The All New Michigan Road Kill News

Here it is. It might be Dead. It might Stink.
Or it might be good for something. You decide for yourself.

I get my news in a lot of ways from a lot of places. Print, Internet, Friends and People I Meet.

When it comes to news about the roads I pretty much pick up everything I can. I am very concerned about the condition of the roads in Michigan, that's one reason why I write this blog. The truth is most of the news about the roads in Michigan nowadays is worthless. Just repeated prattle from some congressman / lawmaker, or a journalist trying to fill some space .

A lot of the news about the roads includes some study about this or that, trying to prove some persons point of view one way or the other. I've seen studies and polls printed barely one day apart painting a complete opposite picture about the exact same subject.

And I l have heard politicians talk about infrastructure and our roads in Michigan, either completely uninformed on the subject, or being outright deceitful, just to look good in front of the reporters and their constituents.

Needless to say all that is time consuming and tiring. So I've decided to start more or less a regular post entitled "Roadkill News". Now there are jokes about things like the "Roadkill Cafe" or people picking up roadkill to bring it home for dinner. True story: I once told a co-worker about a dear that had been hit right across the street from my house. That evening he followed me home, asked me to help him put the deer in the back of his pickup truck, told me his butcher should be able to get good meat out of about half of the poor dead thing. It wasn't just a few days later he was offering me some deer jerky, you guessed it, from that road kill at the end of my driveway. I didn't eat it. With "Roadkill News", you don't have to eat it if you don't want to either.

"Roadkill News" is a lot like what it sounds like. Some of its Stinks, some of it might be good for something. So as a favor to you folks , whether you like it or not I'll put up as much of the news about the roads as I can find, kind of like just the headlines and a quick description. Stick it in the back of my pickup truck so to speak and drop it off here so you can sift through it in a hurry and decide which of it is any good and worth reading. Nothing fancy just headlines with links to the articles and web pages, and a few words. But don't worry, I'll still be getting into detail about the road news that really does mean something and needs to be talked about.



So here is some bits of news I've picked up on the roads, off the roads in the last couple of days.

Low-income tax credit eyed for road funding - Michigan Public Radio

By Rick Pluta • Jun 2, 2015

A state House panel considers elimination of the tax credit for working poor  families to help come up with more money for roads. That's right. Fix the roads by grabbing money out of the pocket of the working poor. Put those people to work. They don't have enough to do already.

Safe Roads Yes on Facebook.
Safe Roads Yes! Website

As of the 1st of June, the Safe Roads Yes! coalition continues to urge us to "Get out and vote YES on Proposal 1" - on Facebook and the Safe Roads Yes! web site. REALLY!

 

Take the Free Press Pothole Challenge - By Eric D. Lawrence, Detroit Free Press, March 9, 2015

The Detroit Free Press wants to see (and share) what you think is the worst pothole or stretch of potholes across Michigan. You can share your photos and videos on one of the Freep's social media channels. Just can't seem to make up my mind, so many potholes...so many potholes.

 

Highway Trust Fund Is 'Broke,' Ex-Transportation Secretary LaHood Says - STEVE INSKEEP, National Public Radio. May 19, 2015

The primary way that federal highway and transit programs are funded for state, local, and national projects across the country is running out of money for highways, bridges and mass transit. Not good for our Michigan roads, seeing we can't seem to raise any money for roads ourselves. Now our federal hand out just may go away.

Well that's about it for now. Stay tuned for more Road Kill News, where YOU decide if it's really worth the trouble. There is bound to be plenty more.


Drive Careful,
Will

Whats So Funny About Potholes ? Satire and Irony

What do you think is funny? Everybody has their opinion of what they think is funny. How about you?

I like both satire and irony. Both comedic forms require a certain amount of intellect and a large, rather robust sense of humor. Especially if the comedy is directed at you.

The above requirements certainly apply when you are directing your humor at others, more so if it is to make a point. If a person doesn't share your sense of what constitutes humor, so be it. That can actually be funny in itself. It's just that it would be nice if they did share your laugh.

Anyway, satire and irony can be very effective at making a point. That is why I use it - a lot. If people get it, congrats, you've made your point. If people don't get it, the people that do get it, get it even more.

Here are examples of one or the other lately in the news.

 

Mike Rowe, well known entertainer and spokesman, addressed those at the Mackinac Policy Conference last week. Irony? He's famous for his show "Dirty Jobs". And his latest gig is called SGDI, or "Somebody's Gotta Do It" on CNN. When talking about Lansing legislators, that's irony! Get it? Last year the Michigan legislators said in effect that fixing our roads was a 'Dirty Job' and instead dumped it on their constituents. When the people threw it back at them with the defeat of Proposal 1, the lawmakers got on Mike Rowe's new show so to speak, saying 'Somebody's Gotta Do It', and are now grudgingly taking up the task again. If you think all that is funny then you get the point. If you don't then the rest of us get the point even more. See where I'm going?

In my last blog post - Mackinac Policy Conference Begins - Will There Be Potholes? - I compared those at the the 2015 Mackinac Policy Conference, some may have thought just the Republicans, as people whose view of taxes is of as a steaming pile of horse manure on the streets Mackinac Island to be avoided at all "costs". Certainly no one would want to step in that. The comment and the cartoon in the post, well that is satire. I hope people reading it have a sense of humor. If not, that is actually funny too.

Now here are two examples of satire and irony combined: A Beer and a flavor of Ice Cream:

Pothole Stout - Brewery Vivant

Here is a beer released for a limited time last year, and hope will be available again, which obviously was crafted and packaged to make a point.

Michigan Pot Hole Ice Cream - Ashby’s Sterling Ice Cream

Either out of a sense of humor or sense of duty, the marketing director of the manufacturer, Dianna Tunison is quoted as saying "We first came up with the flavor and then talked about it as a team that we should donate 1 percent of our sales to the State of Michigan to help fix our pot holes," 

Now that is both funny and sad. Donating ice cream profits to pay for our lousy roads. Enough said. 

So, sometimes humor - satire and irony - are an effective and maybe only way to make a point. The down side is that these methods have to be used because reason and understanding are not working.

The condition of our terrible Michigan roads and infrastructure are sad. And so are our do-nothing Michigan legislators. Not much to say for the Governor either, when it comes to roads. So much for humor. Just sayin'.


Drive careful,
Will

Mackinac Policy Conference Begins - Will There Be Potholes?

UPDATE:

Well it's 2016 and another Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference - Woo Hoo !

"Expectations for real results in solid policy to benefit the state and its citizenry this year are slim. However the horses are thick on the island and so is the horse shit there, et al" --someone who know horse shit

So much for the Update.
____________________________________

Another work week begins now that the Memorial Day weekend of 2015 is over. Will the week bring a solution to our Michigan road problem?

To The Island !

Hitch up your horses, the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference gets underway on Mackinac Island this week.

It happens every year at the Grand Hotel.

You can bet a major subject to be discussed will be the failure of Proposal 1 and where the Michigan legislature will go from here to get to a Real Road Funding Solution. And what irony, Mackinaw island!

Snyder and his business allies on this island trip will no doubt try to convince the Republican lawmakers in attendance that they can and should put more than a billion dollars into roads, and keep it flowing. But there are going to be a lot of issues to dodge and get around, like steaming piles on the Mackinaw streets, before there can be results.

On the one hand you have governor Snyder, very much wanting to put Billions of dollars into a permanent road funding program. Snyder says polls have shown the people are open to some sort of new tax or tax increase if it goes to roads.

Then you have his Republican lawmakers, wanting to at all cost avoid those steaming piles of taxes. All they can think about is their dainty anti-tax constituents getting the vapors and passing out at the slightest hint of a smelly tax, and then forgetting them on re-election day.

And of course there are the Democrats in Lansing. Like any good farmer, they don't mind stepping in a pile of taxes, so long as there is something left on their shoes for them to spread over their constituents. Democratic support in the legislature is needed because they will have to make up an expected  Republican lack of votes. But they will want something in return, just like last year! Yet they are not always so welcome at the island conference. Last year, in fact, Snyder’s Democratic opponent for governor wasn’t even invited to take part in the event.

Suffice it to say that the island conference will be looking to its historical darling Snyder for leadership (though his attractiveness has declined in the last few years). And the center-right businesses will have a say on road funding. They are still giggling over the  Michigan Business Tax toss, and the giant Tax Cut for businesses handed to them not long ago, all packaged up pretty with a big bright bow. And lately the states businesses have been tearing open those presents like greedy four year old's on Christmas morning (so much for budget surplus for roads). Better roads for better business, right?

Well, Mackinaw island is a lot about history. The way things used to be. No cars. No car noise. No cars torn up from potholes. Just like the good old days. Let's hope the result of this conference will Not be a return to the bad old days of no road funding. 

Michigan Road Funding Of The Past

 

Oh, by the way, to get into the conference:  $2,150 for Chamber members and $2,925 for Future members. So I suspect I wont be there. Anyway, it seems I've been kicked out of the Grand Hotel in the past (speaking of history), and they may notice me. I'll be in the LP probably driving my car into another pothole no doubt.

Drive Careful, Will

U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio Thinks He Can Fix Michigan Roads

I hear that U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford, has an idea on how to fix our terrible Michigan roads. Nice. He has introduced an "old fashioned" act he thinks will do the job. Here is what he has said...

Michiganians are fed up with navigating potholes after a hard winter. Transportation spending is one of the top concerns I hear from constituents. We in Congress need to take a different approach to fixing our streets: one that empowers local leaders and lessens the control of congressional appropriators over our lives. That’s why I have introduced the Repairing Our Aging Roads (ROAR) Act.

Well it's good someone representing us is making some noise, since the one's in Lansing don't seem to want to. You can read Mr. Bentivolio's explanation of the Repairing Our Aging Roads (ROAR) Act at the Detroit News Website Here.

Is Roaring the Answer ?

Maybe instead of Making Noise, Michigan legislators can Listen to what their constituents have consistently said, "Just Fix Our Roads". I don't necessarly agree with the whole ROAR act thing after looking into it, but I do agree we need action. Not inaction as we saw in the spring. I'm just sayin'.
 

Drive Careful,
Will