Police in Prince William County, VA just released a list of the most dangerous intersections and I discovered that on a single trip to Chantilly I managed to drive through the most dangerous intersection in Manassas, the most hazardous in Manassas Park and the third most threatening in the rest of the county.

This is because I live in the land of “you can’t get there from here.” Northern Virginia residents have only a very limited number of through streets and major thoroughfares. Drivers are forced to crowd into a handful of routes when they want to go east or west and even fewer when they want to go north. Any tourist ever stuck on I–95 knows what I’m talking about.

There is no way to plan a route avoiding dangerous, packed intersections because there are no alternatives. Much of this can be blamed on what I call the Stonewall Jackson school of traffic engineering: “Why Stonewall whipped the Yankee’s behind using this very road network. There is no need to improve on perfection.”

In effect this means replacing a one–lane corduroy road with a winding two–lane asphalt design is viewed as a technological breakthrough rivaling that of the flush toilet.

And it’s not going to get any better where I live.

County planners are in the process of approving a 22–acre mixed use development that will have 360 apartments, two hotels and an office building. And oh yes, there will be only a single exit from the development linking it to neighboring roads.

Once more state and local government succeeds where national government and Richard Branson failed. The county and the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) have managed to monetize space. The right to drive into or out of a parcel of land makes it extremely valuable, because curb cuts are rationed tighter than ethics at a GSA convention. Gaining permission for that vital absence of concrete curbing often requires a lobbyist.

I’m sure the thinking here was you can drain a bathtub with a single exit, why not a real estate development? Yet the same planners would not approve a movie theatre with one exit and they wouldn’t approve a shopping mall interior with a single exit either. Maybe we should give the fire marshal authority to approve road and development design. Installing a sprinkler system in your car would be a small price to pay for more efficient transportation.

Fortunately, due to cul–de–sac laden, backward road design theory, most of the crashes here are low speed encounters. According to a press release from TomTom, the GPS people, the Washington, DC area has the most congested traffic and slowest average speeds in the nation.

Many drivers serve a positively organic role in the Capitol’s traffic circulatory system, functioning as automotive plaque that clogs the artery and slows us down.

I recently returned from a trip to Dallas and traffic there was a revelation. At 4 PM on Friday I was driving down LBJ Freeway and Central Expressway, two major thoroughfares that are packed daily with rush hour traffic. Auto density was the same as on I–95, but guess what? I was moving at speeds in excess of 40 mph! I felt like a Swiss neutron racing the speed of light.

(Oakley, CA.) Jim Stanek (66) was a station agent for the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). By all indications, he was a dependable model employee.

A 16 year old boy whose father died last year, was taken in by his grandparents in Oakley. The grandparents manage to get by but barely. Their grandson goes to school in San Francisco which requires him to take the BART. The ticket is $11.00 a day,or $220.00 a month. Plus he has to take a bus to and from BART.

When Stanek learned of the youngster’s plight he began to round up tickets tossed in the trash that still had some fare value and gave them to the boy to assist him.

Supervisors went into a hissy fit and fired Stanek.  Jim Allison, a BART spokesman said, “Tickets with value left on them are supposed to be turned over to Lost and Found which will turn them over to the general fund.”

Since Stanek did not do that, but gave the tossed tickets to a teen who needed to get back and forth to school, he was fired. Saith Allison: “Even though Stanek’s decision (to give the discarded tickets) may have been made in compassion, it was NOT his decision to make.”

Whoa… hold on there! BART tickets that have been tossed in the trash must be given to Lost and Found to be put in the BART General Fund? How’s that again? The tickets had already been paid for. How would they be used in the fund?  For the teen to use the discarded tickets takes no money away from BART but uses the rides already paid for but forsaken.

So they fired Stanek claiming he improperly took tickets (discarded ones from the trash) with a value of $300.00.

Californians are generous. They also are very protective of animals. This is why I love it here and make it a point to hug a liberal every day.

An anonymous woman in The Bay Area came forward immediately, contacted the school and said she will pay his complete transportation, $15.00 a day, until he graduates.

BART must reinstate Jim Stanek. If that $300.00 they fired a man for, that they never paid out or lost, is still an issue, we are sure that our readers will step up to take that $300. to Jim Allison with full instructions regarding its application.

Every now and then a hobbyist inspired by splashy magazine covers featuring art deco cities and soaring vehicles full of the cheerful people of the future puts together a flying car. The result is noted chiefly for its novelty and then everyone moves along because we aren’t a flying car culture. From the bottom up we might long to soar above the highways, but from the top down we are a light rail culture, a biodegradable house culture and a guard rail culture.

For the people at the top the flying car should be able to fit in a closet, have a minimal carbon footprint, run on the tears of Third World children and not fly. It should be the sort of thing that you can leave outside a vegan tofu restaurant in Portland in order to shame working class truck drivers. That is if you have to have a car at all, rather than a bike and a light rail pass.

The flying car belonged to an America at a crossroads. A nation tiptoeing between the adventure of innovation and the progressive order of the nanny state. Since then the car has drive to this future that we have now. A world in which we have an expanding poorly managed government that oversees everything and an innovation culture chiefly confined to building a complex social environment within a data infrastructure built on Cold War communications technology. Or as some still call it, the internet.

Flying cars don’t have much of a place in a society with emissions standards, mandatory child seats, heavily taxed gasoline and government motor companies. They have even less of a place in one that banned the lawn dart, requires photo ID’s to purchase cough syrup and treats toothpaste as a weapon. America has gone from a nation that idealized freedom and treated the car as a vehicle of autonomy to one overrun by central planners still dreaming of the perfect national rail system that no one will use, because unlike its graceful forebears, but like everything overseen by the humanitarian bureaucracy it will be designed to crush the human spirit.

We don’t have flying cars for the same reason that we don’t any skyscrapers built in the last few decades worth mentioning or moon colonies, monuments, frontiers or anything that a latter day civilization could dig up and admire. There are skyscrapers still going up in American cities, if you haven’t heard of them that’s because they’re self-effacing LEED compliant glass angular shapes that you forget even while you’re looking at them. Even their ugliness is not stark enough to commit them to memory.

And of course they aren’t very tall. Tallness like flying cars and the ambition to do anything but put out press releases is unsustainable. They do have a sense of the future to them, but an undramatic one, a future in which everything has been done and everyone sits around in glass boxes, pondering the state of their ennui and admiring the architect for putting an unnecessary asymmetrical triangle at the top of the glass box to remind us that the world dies every time we buy non-locally grown produce.

There is still an ambition to make large things.

Note: The above headline is written as it will appear in next month’s issue of “Sustainable Green Politician” magazine.

The original cost of California’s high speed rail project was pushing $100 billion, but thanks to fiscally responsible, budget-minded public officials, the purported cost will be a little less than the previous purported cost:

State transportation officials have slashed the price tag for California’s controversial high-speed rail project by $30 billion and expanded the first stretch of track to run from Merced in the Central Valley south to the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

The California High Speed Rail Authority’s revised business plan, which will be released Monday in Fresno, calls for those dramatic changes as the agency prepares to ask the Legislature to use $2.7 billion in state high-speed rail bonds to start construction by early next year.

The drastic revision, which puts the proposed cost of the system at $68.4 billion instead of the $98.5 billion estimated in November, intends to cool opposition to the project, which has been labeled a “train to nowhere” for its plans to start in the state’s rural center, and criticized for its high costs and uncertain funding plan.

It’s not as if California has a debt to pay off or anything.

As the LA Times notes, this revised figure comes from some of the same people whose original figure was way off the mark:

Even with the $30-billion reduction, the project remains $25 billion more than the original price tag.

Over $2 billion of all this is from the Stimulus.

Taking all these predictions at face value, instead of $100 billion nobody can afford they’re planning to spend $70 billion nobody can afford. In the mind of many politicians, they’ve just saved taxpayers $30 billion!

That “savings” prompted Nancy Pelosi to say damn we’re good!

Washington, D.C. – Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following statement after introduction of the California High-Speed Rail Revised Business Plan which shows the total cost reduced by nearly $30 billion, and 1 million jobs created by the project.

“Under the superb leadership of Chairman Dan Richard, it is clear that the Rail Authority has listened to the concerns of Californians and produced a high-speed rail plan for the future that is better, faster and cheaper.

“High-speed rail will transform journeys into commutes, uniting our state and ensuring our citizens can travel as fast as our innovative ideas. In additional to the 1 million jobs created across California, this project will offer a cheaper travel choice to consumers, improve the air we breathe, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil in a time of rising gas prices. As the report demonstrates, the price of inaction is far outweighed by the cost of building for the future.”

And all this time I didn’t think she cared about the bottom line. Ultimately however, as Nancy might say, we’ve got to build it to find out how much it’s going to cost.

The Daily Mail says this was recorded at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The three year old boy is in a wheelchair because of a broken leg and trying to get to Disney World, but he won’t be hijacking the plane today thanks to crack security. Not this time, Junior Jihadi:

You know, kid, for a hundred dollar bribe fee you could avoid the hassle next time.

Here’s more security camera footage from the same airport later that day:

From the UK Daily Mail:

Controversial nude body scanners used at U.S. airports have come under fire again – after a blogger claimed he could easily smuggle explosives through them onto a plane.
Engineer Jonathan Corbett has published a video where he shows how he took a small metal case through two of the TSA’s $1billion fleet in a special side pocket stitched into his shirt.
This is because, he suggests, the scanners blend metallic areas into the dark background – so if an object is not directly placed on the body, it will not show up on the scan.
The metallic box, he claims, would have set off an alarm had he passed through the old detecting system. . . .

Naked Body ScaMMers

If this has been banned already at youtube you download the original file here. http://video.yourdaddy.com/How_To_Get_Anything_Through_TSA_Nude_Body_Scanners.flv

This is a scam and it runs deep into the administration.  Keep this phrase in mind “COVER-UP”.  No way was this flaw unknown by Rapiscan and TSA officials.  This has all the evidence of a cover-up!  Is this as big a scandal as Fast and Furious? Yes I would even say it is much bigger in scope.  The number of parties in high security clearance positions in government as well as  private sector parties involved in the technology that are and have been aware of this flaw must be in the hundreds. You say you can’t keep something like that secret?  Then you just keep the “Secret Stealth Bomber” in the back of you’re mind while you articulate on that thought.

SCARY SCENARIO : An armed  Mexican Cartel member uses this evasive technique  and gets on a Delta flight out of Texas to Washington DC….. with you got it….. a Fast and Furious gun.  He subsequently Hi-jacks the plane and kills everyone on board.

Not only did the person get past Mr. Janet Napalitano’s Star Trek Grade Security theater actors association they used one of Eric Holder’s DOJ approved ATF Gun-walking pistols from the Fast and Furious scandal.  Nothing to see here!

Fast and Furious was setup to usurp the 2nd amendment. The pat downs and naked body scammers are designed to make the population complacent with STASI like tactics and over-reaching authority.  So to enrich the Rapiscan owners, current and particularly ex-government officials with millions of  tax payer dollars for a theater group that does Security Vaudeville at an airport near you.

So again is this bigger than Fast and furious YES, only no one died yet because this brave person decided to blow the whistle on this fraud being perpetrated on America.

NUFF SAID?  What else do you need to know?  Do you think that for ONE MINUTE the TSA officials did not know about this catastrophic flaw well before these dinosaurs were even purchased?  If not who is responsible for the due-diligence that was to have been done before spending billions of tax payer dollars? Should that person be held accountable for this gross cover-up.  No way this is an oversight or neglect.  THIS HAS BEEN AN ON GOING COVER-UP, plain and simple.  This is a SCAM on the American people.   Security Theater!

Not only does this this system need to be scrapped those instrumental in imposing it on the American people need to go to prison for a very long time.  THIS IS AND HAS BEEN A MONETARY RIP OFF DESIGNED FOR A SECURITY THEATER SCAM FROM DAY 1 .  And Obama the administration knows all about it!

STILL TRUST YOUR GOVERNMENT?

Related articles

• Naked truth: TSA nude scanner exposed (VIDEO) (rt.com)
• This is how easy it is to fool a TSA body scanner (gearlive.com)
• $1B of Nude Body Scanners Made Worthless By Blog – How Anyone Can Get Anything Past The TSAs Nude Body Scanners (freedombytheway.com)
• Man Demonstrates Why TSA Body Scanners Are Worthless for Security Purposes (newsworldwide.wordpress.com)

The State Department’s previous warning from last April advised against travel to all or part of ten states in Mexico. In the new warning, the number of states has increased by four:

Americans should avoid all but essential travel to all or parts of 14 Mexican states, the U.S. State Department warns as violence has spread.

Shootouts, kidnappings and carjackings have climbed, as have cartels, also known as transnational criminal organizations (TCO), the State Department said this week in a broadened travel warning.

While millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico every year, the country’s ongoing violence and security concerns pose risks for U.S. citizens, and travelers should take precautions, the State Department advises.

No matter where you’re traveling in Mexico, the State Department recommends that you “lower your profile and avoid displaying any evidence of wealth that might draw attention.” It’s the same advice State gives to Wall Street millionaires planning on walking through “Occupy” encampments.

This map really puts the scope of the problem in perspective (h/t Tammy Bruce and Gretawire):

If you’re not good at reading maps, just remember that it’s like choosing which wine to have with fish: Avoid the red.

Doug Ross:

Say, I’ve got an idea! Let’s have the ATF deliver thousands of weapons to the Mexican drug cartels. Maybe that will help!

Only government can put down the threat

Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee believes that the only thing standing between America and another horrific day like 9/11 is an army of blue-gloved unionized government employees.

From Politico:

Handing airport screening duties to private companies could result in another terrorist attack like Sept. 11, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee said Tuesday afternoon.

The Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature directs the Transportation Security Administration to let more airports privatize their screening areas.

“My comment: we are looking forward to returning to 9/11,” Jackson Lee (D-Texas) said at a House Homeland Security subcommittee hearing.

You know who I wouldn’t want working airport security? A sizable chunk of Congress, starting with Sheila Jackson Lee — and she’s a government employee… go figure.

Note to SJL: It’s not as if the government-run TSA is without its little glitches.

(h/t Weasel Zippers)

More TSA thefts were reported today as an agent at JFK ripped off $5000 from a Bangladeshi passenger. May as well change the name of this disgusting agency to Thieving Security Assholes. Let’s review:

From Yahoo via AP:

Last month, an agent who worked searching checked luggage at the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport was suspended after the owner of a stolen iPad used the tracking feature on the device to locate it at the agent’s home. Police found seven other iPads there.

Also in January, authorities charged an agent at Miami International Airport with swiping items and luggage and smuggling them out of the airport in a hidden pocket of his work jacket. He was arrested after one of the items, an iPad, was spotted for sale on Craigslist.

Two other former TSA agents at JFK were sentenced on Jan. 10 to six months in jail and five years’ probation for stealing $40,000 from a piece of luggage in January 2011. The agents, Coumar Persad and Davon Webb, had pleaded guilty to grand larceny, obstructing governmental administration and official misconduct.

Last year, a TSA supervisor and one of his officers pleaded guilty in a scheme that lifted $10,000 to $30,000 from passengers’ belongings at Newark Liberty International Airport. A federal judge sentenced the supervisor, Michael Arato, to 2½ years in prison and his subordinate, Al Raimi, to six months of home confinement.

It’s not enough that we have to endure the liberty neutering regulations when trying to fly in an airplane, but now we have to worry that the people we are supposedly entrusting with our safety is also ripping us off in the process.

Granted this is a small, tiny even, percentage of idiots stealing from passengers, given the size of this agency. Still doesn’t make me comfortable knowing that while I am at the mercy of their herd control measures I also have to worry that they are stealing my luggage as a bonus.