R.I.P.: Budget Woes Spell Doom for Roadside Rest Stops
As millions of Americans take to the road for the holiday weekend, a humble highway fixture is under attack.
Later this month, cash-strapped Virginia plans to barricade entrances and switch off the plumbing and electricity at nearly half its highway rest areas. Other states also are lowering budgetary axes on the public pit stops that have lined the interstate highway system since its creation in 1956.
But rest stops aren’t going quietly.
Truckers, blind merchants and a dogged historian are fighting to preserve them. If the battle is lost, every long-distance motorist will need “a strong rear end and a strong bladder” to hit the road, warns John Townsend, an official with the American Automobile Association in Washington....
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin today hurled criticism at technology experts who claim that City Hall's missing e-mail was intentionally removed by someone with top-drawer access to the computer system.
Assigning blame "is not their charge," Nagin said Thursday, a day after two computer experts hired by the city said that an unknown tech-savvy person apparently removed the mayor's e-mail inbox from the server.
In a WWL-TV interview, Nagin dismissively described the unknown individual as "some phantom employee."
Nagin also implied that the Louisiana Technology Council, the company hired to find the data, not only was eager for "15 minutes of fame" but also was in over its head.
"I just hope that this is not a case where . . . we did not get the company with the expertise that we needed," he said.
In case you hadn't heard--and why would you, since no one but NPR seems to be covering it?--the US launched a major offensive against the Taliban and their poppy fields in Afghanistan today. Which brought to mind the opening scene from Cleopatra Jones:
FYI, you only need to watch the first three minutes, but ZZOOOOOMGGG DO NOT MISS THE SHELLEY WINTERS FREAKOUT.
Weirdest email I've received all week (and I've already gotten some doozies):
Greetings and salutations!
I would like to let everyone know of our upcoming Permaculture Courses.
RiverSolar in cooperation with the Heritage Foundation is offering weekly courses in Permaculature and Design concepts. Core concepts will be provided in block format on Fridays from 12 - 2 PM beginning July 10, 2009 at the ArtEgg Building.
Students can choose to take one class or all leading to a Permaculture Design Certificate. Please contact Doris for enrollment information.
RiverSolar riversolar@gmail.com 1001 So. Broad St. New Orleans, LA 504-729-8226
Seriously: THE Heritage Foundation? The same ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation that worshiped at the feet of Ronald Reagan? The same war-mongering Heritage Foundation that pushed heavily for the invasion of Iraq (and, less successfully, Iran)? The same Heritage Foundation that looked at the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina and found it a perfect example of the need for relaxed environmental regulations? That Heritage Foundation?
UPDATE: Of course it's not that Heritage Foundation. As commenter Alex just pointed out:
It's actually the Heritage Foundation for Arts and Cultural Sustainability, which shares a space in the ArtEgg building, along with RiverSolar.
Which is great, but also a really unfortunate choice of names. Oh well: at least the world makes sense again.
So yesterday, I had some thoughts, a series of thoughts, and they started like this: Michael Jackson was an object of fascination, speculation, derision, adoration, right? His luster had long since worn off here in the states, but he was HUGE in other parts of the world, like the Middle East. Somehow, and for some reason, people there "got" him. Or at least they liked him. They laughed at him less than we did.
Then another thought crossed my mind: what kind of news will be sacrificed so that CNN and MSNBC and FOX and everyone else can cover the final moments of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett? It's great news for Mark Sanford. Not so great for Ed McMahon. And really not so great for the protesters in Iran. I mean, how are they supposed to stay above the fold when the King of Pop has been deposed?
Then, the third thought: what if Jackson's death is the last straw? What if, six days from now, the Iranian police or the Basij militia approach the wrong group of people in just the wrong way, and that's it: firestorm. Like Judy Garland's death allegedly spawning the Stonewall Riots. Would that be enough? And if so, should we institute some kind of lottery for aging stars so that every so often, one is plucked out and killed, just to keep democracy and civil rights on track?
There's a lot wrong with that train of thought--a lot. But there's some meat on those bones, too. Maybe.
Anyway, given all that, I thought this clip--posted to YouTube via a Hungarian user who may or may not have Iranian roots--was particularly apt for today:
