Nice timing.
St Pete's Red-Light Scameras go from 'warning' to 'ticket' status today, accompanied by the usual counter-factual barrage of local media lies:
- Helps lower fatalities at intersections (if we'd gone with roundabouts and jug-handles to begin with, we wouldn't have had to invent the term, T-Bone - regardless, the truth is that RLCs increase the number of accidents - mostly rear-end);
- Cheapest way to solve the problem (really? cheaper than, say, adding another 1-2 second delay between the red in one direction and green in the other - a 1-minute adjustment on a computer - really?)
- It's not about replacing lost city revenue (really really? pray tell, then, why the scameras are located at the most profitable locations and not those with the highest accident rates? And why are there persistent rumours of locational 'quotas'? And for how long will the SPPD 'analyze' these infractions before turning such tasks over to private firms not bound by such minor strictures as The Bill of bloody Rights (not to mention their prime directive of increasing the shareholders yield)?
Governments learn much from the world of 'bid'ness.' Among other things, never allow the facts to get in the way of a new income-stream.
con RED LIGHT SCAMERAS - THE CATCH-22 atlantic 11-00-11
The above items are seen by some, including Yours Truly, as just the latest in a series of measures with but two purposes: to hem us in and pick our pockets.
The Protect IP Act (protect Hollywood profits) places all websites at risk of being, literally, 'rubbed out' from the Internet; sans due process, I might add. The made men among my readers are silently nodding in assent at my choice of term. No hit man could do a better job at silencing a 'rat' than this thug of a statute. To paraphrase Uncle Joe (Stalin), "No site, no problem."
If your site doesn't fetch up in a Google search, few will miss it, fewer still will know - or go to the trouble of digging out - your IP address. Anything that is rendered 'unhandy' on the WWW may as well fold its tents and call it a day. Instantcy is everything on the Net. Think how you drum your fingers, watching that little revolving wheel as a pokey site launches in 6-7-8-9 (What is the problem! I'm late for work!) seconds instead of right! now!. Your government (ever alert to 'protect' you from any and all harm, real or ginned-up) is well aware of this.
Given the increasing pace of events such as the ones above, and barring any major upsets (crises), as well as the slight difference made by the resident at 1600 Pennsylvania come 2013, we have, perhaps, another 3 to 5 years before this nation will become unbearable for anyone used to operating, and flourishing, in a free society.
Unfortunately, the more effective - and popular - such push-back operatons as OccupyWallStreet become, the speedier will be our exit from a democratic republic and the sooner we can begin to bring down this steaming pile of kleptocratic shit known as the Industrial Age.
Nigel Watson freethinker 727.493.1990 skype orbizen2
Blog: ORBizen Memo http://orbizenmemo.blogspot.com/
"There is no greater disaster than greed." – Lao-tzu
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Krishnamurti
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