Bexting - The Next Problem with Texting

Just a few days ago, I was out for a leisurely run around the neighborhood. I am training to run in the Detroit Half-Marathon in October as a fundraiser for a church mission to Malawi, Africa. Well to be honest, as of late it has been more Not training then training, but this day I decided would be great for a nice short run around a couple of the subs by me, I figured around 2 miles or so. Little did I know that a teenage girl on a bike could be such a safety hazard, if only she came equipped with a cell phone.

So I am jogging down Ann Arbor Trail when up ahead of me appears a young woman on a bike. This is not unusual in my area of Plymouth, because we are right by Hines Park and Downtown Plymouth, so we see lots of bike traffic. Usually I will get off the sidewalk and get on the grass so we can pass without a problem, and that is exactly what I did. It was then that I noticed a cell phone in the hand she was not using to steer the bike. As she got closer, I saw that she was TEXTING as she was biking, what I will now call bexting. She had to keep diverting her attention to the phone so she could see what she was typing. I have seen people texting while at a stop light, but never on a bicycle while riding on a sidewalk.

Crazily enough, as she approached me she diverted all of her attention to the phone, and of course started swerving all over the place. I was a good three feet off the sidewalk into the grass, and she honestly came within a foot of nailing me. I had to jump out of the way as she flew past, lost in some message about where to meet her friends for ice cream or something.

Luckily I survived the bexting incident, but I was wondering if anyone out there has experienced a similar phenomenon?

The Unchanging Place

Everyone should have an unchanging place. A place where time has no hold, where memories can flourish EXACTLY as you remember them. A place where the laughter of childhood resonates through your veins the very moment you arrive. Some people are lucky in that their parent’s home can be this unchanging place, if they have been in the same home for a long time. Even then, it is hard because rooms get painted and bathrooms get remodeled. It is hard to find your unchanging place, especially with the way that modern society chews up places and spits out “new” all the time.

My unchanging place is Jewell Lake National Forest Campground. My family used to camp there for our yearly vacation when I was younger. I did not know at the time, but it was because it was so cheap that we did it, my family being on the south end of middle class at the time. What mattered to me was going fishing with my father, playing on the beach with my brother, running along the paths making up kingdoms to defend all week and coming back to the campsite and having my smiling mother dish me out a big bowl of Dinty Moore Beef Stew. I thrived at Jewell Lake.

I have returned as an adult twice to this place. My Wife and I have gone camping there a couple of times over the past three years. Every time, I get ridiculously giddy as we approach, and of course I have a personal preference for a particular campsite, it was the one we always camped at when I was a child. Jewell Lake is truly an unchanging place.

When I step out of the car, I feel as if I have a truly intimate relationship with the soil. The paths are still all the same. The same berries the Rich and I use to throw at each other grow along the same path between the beach and the boat launch. The water is still pumped by hand, and the sites still have no electricity. I take a big deep breath, slowly let it out, and know that I feel more at home here then even my own home. A sly smile creeps over my face, and I check to make sure we brought the giant can of Dinty Moore.

(Yes, that beautiful picture is at Jewell Lake, which you can enjoy for $15 a night…amazing the treasures we have all around us)



Where is your unchanging place?

I-75 and 9 Mile: Another One Bites The Dust.

Just what the beleaguered Metro Area needs right now, a major highway shut down for days...possibly weeks. Apparently, last night around 8pm, a tanker carrying approximately 13,000 gallons of fuel was in an accident, and just happened to be under the overpass for 9 mile rd. Of course, it blew up, and burned the overpass for hours. The picture above is from the Detroit News, and shows the damage done to the overpass. Amazingly, no one was killed or even seriously injured in this debacle.

My question is who pays for something like this? We know that the bridge is going to have to be totally replaced. Some estimates I am hearing about are in the neighborhood of 2-3 million dollars. Does this come out of MDOT's rapidly shrinking budget, or is it paid for through the drivers insurance? It would piss me, and I imagine a lot of other people off, if tax dollars have to fund this repair. Given the state of the roads I drive to work every day, especially US-23, northbound from I-96, I know we could definitely use that money elsewhere.

The Infidelity Train Rolls On

Man, we must be headed for some sort of infidelity record in the political arena. We have had two major players go down in the past few weeks, each in their own agonizing manner. Gone are the days of illicit meet ups at a hotel, now we have international intrigue, with Governors jetting off to to other countries just to cheat. It is an exciting time to be a scandal watcher in politics.

First was a senator from Nevada, John Ensign, who while being a staunch proponent of "Family Values" and belonging the the Christian Promise Keepers Organization, somehow found time to cheat on his wife. This was an individual who called on everyone to impeach president Clinton for doing the exact same thing he has just admitted to doing. Just to make sure he did not appear partisan in his crusade against adulterers, he was one of the strongest critics of former Senator Larry Craig, the infamous bathroom bandit, calling on him to resign. In fact here is a quote Mr. Ensign gave regarding the incident: “I wouldn’t put myself, hopefully, in that kind of position, but if I was in a position like that, that’s what I would do (resign).” Of course...he is not resigning, but instead is going ahead as a Senator, because the "people's work" must be done.

Just a few days ago, the Governor of South Carolina, Mr. Mark Staford, suddenly reappeared after hiking the Appalachian Trail...er...writing...er, oh yeah, he was in Argentina with his lover. Whoops....don't know how that one would ever get out. If only he has not gone to another country for 5 days, he might have kept his secret. He is another one who voted for Clinton's impeachment, but cannot seem to muscle up the guts to resign. Seems righteous morality standards only apply to the OTHER guy.

What I find absolutely appalling is these two's unwillingness to live up to the standards they so readily applied to everyone else. It is easy to sit in your high chair and call on everyone else to resign, suddenly it you and it is a different story. The hypocrisy is amazing.

I know some of you, rightfully so, will point out that I only used Republican references here. You are correct, but that is only because of the fact that both these stories are the most recent. The last high profile Democrat to go down in flames due was Eliot Spitzer.....and HE RESIGNED! I did write a short entry about him, with a great quote...find that here. I think ANYONE who commits adultery should resign from public life. If you cannot keep your marriage vows, how are you supposed to keep your vows to the public.

Lost in the Wilderness

A new poll by USA Today/Gallup finds that the majority of respondents, when asked to name a person who speaks for the Republican party, could not. They could not pick a person who leads roughly half the countries population in their political views. So, that begs the question, of the 48% who were able to name names, who came in first place? Maybe Sarah Palin, Michael Steele or Bobby Jindal? Nope, number one, with 13% of respondents votes was Rush Limbaugh. Second place on the list goes to our esteemed ex Vice-President Dick Cheney. The top 5 are all old white guys with McCain, Gingrich and Bush rounding out the top 5. As one conservative activist from the article mentioned "We cannot be the party of balding white guys and hope to win anything."

I look at the political scene right now for the Republicans, and I see a whole lot of old, and a whole lot of the next big thing, but not anyone right here right now. They truly are lost in the wilderness. Now many of my friends are conservative (much to my chagrin), and they should not lose heart. I know in the past I have talked about the "Death Knell of the Conservative Movement," but I know that American politics works like a finely tuned pendulum, and conservatives will one day again have their moment in the sun. Hopefully, it will be a new kind of conservativism, one not so focused on gays and abortion, and one more focused on the historical roots of the movement. Here are three things conservatives can focus on to help swing the pendulum back in their favor.

1. Coming off the drunken sailor spending of the Bush/Obama days, fiscal restraint can be a rallying point for the conservative movement. Push a indefinite law for balanced budgets, with exclusions for time of war or economic crisis. Tell people it is going to be hard, but BE SERIOUS about doing this. Realize that you will HAVE to cut some military spending to do this. You cannot just cut medicaid and call it good. Along with this comes serious reforms of social security and medicare. I swear that whoever grasps this issue and wrestles it to the ground will earn serious votes from Americans for years.

2. Tax cuts do not equate an economic policy (don't worry, I would turn around and tell Democrats that unmitigated spending does not equal an economic policy). We need someone to tackle the long term economic conundrum. Propose long standing reforms to both the tax code (simpler,lower,fairer) and to spending (no earmarks, see remarks above). Also, and this is critical, advocate for ENFORCEABLE free trade. Right now it does no good to allow every country access to our markets when we are not allowed the same in kind. I am NOT advocating trade restrictions be used, just that barriers to free trade and currency manipulations be ended under the threat of returning the favor.

3. Steal the energy independence issue back from the left. Honestly, the Drill Baby Drill thing made you guys look pretty shortsighted. Push an effective agenda including price floor for gasoline, efficiency, development of alternative energy sources and most importantly, nuclear energy. By looking long term, and not pushing an agenda that seems to line right up with oil companies wishes, you can take this issue back from the left. The focus is not cuddly environmentalism, but rather serious national security concerns. The fight over energy/water resources IS the most important area of concern for the future.

Good Luck.....your going to need it.