Music for the moment

Some Rowdy Women by Shooter Jennings
Million Miles Away by Adam Hood
Youngstown by Bruce Springsteen
Casey's Last Ride by Kris Kristofferson
Song Of The South by Alabama

And one more thing

I'll follow up with this ...

I have become someone of note the left feels threatened by ...

Erick's funny.

If by 'threatened by' you mean 'definitely smarter than' then you're exactly right.

Good times

Rachel at Talking Points Memo profiled Erick Erickson, and we exchanged some emails on the topic. She was kind enough to give me a shout-out, which is much appreciated.

Oddly enough, it comes right after Grift took him to task ... again.

The more things change ...

I liked this Ezra Klein post - that referenced Kevin Drum - on the Dow hitting 10,000 again ...

In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, you heard a lot about how further regulation was unnecessary because Wall Street was severely chastened. We could not do worse to them than they were going to do to themselves, and we shouldn't try. That sure turned out well, at least so far as their compensation goes.

What's weird, too, is that this seems like bad money management. A couple of major firms could have shifted more of their compensation into salaries and away from bonuses and then promised to donate the bonus money to charity so long as America remained in recession. It would have been great press, and done wonders to limit the chances that Congress passes any serious compensation reform. Don't these guys know anything about investing?

The plastic bag tax

Adrian at Athens World is opposed to the plastic bag tax, as is Athens 101, though for different reasons than me.

My primary objection is that I don't necessarily think it will work to curb plastic bag usage. If you told me that it would be roughly 50 more cents on my bill to get plastic bags, I just don't think I'd balk. And I think if that tax is applied without the knowledge of the consumer, then they won't recognize a painful enough pinch to avoid getting the bags altogether. If the goal is reduce the use of plastic bags, then I'd suggest just banning them outright. It's easier and more effective as a policy tool.

That said, I think there are some dubious arguments made by Adrian. For starters, while it must be conceded that plastic bag production may represent a fraction of all the petroleum consumption in the world, it's nonetheless a vital component of the process and, in this case, any reduction is a worthy reduction.

Likewise, Athens-Clarke County offers ample avenues for recyling batteries, and the committee recommended several courses of action to recycle electronics. Granted, they may result in having the constituent drive to the location to recycle the products, but any increase in pick-up would result in a much steeper price increase than a marginal tax on plastic bags. To suggest Athens-Clarke County isn't making those areas a priority just isn't accurate.

Listen, I'm not sold on the plastic bag tax by any means - and, again, I think it's just one element of a much broader picture that probably won't be implemented - but I don't see it feasibly driving people away from retail opportunities in Athens-Clarke County. The tax is too low, which makes me think if the aim is reduction, then just go all in for a ban of bags.

Watkinsville strikes back

A little while back, I penned a column on the proposed widening of Simonton Bridge Road that ended with the following observation ...

In all likelihood, the Simonton Bridge Road project won't survive. Leaving aside the practical reasons for not pursuing it, there is ample community opposition to four-laning the corridor. However, the fact it was left on the list of projects by this representative body is troubling enough and a testament to the need for local citizens to be actively engaged in the process.

Well, color me wrong.

Apparently, MACORTS has bumped this project up its list of priorities and have it slated under their 'TIPS' program for implementation by 2013 ... this despite ample community opposition to the project and the lack of a formal request from the locals for the widening.

In turn, the Watksinville City Council has responded. At their meeting last night, the council designated eight homes along the road as historic properites. In addition, George Rodrigues, the current representative on the Oconee County Planning Commission, will also begin attending MACORTS meetings and report back to the council on decision that impact the town.

I emailed Brian to get his thoughts on the process, and he responded with the following ...

The city council reaffirmed its commitment to preserving the Simonton Bridge Road corridor within the city last night, and intends to work to preserve the character of the road outside the city as well by all means necessary. When we developed our long range land use plan, Watkinsville citizens highlighted Simonton Bridge Road as one of their favorite roads in the city. While we are not opposed to limited widening of existing lanes for safety and to accommodate cyclists, the majority of our citizens enjoy what is currently an historic and efficient corridor into town, and don’t want to see it change. We are also hopeful that we can get more regular and accurate communication from MACORTS and its representatives on projects that impact Watkinsville, and Tuesday night’s hearing was a good first step in that direction.

Both are savvy moves as the first dramatically impacts how any type of widening program could begin - or be executed - within Watkinsville city limits. It complicates the logistics of the widening, which is what I would assume they intended to do.

The latter is a solid strategic move, particularly considering that Watkinsville has five county roads and three state roads that bisect the town, yet, like other Oconee County municipalities, lacks representation on MACORTS.

Lunch break

For your enjoyment, the dance scene from last week's The Office ...



Stanley's dancing down the aisle might be my favorite, but I also like the whole Jim-Pam thing too. Plus, Jenna Fischer's pretty darn cute.