The terrorists don't kill us. We kill us.
Source Dorks is a pop culture blog written by a circle of friends who frequently meet to play games and geek out at Source Comics and Games in the suburbs of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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8 comments:
I was just talking with a friend here about Katrina and now our terrible bridge accident (our infrastructure literally falling down around our ears)and wondering if these events will begin to underline why paying taxes isn't such a terrible thing.
This is bigger than potholes, I think.
Point of clarification. Those on the far right don't complain about paying taxes for National Defense, Roads/Bridges or Emergency Services. Paying for those things isn't a terrible thing for them. The complaint of late on right wing radio is that every dollar that went to light rail, for exammple, was a dollar taken from roads and bridges. (except for the Federal matching and grant money) They have been singing the 'our roads and bridges need money' tune for a few years now. They just usually have it in with light rail is of the devil statements. So people may have missed that.
The opposition to light rail is something I've never understood from the right. It's pretty clear that adding lanes alone will not solve our traffic problems, and the light rail line has been an unqualified success. I just don't get it.
I think that many have a less nuanced view than you are proposing, Tim. I think that view is: Taxes are Bad. I think opposition to the gas tax is a good sign that those who oppose taxes don't make exceptions to build or maintain roads.
Let me add this:
The collapse of the bridge seems to me to be an engineering failure, not a political one. If a proper analysis of the bridges condition had been made, the money was there to fix it.
I do think we need more money for transportation in the state, and would support a gas tax increase, but I don't think lack of funds caused this situation.
It would have been fixed if we were as careful about fixing bridges as we are about, say, who takes what on an airplane.
I think we're looking at a chicken-egg scenario of inspections standards and funding. Federal departments like the NTSB set their inspections standards based on how much they can fix with the money they have, so that on paper, they come out looking like they've done a fine job. For example, if you compile the FBI's annual reports for the last thirty of forty years you'll see that the crime rate has decreased every year for the span of our lifetimes (all avialable at www.fbi.gov). Does that seem correct to you?
~AVK, slow down you are taking away my main ammo for video games not being bad.
If bridge inspectors made as many mistakes as the TSA, we'd have more than one bridge every 20 years falling down.
And as for whether our world seems like a horribly violent place these days, that's certainly what the evening news and certain Republicans would like you to think.
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