It’s coming. I can hear it from here: footsteps. The Double Nickel Footsteps.

Expect a regression to a national 55 MPH speed limit.

The Detroit News recently wrote:

On the same day Gov. Jennifer Granholm suggested the state consider lowering freeway speeds to conserve gas, speed studies released to The Detroit News on Wednesday indicate that $4-a-gallon gas has not put a damper on the desire to zoom across town.

The average speeds at nine spots around Metro Detroit actually rose from August 2007 to June, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation. Speeds went down slightly at just three sites that MDOT routinely monitors.

It is classic time-is-money tradeoff, said David Greene, a researcher for the U.S. Department of Energy based in Tennessee. A motorist can save $12 in gas by going 10 mph slower over 500 miles. But it adds an hour to the trip.

“For a lot of people, their time is still more valuable than the fuel savings,” Greene said.

However, buried deep in the article:

Police and others say slowing down too much can be dangerous. Some folks are tempting fate by dipping below 55 mph, said Jim Rink, a spokesperson for AAA Michigan. If most traffic is going 70 to 75 mph, the slow car becomes a danger, he said. “It’s a recipe for a potential crash,” he said.

One commenter on the Truth About Cars (apparently a partial Libertarian after my own heart) wrote:

For that matter, why are taxes being imposed for any purpose other than supporting government functions, and why is there such an obsession with taxing anything you don’t like?

If the government can give out incentives for hybrids, why not incentives for any car that exceeds 30 mpg combined? What about supporting a SUV buyback program if people are so hellbent on getting these things off the streets?

What is so attractive about beating people over the heads with excess taxes and excess regulations?

Another commenter nailed it when he wrote:

If the motivation is to save fuel, then instead of slowing people down, the goal should be the opposite — to get traffic to stop idling. Unless you drive a hybrid, your worst fuel economy is achieved in slow stop-and-go traffic, not at highway speeds.

I’ve said that for years: eliminate “stupid” traffic lights — the ones that don’t run on demand, the ones that make you stop when there’s no traffic about. Eliminate concrete dividers and place more “left turn” center lanes so drivers don’t have to make a U-turn at a stop light to enter the street they passed. Extend the time of “yellow” at each traffic light to eliminate accidents — ooops, sorry, can’t do that, might cut into a city’s PROFITS from “red light runners” (you know, of course, don’t you, that the companies manufacturing and installing Red Light Cameras get a cut of the PROFITS from each traffic citation, yes?). Even-out green light times so one direction isn’t overbearing and all other directions sit at idle.

The goal should be: KEEP TRAFFIC MOVING and MINIMIZE IDLE and STOPPING TIMES.

But no, those are common sense ideas. It’s best to once more jerk off the public and penalize the many due to the few.

55. It’s coming. Actually, it’s almost here.

As I’ve alluded for the past few weeks, Northern Fornicalia just can’t seem to catch a break because of all the fires. Iran said “we” (the U.S.) would burn. Are their minions here purposely setting fires?

I am besieged by smoke not only at work in Sacramento, but at home too.

Thursday, July 10th in Sacramento, it was 111-degrees on our work thermometer, the air was stagnant, unmoving, overcast and humid. Particulate matter floated. I could no longer see the tower at Mather Airport. Visibility was roughly half a mile. The air conditioner at work provided only a cooler flavor of smoke. You could taste it.

My eyes still run red. They tear up constantly. My throat burns. I cannot get away. I have a massive throbbing headache as I write this. There is no escape.

When I got home Thursday night, the air was stale inside my house, stagnant, hot, 88-degrees, and smelled of smoke. I have no air-conditioning and rely upon the cool night to vacate the old air from my house like a Whole House Fan. It’s cooler out there now; just profligate with smoke.

It was so hot inside the house I actually preferred the smell of smoke to the depleting heat. I have box fans blowing the stale hot air out as I write this paragraph. I am trading it for “hopefully” cooler smoky air. What a choice. And oh yes, I am drinking cold Grey Goose vodka and Squirt. It seems to be smoothing out the rough edges for me, even as I write this. Otherwise I couldn’t stand to be here. I will be abandoning my cabin tomorrow. Fuck this. I can’t breathe. I need cooler air. I’m thinking it’s time to actually spend the money I make and install a new HVAC system in this 1980 cabin. Then I could run the place on two energy systems: propane and electricity.

Included is a map of Fornicalia smoke plume areas.

Scuttlebutt at the local store is that the flames from the Blue Canyon fire are visible and only a few ridges from Moody Ridge — about 5 miles from my house.

I’ve started taking some things down in my Toyota RAV-4 to the wife’s house. What to take? I ask. What’s important? How can I decide with a Lifetime of history stashed in my home? How to triage what’s truly valuable?

Because triage I must. Best to do it now instead of later. I don’t know for a fact I’m definitely targeted. But I’d be a fool to assume I am not, that the fires aren’t coming directly for my forehead. And my house. And everything I hold valuable, worked, sweated, toiled, bled for the past number of years. And obviously I am not the only one in this predicament. There are many of us Mountain People up here. Older people. Families with children.

Fornicalia wildfires located here.

US Forest Service wildfires listed and located here.

Fornicalia O.E.S. fires listed and located here.

The fire coming for me is called the American River Complex.

Should I be fearful? Or simply resigned?

I can only hope that CalFire decides to fight like Frothing Bastards for my area because, if they lose me, they lose my entire local CalFire response station and its adjoining reservoir for bucket dipping.

Boeing gets a second chance to re-bid the USAF’s $35-billion dollar tanker project, the aircraft necessary to replace its aging fleet of Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers and Boeing KC-10A Extenders.

EADS/Northrop-Grumman acquired the initial award. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, the foreign aircraft manufacturer. Airbus is subsidized heavily by the French government.

Boeing filed a protest early this year alleging more than 100 violations of proper contracting practices, eight of which were sustained by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.

From DefenseAerospace.com:

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department has reopened the bidding process for a multibillion-dollar midair refueling tanker contract, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said today. The announcement comes after the Government Accountability Office last month found improper practices related to the $35 billion contract awarded in February to the Northrop-Grumman/EADS/Airbus consortium, which prompted a protest from rival bidder Boeing Company.

Call me insular or jingoistic, but my disagreement then and now is this: if the consortium of countries of controlling origin (to include France) conjure a dispute with the United States, they may decide to cut off supply of the tankers or refuse blueprints or production access to the aircraft. This is a 30-year contract. Much can happen in 30 years.

Please remember, these replacement tankers must refuel any US military aircraft to include Air Force One — and contracts must consider any proprietary and classified information needed for in-flight refueling maneuvers and compatibilities. And finally, Boeing is not subsidized by the United States (see Boeing’s tanker blog here).

This, to me, is a matter of clear national security, not cost. The Boeing KC-767 should win.

It doesn’t get any better than this. Jesse Jackson says of Barack Hussein Obama:

See, Barack been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based … I want cut his nuts off … Barack … he’s talking down to black people.”

Pot calling kettle black, anyone? I love that line’s application to this incident. . .heh-heh.

Perhaps I’m late on this news-tip, but I just recently became aware of a Canadian ruling from last month. Read away and please be certain, if you’re a parent, that you’re sitting down:

GATINEAU, Quebec, June 20, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Quebec youngster has used the courts to avoid parental discipline in a “landmark” case. The 12-year-old girl, who is too young to be named, went to court to force her father to overturn his decision not to allow her to go on a school trip. Her father had decided to ground her after he found out she had posted photos of herself on a dating website against his wishes.

The sixth grader then took her father to court, arguing that his punishments were too severe. Madam Justice Suzanne Tessier of the Quebec Superior Court ruled today that denying the girl permission to go on the school trip was an excessive punishment. The girl’s lawyer, Lucie Fortin, said, “She’s becoming a big girl” and described the school trip as “a unique event in her life”, the Globe and Mail reported.

In arguing the case, Fortin cited Sections 159 and 604 of the Quebec Civil Code, which allow minors in some circumstances to initiate court proceedings relating to the exercise of parental authority. Section 159 is used in “extreme circumstances”, such as cases of parental negligence.

Certainly the case is likely to be appealed; however, should it stand (and that is not entirely impossible in Canada – as the above photo insinuates) it will send a massive rippling effect directly south.

Can you imagine the catastrophe if, should your child disagree with your various decisions, they are eminently grievable in our courts?

This is sheer insanity.