MONEY MAKER FOR US

It seems one of our state legislators feels the city of Albuquerque has installed "money-making traps" at some of our traffic signals. He lives here in Albuquerque. And he introduced state legislation to force the city to put up "flashing yellow beacons" wherever there are cameras designed to take pictures of red light runners. You know, the people who cause many, many accidents in our city. He said that if the beacons were flashing, it would alert motorists that the traffic light would turn red before they got through the intersection. And all this time I had thought that was what the middle light (you know, the amber one) on the signal was for. So much for Driver's ed in high school. Like all cities, we have certain intersections that have extremely high accident rates. The cameras were put up in order to give us all more safety. So the city makes a few bucks and plows that money back into traffic safety. So what? Our police chief cites the reduced accidents at these intersections as proof that the cameras are doing their job. Our Mayor (good ole Marty) says the dough made is funneled back into the program. Imagine me agreeing with them! He also pointed out that speeders are paying for the cameras, not the taxpayers. My belief is that this state senator has gotten caught and found out that his license plate has not prevented him from getting a ticket or two. He has also failed to grasp that a flashing light will probably also have speeders goosing the accelerator more to get through the light. Bang, smash. More accidents, more injured and dead citizens. Further, a flashing yellow beacon will not improve the driver's already divided attention with his/her cell phone. In fact, it will likely just be one more distraction in our already distracted time behind the wheel.

CELL PHONE LAWS ARE HERE

Albuquerque has a new ordinance on the books. A city wide rule now bans drivers from using a hand held cell phone while driving. Break the law and get caught: $100 fine, $200 for repeat violations. . The old fogies on our City Council finally recognized that if a driver's attention is diverted from the job of driving, there is likely to be a smash up. It took a couple of them to be involved in near misses to get any kind of action. The problem is that the law is not well thought out. Apparently, they decided that if the cell was not hand held it would not divert a driver's attention. I have no idea who, nor why, this was decided. We need to inform them that the issue is really mental diversion, not hand diversion. There are some exceptions, also. You won't get a fine if: you're a policeman, firefighter, or other "public safety official" if your call is work related. ROFL. Oh, one of the sponsors said that the law "is a message you need to exercise a higher level of attention while driving." And then, "police can use discretion in deciding when to cite people." One of the Councillors pointed out that using a hands free device is no safer than holding the phone to your ear. Apparently her comment was ignored. The British Medical Journal found that it didn't matter which method of communication was used. Drivers using cell phones in any manner were four times more likely to get into a crash that could cause serious injuries to people. A friend suggested that we already have too many people in this country and I should keep my opinions about traffic safety to myself.

SOMETIMES YOU WANT TO CRY

There are times when just shaking your head isn't enough. The new budget requests are available. Seems that Dubya's budget wants to cut funding for Medicare and Medicaid. There are good and bad ways to try and balance the budget. However, some ugly facts raise their heads from time to time. Fact one: Seniors affected by this are being strapped now trying to pay their medical bills. Fact two: We taxpayers are being asked to spend at least $240 billions of our dollars to give aid to a foreign country that doesn't want us in its borders, won't spend enough of its own income to live the way we want them to (we know best, apparently), appears not to be able to control its own internal problems, is making megabucks peddling oil around the world and seems to make very little effort to strengthen and improve its own military. Fact three: The United States has absolutely no right to try to change the way these people look at God (shades of the Crusades and the Spanish invasions forcing religion on people). Fact four: America already has problems with the exorbitant cost of health care for Americans and forcing the public to pay more and more is not realistic. Fact five: What will happen is that the 30% plus of our citizens (and the illegals) who need the care but cannot afford it, will be using the free medical services every state has in place. Guess who's going to pay for that?

BLOGGERS LOVE BILL

Wow. According to our local morning newspaper, "Bloggers Gear Up For Bill's Campaign." Seems "the number of Internet-based groups" (their words, not mine) plugging our New Mexico Governator have "exploded." A little closer look identifies some as: "Brooklynites for Richardson," " Hill Country (Texas) for Richardson," "Illinois For Richardson" and "Northern Colorado For Richardson." According to a Washington state blogger, they had "25 groups before..we have close to 60 now." Well, goody. I didn't notice any rise in New Mexico's bloggers for Richardson. Maybe we're too close to the truth. Our Governator was born and raised in California. Believe me, New Mexico and California politics are very, very different. How? Well, among other things, New Mexico is a Democrat state. Has been for years. This past week the head of our Democrat Caucus resigned, stating that he was tired of the graft and corruption here. Back to Bill. He decided to fly off to a civil-warring African nation when the state was hit by the worst snow storm we have ever had. People without power, no heat, unable to to get to stores, cattle dying of starvation, highways and roads frozen over (our snow and ice removal equipment is inadequate for any storm) and the many other rigors of a state totally unprepared for a storm of this magnitude. Sounds familiar? (Remember, I didn't mention FEMA and New Orleans. Our problems were not comparable.) He has also seen to it that we have a railroad. From one small town to another small town. It will cost our state more than a million dollars a year. Just to keep it running. It will not pay for itself in the foreseeable future, either, according to various experts. Bill also disappeared when two state officials were indicted for dipping into the tax payer's funds. He went overseas then, too. One of them later confessed that both of them had done the same thing. More to come.

IMUS HATES THE GOVERNATOR?

It seems that the turkey Don Imus (who is known to be at least surly) has a problem with Bill R. running for President. Dang it. Since I obviously don't care for the Governator's style (or lack thereof) I must be on the side of Imus. On the other hand, I don't like Imus either. And he needs a haircut. And should be taught to look into the camera (at least from time to time). And keep his head off his chest. So it's reared its ugly head again. Politics make for strange bedfellows. Anybody have any idea how to resolve this one? I did kind of giggle when Don called the Governator a "fat baby."

IT'S ABOUT TIME

So, the "scientists" have finally discovered what I (and many others) have been warning about for a long time. Man (mostly Yanks, BTW) has been screwing up his spaceship for years. We were told about the dangers of using aerosol cans back in the late 1960's.

We were warned about the poisonous and lethal gases being released by every mass-production manufacturing plant.

We were told about the unhealthy, high level of lead in our atmosphere from the gasoline we were using then.

We were told the humongous amounts of waste that we were creating was unnecessarily polluting our cities.

We were told that the new style of plastic wraps we began using would very likely never disintegrate. And anything locked inside it would not receive Mother Nature's blessing of being returned to the earth.

We were told that our automobiles could and would pollute our air even when they were just sitting parked in front of our houses.

We were unkindly told that Man was creating the destruction of animal species that, just perhaps, we might really need on this planet. The warnings were given. One had to remember them, for they were not remarked about one after another, but spread out over some years.

Yet our governments led us down the path of climate destruction by telling us how glad we should be that we were the most prosperous nation on earth and if we wanted to, we could damn well use up anything, in any amount. There would always be more.

They failed to tell us what the "more" would be. The few generalists who tried to warn about our coming problems, were shrugged off as malcontents and the "boys who cried wolf too many times".

Apparently, some people who wielded power and money decided to get rid of the lead that was poisoning us and create both non-lead based paints and unleaded gasoline. See, they pointed out, we do care. This, while they helped coal burning prosper and lowered the mileage that our cars and trucks achieved. They didn't make much of an attempt to get rid of aerosols, nor create packaging that would return itself to the earth. But they did make bigger earth moving machines in order to bury our plastic garbage. For eternity.

Many times in the past, I heard that some genius had invented a fantastic carburator or some kind of wonderful piece of equipment that would enable vehicles to use gasoline so efficiently that one would only have to fill their gas tank two or three times a year. Shortly thereafter a person, of dubious background, would begin selling some such contraption. Of course, they were frauds and the desired results never happened. See, the Auto and Oil companies said, it's all a lie. I accepted their version of the machinery. It never occurred to me, then, that perhaps, just perhaps, the Auto and Oil companies (yes, there are interlocking directorships there) had turned the real inventors into multimillonaires and that the marvelous creations were buried in vaults never to be seen again. But that speculation is beside the point, now.

Those of you with beach front property, anywhere in the world, need to make sure it is at least ten to twelve feet above the current high water level mark. If it isn't, sell it quickly.

Far be it from me to suggest that our very own Government (both the parties) would ever mislead its own citizens, but I can remember watching while black Americans rioted against injustices, in many cities, across the United States. After a while, when powerful people noted it was apparently not going to stop, the CIA (reportedly) began introducing drugs into black population concentrations in major cities. Riots are now so rare they could be compared to the Dodo bird. But we have "The War On Drugs" today.

I'm also old enough to note that the Vietnam War was originally the French Indo-China War. At least it was until the French had enough and told the US they were going to quit (not surprisingly). It became America's war to keep the ugly specter of Communism from overrunning the world. I didn't notice, after we pulled out, that the world was taken over by the Communists.

At one time, the American Public started to get nasty about the second rate cars being manufactured and the extremely ugly specter of petroleum pollution. Automobiles and Gasoline are staples of the GNP. A real attack on them could break some of our gross Federal spending habits and cause a downturn in the economy. Powerful, clever people came to the rescue again. Suddenly, the attack was switched to cigarette smoking as the cause of all our ills. They were even clever enough to talk the AMA into siding with their warfare. Tobacco became an issue. We could forget about our cars and trucks polluting. The evil monster was smoking. The result was shaped statistics and misleading statements.

Although smoking apparently can (and probably does) lead to some cancers, it is not just the one factor that causes it. And it probably helps create emphysema problems. But I have also noticed that none of the big tobacco companies have declared bankruptcy. In fact, I wonder if big tobacco isn't manufacturing (or at least acting as a partner) in some of the various products that aid in stopping smoking. A buck is a buck.