I think the highlight of the day is that mountainbike is using emoticons
Soon, he’ll be as addicted to those suckers, as I am . . .
We’ve created a monster
Just think, yhe next electronic gizmo for cars could be the ability to make headlights and tailights and maybe even front grills display emoticons expressing drivers’ opinions of other drivers … oh wait, that might not be family friendly. 
Aren’t all those hand-waving gestures just a friendly hello?
Oh yes. VERY friendly. 
I’m all for the Italian middle finger salute!
The hand gestures are “digital communication”.
Some of us just work for a living,I believe in sharing and playing fair,I’ve passed up a lot of things,so that others may share in the “largesse”
What's up with the toll roads in Indiana . . .
Indiana leased the toll road to a company from Spain.
. . . . Selling the Golden Goose. . . . talk about short-sightedness. Didn’t they try to do something similar with the Pennsylvania Turnpike? If I recall correctly, there was such an outcry (mostly from the Unions) that the shiesty pols had to back off. . .
WTH . . . ?!Did somebody have a financial stake in this Spanish company . . . ?
Who knows how that cr*p happens.
It’s even more widespread then I thought.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-15-u.s.-highways_x.htm
I think it is a dream come true for politicians. They sell or lease toll roads/tunnels/bridges and collect a huge fee for doing so. The buyer or lessee then charges tolls and provides upkeep on the roads. If the upkeep isn’t acceptable, the politicians can scream bloody murder without negative consequences. I used to ride with a local politician in a car pool, and he was always on the lookout for a cause without negative repercussions.
I don’t know about Indiana but Illinois is so deep in the hole they’re going to have to sell a lot more than roads to eliminate their deficit. Seems to me its in the 80 billion range even with their hefty income tax increase.
What will happen to speed limits,if most roads,go to private ownership and upkeep?
Private ownership and upkeep does not supersede the authority of the state to establish speed limits. Just as you on your private property have to comply with numerous regulations and requirements, so to would the owners of the roads have to comply with speed limit mandates.
So the “Paper Tigers” have teeth,too much control,too many things made illegal now.
We as a society are going to be like those people on “Wall-E”
Re. Privatization: It would probably open up the possibility of higher speed limits. But the organizations that would then support the roads would be afraid of losing federal grant money for improvements and also liability for crashes if they rocked the boat too much, so likely things would change very little.
A little off topic but I noticed in the paper today that the President is no longer going to stay at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in NY due to security concerns. Seems the place was sold to a Chinese insurance company last year and they have been remodeling with maybe spying eyes. Gotta love it.
@db4690–I’ll tell you what’s up with the toll roads in Indiana. We had a governor got together with his Republican buddies and leased out the toll roads to infuse some immediate cash into the state treasury. Ultimately, it has cost us Hoosiers more because we don’t have the revenue generated by the toll roads. When that governor’s two terms were up and couldn’t succeed himself, the state board of higher education that he appointed awarded him the presidency of a Big 10 University in the state.