Been an eventful week around here. I had my first physical in 18 months (my last one had been scheduled for last March, but we cancelled it for obvious reasons), and apparently I have dropped ten lbs and my blood pressure is down 8-12 points, so as I suspected, not being around people on a daily basis has been good for my health. I was chatting with the doctor and told him that my days of people breathing on me are over, and that I am wearing a mask and carrying hand sanitizer from now on when it comes to crowds, and he noted that he basically no longer sees anyone for colds anymore, they are almost non-existent. So keep washing your hands, you filthy fucking animals.
In other news, we got a whole host of road signs around here put up, marking turns that really didn’t need to be marked because the only people who drive them have been driving them for 40 years and can do the drive in their sleep. Honestly, on the seven mile drive to the big city I brake twice, because I have driven my entire life and know how to straighten the curves, so I don’t know why they put signs up instead of, ya know, FIXING THE ROADS, but they did. At any rate, here are some of their helpful signs:
YOU HAD ONE JOB, GUYS. As my brother joked when I showed him the photo: “Wow. I don’t even blame the guy who did it. I blame the six who were inevitably standing around watching him when he did it.”
Made another trip to Pittsburgh today and hit two Asian markets, a Mediterranean market, and Penn Mac, and I got a whole bunch of new cooking supplies to try some new stuff out on the wok. Very excited about that!
Finally, here is a pleasant surprise that showed up in my email box:
If you know, you know.
Sure Lurkalot
Great news on your health metrics, but truly, we are not (at) all mean and no reason not to hang out on your own blog from time to time.
Starfish
You are going to go out with tools in the night to fix that, aren’t you? The rage that you will experience every time you pass it will not be good for you so you are going to get this resolved.
dmsilev
It’s just marking a road-slalom course. What’s the problem?
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot: John may not have explained it clearly here, but when he told me this yesterday it was clear that he meant not having to deal with people in person. (Not on the blog.)
Xavier
Highway Department: “We could either put up a sign that says ‘Rough Road’ or we could fix the road.”
” Ah, fuckit, where’s the sign.”
laura
http://www.woksoflife.com is one awesome site for all things Chinese, Asian and other good things to eat. Check it out.
Redshift
Since it’s an open thread, I’ll mention my latest chuckle from the VA GOP. Because Virginia Republicans perennially have terrible targeting, I’m on the email list for Tim Hugo, who’s probably the frontrunner for the GOP nomination for Lt. Governor. This week he was testing out “evil libruls keeping our kids out of school for no reason,” which is definitely a common theme. But this was the laugh-out-loud part:
Um, yeah, Tim, everyone other than your target audience of mouth-breathers knows that their governor is “looking at different science.”
Martin
John, dyslexic people are still people, and they have feelings you know. And they deserve road signs like the rest of us.
WaterGirl
@Martin: My favorite button from way back when buttons were a thing:
Dyslexics Untie
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: Oh no…it was meant to be tongue in cheek comment and certainly not a criticism of any reticence about commingling with the general public too many of whom seem perfectly fine with doing harm by a highly communicable disease or a military weapon. I’m a mask and sanitizer person too. Next, bullet proof vest? Unfortunately, probably not in enough time for our 2nd shots next week at King Soopers pharmacies.
cbear
Yeah, so is John “We don’t need no stinking road signs” Cole the same John Cole that couldn’t follow the fucking road signs and drove his Suburu into some poor farmer’s field a few years back? Is it the same guy, or another guy?
Just asking, cause, you know, it being West Virginia and all–God only knows how many John Coles there might be running around the state, and I’m just trying to keep my line-up card straight.
Sebastian
I cannot say for sure but the right sign is the one intended for the oncoming traffic.
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
D.A.M. — Mothers Against Dyslexia
Catherine D.
The six guys watching: when my grandmother saw road crews standing around, she’d say they were breast-feeding their shovels (delivered in her Irish brogue, probably prefaced by jaysus)
debbie
That photo screams “Meme!”
Wapiti
So keep washing your hands, you filthy fucking animals.
We recently replaced the range, and the new stove has a glass touch panel for various things. I can’t use it without leaving a greasy smudge, driving home to me that my hands, are indeed, filthy.
Ohio Mom
Cbear:
Wow, that was unnecessary. As I recall, the Subaru was being driven by a young fellow from the fraternity John was serving as an advisor to — and he was pushed off the road by a fracking truck barreling through.
At least that is how I remember it.
Yutsano
Since the thread be open…I really am sad that Beto lost. His sarcasm ability is non pareil.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@SiubhanDuinne: I had to think about that one!
NotMax
This sign can be found in Honolulu.
Some other strange (or weird combos of) road signs.
Ohio Mom
I started upping my handwashing a few years before Covid, always heading to the sink as soon as I came back in the house from the big wide world.
There was a noticeable drop in tne number of colds I caught. I like to think I’ll keep up with mask wearing as well but sometimes it is so irritating having one on.
SiubhanDuinne
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
You would have had it in a second if it hadn’t been for Mr DAW and his blandishments of mid-afternoon wine. Slowed you down for the rest of the day, I reckon.
:-)
Ken
Are you sure it’s not the marker for the secret turn-off to Narnia?
dmsilev
@Ken: Where’s the wardrobe?
PsiFighter37
Warcraft is the worst of Blizzard’s big games. Starcraft and Diablo are way, way better. Fight me.
NotMax
Your pic is somewhat reminiscent of the design hiccup on the Edsel’s rear turn signals for the first iteration of station wagon. The left signal flashed what appears to be an arrow pointing right, and vice versa.
lurker
John – sorry to hear your game is stuck in beta. Beta software often has a lot of bugs, so that will likely be frustrating for you. Please do not take it out on the cats. They will remember what happened when you are sleeping, and might act on it. Probably time to mount a heavy bag in the garage to relieve your stress from playing the beta game, which you are likely playing to relieve stress from encountering other people…
Also, i am not a crank. ; – )
Ken
@dmsilev: It’s one of those other routes to Narnia. And not the one where you have to die in a train wreck.
raven
You’ve heard it but I’l telling it again. For four years in the early 80’s I went to the NC State School of Sports Management in Wheeling, WV. We’d fly into Pittsburg and take the “Wheeling Limo” a big yellow cab that had a steel plate welded on the bottom because I -79 was so pothole ridden that the thing would bottom out all the time! Oglebay Park was beautiful in the winter and we’d have a crazy time for a week up there. We even drove all the way to Bethany College to play hoops.
NotMax
Olbermann has some interesting ideas, sports-wise.
JWR
Watching local TV news, and they’ve got Ted (the Ooze) Cruz, Tom Cotton, and all the other usual suspects staging a sort of night time jungle movie romp through the bushes on the border.
And the scene with Susan Collins whispering that she could hear the cartels shouting at them from across the border is must see TV. ;)
lurker
Having driven on interstate highways in Alaska and Hawaii, the idea that road signs might not make sense at some level is just a given. Gotta tell you, that drive from Anchorage to Pearl Harbor gets pretty monotonous in the middle part.
Uncle Cosmo
@WaterGirl: My favorite button read
Also,
@WaterGirl:
raven
Try the Hana Highway! And start with tea with Not max!
steppy
Oh yeah! We, from Philadelphia, went to Pittsburgh last fall and spent a load of time in the Strip. Penn Mac was awesome
Salem’s Halal was awesome. The Vietnamese woman making banh mi was awesome. Do yourself a favor and go.
rikyrah
Glad to hear about the good medical numbers, Cole ?
I am going to be double ?? until September at the earliest.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Susan Collins’ participation in that stunt should be the last gasp of her long “moderate” con. I don’t for a moment think it will be. I’m sure Chuck Todd and Jake Tapper are locked in a desperate struggle to get an exclusive of wide-eyed stammering about her troubled disappointment in Joe Biden’s odd determination to govern on the agenda that won him the election.
Uncle Cosmo
@NotMax: A Safeway where I occasionally shop has directional signs for shoppers on the floor at the ends of aisles. One aisle has “wrong way” arrows at both ends. Fortunately for the store, most shoppers ignore the signs (who TF puts signs on the floor when 99% of shoppers are scanning the shelves?) – if they obeyed them instead, no items racked in that aisle would ever be sold, because no one would ever be able to get to them.
Major Major Major Major
Cwealm?
lurker
@Ohio Mom: @cbear:
In all seriousness, I took the comment from cbear as the kind of sarcasm I dish out. This may mean I need to adjust my sensitivity sensors or something. Hope it was sarcasm.
John Cole feels like a relatively common name, although I am not sure it is that common. I think I found this blog partly because I was looking for Professor Cole during the discussions around the Iraq war. Turned out I was looking for someone known as Juan Cole, who I think must be John’s cousin from south of the border (which would be North or South Carolina for John)
ETA: Also see that John is stepping down from his high school football coaching gig…
NotMax
No longer among us: Jessica Walter dies at 80.
WhatsMyNym
Yeah, we have folks around here who think they can do that too. One car accidents are too common.
dmsilev
@Uncle Cosmo: I suppose that’s better than having entrance-only arrows at both ends.
KrackenJack
BTW, Happy birthday Madam Speaker!
Matt McIrvin
Yeah, last November I actually got a proper physical for the first time in ages and started paying down what I think of as my body’s years of accumulated technical debt. It led to me getting knee-replacement surgery in February. I had been gaining weight since the pandemic started (since before then, really) but I lost about ten pounds in the hospital and I don’t think I’ve gained it all back yet. They’re making me get more exercise than I was getting recently.
Miss Bianca
Meanwhile, in Stupid Human Tricks Territory…
So, my county made state news a couple weeks ago when they decided to take themselves off the Colorado COVID Dial. Thirty unmasked people crowded into the county courtroom (you’re supposed to be masked at all times in the courtroom) to whoop and holler “Amen!” as our county commissioners/Board of Health, along with the Public Health Director, gleefully cast off the shackles of state control and declared our county COVID-FREE, by gum, so nobody needed to observe any state public health orders anymore.
Then, last week, as part of a petulant reaction to Governor Polis’s declaring a Meat Out Day, the county threw itself a big ol’ “MEAT IN!!11!!” BBQ last weekend. Hundreds of unmasked people milling about in front of the local butcher shop.
This week…can you see where this is going?…
All three county commissioners are down with the ‘rona. Plus their administrative assistant. Plus who knows how many else in the courthouse building. Plus at least four others that I know about. Three people in the hospital, I’ve heard, with at least one on a ventilator.
And do you know what my reaction was, when I heard about our county commissioners? Reader, I laughed. I laughed and laughed and laughed.
I know that makes me an awful person. I just don’t fucking care anymore. When I think of the nights I spent sleepless, thinking about my shuttered theater, and seething over how, every time I think we *might* be able to open up again the date keeps getting pushed back by the local asshole constituency – led by the BOCC chairman himself – throwing tantrums about masking up or social distancing or getting vaccinated, or black people voting, or Democrats being in charge of anything, anywhere, so we have to have all these bullshit “resolutions” about being a “Constitutional Sanctuary County – I just find that I am out of fucks to give about these people, who were ALL part of that “you’re not the boss of me” no-masking contingent.
You want to tell the state to go pound sand, that your arrogant ignorance is equal to the so-called “expertise” of the State public health department? Yeah…I think Karma just told you all to go pound sand, and I couldn’t care less. In fact, at this point, I am positively rooting for injuries, up to and including death.
It may not change any local assholes’ minds, but at least it may start thinning the herd.
Gary K
@John Cole, if that was a Home Alone allusion, well played.
Poe Larity
It’s a local famers trap for Subaru drivers.
If you’d roll down your window and turn off NPR you’d hear the dueling banjos.
cbear
@lurker:
Yep, just kidding. I’m a very much a BJ oldtimer (2004) and for the first 8-10 years here sarcasm/snark was the order the day. Especially when responding to a Cole post.
lowtechcyclist
Buttigieg thinks a VMT (vehicle miles traveled) tax “shows a lot of promise.”
I could write GQP attack ads against the VMT in my sleep. The RNC etc. must be cheering him on right now.
Fucking idiot.
cbear
@Ohio Mom: just kidding, ma’am.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
@SiubhanDuinne: Dyslexics Of The World: Untie!
Anyone do this already? ’cause it’s one of my old favorites.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Obligatory?
:)
Chris Johnson
I ordered a bunch of Asian peppers and hua jiao from The Mala Market which I heard about here. Should be arriving Tuesday or Wednesday. Thanks folks :)
Time to go SPICY, properly :)
John Cole
@PsiFighter37: no
Spanky
@Miss Bianca: Thinning the herd is our best bet at this point. I seriously have to ask why anyone should give a shit about these (your BOCC and mine) people any more.
LesGS
@NotMax: One of my favorite road signs was though some vineyards in Greece: “CAUTION Road slippery with grape juice.” The juice would drip out of the trucks transporting the grapes to the winery.
NotMax
Burning Crusade?
The willow is too close to the Hellfire Citadel.
;)
Mary G
@Miss Bianca: Preach! Standing ovation! Every time I think about how different our lives might be if someone even slightly capable of governing had been in charge last year, I want to smack somebody.
Jay
@Redshift:
offall?
JWR
On tonight’s Snooze Hour, Brooks said it first, and Capeheart “100%” agreed, that the new voter suppression law in Georgia is mostly “political theater”. I wonder how long either of them have ever had to stand in any line at all to cast a ballot?
Why, oh why do I watch this dreck anymore? Because I hate myself, that’s why! ;)
Miss Bianca
@Jay: I wondered about that one myself…
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: I hadn’t heard that one, but YES, most satisfying! LOL! : )
Ken
It’s odd, but every time John posts a comment and I see that highlighting, I have this momentary sense of… I dunno, maybe it’s what the ancient ancestors felt when the lightning struck or the bear roared and they were sure that the god walked among them.
L85NJGT
AASHTO types take that sign stuff super serious. Big green sign dimensions, control cities, non-standard interstate numbers, the Vienna Convention on Road Sign and Signals. DOT field workers are, perhaps, not so wedded to uniformity.
Poe Larity
@JWR: You know that Brooks is the “progressive” now, right?
Capeheart is Bobo from the Reagan era.
Uncle Cosmo
@lurker: FTR I very recently read the 1993 SF story “Dancing on Air” by Nancy Kress, in which one of the main characters is named John Cole.
Hoppie
Reminded me
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10222003938419855&set=a.1164472504304
CaseyL
@Uncle Cosmo: A Home Goods store just opened near me, so my neighbor and I decided to make an outing of it: go wild in the store, and then stop by the dim sum place nearby for some takeout.
The Home Goods had directional arrows in the aisles that made no sense whatsoever – f’rex, two aisles next to each other were both going one way the same way – and the cross-aisles were pointed in such a fashion there were entire sections of the store you could not get to if you tried to obey them. Peggy and I very soon gave up and went down aisles whichever way we wanted.
Uncle Cosmo
@lowtechcyclist: You’re one to judge – you’ve presented as a fucking idiot from the day you showed up here.
Ken
@CaseyL: Maybe the stock crew had some fun and set it up as a maze?
Which reminds me, there’s an “escape room” place near me that’s been open for months. Hmm, deliberately lock myself in a small room with a bunch of people for an hour…
Uncle Cosmo
@CaseyL: The thing is, who looks at the floor when they’re shopping??? You’re looking at the shelves or your shopping basket. If the eejits in these stores considered it really important for people to obey the directional signs, they’d put them attached to the ends of the shelves at eyeball height. But that would distract shoppers from scanning the shelves for things to buy, can’t have that…
JWR
@Poe Larity: Oh yes. Hell, Bobo was the progressive during the Mark Shields era, too. Guess I’ll write another hate-letter to Managing Editor Judy Woodruf, for all the good it’ll do.
Jay
@CaseyL:
my favourite store is an IGA ( Independent Grocers Alliance, a Co-op of individually owned stores).
They blocked all the “racetrack” with picnic tables, loaded up with product.
You have one entrance, one exit, have to walk all the isles in order, ( talk about impulse sales), no backsies or wrong isle direction.
mrmoshpotato
@Yutsano: Whiny Ass Titty Babies
Mike in NC
Just watched “Witness” (1985) on DVD with Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis. A great classic directed by Peter Weir.
Hoppie
@lowtechcyclist: If it is presented as a substitute for the gas tax, could get a lot of traction I would think.
Road taxes were tied to gas (thank you Al Gore Sr. / not snark) because it was easy. We have much more ability today to tie them meaningfully to usage. Should be a win/win/win (ease, value, fairness).
Please refute if you desire. I think even the politics could work.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@lurker: Funny thing, Jaun Cole’s given name is John.
Jay
Jay
@Hoppie:
I get a 50% rebate on my vehicle insurance if I drive less than 3,000 km per year. 1950km with 4 months to go.
Jay
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: It’s August in Canadia? ?
Mike in NC
Had dinner in a restaurant tonight for a neighbor’s birthday. No reduced seating. All the staff wore masks. Dining out is going to take some getting used to. Our first restaurant visit in more than a year.
espierce
@Miss Bianca:
Righteous rant.
I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter
Soprano2
@raven: The Highway to Hana isn’t that bad. It’s like driving from Springfield to Eureka Springs, except sideways instead of up and down, and it’s longer. You just have to drive slow enough and watch for the burned out, abandoned cars.
J R in WV
@Poe Larity:
Actually, Dueling Banjos was in NW Georgia, way far south of West Virginia. “Deliverance” had nothing to do with WV at all.
Although there are a lot of great banjo pickers here.
mrmoshpotato
@Miss Bianca: Slapdicks – all of them.
Ken
“You imprisoned how many Senators and Representatives?”
“Sir, I must repeat, my primary responsibility is the security of the House.”
Tim in SF
You’re playing TBC? Wake me up with WoTLK comes out.
JWR
Seven people shot in Philadelphia. No details. Yet.
Jay
@mrmoshpotato:
not yet, but 4 months to go, great chance I’ll be way below 3,000 km.
in this part of Canadia, it’s spring. Back at the property, not until after the May long weekend, Winterpeg, June, when the mosquito’s come out.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=f389hIxZAOc
Sebastian
@lowtechcyclist:
No because the ICE owners are itching to stick it to the freeloading BEV owners. This is a huge issue on right wing car blogs. Very smart move.
CaseyL
@Uncle Cosmo: Well, in the early weeks, at least in the stores I went to, people were pretty conscientious about it. It’s not a big deal to glance down at the floor when you enter an aisle. Once you know you’re going in the correct direction, you’re free to browse the shelves.
@Ken:
I strongly suspect that had a lot to do with it! Store staff pranking us.
mrmoshpotato
Haters!
Martin
@JWR: Fishtown, 11 year old dead, 3 in critical condition.
Little context on Fishtown.
JWR
@mrmoshpotato:
Not only that, but I just heard Cruz the Ooze railing against Biden’s border policies, says he saw boys and girls in the same areas, … TOUCHING! Bet they learned about holding hands from the cartels, too.
JWR
@Martin:
Wow! I missed that story. Brownshirts indeed.
Martin
@Martin: Hold on, the 11 year old was a different shooting around the same time. So no fatalities reported from the 7.
Jay
mrmoshpotato
@JWR:
This reminds me that Rafael’s own daughters find him disgusting.
Also, why didn’t the bitchass flee to his Canadian homeland to get away from angry Texans?
JWR
Meanwhile, out in the Antelope Valley:
Hoppie
@Sebastian: The sensible response, not that it will follow:
@lowtechcyclist: If it is presented as a substitute for the gas tax, could get a lot of traction I would think.
“Road taxes were tied to gas (thank you Al Gore Sr. / not snark) because it was easy. We have much more ability today to tie them meaningfully to usage. Should be a win/win/win (ease, value, fairness).
Please refute if you desire. I think even the politics could work.”
Jeez!
mrmoshpotato
Firefighter training in the basement.
prostratedragon
@Jay: “The Aquarians!”
Martin
Best thing this week.
Mai Naem mobile
I’ve started seeing new money in the past month . Don’t know if anybody else has noticed it. I just happen to notice if the coins are shiny and new looking and if the bills look new and crisp. I’ve mentioned the shortage of change before and somebody said it was because less money was changing hands due to COVID which absolutely could explain it.
JWR
@mrmoshpotato: The bile gushing out of that “things” facehole is nauseating. I’ll bet his daughters are picking up on that, realizing that their dad is a raging a-hole.
Then again, they might just be reacting to his looks. ;) /s
Mai Naem mobile
@JWR: a lot of people are assholes. I know this isn’t the same thing but I follow the USHM on their Auschwitiz twitter handle and its just sad,horrific and depressing. Its difficult enough to process that adults were murdered for their ethnic identity. The little kids though… I just don’t understand the mentality of killing a young innocent child who doesn’t even have any idea what’s going on.
Leto
@Tim in SF: MoP and Legion.
Kent
I personally think it is an insanely dumb idea. Both politically and technically.
First the cost will be astronomical to install and maintain all those GPS tracking devices in every car in order to track every mile you drive and especially WHEN and WHERE you drive as the next step will be variable congestion-based tolling where the price goes up for peak times and down for non-peak times. It will take an enormous fleet of technicians to keep them all installed and working in every type of vehicle.
Second, the privacy issues are profound. Will the police be able to obtain tracking logs for any car they are investigating? Can an abusive husband hack his wife’s device? Will any law enforcement or national security agency have access? Are you SURE that they won’t? What about things like speeding? If your tracking device has you going 60 in a school zone can they send you a ticket? If a crime happened on X-street at Y-time can the police call up a list of every vehicle that was in the vicinity? You think the conspiracy theories were bad with Covid putting tracking chips in your arms. Wait until the government puts actual chips in your car. Americans are going to flip. Especially the Fox News MAGA types.
Third, we will instantly create a whole black industry of techies who figure out how to defeat these devices. Within a month there will be 10,000 YouTube videos with instructions on how to defeat the devices using everything from GPS blocking technology to just hitting the damn thing with a hammer to hacking the code to roll back your miles driven. Look at how many videos there are on how to hack and defeat the pollution controls on diesel trucks if you don’t believe me. Those same guys will instantly get to work defeating these devices.
Forth, there are all kinds of cross-boundary jurisdictional issues. I live in WA but frequently drive across the river to Portland. What happens if OR implements something like this by WA doesn’t? Do all the WA cars drive free on OR roads?
Gas taxes and registration fees work perfectly fine. In fact gas taxes have the further advantage of being a quasi-carbon tax. This is a ridiculous Rube Goldberg solution that will cost billions and annoy everyone. And be much worse for fighting climate change if a F350 getting 10 MPG pays the same road tax as a Prius or Leaf. A doubling or tripling of the gas tax would be a much better idea.
Sebastian
@Kent:
I think you are overcomplicating this, there is no need to use GPS when a $1.25 OBD-II reader can record the driven miles on the CANBUS (I might be mixing up acronyms).
Readout and tax collection would be handled by car insurances who are already set up for this and who would adjust premiums to per-driven-miles plans as soon as this becomes reality
Hoppie
@Kent: @Kent:
Hoppie
@Kent: The gas tax will shrivel with gas usage. Something must change. The Brits are doing a lot of research on road usage fees. Somehow we need more of a connect between usage and cost. I do not pretend a solution but do present the problem, as my calculus professor said, for consideration
Kent
The advocates of this approach are overcomplicating it. They don’t just want miles driven. They want to do congestion pricing in urban areas, bridge tolls, and all kinds of other things with these devices. They want to know that you drove 10 miles on I-90 during peak congestion and not 10 miles on some rural country road on a Sunday afternoon. They want to know if you were in the high capacity toll lane and not the slow free lane. A monthly or annual odometer check is not what they have in mind.
Kent
The gas tax in the UK is $2.82 per gallon compared to an average of about $0.50 here in the US. Their road usage fees are designed around reducing congestion in greater London. The UK proposals were all GPS-based variable tolls based on time and location.
Hoppie
Yes, lotsa tax in UK. Concept of “road usage fees” should be the focus. Who should pay for what and how.
rikyrah
@Miss Bianca:
I don’t think that you are a bad person at all
Kent
Disagree. The focus should be on (1) reducing carbon emissions and other pollutants, and (2) congestion pricing to limit the need for more road and bridge building and expansion.
A simple road usage fee will accomplish neither of those two objectives.
Just Some Fuckhead
That’s like a rounding error with you, right?
Sebastian
@Kent:
That doesn’t work as shown by the failed German commercial truck GPS taxing. To imprecise for all of this.
Kent
Which is why I favor a heavy gas/carbon tax to address the carbon issue combined with ordinary congestion pricing with transponders, etc. which does work. Rather than some per-mile tax based on odometer readings that would accomplish neither objective. The faster we transition to all electric vehicles the better. Raising the gas tax will get that done faster than anything else.
And if in the future we need we more money for roads, raise the corporate income tax and start taxing Amazon as well. It is trucks that destroy the roads not cars. Or implement simpler taxes on electric vehicles like annual license fees and VAT taxes on new vehicles. Simpler and easier to collect than mileage-based fees.
sab
@Miss Bianca: So my husband’s best friend from high school is a committed Trumper. Voted for him the second time even. Blames all his amazingly stupid life choices on DeWine.
We rent to him. He hasn’t paid rent for a year. I am actually fed up with bankrolling his utter studidity. My husband disagrees because he loves the guy. This guy had an amazingly lucrative job for years and saved nothing because he is an idiot. That’s my take. Stupid, stupid , stupid. Heaven forfend him if my husband dies first, because they will be out on street within days. I know kids who are strugglying a lot. None of this I blew a six figure salary for twenty years and saved nothing.
Mai Naem mobile
@sab: i don’t think you’re doing him any favors letting him get away with not paying rent. At some point he will have to pay rent to somebody and it will just make it harder for him to get used to that fact.
Mart
The distant sign could be for folks driving in the other direction. In my declining years I appreciate those signs more, especially at night on unfamiliar roads. Also go to hell Cole for shitting on road crews using that old trope.