Shut Up Already

You can always tell when Progressives or Liberals (the two overlap like the circles on the front of a Mastercard) think they have won something.  They won't shut up about it.  They also won't shut up about what they think is wrong with the other side.  From advise to out and out criticism, they just keep going as if the election never happened.  Who are they trying to convince?

In fact, I've found that the biggest difference between the political left and the political right is not in social policy, economic policy, or environmental policy.  The left just won't ever, ever let you forget they have something to say.  The right, for the most part, will shut up until something can be said that will accomplish something.  Again, I ask, who are they trying to convince?

Perhaps themselves.

How Long Would It Take Today?

This is an instructive game to play, and the title of a tabular piece in the most recent (August 2012) issue of Trains Magazine written by Fred W. Frailey.

As a game, it can really bring home the impact of government regulation and intervention in all sorts of things.  In the case of Mr. Frailey's piece, its about building a transcontinental railroad, and is written on the 150th anniversary of the Union Pacific Railroad.  Mr. Frailey posits that, instead of the 7 years that it took (1862-1869) to build the Union Pacific, today it would take from August 1, 2012 until May 2069, about 57 years.

Tongue in cheek, he throws in all the possibilities:  Federal court intervention, ten years for an environmental study, EPA intervention, both Democrat and Republican intransigence, environmental activist intervention, endangered species, and forest fires.  In this scenario, it takes until 2057 just to break ground.  You know what, although this piece reeks of sarcasm, I think it is closer to the truth than not.

This post was originally written for by blog, Passenger Rail, but, as a matter of fact, this kind of thing reminds me so much of what goes on in New Mexico, and in Albuquerque in particular, that I am doing this same post on my political barb blog, Turn Right At Albuquerque.

©2012 - C. A. Turek - mistertrains@gmail.com

Paying Through The Nose

First, let me note that I really don't get a chance to post to this blog often enough.  There are a whole lot more stupid political things that happen in New Mexico than I have the time to write about.  Unfortunately, not just on the left side of the political spectrum.

But, today, I want to tell you how much money I had to blow keeping the "tree huggers" happy.

My wife and I own a very old vehicle - over 30 years old to be exact - and it has all the pollution controls that were applied to the vehicle intact.  I maintain it well, and it has passed the so-called smog test every time since the County of Bernalillo and the City of Albuquerque decided it had to be done.  Today it cost me a total of $55 just because the gas cap rubber didn't pass.  I mean it.  This is a vehicle that had a complex system of vacuum hoses to capture and keep all traces of fuel vapor out of the atmosphere, but the fill pipe wasn't designed for a pressurized gas cap.

But the gas cap o-ring didn't seal on their little test thingy.  So:
I paid for the first smog test, which failed.
I paid for a new gas cap.
I paid for the second smog test, which passed.  Had to have them do everything over again and waste about 20 more minutes because they can't just test the cap.  Hello?  If everything else is all right, why not?

Yes, I could have driving 14 miles round trip downtown and gotten the second test for free, but that would have been at a "govermint" facility.  The difference being that employees at Jiffy Lube are at least tactful, courteous, and conscious.

Now I can pay to register the vehicle.

Ugly Thing Politics

You can take my title with or without a comma after "thing."

In Bernalillo County, New Mexico, the county in which Albuquerque is the largest city, sits a commissioner named Michael Wiener.  Mr. Wiener (whether he is appropriately named has yet to be determined) was recently photographed with four young ladies who are more than likely sex workers in an international red light district.  Fortunately, this district is not in Albuquerque.  Even our Republican governor has called for Mr. Wiener's resignation, but he says he's staying.  This seems to be like any of a hundred other scandals where the person who gets caught resists taking his (or her) medicine.  (See John Edwards, under "still resisting.")

We also have an ex-mayor of this town.  His name is Martin Chavez.  He's running in the Democrat primary for  a congressional seat.  He is admittedly the one-time- and allegedly now ex-boyfriend of a lady who is under indictment for embezzlement of considerable amounts of money from a Santa Fe hospital.  When asked, Mr. Chavez says the only important thing is that he did not spend any public money on her.  We think the most important thing to ask is whether she spent any embezzled money on him.

Ugly Thing, these Politics.

Anybody but Obama.

Job Well Done - as in Fully Cooked

The New Mexico legislature finished their obligatory 30-day budget session this past week, and I can't help but think we would have been better off if they had all stayed home.  Yes, they passed a budget.  One that appears to be some sort of a compromise, but one that too readily depends on continuing sources of revenue that could easily dry up if the economy decides to stall.  The left-wingers couldn't help themselves.

If the idea came from our Republican governor, it almost surely didn't have a chance, except in compromised form.  I think that the local socialists have picked up on the tack taken by federal Democratic legislators, who ask for things so far on the left that any compromise looks better than what they are proposing.  This also gives them the opportunity to chastise conservatives for not wanting to compromise.  In the end, what conservatives are asking for is so close to the middle that we wind up swinging way over to the left.

Please turn right.

Inextricably Linked

Anyone who has lived in Albuquerque, NM, as long as I have would know that the politics of Albuquerque and those of Bernalillo County are linked in a way that resembles Siamese Twins joined at the back of the head and sharing a brain.  (If you use the link to the county that I have posted above, please don't email and ask why the county seal is full of sheep.  One day I'll figure that out.)  Any way, to continue the metaphor, each twin has a set of arms and legs that it can use to take potshots at the other.  This leads to monstrosities like the ABCWUA (Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority), and the Metro Detention Center.

By the way, Albuquerque is in Bernalillo County (pronounced ber-nuh-lee-owe), but Bernalillo, the city, is in Sandoval County.  I'm sure there is a Sandoval, but I don't know what county it is in, but you better tell the Truth or (pay the) Consequences in Sierra County.