Road Work

According to a new report from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) as of June 30, 2002 there were more then 2 million inmates in prison. Now to me that’s a substantial work force sitting around on MY dime. Here is my idea, why not require ALL able bodied inmates to work 6 hours a day (I use 6 because I know you have to transport them back and forth to prison) 5 days a week. Pay them minimum wage, take them out and have them do the state/local road repair and construction work. Most of the labor involved in road construction is simple manual labor. I know I know it will take more guards! Lets do some simple math: According to http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos248.htm Highway, street and bridge construction workers make about $14.48 per hour. That comes to $144.80 per hour for a 10 man crew, now lets use 10 inmates @ $5.50 per hour and 2 guards @ $14.50 (I just did a job search on Monster and averaged a couple salaries being offered to get this number) to watch them and we get $84.00 per hour. Not bad a savings of $60.80 per hour. Ok so the math is real simple and I know there are many details and issues I haven’t included but I think the idea is sound.

"Special" People

I want to know where to get a “special” sticker or card or whatever it is that some people around here have? Let me explain: I have noticed that when driving down a 2 or more lane road and there is a merge ahead, “some” people (the ones with the “special” card or sticker) will stay in the merging lane to the very last minute while us “ordinary” people get over when we see that there is a merge ahead. The “special” people drive right past a line of cars that have already merged and then expect to be let in at the front of the line! And sure enough some one does let them in. Now if it looks like someone isn’t going to let them in at the front of the line then they play the “oops, I didn’t know there was a merge” card (they didn’t know it yesterday, or the day before or the day before that either). OK, enough about the merge thing, what about turning at a traffic light? When I got my license the rule was Yellow Light means Red Light is next and Red Light means STOP. Apparently that has been changed; I think a yellow light means NOTHING and a red one means 3 more cars through. God forbid you would be the first car to the red and actually stop with one of the “special” people be hind you. You would either get rear ended or at least get the horn and some jesters sent your way. What about the speed limit on an interstate? If it’s posted at 55 (or 65 or whatever) then isn’t that the maximum speed for ALL lanes? I know the rule is slower traffic to the right which implies faster traffic to the left but isn’t the speed limit still 55 in the left lane? Not if you have one of those “special” people cards or stickers! Now then, what about the “special” people in their wanna-be sports cars, you know, the ones with the big fat performance exhaust sticking out the back. If one of them is going down the interstate weaving and bobbing in and out of cars and another one spots him the second HAS to follow. Now there’s 2 (or more) of them speeding and driving dangerously. If I were to even think of driving like that I’d be pulled over in a heart beat. Has anybody else noticed that it is now perfectly acceptable to make a right turn from ANY lane? Enough said! How is it that on Holidays there are so many extra cops on the road? They want us to have a safe Holiday. What about ALL the other days of the year? If they can get that many cops out there on any given holiday (and pay them holiday wages), why can’t they be out there every day? My bet is 2-3 months of that many cops on the road giving out tickets for pretty much any violation and even the “special” people might start abiding by the rules.