Posted 5:51 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Leaping from boondoggle to snafu

Starting this June, and continuing through the summer of 2010, the notorious Crosstown Commons (between Minneapolis and Richfield) will be reworked, at an expense of $288 million. They'll be working overnight and weekends to allow day traffic to continue. I've studied the new plans quite a lot, because I live right in the middle of the snafu... close enough so that the companion building next to the one I live in was destroyed for the project. I can watch the Commons traffic from my recliner.

The Commons has been a big problem since the various levels of government screwed it up originally, when 35W was inflicted. In order to get Fed money, the path of 35W was blown, and it can't be corrected decades later. The result was that two busy highways share space, rather than simply crossing each other.

If one studies the nice StarTribune drawing below (click for their larger one), you'll find that they're making a serious attempt to solve the problems. I don't know that I could do better, but I'm willing to make a prediction about the results:



In less time than it will take to make the changes, the traffic on both Crosstown and 35W will again be as congested as it is now. A quarter of a billion dollars will have been spent, great confusion will have been conquered by confused motorists, and the results will be what they are now.

Why do I think so? First, much of the congestion is caused not by the shared space, but simply by the two big curves on 35W. People slow down for curves, and every hiccup caused by confusion starts a backup. Second, the biggest bottleneck is eastbound Crosstown traffic trying to get on 35W going north. They've certainly improved that merge-point by getting Crosstown through traffic out of the way, but it's a huge amount of traffic merging between two big curves. Evening traffic coming in from the south and west suburbs, trying to go north... will still be more than the new design can handle. North-south traffic, just on 35W, will still back up in both directions because of the curves.

Was there a solution? Not a good one since the original snafu. As long as 35W zig-zags through the same area as the Crosstown (which was there first) it isn't possible to solve the problems, only to band-aid them.

Want a culprit to blame? Aside from the dopes who screwed up the design of 35W in order to get more federal dollars, blame the downtown forces. The location of freeways was designed to serve downtown, at the expense of all the drivers trying to get from one side to the other. The traffic actually going downtown is minor compared to all those trying to avoid downtown.

My solution, and I still think it's best, is to patch up what's there, which will force people to find work nearer where they live, or to relocate themselves. Instead, they've been invited, over and over, to drive long daily distances on freeways that quickly get overloaded. Freeway promises have led hundreds of businesses to relocate further out, dragging their employees along. Hour and a half commutes are not unusual. Quite often, it's faster to take to the streets instead, and a lot less frustrating.

Posted 1:19 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

The best damned show on TV

Today's TV schedule is filled with horror, brutality, and deliberate stupidity. You can get all that on the broadcast of the U.S. Congress, but there's much more... from bloody hand-to-hand combat with no rules, to shows that invite people to do stupidly dangerous acts for publicity and money, to ever-gorier movies, to worst accidents and police chases. It's little wonder that we can so easily ignore the devastation of a war like the one in Iraq... we've been innoculated by violence on TV.

I avoid such shows like the plague, and seek out programs that I can learn something from, or that are entertaining in a positive manner. I have no shortage of favorites. For a laugh, I enjoy Frasier. For fun and a little learning, Dirty Jobs or Mythbusters. For education, Discovery and National Geographic channels are frequent choices. But, there is one show that tops my list... that never fails to impress and inspire me: Dog Whisperer.

Who would have imagined that a dog-training show featuring a small Mexican man named Cesar Millan could be my favorite. I like dogs, but I like cats better, and I have no intention of ever owning a dog again, so it was only during one of those lulls in programs of interest that I tuned in to Dog Whisperer. I loved it quickly, and watch it often now.

Cesar's show is about much more than dogs; it's about people and their dogs. He says that he "rehabilitates dogs and trains people" and it's very accurate. Dogs are pack animals, and they require an owner that acts as a pack leader, or the dog will take that role themselves, and rule the people. The variety of misbehaving dogs Cesar takes on is astounding... from yappy, hyperactive little dogs, to large, powerful breeds, and he invariably leaves the client with a well-behaved pet.

Even more amazing than his ability to handle dogs is the way Cesar teaches dog-owners how to do what he does. The most inspiring stories have involved women and their dogs. Many women treat their dogs like children... their babies... and the dogs quickly come to take a dominate position, picking up bad habits simply because they're not controlled. Cesar not only shows the women how to take charge of their pet, but the women often see that there are other parts of their lives they can also take charge of, rather than being dominated by others. Other episodes have shown male dog-owners who have to be in control in their occupation, but don't realize that they must treat their dog in a similar way.

Cesar has a large pack of his own dogs, mostly large breeds with a reputation for agressive behavior, like pitbulls, rottweilers, and such. It is amazing to watch him bring a new dog into the pack area. Regardless of whether the new dog is overly agressive or very frightened, the calm pack, with a little help from Cesar, will soon coax the new dog into being just another calm member of the pack.

Dog Whisperer is filled with lessons valuable to all of us, whether we have a dog or not, and Cesar is a practical and wise man with a show I highly recommend. It's a cable show, on the National Geographic Channel.

Posted 9:06 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Dear Minnesota Timberpups,

I'm running out of local pro sports to follow. Gave up finally on the Vikings after more disappointments than any non-masochistic guy can stomach. I swore off the Twins after they pushed for, and got, with illegal machinations from the legislature, a new stadium that the citizenry has never been in favor of paying for. With no interest in hockey, that left me with the Timberwolves, and I've enjoyed watching them.

I've never been too concerned about the success of teams I follow. It takes a hell of a lot of money to make a pro team successful, and I have serious appreciation for players who just play hard every game. I'm not impressed by slam dunks followed by snarly expressions and trash talk. In fact, I delight when a slam dunk that wasn't necessary bounds off the rim and out of bounds.

For years now, the Wolves have been a good team to follow. Kevin Garnett is a worker at the game. He plays hard, as do most of the players, and they generally do it without flash and snarl.

However, some of their recent losses have been tough to stomach. Last night's all-time record of blowing a 25-point lead to lose to Seattle was a pathetic thing to watch... discouraging, frustrating, and just hard to understand. Something is wrong with the team's psychology. Only a lack of confidence in themselves can allow that to happen.

I've long excused a lack of consistency in college sports because young men play so much on emotion, and emotion can swing up and down. The Wolves, though, are not kids, they're pros, and well-paid pros who should not display the tentative indecisiveness they've become inflicted with.

Every Wolves player and coach should be pissed at themselves. They need to get angry and convert that to determined, aggressive play. They are absolutely talented enough to win most of their games, but they have to believe that without question, and then just GO DO IT... before I give up watching them too.

Posted 9:20 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Just one more upside to smoking

Everyone seems worried about the obesity problem in the U.S. Expect that Congress and state legislatures will continue to try to force some "solutions" on us... plans that won't work, and will force taxes still higher.

For many years, I've been claiming (with evidence) that, regardless of what downsides you think there are to smoking, that there are advantages too, and weight control is clearly one of them. Smoking has a tendency to suppress appetite. Millions of smokers who quit know that all too well... they find they get the munchies, scarfing down snacks between meals.

Now so many restaurants are completely non-smoking. Couple that with the increased restaurant meal size, and there just is no question that most of us are pigging out when we eat out. I resort to one of two options when I (rarely) eat out; I choose from the smaller-portion Senior menu, or I take half the meal home in a box, where it will become a second meal.

While about 28% of smokers are overweight, nearly half of those who have quit smoking are. About 20% of the obesity "problem" can be pegged back to people stopping smoking. Meanwhile, as about half of all smokers have been coerced and guilted into quitting, using phonied up statistics, junk science, and gullible activists, all of the health problems the anti-smokers would have you think are caused by smoking haven't even decreased.

Wake up, America... smoking isn't a killer, and secondhand smoke is harmless, but nannies forcing their lies on us is producing a number of terrible results. Meanwhile, the real causes of health problems go unresearched and unattacked because of all the resources being wasted on blaming cigarettes.

Posted 9:46 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Religion for Dummies

If you could get everyone who needs it to buy such a book, you'd have a best-seller. I've considered myself an atheist for many decades, and my experience has been that if I ask anyone I meet whether they believe in God, they will almost almost answer "Of course... don't you?"

But... if you ask those people WHY, you'll get back some of the fuzziest, nonsensical answers imaginable. Of course, that's not much of a criticism, since there is no reasonable evidence of a supreme being. So, it's unreasonable to expect good answers to the question. Nevertheless, the vast majority of Americans claim to believe in God. I say "claim to", because most of them know very little about God, or Jesus, or the Bible... they just believe.

I've known for a very long time, though, that most people just say they believe to avoid being different. If we could read their minds, we would find another story. One thing we would find is a serious resistance to even thinking about the subject of a supreme being. Of course, it hurts to think about something imaginary yet pretend that it's real. They want to be left to just saying so, with no further questioning. It's a personal white lie, and they don't want to be called on it.

That explains why Americans are so ignorant of the religious beliefs they claim to hold. Well, it's one explanation... Stephen Prothero is chairman of the religion department at Boston University. He thinks American religious ignorance is a big problem, and blames public schools. He believes that every American student should have a Bible course, not to "preach" religion, but to study the Bible as any other book would be studied (as fiction, I hope).

I have no doubt that Prothero's solution is the only way to solve what he sees as a problem... to force all impressionable young people to study something they obviously have little interest in, or they would take advantage of the absolute avalanche of teachings, materials, and books available from churches and religious institutions.

If Prothero could bypass the Constitution and inflict such courses on all schools, I'm quite sure that the results would not be what he expects. One reason is that people who are forced to learn anything end up resenting it, but the primary reason is that education on the Bible is a great way to create an atheist. Too bad Prothero can't test atheists on their biblical knowledge... he'd find they're far more informed than Christians are. It takes some serious thinking to march to that drummer while the majority goose-steps along to a dogmatic message.

Posted 9:05 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Now this is a senior discount!

We may worry about senior citizens losing their memories, or having to eat cat food, but some German ladies have found a way to put smiles on some old faces. This story is a great setup for jokes, but it is also great marketing and publicity... the free market at it's best.

Posted 12:50 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

When the chickens come home to roost

I love it when reality and reason rise up to swat down those with evil purposes. Here are two examples:

1. Two arctic explorers trekking to promote global warming had to turn back because of cold.
2. Greedy Duluth city officials have succeeded in driving a big Blues festival out of town.

I hope the Bayfront Blues Festival finds enormous success in some other location. Perhaps it will teach Duluth city grifters a lesson... that people can take their creativity and labor elsewhere when someone tries to suck them dry.

Ordinarily I would have nothing but admiration and esteem for explorers Ann Bancroft and Liv Arnesen, but it looks like nature may have dealt them a lesson for jumping on the global warming swindle bandwagon.

Posted 8:40 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

Gutless anti-war Dems really sock it to Bush

All the anti-war folks who delightedly tossed out Republicans and tossed in Democrats in the last election, can now see just how convicted and firmly principled the big-mouth Democrats are. They just caved in on requiring Bush to get approval from Congress before taking action against Iran. The term "declaration of war" by Congress has simply been abolished... one man now does whatever the fuck his goofy mind wants. For those of you who still think the Dems and Reps are two opposed parties... take one more look to realize that there is no opposition, only verbal game-playing to sucker the citizenry.

Posted 9:10 AM by Robert Ronald Smith

The have-nots take another hit

A new study by the non-profit Employment Policies Institute (EPI) finds
that for every 10% increase in the minimum wage:

* Minority unemployment increased by 3.9%
* Hispanic unemployment increased by 4.9%
* Minority teen unemployment increased 6.6%
* African American teen unemployment increased by 8.4%
* Low-skilled unemployment (i.e., those lacking a high school diploma)
increased by 8%

Of course, to anyone who understands basic economics and/or business, that won't be a surprise. To those frigging idiots who still believe that you can force wages up without hurting anyone, think again. To the crooked lawmakers who, to buy votes from the frigging idiots, force up minimum wage levels, here are the results of your grand economic plans:

the gulf between the nation's "haves"
and "have-nots" continues to widen

Posted 9:42 PM by Robert Ronald Smith

Yep, this is a snow day

Lotsa white stuff out there, and it may be my fault. I had an eye appointment this morning, which involves dilating my eyes. Every time that happens, it is, without exception, VERY BRIGHT outside. When I left the clinic today, it was a virtual white-out... and I was stuck with pupils the size of pie plates. Visibility wasn't good for anyone, but for me it was more like guesswork.

My next eye appointment isn't until the 24th of May... count on bright sunshine that day.