The cliché is that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The poster child for that definition has got to be Sen. John Warner of Virginia. It’s almost too easy to point out that marrying Elizabeth Taylor would probably fit the insanity definition. She clearly wasn’t marriage stability material and becoming number seven in her husband Rolodex wouldn’t be the goal of any rational individual. She wasn’t even much of a hottie by that time.
Now we’ve got semi-senile old John seriously proposing a return to the national 55-MPH speed limit. If he were a Democrat, I could understand the proclivity for repeating failures, but Warner identifies himself as a Republican. That is supposed to mean less government and more individual responsibility. Why then this:
To Die in West Texas
If the idea hadn’t been tried and proven such a dismal failure it might be excused as some sort of brain-storming suggestion on which we reserve judgment until all ideas are mustered and then we throw it out in the first cut. But we’ve been slowly down that road before. And we never got there.
The old pol says he occasionally kicks it up to 65, but I’ll be he scares himself in the process. I’ve got a proposal for him in return. Come to Dallas, Senator. Then we’ll put you in an economical little car and let you head off to El Paso at a governed 55 MPH. This is a good time of year for it. We’re nice and hot now. We’ll scrape your mind-numbed body out of that car somewhere between Pecos and Van Horn. You’ll be crazy as a loon and dehydrated to a prune by then. You won’t live long enough to complete the whole trip. This ain’t Virginia or the Beltway. We’ve still got spaces that aren’t grid-locked.
Listen, idiot, the free market determines how people drive. Gas costs money. I know that slower means more fuel economy and faster means less. I know what is safe in my car for my capabilities. I know what my time is worth—remember that other cliché about time equaling money? If my time investment exceeds my gas investment, I might choose to shift my priority. But, I’ll choose. Not the Gestapo.
The national speed limit doesn’t save gas. It costs money. It breeds disrespect for the law, not just speed laws, but all laws.
Somebody slip Warner a note and tell him it’s time to hang it up and go home. He’s lost his mind…again.
2 comments:
Re your coment on my story about the airport with the quote by Wallace Stevens.
If you read my post it says Stevens was a poet. It does not say he was with me, any where around me, or even breathing at the time. It was simply a quote of used that explained the feeling I had.
I also quote Shakespeare in articles and he was dead long before the Citabria.
As for the "guy" being in danger from the coyote. I was the person at the airport in the Citabria, and if you read down towards the end I clearly said the coyotes weren't a danger, but I was concerned for the human predator. (it was a field known for some drug trafficking in the past)
As for the other, I've never said I was a civilian my whole life.
I just need to keep parts of my life private. And still do.
I'm a bit chagrined to find that a published author of your quality finds my words that confusing and what I thought a simple story, hard to understand.
Thanks for visiting.
Nah, not that confusing at all. I was just trying to put the first comment into a context I could relate to. I broadened my own horizon, learned a bit about Stevens and thought it was a nice story but wondered how it all stitched together.
Anyone who goes around the region in a Citabria, solo, has some cred. Walking on the "Wild Side" can take place in the woods, in the desert, in downtown and in suburbia. When possible you should never go alone, even if you are alone. Kimber is a good traveling companion. Also Wilson or Ed Brown.
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