July Fourth Waste

It's that time of year when many cities, towns and organizations spend large amounts of money purchasing fireworks and putting on displays. Many individuals also purchase their own and set them off. I personally do not see the value in any of this. All that money, all that work...what do you get out of it? A few minutes of ooohs and ahhhs and that's it for another year. I've seen some fireworks displays in my time and I'll tell ya what.....you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all. It really wouldn't bother me if I never saw another one. As far the ones individuals can buy and set off, as I've said elsewhere on my website, you might as well just pull some money out of your pocket and set it on fire for all the good it does you. So you can call me a grinch if you want, but as far I as I'm concerned, they can take all the fireworks and send them back to China. And speaking of that, with all the problems there have been with products from China over the past year or two, I wouldn't want to be within a few miles of any Chinese fireworks!!!!


So Sayeth The Shack

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Some Of Us Have The Freedom

Here in Pennsylvania, if you ride a motorcycle, you have the choice, according to law, whether or not to wear protective headgear to reduce the chances of serious or fatal injury if you are involved in a crash. (Not to mention to make an atrocious amount of noise!!) However if you drive or ride in an automobile, van, SUV, pickup or commercial truck, the law does not afford you the same choice when it comes to seat belts. A recent news story indicated that a study has shown that head trauma resulting in injury or death has increased over the years since wearing helmets has become optional for motorcyclists. As some have opined in the local newspaper, duh!...fewer helmets, more injuries and deaths. Other studies have indicated that someone wearing seat belts are more likely to survive a crash than someone who is not. The issue here is one of both personal safety and personal freedom. Looking at it from a personal freedom viewpoint, we should all be free to decide for ourselves whether or not to wear a helmet or to use seat belts. So why is it that one group, the motorcyclists, is free to make that decision for themselves while another group has the decision made for them by the government? From a safety standpoint, it would make sense for motorcyclists to wear helmets and for drivers and passengers in automobiles to wear seat belts, no matter what the law says. So why do we need to have a law? Oh yes, because a lot of people don't have any common sense. But why the different treatment for different vehicles? Either require both helmets and seat belts, or neither. The current laws make no sense to me.

So Sayeth The Shack

A New Way To Fund Our Roads

Pennsylvania's roads and bridges are in bad shape, as are those in other states. They are in need of a great deal of repair work. A variety of ideas have been presented to pay for the needed work: leasing the turnpike, putting tolls on I-80, raising gas taxes and registration fees. Most of these will have a detrimental impact on the economy at a time when the economy is aready floundering. So it's time to think a new direction: corporate funding of our roads. We could have the "PNC Pennsylvania Turnpike", the "Capital One Keystone Shortway" and so forth. Companies would pay some amount of money in return for being able to advertise along the roadways. Rest areas and individual interchanges could also have their own sponsors. Maybe each bridge (at least the big ones) could have their own sponsors. Even construction areas could be sponsored" "road improvement next 10 miles, brought to you by (insert company name)." In a world where advertising is everywhere, why not our roads as well?

Some of the more comical ones might be "The Enzyte Expressway" and "The Viagra Viaduct Bridge"!!

So Sayeth The Shack

A New Way To Fund Our Roads