Fayetteville and hybrid cars - Animal Farm revisited?
All Animals are created equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
While it may be commendable for us to seek to appease the new gods of sustainability, this whole notion of giving free (free!?) parking spaces to hybrid owners in some areas of downtown Fayetteville just smacks of - oh, what is the word?
I know - elitism!
Most people I know would like to own a hybrid, but they just can’t afford to buy one.
So here’s a great idea - let’s penalize them by making fewer parking spaces available for ordinary folk with their ordinary cars.
Here’s another great idea - let’s raise the parking fees (and parking tickets) to subsidize this Great Experiment in Social Engineering.
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Johnson City Council - Show me the Money - er, Research
Developer Tracy Hoskins, of Paradigm Development. Is hoping to soon break ground on a development that is designed to make the city a shopping destination for one and all.
Hoskins made the rather wonderful remark to the Johnson City Council that his “research” indicated that this may be the best time to develop the land in Johnson.
At which point, I suppose, the City Council might have done to ask, “Whoa, hoss, just what ‘research’ are you referring to?”
Over the years, many developers have learned that if you talk quickly enough, elected officials don’t want to admit that they don’t understand a word that you have just said.
Kudos to Johnson Alderman Melissa Tomlinson, who cast the sole dissenting vote on the project.
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Conservatize Me
So here is the situation: a lot of folks only hang out with people who believe the same things that they do. They are essentially hearing the same voices over and over again, the same choir, singing the same song - over and over again.
A lot of people are content with that. They have their core beliefs, they have their friends, who could ask for anything more?
For Seattle resident John Moe, that became more than simply a rhetorical question. "Conservatize Me: How I tried to be become a righty with the help of Richard Nixon, Sean Hannity, Toby Keith and Beef Jerky" is the story of his quest to discover if he, a lifelong liberal, could be "converted" into the ranks of conservatism within the space of 30 days - much as the movie "Supersize Me" tackled the subject of fast food from McDonald’s.
It’s a fun and easy read, but also an eye-opening look at our culture.
