Over the River and Through the Woods...

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Here on Cape Cod we have been dealing with enourmous traffic jams caused by repairs being made to the Sagamore Bridge. Predictably, there is a hue and cry about the timing and necessity of the repairs, the competence of the contractors, lack of preparation on the part of the relevant state officials. All of that is well and good, but entirely misses the point, our transportation infrastructure on Cape Cod is obsolete and dangerous to the motoring public.

Case in point are the two bridges that serve as the only access and egress to Cape Cod by car, the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges.  Iconic they may be but consider the fact that they were completed in 1935 and that many of the first automobiles to cross them were Model T’s. Neither bridge was designed with the needs of twenty-first century transportation in mind. Even when all four lanes of either bridge are open, it is taking one’s life in one’s hand to traverse them, literally. Motorists routinely exceed the posted speed limits and, because of the narrow road deck, pass within inches of one another. Or at least we hope they pass one another. 


Sometimes they do not, often with tragic results.

Many of those who cross these two bridges during the summer months are visiting tourists, a vital component of our local economy. If you travel with them in your mind’s eye, you have to wonder if they have a screw loose for enduring the trip to Cape Cod. Suppose you were a resident of suburban New York City who has rented a cottage in Provincetown for a week. After traveling up Interstate 95 (a nightmare in of itself that I will leave to others to complain about) and Interstate 195, travelers will turn onto Route 25 for their approach to Cape Cod.  Three wide lanes plus a breakdown lane quickly narrow to two lanes, then allow for one lane of merging traffic before traversing the Bourne Bridge.  Then, after taking your life into your hands once again in the Bourne Rotary, you are routed onto a single lane highway, Sandwich Road, for your trip over to Route 6.  It is a testimony to the limitless patience of our visitors that they are willing to endure our antique road system in order to enjoy our natural beauty.

I am old enough to remember what a nightmare travel was before the last section of Route 25 was completed around 1980. I can recall riding my bicycle to a highway overpass on Route 3 in Duxbury on Sunday night to see a colossal traffic jam that stretched for a far as the eye could see in each direction – three miles in this case. All of that disappeared when Route 25 was complete. Travellers to the nether regions now had a far more logical way to get home. The problem is that we only modernized one component of our infrastucture then and with the exception of the Sagamore flyover project we haven’t done anything to improve our situation.  It is the recollection of the past success of road building projects such as Route 25 that give me hope that we can recognize the current situation as intolerable and work towards a vision that will benefit all concerned.


What is that vision?  I believe it is time for a new bridge.  A bridge that will take the burden off of the two older bridges and make it safer and more pleasurable to make your way to Cape Cod.


Now to the who, what, where, when and why.


When was the last time you saw a satellite photograph of Bourne?


Take a look at this:

On the left side of the photograph is Route 25.  Notice how it abruptly swings to the south as it nears the Cape Cod Canal.  Now notice on the right side of the photograph is Route 6 as it approaches the Sagamore Bridge.  I have added a yellow line that follows high tension electrical transmission lines that go over the canal that link Route 25 and Route 6.  That distance is less than three miles.  Three miles.  I think it astounding that the distance is so short.  We could easily build interchanges at each end of my yellow line, a connecting road that used the utility right of way and finally a new bridge over the canal that was suitably large enough to handle the flow of traffic.  I would think three lanes in each direction would be sufficient.


This would allow travelers to travel directly from Route 25 to Route 6 without having to go across local roadways clearly not designed to handle such heavy traffic flow.  Leaving the existing infrastructure in place allows for local access and for commuters to Boston, etc. a far less congested trip to work.


Such a bridge could be intentionally designed to be a landmark, something that would be instantly associated with Cape Cod.  My memory of the area where the electric wires cross the canal is that the area is much higher in elevation, relative to the canal, than either of the two existing bridges.  Perhaps that is a problem, perhaps it is an opportunity to create something very dramatic.  I really don't know because I am just an amateur traffic engineer.  And I don't have a billion dollars in my bank account, either.


But what I do know is that we cannot expect bridges to last in perpetuity.  They eventually outlive their usefulness, falling into obsolescence.


If the traffic jams caused by the need to do a little maintenance on the Sagamore Bridge teaches us anything, it teaches us that we have come to rely upon something that is no longer reliable.


Even if we were to start in earnest the planning process today, it is unlikely that cars would cross a new bridge before the two existing bridges were a century old.


Are we willing to wait that long to solve our problems?

Is What We Are Witnessing in Washington Intentional?

Are there two Washingtons today, one of which is struggling to come to grips with a financial meltdown the likes of which have not been seen since the Great Depression, the other flush with so much disposable wealth that each and every societal ill will finally be eradicated from the face of the Earth - never the twain shall meet?

The face of both Washingtons is Barack Obama, who will tell you of the grave consequence of not intervening in the imminent collapse of the United States economy with trillions of dollars of taxpayer money.  Then, when your head is spinning trying to absorb the cause and effect of pouring money down the drain only to observe the stock market plunge to levels not seen in two decades, he pronounces that he will be forced to run enormous budget deficits because he inherited a relatively small budget deficit.  After that, he will tell you that he a champion of limited government, and you are to believe him because, well, he is Barack.

Is what we are witnessing today intentional on the part of Obama and his friends?

During the campaign, I realized that not only did I not know very much about Obama, there was little information forthcoming.  The Main Stream Media was not (and still is not) interested in diving deep into his past.  Too bad because it is a fascinating tale of intrigue.

One of the most interesting things that I read during the campaign was an article at American Thinker called Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis written by James Simpson. In it, Simpson explores the six degrees of separation between Barack Obama and two Columbia University professors, Richard Cloward and Francis Fox Piven. As summarized by David Horowitz, Cloward/Piven is:

"The strategy of forcing political change through orchestrated crisis. The Cloward/Piven Strategy seeks to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."

At first, I thought as though I should fashion a tin foil hat to wear as I read the article, after all, Hanlon's razor tells us that we should never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity, right?  Except for one thing.  I printed out a copy of the AT article and have been periodically rereading it. Either there is some validity to what is theorized in Cloward/Piven or I am picking up some pretty good signals on my tin foil hat.

Neo-Neocon made Cloward/Piven the subject of a post which, in addition to being an excellent read, garnered some very thoughtful comments.

I would heartily recommend reading the Simpson article first, as he not only lays out the argument himself, but also links extensively to other sites for further exploration. Indeed, there was another article just the other day at AT that took up the Cloward/Piven batton and ran with it.

Interesting things to contemplate as the Nation descends into a collective schizophrenia.

Is Obama really Reaganesque?

I suppose that much of my conservative point of view results from the sum total of my experiences when I was growing up. That should not come as a shock, but Jimmy Carter was president when I was in High School, swept into office in the wake of Watergate. The malaise of that era was palpable in everyday life and lead to the election of Ronald Reagan.

I was in Washington the day that Reagan was inaugurated, not close enough to see or hear him give his speech, but immersed in that moment in history sufficiently to realize its significance. In that speech, Reagan said that "Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."  And indeed he was correct.  That is not to espouse anarchy or to render all functions of government useless, but rather to reiterate the concept of limited government with specific and enumerated powers.  A concept that puts the freedom of citizens first and foremost, the power of the citizen's government secondary.

When Barack Obama took to the rostrum two nights ago, wrapping himself preemptively in the cloak of Reagan, he said "I reject the view that says our problems will simply take care of themselves, that says government has no role in laying the foundation for our common prosperity."  I find it fundamentally dishonest of Obama to compare himself to Reagan in such a way; Reagan's beliefs were the polar opposite of Obama's. In Reagan's mind, the genius of America lay in its people. For Obama, it lies in a distant, disconnected and omnipotent government. In Reagan's mind, the foundation of our nation and the foundation for our prosperity were well cast two centuries ago. For Obama, we are a damaged nation that needs to be redeemed, that needs to cast aside our previous beliefs and seek a new way forward.

When I watch the 1981 inauguration speech by Reagan, I sense a well thought out set of principles that are in congruity with the beliefs of the Founding Fathers. Reagan did not start out as a Conservative icon, he was a Democrat. He learned as he matured, the culmination of his education was his election as president. Reagan's speeches are memorable today not just because of the eloquence of his oratory, they are memorable because he believed what he was saying - his sincerity is very clear.

By contrast, I detect obfuscation in the oratory of Obama. There is incongruity in the message of the man and his minions.

At the time of his inauguration, Obama wanted you to think he was Lincoln.

When the economy went into free fall, Obama wanted you to think he was Roosevelt.

When his attempts at articulating a hopeful message were not working, he wanted you to think he was Reagan.

Why is it that Obama does not want you to think about Obama?

Why the obfuscation of his past?  Who is this enigma that now deigns to lead us?

An Interesting Conversation Over Lasagna

Instead of torturing myself by watching the Non-State of the Union speech by Barack Obama last night, my lovely bride and I went to dinner with friends. Now, I have known these two people for many years. The wife and I grew up together, her husband and I met nearly twenty years ago. He introduced me to the martini, for which I will be forever grateful.

They are liberals. There, I said it. I love both of them dearly but, oh dear Lord in Heaven, do not let the conversation drift towards politics.  I will happily endure an hour-long conversation on religion or any other taboo subject but please don't ruin my evening by bringing up politics.

So, off we went.  The restaurant of choice last night was the local Italian joint that I have frequented for thirty-five of my forty-seven years. I am six foot four and rapidly approaching three hundred pounds due in no small measure to the delectable cuisine offered up at this establishment.  In fact, when I was much younger (and much skinnier) I would go for lunch or dinner with friends there. We would start with orders of garlic bread mozzarella, follow that up with lasagna and have a pizza for dessert, all washed down with copious amounts of milk. I swear that I bought the owners their first Cadillacs.

This restaurant, or should I say all six of their restaurants, are the very embodiment of the American Dream. The owners are two brothers straight off of the boat from Naples.  Their English is heavily accented, sometimes incomprehensible, but never dull and never without wild gesticulations.  When they opened their first restaurant, on the first floor of a strangely out of place multifamily home, they lived above the restaurant.  The menu was the fare that they had learned from watching their mother cook back in Italy: Chicken Parmesan, Homemade Tortellini, Baked Ziti and, of course, Pizza.

The brothers, their wives, and then their children toiled six days a week (closed Mondays) from early morning to late at night.  They have become pillars of their community, known far and wide not only for their successful restaurants but also for the strong fabric of their family and their strong entrepreneurial sense.

The meal was excellent as was the conversation. Politics was avoided in lieu of discussing our children and mutual friends.

As we were preparing to pay the check, one of the owners popped his head out of the kitchen with a glass of vino in his hand.  Next thing we know, the five of us are howling with laughter as the owner held court, one story after another about his life. Turns out that he was in the Italian Army as a young man and once his tour was finished he had decided to become a state police officer of some sort.  He and three friends had made all the necessary arrangements, packed their bags into their car and were to leave the next morning. During the night, his conscience got the best of him; he knew that becoming a police officer was not his destiny.  Soon, he was off to Australia, then to California, then to Boston.  The jobs were menial, the pay small, the hours long.  He saved what little he could along the way and, in his early forties, he joined his brother and opened their little restaurant.

It was at this point in the conversation that the television over the bar began barking away with previews of what we were inclined to hear from our new president.  The owner's face grew sour and his mood dark as he listened to what was being said in the background.

So much for avoiding politics.

"Leta me tella you saaahmthing..." - yes, his accent is very thick and very Italian.  "This Obama" he said "is no good. You cannot take money from the people who work and give it to the people who do not work".  Pretty standard stuff from an entrepreneur, right?

"This is the worst I have seen since I came to American. I don't know what to say, this isn't America anymore.  This is what it was like when I was a little boy in Italy."

The look on my friend's faces was one of shock, as if they had just seen a ghost.  Indeed, they had seen a ghost - a ghost of someone who long ago came of age in Fascist Italy.