Don’s Random Thoughts

I was proud of the Dixie Chicks a few years ago when they had the courage to say “Just so you know, we’re ashamed President Bush is from Texas” or something like that. Any way, for some silly reason they said they were sorry for having made the statement?
Well, recently, Natalie, lead Dixie Chick, clarified her statement saying her statement was correct even though she apologized. Evidently their career was affected because of the statement. Isn’t that un-constitutional? When someone expresses their opinion about what their government should be doing, that’s a good thing. More people should, express their opinion, not propaganda recited from some right wing idiot who happens to have a radio or TV show. That is democracy at work. Haven’t seen too much of that recently.
So thanks Dixie Chicks!

A few years ago, I started watching CBS news because I was disgusted with the other “news” services. This was around the time of the inquisition of US Representative Gary Condit, accused of the murder of one of his interns by most of the rest of the news services. All except CBS evening news. It seems Dan Rather took the high road and wanted to see some reason to accuse him or not include it in the news. He was the only true journalist of the time that I saw and for that reason, I switched to CBS news. Needless to say, I was disappointed when, due the shenaigans of the Republicans in providing falsified but creditable documents to CBS news about Bush’s lack of military service, Rather ended up “retiring”. It was nice to see Bob Schieffer move in as interim anchor. Another good news man but only interim? Now Katie Couric will be anchor. Are they kidding? Not the same caliber. Hopefully she does continue the standard of reliable journalistic news, not entertainment news.
I visited Texas for a while recently and I confirmed that not all Texans are Bush like. Too many but not all. Dan Rather and Bob Schieffer are from Texas as well as the Dixie Chicks. Maybe there is hope.
When you watch or listen to “news”. Think about whether they are being true journalists or is the report being sensational and incomplete. Without reliable journalism, there isn’t much hope for exposing the truth about anything. Only the business interests will be served. Only profit, profit, profit. No truth, truth, truth.
I think the root cause of the disintegration of reliable news is the consolidation of many independent services into large corporate services. They provide the corporate messages not news.

We finally started the process to get our Passports. I hated to have to finally get one. I really haven’t wanted to go anywhere except Canada for our travels and now if we go there, we need the passport to get back in the US. Too bad things are always getting more complicated.
Unfortunately, once we have the passport, there will be less reason not to use it.
I still wonder why it is trusted more than a drivers license. Doesn’t seem even as sophisticated. Seems quite obsolete considering the advent of the computer. Should be just a credit card like thing that could be scanned with immediate connection to a nice database to confirm things like wants and warrants, confirm biometric information like finger print of iris scan. Also, why can’t it also be used as the driver license, credit card, etc, etc, all in one. I hate the bulge in the wallet. This would seem to also be of benefit in bring a complete stop to identity theft.
With all the money wasted on “homeland Security” since 9/11, there’s no reason why something like this couldn’t have been done and only a very small fraction of some of the ridiculous things the money has actually been spent on.
I don’t fly anymore. I thought the whole idea of flying was to save time. Now, that doesn’t seem to be at all true. Any trip of less than 500 miles can probably be made faster by surface modes of transportation. It seems like a good ID card and a little connectivity would be a lot of help there.
I wonder if we will ever do anything right?
I

Speed Signs
When you’re traveling the lesser highways (not freeways) and either approaching or leaving a town, why does the traffic engineer post multiple signs such as reduce speed ahead, 55 mph, 45 mph, 35 mph, 25 mph all spaced about 500 feet apart? Doesn’t he really want you to reduce your speed from the 65 mph highway speed to the 25 mph speed, wouldn’t three signs do, with a little more space between the last two. (Reduce speed, 25 mph ahead, 25 mph). This would be much more clear. When leaving town the signs are reversed 25 mph, 35 mph, 45 mph, 55 mph, 65 mph. I always miss the last one and am stuck driving a lower speed than possible. I actually try to go the posted speed. With so many signs I become desensitized by the ubiquity of the signs. It’s a good thing they aren’t spending their own money for the unnecessary extra signs.

As we travel down the road, I’ve noticed many “Adopt A Highway” signs. It is nice when people volunteer their time to do what our taxes used to do. However, there is an unfortunate trend I’ve noticed. It seems that almost everywhere the volunteer is a business or organiztion, that the sign is up but the litter remains. When the volunteer is a family or friends of someone there isn’t much litter. Thanks to those who are helping, shame on those just looking for free advertising on the highway.

Countdown until we’re rid of Bush.

Good going Google! It’s too rare but Google seems to believe in our constitution. They have refused to provide information about people’s Internet searches, unlike all the other search engine companies like MSN and Yahoo.
Now the fact is I don’t think if the government did have access to this information or other information like who you called or what you bought is all together that bad, However, I think that before the government violates our constitution, again, that there should be some restraints on miss use such as immediate dismissal and felony criminal charges brought against those who mis used the information and those who supported that mis use by negligent supervision or any effort to cover it up or interfere with the investigation into the mis use. The watch dog would need to be independent from the executive branch.

Wow! More tapes from Osama Bin Ladin. How convenient, again, and again. These messages seem to always be related for a need by the Bush folks to divert opinion away from some damaging report about Bush or steer opinion to the illogical desires of the Bush folks. Does anybody still believe anything the Bush folks say. If so why?
They’re criminals who, if allowed to continue, will eliminate the constitution and we’ll be left with King George. Hasn’t our country been rather successful when most of the rest of the administrations were at least more honest and restrained in their interpretation of the constitution?
I just don’t believe any of this stuff, and everything that Bush says.
I do have to wonder if Osama Bin Laden even exists, if he does, whether he had anything more to do with 9/11 than Bush did. Too many things that were done or not done by other administrations that were factors in 9/11 occurring when not done or done by Bush’s administration. i don’t believe that much in coincidence.
Come on folks, dump the bum! He sets a bad example for your kids.

Th Right Wing (Wrong Wing actually) when called on any of their unconstitutional actions always plays the “We’re at War” card. We are not at war. We had a major incident possibly perpetrated by villainous people but, as evidenced by subsequent incidents, this isn’t anything like a war. In the first place, a War must be declared by the Congress. Authorizing the President to take a police action does not amount to a declaration of war. All this destruction and loss of life in Iraq has nothing to do with fighting the enemy and everything to do with a zealot’s insanity. Remember Afghanistan? Remember bin Laden? I know it’s hard.
Have we really done very much to improve security here like inspecting cargo containers. No. That would impact business unfavorably.
This isn’t a war. This is actually a business and/or political plan.

When cruising down the road my thoughts often turn to the stupidity of man, usually, but occasionally women. I’m driving a large vehicle, over 50′ long, probably overloaded, with what is likely a person of inferior driving skills. Why would any sane person cut in front of, barely missing the front of our vehicle, steal our stopping distance, or pull out in front of us?
It seems obvious to me that there are two things needed. First, institute a driver competency test possibly with simulated driving experiences like a video driving game. If you don’t make it to the destination without killing someone, you don’t get the license. Two, try enforcing some laws, write some, a lot of tickets. In fact, try 100% enforcement. If you run a red light, you get a ticket. If you speed, you get a ticket. If you drive like many people I’ve seen recently, you’d get 100’s of tickets a day. With 100% enforcement, you’d get a free ride for a minimum amount of errors based on how serious and how frequent you make the errors. If you drive across town, and run 20 stop signs, you receive tickets for each offense, possibly lower than current costs but definitely progressive for each offense, say 25% more per each offense. Your 20 infractions, with a $20 starting cost would cost you $1388. You won’t do that long without feeling it. If you reach a limit that clearly identifies you as a dangerous driver, like possibly two days of 20 stop signs, you loose the prize, you car, permanently and your license for an extended period, like a year. Again, these would be progressive. The next offense for a longer period and or more than the cost of your car. If you drive without a license, you go to jail for a year, again progressive. The point is, you make it unpleasant to do the wrong thing.
You could do 100% enforcement by instrumenting all vehicles using GPS. The cost per vehicle could be less than $100 factory, more for retrofits especially older vehicles. Tampering with the device looses you your vehicle as well. Test its operation like is done for smog tests and automatically wirelessly as you pass near an officer or roadside device. This would free up the police to do what they should be doing, rather than driver training. It seems like little would change there since they don’t seem to be doing traffic enforcement anyway. One other thing that is needed is to post the real speed that is safe, not the politically correct speed. No 55mph max posted speed if you will allow 75mph. What’s posted is what’s enforced, so make it correct.
As a plus, the instrumented vehicles could provide an additional benefit. Pay for use of the roads. If you commute 200 miles a day, you pay more than if you commute 5 miles. This would lead to sanity in the work/live arrangements, but that’s another thought.