HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY DEAR FRIEND!!!!!!!!
Posted on 10/13/2001 5:00:31 AM PDT by Chairman_December_19th_Society
HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY DEAR FRIEND!!!!!!!!
Happy Birthday y'all!
I hadn't seen where the Nevada anthrax scare was false. I am wondering if they are actually going to do something major, it will come tomorrow on a Christian day of worship??
It’s time we all pay a bit more attention to our local gubmints. Yes you read correct….”LOCAL” gubmint. The feds have their hands full right now and this country is based on the premise that the local government should be running the show with only ideally minimal input from the federal level.
If nothing proves that the locals need to get their act together it’s the current anthrax scare going on in Florida. I have never seen a more inept, uncoordinated, unprepared public presentation of the facts and solutions as given by these guys. It doesn’t help that local duties overlap to include several bureaucratic agencies until everyone’s fighting for turf and air time then nobody’s in charge. Who gets short-changed? The public, of course.
Recently I had a run-in with mine own local gubmint and I took some action. Small, perhaps insignificant. But I got results.
Seems I was heading north on our local tunnel throughway, a toll road running under the Chesapeake bay by the port of Baltimore. Also seems a tractor-trailer overturned somewhere beyond the toll booths only I didn’t know this at the time I paid my toll. After exiting the toll booth, a big red sign informs me that all traffic MUST exit at so-and-so exit. The sign gave me pause as I was heading for a specific exit per pre-obtained directions and had no idea if the mandated exit was before or after where I was heading. However a huge tunnel loomed in front of me and such as turning around what NOT an option.
Sure enough come the ordained mandatory exit and it was before the exit I required. At this point I decided to follow the big red DETOUR FOR TUNNEL HERE signs as it seem the prudent thing to do. Most times when an exit or road must be closed they do re-route the traffic somewhere else that eventually leads to the original course.
Not in the state of Merryland, nosirree.
The detour signs took me right BACK going the other direction and back through the tunnel from which I’d just came. This factoid caused me some grief but enroute following the signs I did see the huge overturned truck and could plainly see it was blocking the entire road. I shrugged. If New Yorkers could survive the destruction wrought upon them then I could handle a detour. Of course I pondered the wisdom of sending all traffic back from whence they came when closing down the original toll plaza seemed the prudent thing to do, silly me.
As I tooled along I pondered if the state of Merryland would make me pay the toll again since I hadn’t even received my money’s worth no mind the inconvenience.
I asked the toll taker just this. The toll taker had not a clue of the overturned truck, detours and such, which, ahem, I think every one of them should have known about for goodness sake. She phoned her supervisor to see if I should have to pay again, telling the supervisor that the “lady” is complaining about having to pay twice for essentially nothing but inconvenience.
“Tell her she’ll have to get over it,” was the response of my Merryland civil servant and yes, I heard this with my own ears over some sort of squawky intercom.
“Then I should tell her she has to pay the dollar?” the toll taker asked, for my benefit I suspect that I may hear the command from the powers that be.
No of course I did not pay the damn dollar. And I told toll taker same as I politely pulled up that she should note my license plate number for future bureaucratic hassles and fines to come.
I went home and immediately wrote my state delegate, local representative and head poobah of the Merryland Toll Authority.
Guess what?
The state of Maryland is smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic coast. Should any emergency befall us ALL traffic would be heading through this state and I see a real problem that they cannot handle something as simple as overturned truck but in such a stupid manner. Not to mention that little matter of DC being right down the road and on the day of the terrorist attacks the states’ roads were all crammed what with DC traffic re-routed to the Baltimore-Washington Pkwy and such.
There’s precedent and argument for my case is what I’m saying here.
I wrote, and I know you’ll find this difficult to believe, a long and passionate letter to my elected representatives stating all the above and more.
Since, I’ve had all manner of reaction to my letter as well I should. Civil servants should not be telling confused citizens to “get over it”. Such as confused citizens might well be de rigeur. If this is what we can expect from what might essentially be our leaders in a state emergency, well I’m shivering in horror.
It turns out that the detour signs I followed were erroneously placed and were meant to direct local traffic to another tunnel entrance but they were placed directly at where traffic had been forced to exit in such a confusing manner that it was not far-fetched for motorists to get confused and think it was a detour for them.
“Quite a few people got confused over the sign placement,” the head poobah of Maryland’s toll roads told me upon phoning me up with a plea for peace, PLEASE, he’s had all sorts of political folks calling him up in response to my letter and hey, the heat was on.
Damn it, I was right! I even spent some time with the fellow, admonishing him about the new face of America, how we need our local governments to be organized, how he should be ashamed that such as an overturned truck caused such havoc when all of New York is handling a crisis of an immeasurable magnitude compared to this little traffic snarl. He agreed with me sheepishly as I suppose he had to. He knew I’d went to the trouble of finding the addresses of my elected representatives and SNAIL-MAILED them my complaint.
This is my point exactly.
It was only my letters to the powers-that-be that caused this immediate and contrite response though I was right, right, right.
We all need to do the same here and now. Almost every elected representative has an email address for God’s sake. There’s no reason for every one of us not to be pains in the butt about these nasty gubmint workers who resent that we should expect them to do their jobs, be courteous and think on their feet, like we all have to do in pursuit of our own employment.
Especially now we should demand this. Be a pain about it. Put their bureaucratic feet to the fire. Took my husband five minutes to find all the addresses, both snail mail and email, of our elected representatives. The information’s out there, on the Internet. Look it up and store all information in your PIM and save the email address in your cyber-address book.
Every time you see an instance of bureaucratic ineptitude, zip off an email.
I guarantee you’ll get a response.
Myself not only does NOT have to pay the dollar, I got a free toll pass good on any Merryland toll road and with no expiration date.
This is nice but I sleep better at night knowing that some bureaucrat is being watched very closely and that some snippy civil servant might well lose her cushy job.
I like it.
Are you'all twins?
kd5cts, I tried to buy you one of those Metal Storm prototypes, but they said I'd have to wait for some more testing.
ABG, I will bestow upon you another Saint's win this Sunday.
Molly, aol (lower case on purpose) is giving me fits, again.
5.56mm
Goonga la goonga....
And good for you.
5.56mm
Looks like a cold front may be passing through our AO this pm. Today will be in the 80's and sunny. Light breeze out of the NE.
Will there be a 'Daily Update' today?
5.56mm
REMEMBER THE TRADE CENTER!!
The news as reported by The Washington Times:
[Note: All links go to The Washington Times]
1. The Defense Department believes Al Qa’eda may have been able to obtain nuclear weapons.
[This is getting real serious.]
Officials think al Qaeda could have nuclear arms
2. Anthrax cases spread to NBC News in New York.
[I really believe this is a diversion. Something else is in play.]
3. President Bush is trying to calm America.
[He’s doing the very best he can with an extremely difficult situation.]
4.Pakistani militants have promised a long “holy war.”
[That area is still real dicey.]
Pakistani militants vow long 'holy war'
5. The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly approved an anti-terrorist bill similar to the Senate. It could be ready for the President next week.
[Yes, there are some infringements on our civil liberties, but I believe we are talking about survival here folks. See Item #1.]
6. Despite all the worries, apparently several folks took advantage of the nice weather in DC to take a walk on The Mall.
[It has been real nice, weatherwise, for a couple of days. Will be again today.]
While some panic, others go for a walk
7. Most folks believe the Taliban Government will fall, but will that simply usher in chaos?
[I hope not.]
Chaos waits in wings of Afghanistan
Today’s Quotes:
Anyone who eats pork rinds can’t be all good. [Barbara Bush, on her husband]
So much of left-wing thought is kind of playing with fire by people who don’t even know that fire is hot. [George Orwell]
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies. [Groucho Marx]
The most delicious of all privileges—spending other people’s money. [John Randolph, on serving in Congress]
I suppose if I was offered enough money I’d try the pros. Everybody has his price. For enough money I’d become a Communist. Well, maybe not a Communist. A Democrat, anyway. [Abe Lemons, college basketball coach, asked if he would consider coaching in the NBA]
We shall not rest until we have cut a swath 60-miles wide through the entire left - taking all that is before us with us as we go. We shall leave nothing to the enemy that may be of value to him. We shall show him that he may count on nothing and will be able to keep nothing, not his spirit, not his soul, not that upon which he shall feed. We shall not cease until the moment we have rent through their entire land and have arrived at the sea, with our glorious victory upon us.
Home Page of the December 19th Society
Now you have the info, go support America!
MORNIN' EVERYONE. Rainy AM in Central Texas. Slept through the storm that roared through here. The house is so well insulated I never hear anything outside.
Well the Anthrax scare is going full steam ahead. How many of us have heard the word "fear", "afraid", "worry", "scared". I awoke about 0600 and the first word I heard was Anthrax. And that's all I've been hearing for the past hour. Man........
Will have to leave in a little while....Roomey and I are participating in the American Heart Walk. It's only a mile, so it won't take very long. We usually walk 9 holes before anyone hits the links.
See y'all later.
Well my day today is to now sterilize the kitchen.
Morey the Mouse was staying put down in the garage and in the washroom. I see this morning he made his way up to the kitchen and left a few "packages" for me on the counter. NO OATMEAL COOKIES FOR HIM. The "humane" trap will be now put out after I scrub everything down. Sorry Morey.
President Mahathir came out with a pretty strong statement against terrorism and the government is definitely keeping its eyes on any demonstrators to possibly use against them in the future.
But Mahathir also called on Bush to stop the bombings, claiming that they are not going to accomplish what they are intended to. My guess is that the longer they go on, the more popular support Afghanistan is going to get and that translates into help for the Taliban. Pray for our president!
Cold up there?
AOL has been a problem child today, although everything is slow I can still surf.
Bye Morey.
5.56mm
Heheheh.
Tomorrow a few freepers are getting together and we will head a tad north to do a Fall Leaves thingy and do lunch. Should be a NICE day for it.
I heard about those demonstrations on the new AND I WORRY SO MUCH ABOUT YOU AND JEMIAN. Youse guys keep your heads down and try to come back soon.
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