Don't Kill Me Bro

There's too much talk of individual behavior when it comes to vehicle and pedestrian safety issues. Of course individual behavior matters, but it tends to lead to mostly pointless arguments about whether cyclists, pedestrians, or drivers are "the worst." We know how to design streets that emphasize safety over traffic throughput, and that street design is probably a lot more important than yelling at bad drivers or even traffic enforcement. Design a highway and drivers will treat it like a highway. Institute various traffic calming measures and they'll slow down. Have separated bike lanes and cyclists are safer. Time lights for pedestrian crossings appropriately and pedestrians will be safer. There are lots of things.

And, yes, as it says in the link, a big problem is that SUVs kill people because of the way they are designed.

What'd I Miss?

Could sleep last night, so I slept in.

Morning Thread

Who Put This Thing Together

That's a lot of drugs.

Federal authorities Tuesday seized more than 16 tons of cocaine from a cargo ship docked at the Port of Philadelphia — a massive haul they estimated was worth more than $1 billion and described as one of the largest busts in the nation’s history.

Boris

Amazing that anyone, even really elderly Tory party members, can look at Trump and think, "how can we copy that?" They aren't precisely the same, of course, but they do have their similarities. Cousins, not twins.

How will Britain’s political system cope with a leader whose words bear so little relation, not just to his actions, but to the words he will say tomorrow? We don’t have to imagine. Donald Trump is in the White House.

In some ways, this weaponisation of bad behaviour has proved an excellent political strategy. In his presidency, as in his campaign, Trump has been graded on a very flattering curve. Silvio Berlusconi was Italy’s most durable prime minister in decades. And Johnson himself has repeatedly survived things that would have destroyed anyone else in British public life.

Vetting

They don't even try.

In the months that he has served as President Trump’s acting secretary of defense, Patrick Shanahan has worked to keep domestic violence incidents within his family private. His wife was arrested after punching him in the face, and his son was arrested after a separate incident in which he hit his mother with a baseball bat. Public disclosure of the nearly decade-old episodes would re-traumatize his young adult children, Shanahan said.

Also Nobody Watches Your Speeches On CSPAN

I really don't get how clueless they are.

In recent weeks, Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.), chairwoman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, has briefed fellow House leaders in private meetings about focus groups the committee commissioned in three key political battlegrounds. The upshot, according to four Democrats familiar with the findings, is that the public’s impression of the new House majority is bound up in its battles with Trump, not in its policy agenda.

You don't have to pass bills to tell voters what you'd like to do. There's only one way to grab the mic and that's doing serious oversight hearings.

Nomnomnom

My president.

The good news, we're rebuilding it here. We're building America. Everything's made in the U.S.A., and it's great. But I-- you know, it's one of those things. I have to rebuild the military. Otherwise, I mean, what's more important-- than our military? Especially in these days where you have such problems. And I think the stronger we are, the less likely it is that we use the military. We're close to being very, very strong. We're close to being stronger by far than ever before. But I took over a totally depleted military. And you know that. The planes were old. They talk about the grandchildren of pilots were flying the same plane as they were flying many years ago. We have beautiful new F-35s and F-18s and new-- rifles, new uniforms. In the case of the Army, we have the new uniforms that everybody's wanted for years. They're an expensive-- job. You know, you-- it doesn't sound it, but it is. And-- we have-- we have spent a tremendous amount of money on our military. And we did the right thing because we had to rebuild our military.

Morning Thread

Monday Night

Enjoy.

Near Boston

The focus on elite (super-elite) colleges by the people who run our discourse who all have dick measuring contests late into their lives based on which elite colleges they attended is always annoying. But higher education, in general, does matter, and lost in all of these conversations is that running a residential campus is harder than running the comments section here, but it is similar. Of course all of these institutions get these things wrong sometimes but the issues are more complex than outside observers usually recognize. What if the racist guy is put into a dorm room with an African-America person?

There are a lot of issues here, and not just the one I raised, but "what happens at Harvard" is the dumbest thing we talk about usually and I apologize for contributing.

Afternoon Thread

Busy with some things.

Don't Believe Everything You Read On The Internet

I think email forwards have been forgotten. Before "social media" and really the internet generally there was dumb shit that people forwarded over email.

It wasn't so different.

Morning Thread

Monday. Bah!

Sunday Night

I don't even hate Bon Jovi (local boy, sorta) but this video suddenly made me mad.



One free subscription to whoever figures out why!

Freedum

Had this chat with a couple of other smug people in similar situations earlier, and the while so much marketing involves convincing us that cars make us free, I am so thankful that I actually don't need one for my daily life. Sure cars are useful things and sure I rent them sometimes (carshares or actual rentals) and of course late at night I grab a taxi sometimes but I can get by without them daily and I would pay a lot for that privilege. As much as people pay to own them, at least.

Elder Care

I am of that age when my peers are dealing with elder care issues and wow is it a nightmare. The sad fact is that as some point our bodies and minds start to fail us and other people have to step in. That there is no simple comprehensive system dealing with that - even an imperfect one - is tragic. It becomes a full time job for those people who care and can at least try, and if not...

Afternoon Thread

enjoy

It's Ok If Vegetarians Aren't Perfect

I used to be more dumb about this stuff, but really if your friends have any dietary restrictions (not limited to being vegetarian) they don't have to be perfect and you shouldn't interrogate them about this stuff. Their dietary restrictions - for whatever reason - are not passing judgment on you (unless they say so) and they'd really rather have a meal without being asked about it. Related is getting mad at fat people for being fat and then being weird about how they try to navigate a diet without being a recluse. Meals are a social thing and demanding people diet is demanding they violate social customs.

Many vegetarians eat a piece of chicken occasionally. Let it go. Eating is a fundamental human need and whatever choices people make they don't want to be asked about them constantly.

I am not a vegetarian.

Happy Hour Thread

May be abbreviated so get your happy on!

Brexited

I appreciate the change of subject but it's a bit funny that after years of being about nothing else the UK political conversation has sort of abandoned Brexit. Sure there is talk in the context of the Tory leadership contest (aka the Prime Minister Election) but they are all totally full of shit about it and there is no real talk. There is no renegotiation with the EU. May's "deal" is, give or take a few commas, the "hardest possible Brexit." Nobody knows what's going to happen and no one really talks about it anymore.

Summer In The City

They don't open for long enough but I am always amazed when I go past a city public pool. We built these things that people can just use?