Daily French Roast

Anne is reading …

Photo-illustration by Gluekit Frank Rich writes a tart but believable in-depth for NewYork Magazine, suggesting that the other 75% of the Republican party has ‘had it’ with the Republican establishment. This is why they are searching for anybody but Mitt.

Rich picks up a similar theme to Robert Frank’s Dec. 15 WSJ ‘The New Four-Letter Word in GOP Politics: Rich’. Republicans want to take a walk on the wild side, writes Rich. They understand the the 1% argument to be uncomfortably true. But that doesn’t make Republicans progressives all of a sudden.

Vehemently still anti-gay and anti-women’s reproductive rights, says Rich, the heart and soul of Republicans want to dismantle the Federal government and they’re damn serious about it.

More Ron Paul

Paul Disowns Extremists’ Views but Doesn’t Disavow the Support NYTimes

Peter Beinart: How Ron Paul Will Change the GOP in 2012 The Daily Beast

Yoko Ono in India

REUTERS/Enrique Marcarian

Decades after making her only trip to India with late husband John Lennon, Yoko Ono will return with an exhibition ‘Our Beautiful Dauters’, a homage to India’s women. The exhibition sponsored by Vadehra Art Gallery will take place in multiple venues around New Delhi, opening on Jan. 13.

More DFR

Getaround Car-Sharing

Anne gave up her BMW a couple years ago, joining instead the car-sharing movement. It works great for her, but the financial reality is that Zipcar, the first car-sharing company in the US, had a net loss of $14.7 million in 2010, writes GOOD.

San Francisco-based Getaround has a different vision of car-sharing, one that involves not owning vehicles.

Getaround is cool not just because of its novelty. At a TechCrunch Disrupt event earlier this year, Getaround unveiled three awesome things that help Americans share their rides. The Getaround CarKit was one of the most intriguing. The kit combines “a keyless remote, GPS, and Wi-Fi,” said Sam Zaid, founder and CEO of Getaround, at the event. It’s the “first ever device designed to securely share your access to your car using only your smart phone.” By installing the kit into your car, you allow Getaround’s network, or a smaller group of drivers, to have access to your vehicle. It’s all done via smartphone. A Getaround app locks and unlocks both car and trunk, allowing lenders to enter cars, find the key, and start driving. It’s got the practical bases covered, too: Insurance for Getaround comes courtesy of Berkshire Hathaway(, a Warren Buffett company)

A quick look at the Getaround website reveals a wide variety of cars available with pictures, in a big range of price points, with locations of the car clearly marked.

Getaround works to bring down car overpopulation in the US, reminding us that every day in America 250 million cars are parked and unusued. Getaround aims to have 1 million ‘shared’ cars on the road, neutralizing 10 million privately-owned vehicles and as much as 48 billion pounds of carbon dioxide pollution out of the air. Good reports that in the first day of launch in San Francisco Getaround signed-up about 1,600 users or 20 percent of Zipcar’s fleet of 8,500 cars accrued over 11 years.