What Will It Take to Get Congress to Give Us an Infrastructure Bill?

Yes sir, breaking news on more of America's infrastructure. And ironically, poignantly, it's out of "red state", Republican Texas, no less.

1 dead, 3 injured in bridge collapse on I-35

Not only did a bridge collapse but it was tragic, too:

KVUE in Texas is reporting 1 person is dead and 3 are injured in a bridge collapse in Bell County, Texas.

One person is dead and at least three others are injured after a crash along Interstate 35 near mile marker 286 in Salado, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

DPS said the person who died was in a pickup truck driving under the bridge when it collapsed. According to the Texas Department of Transportation, around 11 a.m. Thursday, an oversized tractor trailer hit a beam of the FM 2484 overpass bridge that was under construction on I-35. The impact caused several beams to become dislodged and fall onto the roadway.

Not only is our infrastructure collapsing, as here, but it killed an American and hurt others.

So I ask you, at what point are our representatives in Congress going to do something to write, propose and pass a good, strong, meaningful infrastructure bill?

I say again--

• Americans need the jobs.
• Our infrastructure famously needs the updating and improving.
• And the economy needs the boost.

It should be a no-brainer.

Senator Roy Blunt?

Will you lead on this, sir?

Texas does it again

On life, living and the internet today

The New York Times has three good to great to excellent articles today on the internet and what it's doing to us today.

I will start, too, with the best of the three because I am convinced it is one of the most beautiful, true, poignant, timely and even important columns  I've read in a long, long time and that we might read all year:

How Not to Be Alone

It is about, yes, computers and our phones and technology and how they do bring us together but also, paradoxically, how they can also separate us physically and even emotionally.

Because the whole thing is that good and, as I said, even important, I'll only put a few quotes of it here:

Technology celebrates connectedness, but encourages retreat...

The flow of water carves rock, a little bit at a time. And our personhood is carved, too, by the flow of our habits...     

Psychologists who study empathy and compassion are finding that unlike our almost instantaneous responses to physical pain, it takes time for the brain to comprehend the psychological and moral dimensions of a situation. The more distracted we become, and the more emphasis we place on speed at the expense of depth, the less likely and able we are to care...    

 

THE problem with accepting — with preferring — diminished substitutes is that over time, we, too, become diminished substitutes. People who become used to saying little become used to feeling little.
 

With each generation, it becomes harder to imagine a future that resembles the present.

 

I worry that the closer the world gets to our fingertips, the further it gets from our hearts.

 

Most of the time, most people are not crying in public, but everyone is always in need of something that another person can give, be it undivided attention, a kind word or deep empathy. There is no better use of a life than to be attentive to such needs.

 

I say again, it was one good to great article. I would implore nearly anyone and everyone to read it.

 

The second and third articles, totally unintended to be related, I think, show what people are doing in order to stay connected:

 

The 'I Dos,' Unplugged

Showing how brides and grooms are having people leave their phones at the door, during weddings, increasingly (and good for them).

 

Student Social Climbing, but on an Indoor Bike

Wherein, students are attending kind of "cycle parties" and not texting, etc.

Interesting stuff.

There's lots more in the Times today, of course, on technology (like on the US and Chinese, negotiating how we'll work together and what will and will not happen with cyberespionage) but these, above, I thought were good and important on how we all act, interpersonally, with the 'puters and what we do and don't do with them.

Enjoy your Sunday, y'all.

We can't be Austin, Texas but we'll take this, anyway

Sure, we can't be Austin, Texas, what with its Sixth Street, its Congress Avenue, its music history, etc., and we don't have to want to try to be, certainly. But at least we got one thing from that city that they do so well.

That is, we got the Alamo Drafthouse. It went into the space of the former AMC Mainstreet Theater downtown.

And I can tell you, there's only one reason this place appeals to me.

The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas has always been famous--and popular--for being tough on moviegoers who talk in theaters but who also feel they must bring their telephones or computers into the theater and use them during the movie experience.

Alamo Drafthouse takes on texters: kxan.com

Of course, one of the big, wonderful ironies of this is that Austin is known for being at the forefront of the comuter industry and culture, yet here these people are, fighting the rudeness of some people with their technology. Bravo for them, I say, naturally, and great for us. Maybe it will spread. So if you've ever experienced the rudeness and selfishness and ignorance of that kind of fellow-moviegoer--and who hasn't?--this should be the place for you. Heck, it's the place for all of us. Links: http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/Alamo-Drafthouse-takes-on-texters http://drafthouse.com/kansas_city/mainstreet

Entertainment overnight

A new, rapidly rising group out of this year's SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. I love her voice, the soul in it.

I'd LOVE to see local theaters have the backbone to support this policy

A theater in Austin, Texas took a phone call from a customer and made it into a Public Service Announcement (PSA), telling other customers of their policy of not tolerating people who use their cell phones in the theater.  If you'll click on this YouTube video below, you can see an edited version, with the crude, low-class language bleeped.

Who of us movie-goers wouldn't be for this?

All in favor?

Link to original, full story:  http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/texas-movie-theater-makes-example-psa-texting-audience-170925090.html

Texans: Seemingly hell-bent on killing each other

First it was guns.

In Texas, for Texans, it's "all guns, all the time."  We know/knew that, right?

Now, they're out-doing themselves.

They want the highest speed limit in the nation:

Texas House backs plan to allow 85 mph speed limit

AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas House approved a bill that would allow the speed limit on some highways to be raised to 85 mph, which would be the highest in the nation.

The Senate is considering a similar bill.

Forget the safety issues. 

Forget the fact that it burns up more gas.

It's Texas, where they want the biggest, the baddest and now the fastest.

It reminds me of the Oscar Wilde quote:   "Nothing succeeds like excess."

Except Texans wouldn't be having anything of Oscar Wilde.

Well, except maybe in Austin.

Have a great weekend, y'all.

Link to original story:  http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_74c00fdc-61ff-11e0-beba-001cc4c002e0.html

Texans: Not very bright but not hypocrites, anyway

News out yesterday:

Texas poised to pass bill allowing guns on campus

By JIM VERTUNO, Associated PressSun Feb 20, 2:24 pm ET
AUSTIN, Texas – Texas is preparing to give college students and professors the right to carry guns on campus, adding momentum to a national campaign to open this part of society to firearms.

More than half the members of the Texas House have signed on as co-authors of a measure directing universities to allow concealed handguns. The Senate passed a similar bill in 2009 and is expected to do so again. Republican Gov. Rick Perry, who sometimes packs a pistol when he jogs, has said he's in favor of the idea.

Right, because you need a gun when you jog.  I get that.  (dripping sarcasm)

We need guns at colleges and universities like we need 'em in our national parks--that is, not at all.

As I've said many times before, here and otherwise, "more guns" is not an answer to problems.  Not a good answer, anyway, and not a smart one.

And as said over at Americablog:  "What do you mean I didn't get an 'A'?"


Link to original story:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110220/ap_on_re_us/us_guns_on_campus_5/print

The time is now

Yesterday, I was at the office, working and reading emails. I got one from a nephew and another from his father--my brother.

I was surprised.

Both were racist.

I knew they were both capable of it but hadn't gotten any of these from them in the last couple of years and so, had forgotten their proclivity for them.

The first asked, supposedly (apparently?) seriously how all the African-Americans could get to Washington for the inauguration of President Obama but not out of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.

The ignorance was stunning.

To them and the person who wrote it, both groups were the same people. And apparently, also, the same situation. Or some such. There's twisted logic in there somewhere, I'm sure.

The 2nd one was a picture of a box, propped up with a stick that had a slice of watermelon under it.

It said it was a "plot to kidnap President Obama."

Again, such monumental racism it shocked me.

I thought, if they didn't know how stupid it was, at least they should know to not send it to me.

My responses for both were the same. I just wrote back that both were racist.

That's it.

And that is what we need to start and keep doing.

Every time we see this stuff, we need to call it out for what it is. It's not difficult.

Everyone needs to do this. It's easy and doesn't take much time. And everyone who calls themselves "Christian" or who belongs to a religion should step up and take this stand.

It was reported today that an African-American family was on the road in West Texas for 8 hours and showed up at the motel where they had reservations. A man gardening there started shouting at them that they couldn't stay there. He seemed to make it clear it was because they were black, too.

It's more racism, if their story pans out.

We have an African-American President, folks. It's 2009. We're smarter than all this.

The racism has to stop.

Let's see to it.