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If You Think That Politics Stink, Then Give Generously to Sewer PAC

It has been over four years since the 2007 Quantum Leap Celebration in Taos, New Mexico. Since that time, new energy has been available for those who wish to partake. Yet, with the current global face-off between Old Energy and new, change is stifled. Entitlement thinking among self-appointed elites leads to abuse of power. In the news, selfishness, fear mongering and greed are the current winning strategies.

The 2010 Supreme Court decision favoring “Citizens United” is a good example. Through that decision, the court allowed shadow groups an unlimited voice in federal elections. Without divulging their contributors, “Super PACs” may now accept and spend unlimited amounts of money. In August 2011, Mitt Romney said, “Corporations are people, my friend”. According to our Supreme Court, perhaps they are.

After taking “appropriate expenses”, Super PACs use the remainder to produce negative political ads. Most of that ad money will go to media corporations that are key Super PAC contributors. For the energy, entertainment and media moguls, it is a case of having your cake and eating it too.

As they say, “Negative ads work”. With so much to lose, Big Money quickly pledged tens of millions of dollars to Super PACs. The resulting Super PAC ads have created a negative aura around the Republican primaries. With their inevitable negativity, Super PAC ads are likely to determine the outcome of the Republican primary race.

During a recent TV news show, I heard someone say “Sewer PAC”. What a fitting moniker, I thought. After my recent miss in registering “ChristianTingle.com”, I quickly bought the URL http://sewerpac.com.

If corporations and billionaires need a place to flush their money down the toilet, I can now provide one. Rather than writing about new energy and the environment in 2012, I plan to sell out. So hold your breath against the stench and watch for further developments at SewerPAC.com.

SewerPAC.com is for sale. The minimum bid is a “billionaire’s bargain” at only $1.0 million.

Email James McGillis

In LA Traffic, Design Purity Outmaneuvers Common Sense

In July 2011, Caltrans contractors demolished the southern half of the Mulholland Highway Bridge, which spans the busy Interstate I-405 Freeway at Sepulveda Pass in Los Angeles, California. The reasons for replacing only one-half of the stately structure at a time are obscure. Suffice to say that local homeowner groups held out for purity of design. Rather than allowing the road to jog at either end of the bridge, those groups forced Caltrans to build the same bridge twice, one-half each time. As they say, “Only in Los Angeles…”

People who drive in Los Angeles know that “The 405” is the only freeway route through the Santa Monica Mountains within twelve miles. Connecting the San Fernando Valley with West Los Angeles, the I-405 is an ever-widening ribbon of concrete, and one of the busiest highways in the world. In January 2012, I drove southbound past the construction site to Marina del Rey. My return trip that afternoon took me northbound over the same route.

On that morning, I timed my approach to the Sepulveda Pass for 10:00 AM. With luck, the morning rush would be over, producing a lull before afternoon traffic built to yet another peak. All went well until I neared the intersection of I-405 and U.S. Hwy 101. There, traffic slowed to a crawl and did not regain equilibrium for the next ten miles.

As I ascended the Santa Monica Mountain grade, traffic snapped and bucked like a Chinese dragon. In terms of vehicular energy flow, it was equivalent to an acute myocardial infarction. As I approached the crest, I could see why our traffic moved so listlessly. Appearing atop the hill since my last visit, two enormous mobile cranes stood like sentries, one on either side of the freeway. From my viewpoint, the cranes appeared to be twice the height of the 100-foot tall bridge. The scene was so startling that traffic slowed to a crawl and then stayed that way until I was well beyond the construction scene.

Based on traffic delays alone, the current replacement plan makes no economic sense. Once this slow motion economic disaster is complete, Los Angelinos can then look forward to doing it all over again. From the coming Carmageddon II, right through construction and opening, those who drive in LA shall experience traffic jam déjà vu all over again. With the uncountable hours wasted by drivers sitting in traffic below, we hope that the hilltop locals who blocked the single-phase project are happy now.

Thanks to the local “design purity movement”, motorists will experience inconvenience for years to come. I wonder what the late Steve Jobs would think of this version of design purity. Unless he personally owned a house with an unobstructed view of the finished bridge, I doubt that he would have supported this cause.

As traffic loosened up, my vitriol for the Mulholland Drive locals faded from my consciousness. Traffic broke free near Wilshire Blvd. in West Los Angeles, and I sailed along at 65 mph. After crossing under Interstate I-10 (the Santa Monica Freeway), I observed a complete absence of vehicular traffic on northbound I-405. As I approached Venice Blvd., I witnessed the culmination of a California Highway Patrol traffic break on the northbound side of the freeway. Led by an animal control van, two CHP cruisers and several CHP motor officers sped away from a phalanx of stopped traffic that stretched for miles into the distance.

Listening to a later radio traffic report, I learned that someone had called to report an injured cat on the freeway. For the sake of that feline and in honor of the kind soul who reported it, perhaps 25,000 vehicles came to an extended halt on the busiest freeway in Los Angeles. Upon entering an LA freeway, a small animal’s chances of survival are almost nonexistent. I am an animal lover and have a pet cat myself. Still, I hope that iPhone toting animal lovers do not report every small animal that enters the roadway. If they insist on doing so, Los Angeles traffic may never move smoothly again.

On my return trip, later that day, I approached Sepulveda Pass from the south. From there I could see the Mulholland Drive Bridge and its attendant cranes. Silhouetted against the northern sky, the two cranes, new concrete bridge supports and the remaining bridge deck manifested as art. It is a sight so awe-inspiring that despite traveling uphill, many drivers involuntarily slam on their brakes. As traffic-engineers know, if enough motorists hit their brakes, somewhere behind them, traffic will stop. My morning traffic had stopped three or four miles short of the dramatic hilltop scene.

As witnessed by their reactions to car crashes and brush fires, LA motorists have a perverse relationship with those who trail behind them. During such events, the collective reaction is predictable. To themselves motorists say, “I’ve been delayed by the unknown and now I can see it, so I am going to slow down and gawk to my heart’s content”. That day, of course, group consciousness among LA motorists was true to form.

My slow trips through Sepulveda Pass that day allowed me to see the sights. If you hope to view this high art sculpture for yourself, come to LA before 2016. If you miss the first round of bridge building, plan your visit for the second round in 2013 or 2014. Perhaps Caltrans can rejoin both halves of the new Mulholland Drive Bridge by 2015. Then, hilltop homeowners can emerge from their survival shelters and enjoy the purity of design that they forced upon us all. Thank you again, local homeowners, for triggering the super slow motion Carmageddon that we now endure.

Email James McGillis

Ancient Spirits Jump for Joy at Canyonlands Field, Moab, Utah

In May 2011, I drove Hwy 191 North to Canyonlands Field, which serves as both the commercial and private aviation airport for the City of Moab, Utah. It was a clear, windless and warm day at the airport. My friends Tiger Keogh and Terry Carlson, both of whom work at the airport, had invited me out to watch the flight action on that busy Saturday. Soon after I arrived, the Great Lakes Airlines plane from Denver, Colorado landed, followed quickly by several charter aircraft. Although the commercial traffic was interesting, voices in the sky kept interrupting my photographic work.
 

 

Watch First-time Parachutists in Full-motion Video Action

 

Since the land around Canyonlands Field contains so many ancient spiritual sites, for a moment I felt those spirits calling down to me. Looking up, I saw a series of skydivers contrasted by a thin overcast of clouds. Wheeling around in the breeze, their hoots and hollers reverberated across the quiet airfield.
 
Out past the Redtail Aviation hanger, where we share our MoabAirlines.com webcam, I saw beyond to the Moab Skydiving Epicenter. There, two separate businesses, Skydive Canyonlands and Skydive Moab offer tandem parachute jumps for novices and first-timers. With shouts of joy and abandon coming from all over the sky, I captured the scene using both live video and still images. To do that required juggling my Sony Bloggie Touch for the HD video with my ancient Sony DSC-F717 digital camera for the stills.
 
As soon as I arrived, a small Cessna loaded with parachutists taxied around the corner and took off. Soon, I could hear the plane circling above, but the bright sun masked my view. Until we heard shouts from above, no one below knew that jumpers were in the air. Looking up, I soon caught sight of several first-timers preparing to land. Friends were hooting from below, which set off more hollers from above.
 
One exuberant jumper ran all the way from the landing zone to the staging area. As tears of joy streamed down her face, “It was freaking awesome,” she declared to her friends. Indeed, it was awesome to see humans descending from a blue and white sky desert sky. The image of mythic humans descending from above conjured my own visions Moab Rockart, which often features the spirit of the ancients floating in the air.

Email James McGillis