Street lights at Countryside and Algonkian Parkways are up

In previous posts, I’ve mentioned the intersection of Countryside Parkway and Algonkian Parkway near my home. The intersection has been the site of 2 pedestrian deaths in the past year or so and has undergone a safety review. During that review process and the decisions made as a result, I’ve called for a simple addition to the intersection that would most certainly have aided in avoiding the 2 deaths: street lights. Well, someone apparently felt the idea (whether from me or another concerned soul) had some merit. In the past week three of these items have sprung up:

It’s hard to tell from this camera-phone shot but the lights aren’t wired to power, yet. I’m hopeful they’ll do more than serve as ornamental lighting but the size, height, and position of these lights isn’t confidence-inspiring. What is needed is illumination into the street, not on the corner of the road. THe crosswalks need to be lit so as to see anyone who might be walking across it wherever they might be along that path. I’m no expert on lighting but these don’t seem suited to that task.

That said, I haven’t seen them lit up, yet, so I’ll hold my judgment until I do. I’ll let you know how they look.

Hamas cleric says Rome (the Vatican, actually) will be conquered by Islam

Do tell. Oh, and I’m sure someone’s going to tell me not to pay this any attention and try to somehow suggest this guy isn’t really representative of Islam. Well, for anyone thinking about trying: tell it to him, not to me.

Obama’s bitter that people actually listened to his “bitter” remarks

The landmine of cluelessness that Barack Obama’s mouth landed him on has been well covered by the blogosphere (which had the incidental effect of pulling MSM coverage into the mix.) For those of you who need a reminder, Obama was stumping to his most left-wing, liberal supporters in the San Fran area and started waxing philosophical about small, “Midwest” towns in Pennsylvania. In places like those, you see, the policies of the past 2 administrations has seen the jobs in towns like those dry up, he says. That makes people frustrated and bitter, he says. And then, he dropped this little observation:

So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns
or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or
anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain
their frustrations.

I was quite surprised when I read this the first time. Not that Obama and his San Fran ilk consider support of 2nd Amendment rights or religion or a desire to secure our borders to be a mindless reaction to being “bitter.” It’s that he was so colossally idiotic to actually speak that assessment out loud. Of course, he’s trying to issue the non-apology apology and desperately attempting to deflect attention from his remarks. He and his MSM friends are trying to focus on the “bitter” revelation, challenging anyone who is denouncing his remarks to say that people who are out of work aren’t frustrated. That has only managed to spotlight the cluelessness and elitist attitude Obama and his supports exude. It doesn’t take an Ivy-league education to realize that Obama feels one only goes to church in “midwest” towns out of frustration. One only supports owning a firearm because one is “bitter.”

In short, you can only support such things as a result of having something done to you that was bad, not because you actually feel that support for the 2nd Amendment, secure borders, and a religious upbringing are actually good things.

Now Obama is waving the “I’m not perfect” flag and throwing accusations of his own.

“Now I am the first to admit that some of the words I chose I chose badly, because as my wife reminds me, I’m not perfect. She reminds me of this frequently, and events often remind me as well,” Obama said, reiterating his regret for his choice of words.

“So I’m not a perfect man and the words I chose, I chose badly. They were subject to misinterpretation, they were subject to be twisted, and I regret that. I regret that deeply. But. But. But. When people suggest that somehow I was demeaning religion. When I know that I’m a man of deep faith, somebody who in my own life has held on to faith, held onto my confidence in God during times of trial and tribulation, then it sounds like there’s some politics being played.

“When people suggest I was somehow being elitist and demeaning hunters when I have repeatedly talked about the tradition that people pass on from generation to generation, hunters and sportsmen, and how I have consistently spoken about my respect for the Second Amendment. When people try to suggest that I was demeaning those traditions, then it sounds like there’s some politics being played. And what really burns me up is when people suggest that me saying that folks are mad, they are angry, they are bitter after 25, 30 years of seeing jobs shipped out, pensions not fulfilled, health care lost. The notion that people are surprised, and are suggesting that I’m out of touch because I spoke honestly about people’s frustrations, that tells me there’s some politics going on,” he said.

“Misinterpreted”? “Twisted”? No, no, Mr. Obama. No one twisted your words. They quoted you verbatim and with enough context to show the overall meaning of what you were saying. No one misinterpreted your words. They interpreted them just fine, and that’s your primary problem, here. No one – no one – is arguing that there aren’t frustrated and even bitter people out there whose economic situation is hurting them. It was the casual connection you drew between that state and many of the institutions that have been enjoyed for generations by those small-town folk that’s getting you in trouble. And trying so transparently to evade that fact is what’s getting you deeper in that hole you’re digging.

Your problem isn’t that people feel your words were ill-chosen. It’s that people believe you chose exactly the words that describe your feelings on these matters. The frantic spin you’re now trying to put on things is what tells the rest of us that you’re right about 1 thing – there’s some politics going on, here. It’s called “damage control” and you’re just hoping we don’t notice.

Good luck with that.