Changing My Mind About Freeways

I'm always on the lookout for facts that make me rethink my preconceived notions. I think I might have found one regarding highways.

More than once, I've written about the "fact" that the Interstate Highway System was not originally intended to cut through cities. My thinking was influenced by articles such as one by Eric Jaffe in The Atlantic.

Eisenhower himself didn't realize the Interstate Highway System would cut through American cities until a few years after construction began. Ike had wanted a national road network like the one he'd seen in Germany during World War II. But he'd also wanted these roads to stop at the doorsteps of cities, not push right past.

Source: The Atlantic.

The conventional wisdom is that in order to get the interstate highway system built, Ike had to get the votes of urban congressmen, and to get those votes, he had to direct some of the construction their way, in the form of freeways in their urban districts. The argument has a certain logic.

After the jump, a contrarian opinion that deserves consideration.

Dirty Wars (2013)

IMDB

Dirty Wars (2013): Bush. Obama. Secret orders. Covert ops. Cover-ups. War on terror spins out of control. Kill list grows without end. A+

OTBR: A Personal Observatory in Australia

Latitude: S 37° 37.050
Longitude: E 144° 20.580

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Repeat Tweets: Best Musical Ever

Repeat tweets from February, 2014:

• Feb 2 2014: Hairspray at BHS: '60s music and student activism, what more could you ask? Hilarious & inspiring. All voices owned the house! Best ever!
  
• Feb 3 2014: New 2014-2016 UIL District 10: Richardson, Berkner, Lake Highlands, Pearce, Highland Park, Mesquite, Mesquite Horn, North Mesquite. Wow!
  
• Feb 4 2014: MT @SenTedCruz: "If a President can choose which laws to follow, ..." Get local police to strictly enforce jaywalking while you're at it.
  
• Feb 4 2014: Our Lake Wobegon climate. Headline: "2013 Marked the Thirty-seventh Consecutive Year of Above-Average Temperature." grist.org
  

After the jump, more repeat tweets.

Early Spring in the Steger Garden (2014)

From Flowers

Daffodil? Jonquil? Narcissus?
Daffodil! Also, narcissus. All clear?

Basketball Playoffs: Atascocita 71, Berkner 49

From 2014 02 28 Regional Semifinals

The Berkner Rams men's basketball team's magical season came to an end in Waco Friday night when they lost to the Humble Atascocita Eagles 71-49 in the Regional Semifinals (round four) of the Texas UIL state tournament.

The Rams have a lot to look back on with pride -- an overall record of 24-8, District 9-5A tri-champions with a district record of 11-3, and winners of the first three rounds of the state tournament. There are about 250 Class 5A schools in Texas. The best 128 teams started the tournament. Berkner made it to the final sixteen. Sweet! It's a great time to be a Ram!

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: London - I

From 1977 05 10 England

White Cliffs of Dover

In these days before the Chunnel, we crossed the English Channel on a hovercraft, meaning our first view of England was the traditional one, the white cliffs of Dover. We drove into London, the destination of our trip of over 9,000 miles as the crow flies from Singapore to London. Subtracting a flight to leapfrog Burma (whose land borders were closed), that's more than 7,500 miles on the ground across southern Asia and Europe. Whew! Time for rest and relaxation after so much ... rest and relaxation. I spent two weeks in London, longer than any other stop on the trip. Time for lots of photos. Here's the first batch from London.

More photos after the jump.

Richardson Coalition Abandons Nonpartisanship

If you had the impression that the Richardson Coalition was some kind of civic volunteer service organization, it may have been because the Richardson Coalition fostered that impression by sponsoring programs like the Richardson Real Heroes award. But if you look closely at fine print at the bottom of the Richardson Coalition web page, you'll notice "Pol. Adv. paid for by the Richardson Residents for Responsive Government, a Political Action Committee (also commonly known as the Richardson Coalition PAC)."

Yep, the Richardson Coalition is a PAC, organized to collect money in order to influence elections. Up to now, the only elections the PAC has attempted to sway were Richardson city council elections.

Up to now, that is. After the jump, the PAC expands its reach.

Basketball Playoffs: Berkner 75, Plano West 73

The Berkner Rams men's basketball team won a huge victory Tuesday night over the Plano West Wildcats 75-73 at Garland's Culwell Center. It was the third round of the Texas UIL state tournament, the regional quarterfinals. Plano West came into the game as champions of District 10-5A and ranked eighth in the state. The Rams were no slouches themselves, District 9-5A tri-champions and ranked 17th in the state. They proved it by taking a second quarter lead over Plano West that they never relinquished, stretching it to twelve points late in the game.

Keenan Evans put on a show, leading all scorers with 35 points, including two clutch free throws with three seconds left to give Berkner a five point lead. Plano West's D.J. Hogg, with 27 points on the night, did his best to rally the Wildcats down the stretch, hitting a couple of three pointers in the last four seconds of the game to make the final margin of victory two points. Berkner's big lead was too much to overcome.

It's a great time to be a Ram!

With the win, the Rams advance to the regional semifinals at Baylor's Ferrell Center in Waco Friday night at 8:00 pm.

Review: The Unending Mystery

Amazon

From The Unending Mystery, by David Willis McCullough:

Labyrinths are painted on the walls of ancient caves and carved onto Neolithic rock outcroppings. They appear in some of the oldest legends in lands as different as the Greek Isles and the American Southwest, but were also the stuff of myths even older than the stories as we now know them."

After the jump, my review.