Atlanta
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Keeping the blog alive….
Sorry, I’ve been busy lately. Here is a random assortment
- Velvet Underground on YouTube
- Justice, War, Etc from David Friedman
- Interesting article about Crime in Atlanta
- A nice profile about a former client of mine.
- The Agitator puts it very well with “we’ve reached the point where even jaded libertarian cliches present an inaccurately optimistic picture of what’s going on”
- A very good explanatory video by Tim Hartford.
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The line of last night…
(Woman I was talking to referring to band on stage)
“The singer sounds like he’s hitting a baby with a cat”
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I hold my nose
I hold my nose, club my conscience, and smother my scruples and voted for Chambliss today. Barr’s suggestion was important to me, enough to get me over my outrage at his campaign literature mentioning “Fiscal Responsibility”.
Incidentally my polling place was deserted, which points to a substantial win for Chambliss.
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The funniest thing I read today
Is this Urban Dictionary entry on Atlanta (Definition 26):
If you like ghetto fabulous craphole dumps, you will think you have died and gone to heaven in Atlanta.
The simple and direct entry on Forsyth County is good (and somewhat accurate) too.
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Saturday night special
- Inequality and the Sergei Brin effect – self selection on a grand scale
- What Paulson might get out of the bailouts
- Cobb Country gets a tank – for real. I grew up there, and in general, the place makes Mayberry look like Escape from New York. Perhaps it’s to quell the riots should (really, when) McCain lose.
- Tom puts it quite well with
the penchant for blaming the problems on “greed” is the Great Chicago Fire on oxygen.
- My neighborhood makes the news. Apparently it’s “rich in tolerance and diversity”. I was not interviewed for it, though I still like it a lot.
- Rocksploitation now has a real music video – sort of.
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Least surprising headline ever
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Only in Atlanta
I went to the all night convenience store last night on a beer run after we ran out at the recording studio. Ahead of me in line was an obvious heroin addict (lots of track marks) wearing pajamas. Behind and to the side of me was was an attractive debutante type having a loud conversation on her cell phone. The heroin addict is having a loud conversation with the clerk about her kids (apparently it’s a lot of work but they’re worth it); the debutante is having a loud conversation on her cell phone that ended with “Some people have NO MANNERS!”.
I savored the irony for an hour or so.
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Sunday reading
- Cities and Ambition –
“A friend who moved to Silicon Valley in the late 90s said the worst thing about living there was the low quality of the eavesdropping.”
I’ve always judged cities by the quality of the homeless and convenience stores, but there’s all sorts of different metrics I suppose.
- What if politicians pandered to economists?
- The AJC now has foreclosure listings
- Cities and Ambition –
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I play with video
From my new tiny video camera. The sound quality is impressive, the degree to which YouTube Crunches it is not welcome.
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The rare wise move from the APD
Finally the Atlanta Police department cracks down on the idiotic critical mass rides.
After years of looking the other way, Atlanta police recently cracked down on a monthly bicycle ride through the city streets that includes blocking cars and flouting traffic laws.
At least 10 officers, eight on motorcycles and two in patrol cars, followed more than 300 bicyclists through downtown Atlanta, Little Five Points and Virginia-Highland on June 27 from about 6:30 to 8 p.m. Most of the bicyclists stopped for red lights they normally would have ignored. At least two bicyclists were ticketed for disobeying traffic laws.
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Highsmith, a graduate student in mechanical engineering at Georgia Tech, said Critical Mass would not be the same if the bicyclists followed the rules.“The little bit of disruptiveness and the civil disobedience is a part of raising awareness [about bicycles] in a more conspicuous way,” he said.
The group wants both better infrastructure for bicycles, including bike racks and lanes, and to show drivers that they, too, can hop out of the car and onto a bike.
Now honestly, if the cyclists are lobbying for better infrastructure, how does NOT using the infrastructure that’s already there help matters? Why should anyone pay for more bike lanes when the existing lanes aren’t being used and the people agitating for them are as boorish as possible?
Not that many people will care about this, but it’s been a pet peeve of mine for years…