Driving!

With the move to Utah came a 2000 mile drive across the country.  I've done this before from Massachusetts to California and back as well as numerous trips to various places around the lower 48 from various other places in the lower 48.  This reiterated some of the frustrations I've felt when I drive so I am going to share them with you lucky readers out there in the blogosphere.

First of all, highway driving across the country is frankly atrocious.

If you are on a two lane highway, then the left lane is for passing.  Don't sit there because you're going ten miles over the speed limit and for Heaven's sake do not even think of going in there if you're not going ten miles over the speed limit.  The speed limit around the nation is somewhere between 55 and 80, so if you're not doing at least 65 stay out of the left lane.

On a two lane highway, the right lane is for exit traffic and general travel.  This is where you sit if you're going to be on the road for several hours.  This is where you sit if you're doing the speed limit or a little under it.  This is where you can sit and veg as the miles get eaten away by the droning of the engine.

On any highway, two, three or even six lanes, if you're going less than ten miles under the speed limit (with certain exceptions) you should not be on the highway.  Highways are for high speed travel.  There is no highway in the continental United States that does not have a local route traveling mostly parallel to it.  If you're not going to go at least 55 miles an hour, that is the road you should be on and not the highway.  There are studies I'm sure that show slow drivers cause more accidents that fast drivers.  Not because its more dangerous to drive at that speed but because when you're going too slow for the road, others have to react to you which places them in danger.

That makes a good segue into speeding.  Speed kills.  There is really no reason to be driving more than fifteen miles over the speed limit.  In a very practical sense, there is no reason to be going more than eighty miles an hour regardless of the speed limit.  The speed limit is in theory supposed to be the fastest speed allowed by law.  I realize that for something like 99% of the people on the road, "speed limit" equates to "suggested speed" but according to the law, its supposed to be the highest you are legally allowed to go.  That means if your weaving in and out of traffic at 57 in a 55 zone, a cop can pull you over.  Driving too fast is dangerous not only to you but to everyone else on the road.  The faster you're going the higher the chance you have of dying from one single mistake.  If the speed limit is 75 as it is in most states I traveled in and you're doing 85 then you come across someone going 60, that's a 25 mile an hour difference in speed.  Your bumper is rated for at most 15 miles an hour.  That means if you rear-end them, you're going to crumple your car if it has crumple zones and its going to cost you a lot of money to repair it at the very least.  You can still get serious neck injury even without triggering your airbag.  Neck injuries can have long-lasting results such as paralysis and death.  Hard to laugh that off.

The police are there to protect you.  That includes from yourself.  This is why people get pulled over for speeding.  Yes, its mostly to save insurance companies money but really it does protect you.  They have a tough job, so give them respect.  They're there when you want them and when you don't.  It's all part of the job.  Yes, there are some that are in it for the power play but there are folks like that in every profession.  Don't hold the whole to the standard set by a few.  If a cop pulls you over, be polite.  Don't think about what your drunken buddies were telling you were sure-fire methods for getting out of a ticket because there aren't any.  They should be professional and you should be courteous.  It goes a long way.

Big changes since my last post.  My family and I have moved from Massachusetts, my home state, to Utah.  There are many reasons behind the move, most of them personal and close to home so I won't go into them here.

Being LDS, there is a lot of baggage/expectations for moving to Utah where the church has its headquarters.  There are all sorts of stories about "Utah Mormons" that generally scare people.  I've found pretty much what I expected to find here: people are the same pretty much wherever you go.  There are some wonderful and friendly people that have gone out of their way to make me and my family feel welcome.  I can't say how much I appreciate that.

Right at the top of that list are my brother and sister-in-law.  Rick and Brenda have been just awesome to have around.  Rick works in the same industry I do and has been helpful in my job search efforts.  Brenda runs an animal rescue that my wife has been helping with pretty much since we got here.  We've been able to participate in parades and a pirate festival as a result of Pack N Pounce, which has been great.  Especially since its a worthy cause.  They rescue animals instead of putting them through euthanasia.

I am still looking for work, but in the meantime I'm going to try writing as well.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll even create a web comic.  My feeling is that if I were to do a web comic, it would have to be on a schedule I could maintain even while employed, so I'm thinking once a week, possibly twice.  I'm working on the characters and the setting now so stay tuned.

I do have a bit of rant to post.  That's up next - I wanted this post to stay positive as overall this has been a very positive experience.

Twister Lessons

I live in the greater Springfield area, which has been slammed by a tornado last week. Yeah, that one. We've been working with folks from church and other volunteers to assist in the cleanup as much as possible. We've donated all of the stored food we've accumulated and are looking to donate some clothes as well.

Then I read this story in the Boston Globe, which looks promising until you get to the end and read this:

"In Massachusetts, Patrick filed a supplemental budget bill Monday that included $10 million for tornado relief, but that money is not designated for individual homeowners. It will be used by state agencies to cover the costs of calling up the National Guard, operating shelters, paying police overtime, and other unanticipated costs such as chopping up trees and clearing debris."

So the Governor budgeted money to pay the state for their efforts in mobilizing but no aid will go to the beleaguered homeowners that have lost all of the their material possessions. No doubt, the Governor is counting in the federal government to foot the bill for some of the $90,000,000 in damages (that number is based on insurance claims that have been filed). It remains to be seen if Westfield, West Springfield, Springfield, Monson, Wilbraham or Brimfield will meet the minimum dollar amounts of damage required for those federal funds. Make no mistake - that clean up money is going to clear out the public properties like streets, which is a necessity. I would be surprised if any of that went to help rebuild Monson's town hall or police station. Springfield has a history of voting Democrat and I would like to say this;

Look around you at the devastation and see who it is that is helping you when the chips are down and you need it most. It is your neighbors, your friends and your fellow citizens not the government. This is how life is. When we need help the most, our neighbors, friends and fellow citizens are the ones there to give us a helping hand. The government will take care of itself first and if there's any money left over, it will go to those organizations that try to assist the people and if there's any money left over after that, it will go to the insurance companies to help them deal with the financial impact these storms have had on them and if there's any money after that it will go to help the people affected. Yes, along the way services will be provided by those organizations and insurance companies but in a bureaucratic sense that won't truly impact the people who need it immediately. The Red Cross will help with immediate temporary needs because that is what they do and they do it well. The Red Cross is not going to ensure you have a place to stay over the next three months while the damage to your home is assessed, weighed and evaluated then funds allocated then construction starts. Insurance companies won't pay for the removal of the trees in your yard unless they're directly damaging your house. A friend of mine helped a neighbor cut up a tree that was blocking the door to his house. Until they did that, they were getting in and out through a window. That tree did no damage to his house, but it prevented him from leaving by either door or garage. Therefore, the insurance claim would not cover its removal.

Remember this in November of next year, when you're pulling the lever for those fine folks in office in Boston. Where were they when you needed them? Crying poor from their fine offices in Boston, that's where. I'm not saying vote Republican because they'll solve all our problems, far from it - they'll just create different ones if we're lucky. Other than photo ops, did they help you in any way? Other than gather attention, how were you helped? Did that attention help you? If you can say that they did not help you, then why do they deserve your vote? By all means, vote Democrat if that's what you prefer. All I'm asking is that you vote for a different Democrat than the ones that ignored you when they should have helped.

Osama bin Laden is dead and President Obama missed an opportunity for greatness

Let me start off by saying President Obama made the right decision. Eliminating Osama bin Laden was the right thing to do. I have made no secret my dislike for our President's policies, but he made the right choice this time. All of the events leading up to the decision aside, it fell upon the President to ultimately decide what to do. I would have rather seen him captured than killed, but if that's how it fell out then that's how it fell out. Sometimes you have to accept the decisions of the personnel in the field and stand by them. Monday morning quarterbacking what someone should have thought in the middle of a firefight sometime after midnight a half a world away from your comfortable bed is not how the military should be handled.

That being said, good for you, Mr President.

What he missed out on was his speech. Instead of focusing on how he made the decision and he was right to do so, he could have made strides towards ending the bitter division in our government. He could have said something along these lines:

"This is a victory for the nation. This is a victory for the men and women in uniform who performed their jobs with their usual mix of professionalism and consummate skill. This is a victory for the policies of my predecessor, without which we would not have garnered the intel that brought us to this monumental day. I have learned that good ideas are not the sole property of one political party, so from this day forward I encourage Congress, Democrat and Republican alike, to remove the party affiliation from the proposed idea and take it on its own merits. Good ideas should be put into action, regardless of source. Bad ideas should be eliminated or moderated. From this day forward my administration will lead by example in this area. Our task is not over. Our nation is not secure, but we are safer now. Let us continue the work before us to make our nation secure."

Then do it. Actually do something positive about eliminating the vitriol that has become so commonplace in our governing and legislative process. I keep hearing those on the left screaming about how Bush failed and Obama succeeded. They keep hammering that waterboarding and "black ops" prisons weren't needed to gather the information.

To fully believe this, you would have to assume that nothing Bush did contributed in any way to the intel that was gathered leading to this monumental place and that is not true. We wouldn't have had Kaleed Sheik Mohammad if not for Bush's policies. He did not provide any intel until after he was waterboarded. That intel was confirmed by other sources that were kept in those same "black ops" prisons.

This was truly a victory for the American political process for we had a Republican President start a job that a Democrat President finished. Neither one could have succeeded without the other. Those are the facts, like them or not. Mental gymnastics trying to make the facts conform to preconceived notions helps no one.

I am not saying Bush did not state repeatedly that Osama bin Laden was not his top priority. I am not saying that Obama did not state repeatedly that Osama bin Laden was his top priority. Both of those are facts. I am saying that the goals each had was reinforced and unattainable without what came before. We need to see that, accept it and realize that we are much stronger united than we could ever be divided.

President Obama could have used this moment to unite the nation behind him, guaranteeing him a second term and ushering in an era of co-operation that the Nation desperately wants and needs but he didn't. He still could, but with much less of an impact. That's a missed opportunity that I hope doesn't come back to haunt us.

We are the United States of America. Its about time we started focusing on what Unites us.

Shay's Rebellion and What it Means in 2011

For those of you educated in the public school system, Shay's Rebellion took place in Western Massachusetts during the 1780s after the American Revolution. It became an important event in US history when taken together with other rebellions at the time because the cause was taxes. Daniel Shay was the man behind the rebellion; a veteran of the Continental Army (they fought on our side) who resigned after being wounded and left for home unpaid. Upon arriving at home, he ended up in court for unpayment of debt (likely due to having been unpaid while serving in the Continental Army) and saw many many others in the same situation.

Being a revolutionary sort of person, he mounted a rebellion made up of the folks who were being taken to the cleaners. At one town meeting, a farmer phrased it this way:

"I have been greatly abused, have been obliged to do more than my part in the war, been loaded with class rates, town rates, province rates, Continental rates and all rates...been pulled and hauled by sheriffs, constables and collectors, and had my cattle sold for less than they were worth...The great men are going to get all we have and I think it is time for us to rise and put a stop to it, and have no more courts, nor sheriffs, nor collectors nor lawyers."

Note that when he says "rates" he's referring to what we call taxes. What does he mean by that? Well, let's look at a bit of Massachusetts history, shall we? 1778, the first attempt at a state Constitution was shot down in the vote to ratify. In 1780, a state Constitution is ratified over the objections of many small towns and communities, setting a precedent in state politics that exists to this day. 1781, the state's paper money (money at the time was issued be each state) issued in 1778 drops to 1 fortieth of its issued value. So a state dollar was be worth 2.5 cents. And you thought our inflation was bad!

The courts are filled with people from the wealthy families who predominantly reside in the eastern part of the state and that does nothing to endear these now impoverished farmers who plead their cases and are largely ruled against. Such is the situation that protests are started in Western Massachusetts by Samuel Ely in 1782 against both the court system and state policies. The following year (1783) Job Shattuck from Groton, MA leads a group armed with clubs and staves against the tax collectors. In 1784 the courts are flooded with cases of unpaid debts like our good friend Daniel Shay. In 1785 a man in sentenced to 70 days in prison for unpaid debts.

Daniel Shay blows his top, grabs some men and they charge the courts of Northampton, Great Barrington, Concord, Taunton and Springfield in 1786, disrupting proceedings and shutting them down. The governor of Massachusetts responds with the Riot and Milita Acts; a proclamation declaring Danny and his boys (I couldn't resist) to be traitors. It goes further by stating that any gathering of more than 12 armed people in public is illegal and empowered sheriffs to kill anyone participating in said gathering. That's called elimination of the right to fair trail. Samuel Adams (well after his first brewery failed) declared that any rebellions against the republic should be put to death. The state legislature suspends the right of Habeas Corpus, or release from unlawful detention. Job Shattuck is wounded while resisting arrest, shipped to Boston and imprisoned without trial or bail.

By 1787 Danny's boys, called Regulators, are organized into 6 regiments throughout Hampshire country. A governmental militia is sent west and they fire upon the Regulators at the Springfield Armory. A state of rebellion is declared and by February the fighting is over and the rebellion is quelled.


The fallout: Shays and the Regulators are captured, imprisoned, fined and two are hung for looting. The majority are given conditional pardons in exchange for surrendering their firearms and giving an Oath of Allegiance. By mid 1788, all members of the Regulators including the leaders are pardoned. That same year the US Constitution is ratified by 11 of the 13 states (except Carolina and Rhode Island). The Bill of Rights is signed into law shortly thereafter.

But why tell us all this you ask? Surely I could have spent my time here doing something other than typing all this out. Yes but look at what started the rebellion: excessive taxation, devaluation of money and lack of restitution in court. Sound familiar? How much have your taxes gone up? How much has the dollar frankly tanked? Do you think the courts are on your side?

Lucky, the majority of our population hasn't just participated in an open and armed revolt against one government already. We aren't - and shouldn't be - ready for open warfare in the streets and armed rebellion.

That doesn't mean we can't peacefully rebel. We need to hold our representatives and senators responsible for the votes they cast on our behalf. We need to pay the Bill of Rights and take responsibility for those rights we are guaranteed and not lay claim to those that aren't. Educate yourself on what liberties the government is not empowered to infringe and ensure those you vote for do not try to demean, diminish or delete them. This nation of the people, by the people and for the people needs to be run by the people. Do not let them create a false nobility or ruling class. You do not need a degree to run for office. You don't need millions of dollars (but it helps). Your vote matters. Use it wisely.

Far too many have shed far too much blood for you to demean it with willful ignorance.