RT's proposed fair increase.

Off the top of my head, I'd have to say that even with the increase in fair, my car is still a whole lot more money to operate. A quick calculation puts my vehicle expenditures at around $3,800 (payments, insurance, gas and maintenance) vs. $960 for a years worth of RT monthly passes. Its been a few years since they have done so, and it sounds like a prudent fiscal move. However, I would like to add a few things to RT's agenda:

1) Light Rail should be more conveniently located, say, like stopping at Sac State. Who to blame: Sac States administrators who killed that idea. Or, in my world, it should have run right down the middle of J Street all the way to Rancho Cordova (or farther).

2) Bike lanes and more bike lanes. Yeah, everyone says it dangerous to ride on the streets. Hello! That's because there are no bike lanes. There should be bike lanes on Freeport Blvd., on Broadway, on J Street, on Folsom Blvd. The list goes on. There should be bike lanes that parallel light rail lines, 'cause that would make way too much sense to actually put them there. Imagine how nice it would be to have bicycle lanes that went on for miles with little or no interruption and with hardly any interaction with motorvehicles. Wow! I'm getting excited just thinking about this concept...

3) Create more bus express trips, so we can get somewhere a little faster than five times what it takes to do so by automobile. I recently rode the bus and transferred to light rail to get from Fulton Ave to Fruitridge-approximate travel time: one and a half hours. Wait a second, that was a beautiful thing, having all that time to read and be unproductive; just enjoying life. Nevermind on this one. We need to slow down more.

4) Grant amnesty for groups or individuals who stand up to thugs, out of control kids or anyone else who is disruptive, rude or violent on public transportation. If you are an ass, you deserve what you get and those giving it to you should be allowed to walk away after wackin' your dumb ass.

Do not complain about how this will affect seniors. Screw 'em. Most of them have sold us out for their own pensions, welfare, medical care and whatever else you can name so they can benefit from lower taxes and earlier retirement then we will ever see. Yes, I know there are exceptions and that's what social programs are for. Go ahead, ask your baby boomer parents how much they paid for college; that should give you a pretty good idea of how much they really care about your welfare. Oh, here's a good one: instead of asking how much their parents gave them to help buy their first home, ask them what percentage of the purchase price it was. Then compare that to what they did or did not give you. Kinda ugly, huh?

RT clearly needs to increase fairs and we do need more public transit. Maybe this will spur more people involved in the planning process, and help enlighten people like Britney Williams, who, in today's Sacramento Bee, was quoted as saying, "I mean, I don't see the reason for them to raise the prices," and how it may inspire more people to ride bikes, drive or, in her case, get a license. On the other hand, she did mention that it may inspire people to ride bikes...

Jeff Weise: Columbine's lessons go unlearned.

Yes, this is sad and tragic and every parent is now, once again, having to ask themselves "can this happen to my child." This is simply the wrong question. The correct question is complex, requiring deeper thinking and self contemplation. "Why, after Columbine, did we not try to teach our children to respect those who are different from us, and, rather than torment them with cruel words and division, embrace those differences and celebrate diversity?" I know this sounds like hogwash to many of you, but that is the fundamental question.

In addition, we are all being bombarded with the same school kid journalism in the papers, internet and TV: "He wore black." "He wore a trench coat." "He drew a very strange sketch." I know tons of kids who wear black, draw skulls and enjoy dark poetry, but this hardly makes them a threat to society. All of the Enron, Worldcom and Tyco folks wore suits, but you don't see people damning the rest of those who don similar clothing. How dumb would this look in your local paper: "Every time I saw him, he was wearing a suit and tie. We used to hang out, but then he started drinking Mochas and reading the Wall Street Journal-I mean, come on. What do all those strange symbols in that paper mean?"

So, all you so-called journalist, I'm throwing down the gauntlet. Every time a murderer, rapist or serial killer is caught, please report what type of clothing they wear, what style of art they are fond of creating, the music they enjoy and whose blogs or websites they visited. "He enjoyed the paintings of Thomas Kinkade and listened to Whitney Houston." Or "He started discussing Wagner operas and I should have seen it coming." "All those pictures of bunnies; such a cry for help." "Did you see his blog? He complained of being wrongly accused of acts he did not commit." Hell, that's half of the teenagers of the planet right there.

Well, there you have it. So, start investigating and show the world just how suspect we all are.

And the winner for worst comparison goes to...

Shane Singh, Sacramento Republican Candidate for Congress, for equating the removal of Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to "the Nazi's putting disabled people to death since they were a burden to their society." (Sacramento Bee editorial letter, March 22, 2005) Although I feel strongly compelled to discuss this further, doing so would make me feel cheap. Perhaps my strongest pet peeve regarding the Republicans is their inevitable resortment to name calling. Once again, I am sorely disappointed. Come on. Its been 15 years, people! Damn it-now I feel cheap. Gotta go...

Schiavo's lack of will power torments us all.

So, congress has time to hold hearings on illegal substance (aka: steroids) use in baseball and they can all get together to find time in constructing legislation to interfere with family medical decisions in the Schiavo feeding tube debacle, but they were unable to find the time to read the Patriot Act prior to signing. Both Congress and Bush are overstepping their bounds by involving themselves in a state matter-thereby ignoring constitutional separations of state and federal gov't.

The question one has to confront is this: why not step in and fight everyone's battles? This case is only important due to a set of parents illogical attachment to a belief that their daughter is somehow going to be "OK" again if she was ever to come out of her coma, which, according to her doctors, isn't going to happen. And really, the real issue here is how come the media is not discussing why she went in to this coma in the first place. Well, I'll tell you instead: she was another person who resorted to bulimia to make herself thinner. KRON reports...

"But keeping the weight off was a struggle for Terri Schiavo, and years later -- after her heart stopped briefly, cutting off oxygen to the brain -- a malpractice case brought against a doctor on her behalf would reveal she had been trying to survive on liquids and was making herself throw up after meals. The Schiavos' lawyer said her 1990 collapse was caused by a potassium imbalance brought on by an eating disorder." http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=2994651

Here's my rundown. Pretty girl makes stupid decision in how to lose weight (vs. eating correctly and exercise), then ties up our courts with a frivolous lawsuit, blames a doctor and society for her problems, is discovered to be causing her own problems, later dies because of them, is resuscitated and slips in to a coma, is given no chance of recovery, and is now tying up Congress, our president and the news media. Ironically, this is all over whether to stop feeding her, which is what brought this on in the first place. I am not being funny. This is a fairly good example of what is meant by the "consequences of one's actions."

Now on my "Do Not Hire" list...

If anyone would like to read what is perhaps the most asinine letter to the editor ever, check out the March 2, 2005 edition of the Sacramento Bee. And I quote: "Two thirds of Earth is covered in water and man occupies only about 10 percent of the remaining third. The entire planet is surrounded by an atmosphere 55 miles thick. That's a lot of air to pollute. While we can trash nearby rivers and lakes and foul the air around our cities, to think we can affect our climate is absurd." -John Carter, Roseville.

The legal team of JBGDCI was adamant in their recommendation not to locate our HQ in Roseville, and now I remember why: lack of sound reasoning in potential new hires.