costs me $400.00 a year! The other is $150.00 a year!
Talk about getting SCREWED! If the state of California REALLY wanted to get the older cars off the road, they should
give you a break on the registration for buying a new car, and really ream the people who are still driving around those
older bombs churning out smoke.
But that'll never happen, because it seems that any 'Department' connected to any governmental entity all have their
heads up their ass's, and their only concern is how much money they can steal from you.
UPDATE!! IDIOCY REIGNS SUPREME ONCE AGAIN!
As of January 1st, 1998, a new law goes into effect that exempts cars older than 1974 to require NO SMOG CHECK! So what this
means now is, that any old smoke-billowing ,rattle-trap, bucket of bolts car can spew forth foul pollutants and go unchecked.... FOREVER!
As long as it's a 1973 model or older. Isn't this a grand step backwards! So NOW, while those of us with the newer and infinitely less
polluting cars will have to meet even tougher smog standards (Smog Check II), any jerk with a $500 dollar bill in their hand can go buy
some rusty poison-spewing hunk of junk... take off whatever smog controls it may have had... and drive till their hearts content, knowing
that they'll never have to get it smog checked. Ahhhhh... life just keeps getting better.
Oh.... and by the way, if your wondering just how this happened, according to the local papers, this new law was spearheaded and
sponsored by none other than Jay Leno (of the "Tonight Show"). I don't know how celebrities get their own little pet laws passed, but
it smells of "palm-greasing", ... if you know what I mean.
And speaking of idiotic governmental agencies .... Just WHO does the AQMD think the hell they are?!? Just WHO gave them the
"power" to enact regulations that affect all of us? Just WHO voted these people in? I don't remember voting any of these people into "power". Do you remember voting any of these knot-heads into "power"? Just WHO do these morons ANSWER TO???
If these blithering idiots had their way backyard Barbecues and gas lawn mowers would be BANNED! And they still just might be!
JUST WHO ARE THESE FOOLS????
We have a bay.... the Santa Monica Bay ... that is so polluted that major organizations have been formed in an attempt to try to clean it up. Local fishermen are warned not to eat certain kinds of fish, because they are full of poisons. Anyone who would eat any kind of crabs, lobsters or shrimp out of that bay is absolutely out of their minds. Full of PCB's and mercury, and all kinds of wonderful stuff, you know... Surfer's routinely get sick because of the poisons in the water. Beaches all up and down the coast are usually closed several times a year because of the crap that is washed into it from storm-drains or raw sewage being spilled into it.
Underneath the southeastern portion of the San Fernando Valley is one of the largest underground lakes in Southern California. Thanks to places like Lockheed, which until recently had a huge aircraft factory there, and other smaller companies ... after decades of pouring solvents and God only knows what else onto the ground, the water in this underground lake has become so polluted as to become unusable. Possibly FOREVER.
And don't forget those other wonderful folks, Rockwell Int. who have an experimental nuclear reactor up in the hills between the northwest
San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley that for years leaked radioactive nuclear waste into the hills and groundwater around there.
In fact, it has been recently learned that radioactive particles were released into the air during the early 60's. .. and nobody was ever told.
THANKS ROCKWELL!! Not only was I breathing smog, but radioactive crap as well!! Shit, it's a wonder I've lived this long!
Of course now we are seeing the results of engineers and other workers who worked up there 30 years ago. They're dropping dead
from cancer in alarming rates now.
It has just been reported that ground-water from wells on the same site contain levels of a chemical byproduct (from solid
rocket fuel) that in some cases are 700 times the amount allowed by law. Although these wells are not used for drinking
water, it's still there, and probably only a matter of time before the stuff spreads out to areas where drinking water is pumped.
Rocket fuel byproducts in your water... now isn't that a comforting thought...
If your coming into L.A. from any direction, there really is no need for freeway signs. Just follow the trash and garbage on the freeways. The more garbage you see... the closer you are getting to L.A.! I've been through about 30 or so states in the U.S.A., and I've NEVER seen one of them that has looked like the fucking garbage dump that Los Angeles looks like!! Now look at the states in the Great Northwest. they are absolutely spotless. I'm not kidding! You won't see trash scattered around, and blowing in the wind, like we have here. Now I wonder ... why the hell is that? Why can they stay so clean, while Los Angeles looks like Fred Sanford's backyard ??? Absolutely unbelievable .....
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