Bucking Bronco now just trots
Although I’ve been put out to pasture, over the hill so to speak, I sometimes need to rare up on my hind legs. Like now, maybe once. For there are these burrs under my saddle. Or, as Jimmy Dean might say, I’ve been rode hard and put away wet.
So I’m chapped, ticked off, and just as grouchy as John McCain lately. Why? Let me count the ways.
* Immigration: A Representative from Tennessee complained on TV the other day, “We’re spending more on global warming than on border security.” That just about says it all apropos the intelligence of Congress today. They’re a bunch of nags.
* Horse Race: Speaking of nags, it’s no puzzle why Fred Thompson laps the declared GOP presidential field. He’s at least a hand or two taller, and as one pundit noted, “comfortable in his own skin.” To me he talks a lot like Reagan. We’ll see.
* A Swayback: A guy who might run on another track as an independent, NYC Mayor Bloomberg, is a nonstarter; scratch him. He’s dictated that all NYC cab drivers must convert to hybrid vehicles, costing them thousands of dollars, in the name of fighting global warming. May as well try to cool the sun for all the good that will do.
But green is so fashionable, don’t you see. Birds are dying because of urban sprawl and maybe even global warming, warns the National Audubon Society. An even bigger reason, demurs a piece in New Scientist magazine, might be the increasing cat population. But by all means we must be humane about it all. “For over 100 years, Audubon has worked to preserve bird and wildlife habitat. We know, however, that no environmental victory is permanent so long as population growth remains unchecked.”—Audubon Society Website. Granted, it doesn’t specify that it really means the cat population and not our own.
* The Local Slow Track: We laugh at congressional follies up in D.C. But a good example of local inertia is readily at hand. Seems Stafford’s Board of Supervisors decided as a procedural matter not to act on the proposed TND (traditional neighborhood development) ordinance right away, but to send it back to its planning commission for another vote. The commission had already approved it 5-2 earlier. So the commission took up that oat burner again, and slick as a whistle, again approved it 5-2 and sent it right back to the supervisors. Well, not quite. It took the planning commissioners more than four hours to reach the obvious conclusion, ending their session near midnight. What mudders. Giddy-up!
Still and all, our supervisors weren’t slow out of the gate at all recently in approving themselves a hike in pay. Correction: Only those who make up the next board in 2008 will get the added oats. Watch for testy election campaigns.
* Too many furlongs: One of these days, I’ll surely miss the joy of leisurely appreciating the treasures of historic Falmouth at length, at least the length of the backup traffic waiting for the Falmouth light to change. The quaint rows of cottages lining Cambridge Street south of Truslow Road, the peeling charm of Golgotha Church—Of course, as a knowledgeable Stafford resident you know that Cambridge Street there is actually U.S. 1, also known nearby as Jeff Davis Highway, and in Fredericksburg, the Bypass. We’re supposed to see an improvement for Falmouth traffic right soon, say just beyond six years, according to VDOT, which has never met a deadline it didn’t exceed.
* Hobby Horse: Scratch the Wall Street Journal. A favorite of mine for many years, the paper figures to get bought out by Rupert Murdoch’s glitzy, global media empire. Well. Many journalists consider that an unacceptable intrusion of his interests into a paper with a starchily independent editorial stance. The paper’s owners have sought assurances that he wouldn’t mess with its editorial independence.
Here’s Murdoch in a Time magazine interview: "They're taking five billion dollars out of me and want to keep control," Rupert Murdoch was saying into the phone, "in an industry in crisis! They can't sell their company and still control it — that's not how it works. I'm sorry!"
Here’s betting we’ll see changes there sooner than we will at the Falmouth light.
* Dark horse or Dobbin?: While Congress was diddling with immigration and energy—omitting in the latter bill any nod to offshore oil drilling or greater nuclear power while promoting clunky ethanol—others were getting serious.
Newt Gingrich has raised alarms and advocated preventive actions about the nuclear arms race and has proposed a workable plan on immigration. Way too specific to ever win election to a top office again, but Newt—unlike the candidates—offers substance, not horse manure. I’ve saved two excellent pieces by and about him. Let me know if you’d like to read them.
So I’m chapped, ticked off, and just as grouchy as John McCain lately. Why? Let me count the ways.
* Immigration: A Representative from Tennessee complained on TV the other day, “We’re spending more on global warming than on border security.” That just about says it all apropos the intelligence of Congress today. They’re a bunch of nags.
* Horse Race: Speaking of nags, it’s no puzzle why Fred Thompson laps the declared GOP presidential field. He’s at least a hand or two taller, and as one pundit noted, “comfortable in his own skin.” To me he talks a lot like Reagan. We’ll see.
* A Swayback: A guy who might run on another track as an independent, NYC Mayor Bloomberg, is a nonstarter; scratch him. He’s dictated that all NYC cab drivers must convert to hybrid vehicles, costing them thousands of dollars, in the name of fighting global warming. May as well try to cool the sun for all the good that will do.
But green is so fashionable, don’t you see. Birds are dying because of urban sprawl and maybe even global warming, warns the National Audubon Society. An even bigger reason, demurs a piece in New Scientist magazine, might be the increasing cat population. But by all means we must be humane about it all. “For over 100 years, Audubon has worked to preserve bird and wildlife habitat. We know, however, that no environmental victory is permanent so long as population growth remains unchecked.”—Audubon Society Website. Granted, it doesn’t specify that it really means the cat population and not our own.
* The Local Slow Track: We laugh at congressional follies up in D.C. But a good example of local inertia is readily at hand. Seems Stafford’s Board of Supervisors decided as a procedural matter not to act on the proposed TND (traditional neighborhood development) ordinance right away, but to send it back to its planning commission for another vote. The commission had already approved it 5-2 earlier. So the commission took up that oat burner again, and slick as a whistle, again approved it 5-2 and sent it right back to the supervisors. Well, not quite. It took the planning commissioners more than four hours to reach the obvious conclusion, ending their session near midnight. What mudders. Giddy-up!
Still and all, our supervisors weren’t slow out of the gate at all recently in approving themselves a hike in pay. Correction: Only those who make up the next board in 2008 will get the added oats. Watch for testy election campaigns.
* Too many furlongs: One of these days, I’ll surely miss the joy of leisurely appreciating the treasures of historic Falmouth at length, at least the length of the backup traffic waiting for the Falmouth light to change. The quaint rows of cottages lining Cambridge Street south of Truslow Road, the peeling charm of Golgotha Church—Of course, as a knowledgeable Stafford resident you know that Cambridge Street there is actually U.S. 1, also known nearby as Jeff Davis Highway, and in Fredericksburg, the Bypass. We’re supposed to see an improvement for Falmouth traffic right soon, say just beyond six years, according to VDOT, which has never met a deadline it didn’t exceed.
* Hobby Horse: Scratch the Wall Street Journal. A favorite of mine for many years, the paper figures to get bought out by Rupert Murdoch’s glitzy, global media empire. Well. Many journalists consider that an unacceptable intrusion of his interests into a paper with a starchily independent editorial stance. The paper’s owners have sought assurances that he wouldn’t mess with its editorial independence.
Here’s Murdoch in a Time magazine interview: "They're taking five billion dollars out of me and want to keep control," Rupert Murdoch was saying into the phone, "in an industry in crisis! They can't sell their company and still control it — that's not how it works. I'm sorry!"
Here’s betting we’ll see changes there sooner than we will at the Falmouth light.
* Dark horse or Dobbin?: While Congress was diddling with immigration and energy—omitting in the latter bill any nod to offshore oil drilling or greater nuclear power while promoting clunky ethanol—others were getting serious.
Newt Gingrich has raised alarms and advocated preventive actions about the nuclear arms race and has proposed a workable plan on immigration. Way too specific to ever win election to a top office again, but Newt—unlike the candidates—offers substance, not horse manure. I’ve saved two excellent pieces by and about him. Let me know if you’d like to read them.
posted by Ben Blankenship at
11:09 AM
