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THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKING THE OBVIOUS: HIGH GAS PRICES, NOTWITHSTANDING RECENT DECLINES, ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE THE RULE THAN THE EXCEPTION now and henceforth.

Obviously dictating the importance of sound and practical transportation policy as deemphasises the automobile in favour of alternatives such as rail and bus service to the extent feasable.

The which is the subject of a study which MnDOT (as in the Minnesota Department of Transportation) will be expected to formulate thanks to legislation taking effect from Friday, 1 August--which turns out being part of the same law which bans text messaging while driving and sets further operational restrictions on holders of probationary driver's licences.

No doubt a worthwhile first step for Minnesota's perhaps joining the ranks of states like Illinois, California and North Carolina as are taking proactive steps when it comes to passenger rail thanks to partnerships with Amtrak and Section 403(b) funding (as in the provision of the National Passenger Rail Act 1970 allowing states to fund passenger rail services) ... but then again, the unique characteristics of Minnesota need to be taken into account.

Already, first tenative steps are being taken with the Northstar Commuter Rail line between Minneapolis and Big Lake, with possible later extension to St. Cloud; first services are expected to commence sometime next year.

Other commuter-rail corridors as are under further study are:

• the Red Rock Line (Minneapolis-Hastings-Red Wing);
• the Rush Line (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Forest Lake-Rush City);
• the Dan Patch Line (Minneapolis-Savage-Prior Lake-Northfield); and
• self-named lines to Bethel and Norwood-Young America.

As well, there's been talk of a long-distance commuter line as would operate between the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports, restoring passenger rail links as ended in 1981.

Also worthy of study, IMHO, would have to be:

• extending the Dan Patch Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line as would continue past Northfield to Faribault, Owatonna and Austin;
• extending the Red Rock Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line continuing past Red Wing to Lake City, Wabasha and Winona;
• regional commuter rail (as it were) that would connect Winona, Rochester, Dodge Center, Owatonna (connecting to the expanded-on Dan Patch Corridor to the Twin Cities and Austin), Waseca and Mankato;
• studying the possibility of reclaiming the Douglas State Trail (itself a former Chicago Great Western railway line) and other former CGW lines between Rochester and Red Wing for a passenger-rail link between the Twin Cities and Rochester (if a bit on the awkward side);
• looking into long-distance commuter-rail potential between the Twin Cities and Willmar, with passenger-rail potential past Willmar to Marshall and Sioux Falls;
• partnering with Wisconsin and Illinois on the possibilities of pooling funds to extend @ least two of Amtrak's Hiawatha Service trains between Chicago and Milwaukee onward to the Twin Cities, not to mention pooling funds for adequate trainsets and track upgrades to permit fast running;
• again in partnership with Wisconsin and Illinois, studying the potential of an overnight train between Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities as an alternative to auto travel and "cookie-cutter" chain-motel predictability (think the likes of European night-train networks as EuroNight, CityNightLine and TrenHotel); and
• studying the possibilities of reintroducing an international passenger rail link between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg, via St. Cloud, Fargo/Moorhead and Grand Forks (as well as another daily passenger train between the Twin Cities and Fargo).

Done carefully enough, Minnesota could certainly be a shining example for the Midwest to become as much a leader and innovator in passenger-rail development as California, Illinois and North Carolina are already beyond the Northeast Corridor.

Otherwise, what stands in the way?

In any event, MnDOT should exercise its legislative mandate to study passenger-rail possibilities with an eye towards many of the solutions just illustrated. Especially considering where high gas prices bound to get higher may leave us with little or no other options to break automotive dependency.

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IF YOU THOUGHT MICHAEL "LIBERALISM IS A MENTAL DISORDER" SAVAGE'S RECENT CRACKS ABOUT AUTISM WERE RATHER AWFUL AND DISGUSTING, consider the lead-in remarks to such as are now causing him no end of headaches, as aired on his show of the 16th instant (as transcribed by Media Matters for America):

...For a long while, we were hearing that every minority child had asthma. Why did they sudden--why was there an asthma epidemic amongst minority children? Because I'll tell you why: The children got extra welfare if they were disabled, and they got extra help in school. It was a money racket. Everyone went in and was told [fake cough], "When the nurse looks at you, you go [fake cough], 'I don't know, the dust got me.' " See, everyone had asthma from the minority community. That was number one.

Which begs the question of where Mr. Savage got the notion of asthma epidemics among National Minorities being staged or faked just to attract more in welfare benefits--or, for that matter, his own warped delusion of the world: Al Cohol, perhaps?

Mary Jane Weaver?

Seymour Butts?

I. P. Daley?

Snidely Whiplash?

The Kanker Sisters?

Corporal Punishment?

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SUCH IS THE PRICE OF EXPOSING THE REMARKS OF THE WEIRD AND UNWHOLESOME TO AIR AND SUNSHINE: Media Matters for America's continuing coverage of l'affaire Michael Savage vis-a-vis the "fraud [and] racket" of autism reveals where Mr. "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder" may be resorting to projection in a misguided attempt to save his career, what with several major advertisers having pulled their advertising therefrom (insurer AFLAC being the most recent such) and a talk-radio station in Mississippi having cancelled his show from the other day:

On the July 21 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage repeatedly attacked Media Matters for America, calling the group a "Stalinist," "anti-family," "illegitimate, dangerous fascist group[]," and asserted that Media Matters "ha[s] no place in America." His comments came after Media Matters documented, with transcript and audio, his July 16 remarks describing autism as "[a] fraud, a racket." Those comments have sparked protests and generated widespread media attention.

Throughout his three-hour broadcast, Savage asserted:

• "I'm very fatalistic at a certain point. I may have invested 15 years of my life in radio and 40 years of my life in defense of the helpless children of the world--and I have--but if the irony is that I am attacked by gay men who do not have children, in the group called Media Matters, and they win and the children lose, I said, 'Then, it's God's joke. And if that's what God wants, then that's the way it is.' "

• "[M]y comments were taken out of context by this radical, Stalinist, left-wing group, Media Matters that has done this before. They did it with the Muslims. They did it with the immigrants, and they do it of course each and every day as was done in the Stalinist Soviet Union. They have no place in America."

• "Unless you actually listen to a man, it's very easy to crucify him. Remember there's mob--there's a mob mentality out there. We live in very dangerous times where people are taken out of context and crucified in the media. It's interesting to me that I've devoted my entire adult life to defending the defenseless, and here I am, being attacked by those who do not have children, who hate children, who are anti-family in Media Matters, who take a statement that I make out of context and send it to the poor parents of autistic children and have them believe I'm their enemy. It's very, very clever, the devil. The devil is very clever, indeed. Don't underestimate your enemy is all I can tell you."

• "[I]t's ironic that people who hate families and children--a group called Media Matters, filled with anti-family individuals who do not marry; they're men who like men--would take out of context comments that I made last week directed at the misdiagnosed, the falsely diagnosed, and the outright fakers in the autism field and try to make you, the parents of the truly autistic, attack me."

• "If you permit illegitimate, dangerous fascist groups like Media Matters to get away with this, you will be living in the ex-Soviet Union in your own lifetime."

• "[I]t's ironic that you would take the bait from an evil group like Media Matters, which is filled with men who hate families, men who hate children, and men who hate particularly conservatives who believe in borders, language, and culture. Those are the enemies of the truth. Those are the enemies of your children, not me."

• "I want to actually conclude right now by saying again, at 3 o'clock in the morning, I woke up, and I said, 'Oh my God, not again--not those fascists again taking me out of context.' How do they get away with it? How can criminal fascists like those in Media Matters not be stopped by the government for doing this to people by twisting their words and taking them out of context? I said, 'Well, you're living in a quasi-proto-Soviet Union where people can be damned for half-truths.' "

Memo to Mr. Savage, after those of one Hank Greenspun directed @ Sen. Joseph McCarthy: "Toon vsa jou feite, asseblief!"

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THE PRICE OF "DEFENDING SOUTHERN CULTURAL HERITAGE AND VALUES," or so the neo-Confederate community is fond of using the term to the point of risking becoming hackneyed:

First comes word from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (ironically enough, based in Atlanta) that the South remains perhaps the single most obese region of the country, thanks to "cultural heritage" excusing a diet of high-fat/salt/sugar (HFSS) foods, frying almost everything in especially lard or palm-kernel or cottonseed oil--not to mention their preferred "quick lunch" of a Moon Pie and a bottle of RC Cola.

Now, it's emerged, thanks to the Natural Resources Defence Council, that the South is too dependent upon their cars (and, for that matter, @ higher risk of adverse effects from high gasoline prices) for their own good, considering where the Southern states spend more as a percentage of annual income for gasoline on average.

Add to that a mentality up there with the so-called Club For Growth as is forever insisting that low taxes=jobs=socioeconomic stability being all the more popular across the Deep South--especially so Mississippi, which has been rather notorious for offering tax holidays to labour-intensive manufacturers just to create jobs since the infamous Soverignty Commission sought to invoke "states' rights" as a defence to maintain State-sanctioned racism, and to use "whatever means necessary" towards those ends--excusing such as necessary for G-d, Country and Race.

(Incidentally, Mississippi ranked top of the league tables when it came to obesity as a byproduct of bad diets excused as "cultural heritage" and the percentile of income spent on gasoline.)

In any event, the Southern states have perhaps the lowest fuel tax rates in the country, which may explain why roads in many parts of the former Confederacy may be showing signs of deferred maintenance as are all too obvious (after all, fuel tax revenue is supposed to finance highway construction and maintenance).

No wonder many ill-advised types across the South are still fond of displaying the Confederate version of the Scots Saltaire and defend such as a show of "heritage, not hate" when, in their hearts, it's the exact opposite meaning.

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IN THE END, WHAT REMAINED OF LAKE DELTON--AND, FOR THAT MATTER, THE DEBRIS OF THIS PAST SPRING'S FLOODING ACROSS THE MIDWEST--had to go somewhere.

As in the likes of the Wisconsin, Rock, Wapsipinicon, Des Moines, Raccoon, Iowa, Illinois and Missouri rivers flowing into the Mississippi.

And the Mississippi, in its turn, flowing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Satellite photography has now emerged showing where all the debris from said flooding has resulted into an emerging "dead zone" in said Gulf of Mexico, where any and all form of aquatic life cannot exist owing to a want of oxygen and nutrtients.

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PAT "700 CLUB" ROBERTSON, HOPING JOHN McCAIN WILL BE ENSURED "CERTAIN VICTORY" IN INDECISION 2008 PRO DEO, PATRIA ET FAMILIA, was overheard the other day hoping for October Surprise-stylee attacks against Iranian nuclear-processing facilities to influence the electoral outcome (hat tip to Think Progress for the following):

On [Monday's] edition of The 700 Club, Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson sharply criticized the “moderate tone” the Bush administration has allegedly taken toward Iran and its nuclear weapons program. Robertson advocated that Israel look out for the “survival of its nation” and “make some kind of a strike” against Iranian nuclear facilities. He also predicted that it will likely happen before the 2008 elections:

But nevertheless, I think we can look in the next few months for Israel to make a strike — possibly before the next election — because I think George Bush—to use the term an “amber light”—he’s given the amber, the yellow light, saying, “Caution, but go ahead.”

The which, no doubt, some have suggested as a cheap and cheerful way to hasten the Final Onset of Armageddon, the Ultimate Battle Between Good and Evil. But then again, Your Correspondent has to wonder where Mr. Robertson has such an "inside track" on emerging events which, in the end, turn out not occuring @ all.

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TO ESPECIALLY SUCH MISGUIDED SPECIMENS OF ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF SEEING THEMSELVES AS "PATRIOTS" AND "DEFENDERS OF AMERICAN SOVERIGNTY" for their own selfish ends, do I direct this item.

I should like to ask of you the following, and in return, I would like some honest and sincere answers, not bromides and platitudes passed off as answers which could suggest the same were scripted:

• Where does it state in the Constitution that American soverignty and soverign identity is conditioned by, and conditioned on, isolationist self-sufficency?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that only white male Low Church Christians are entitled the rights, privileges and powers thus enshrined and ennumerate?
• Where in the Constitution does it state that free-market socioeconomic policies and paradigms shall prevail when it comes to regulatory policy?
• Where exactly in Holy Scriptures does it state that free-market capitalism and Christian faith are mutually compatible?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that there shall be no legal tender other than gold and silver coin?
• Where in the Constitution does it specifically state that ignorance is to be valued more highly than knowledge?
• Where in the Constitution is anti-Semitism, racism, white supremacy, xenophobia, sexism, male chauvinism and general intolerance sanctioned or justified as one with "the defence of our antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity"?
• Where does it state that the defence of free-market capitalism requires the defence of racist, xenophobic, sexist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic and isolationist policies, attitudes and articles of faith?
• Where in the Constitution is it explicitly stated that the poor and vulnerable be subject to nothing but contempt, fear and loathing?
• Have you no sense of Decency, Sirs, @ long last?
• Have you left no sense of Decency?

You know where to leave the answers....

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AFTER QUITE AWHILE AWAY FROM BLOGGING--WHICH CAN BE CREDITED, IN PART, TO THE DELLS TRIP AND A FEW OTHER THINGS ON MY MIND--Your Correspondent begs of you readers for patience and forbearance as he tries to get back into blogging form in the stylee he's accustomed to.

And then some--especially so that emphasising more immediate and timely posting of material.

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IN VIEW OF CHANGES IN THE BUS SCHEDULE HEADING TO AND FROM THE TWIN CITIES OUT OF WINONA of late--as in leaving for the Cities on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays, with the return on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays--Your Correspondent may be seeing something of a first when it comes to visiting the Minnesota State Fair this year.

Which would be his 27th consecutive such in 32 years (34 visits in all), for the record.

As in: Visiting TGMnGT on two consecutive days, which, to many, must seem like a dream when one day would be more than satisfactory. But then again, my receiving Renter's Credit rebate in August affords it in its own way.

Yet, the challenge will be not to blow all the money on one day's visiting.

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ONGOING PRONOUNCEMENTS BY THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG OF INDECISION 2008 that the American Colonial Occupation of Iraq in the guise of ur-RAHOWA Against Terrorism will essentially remain indefinite, depending on local conditions and circumstances, begs the question of whether the final decision to leave Iraq under a John McCain Presidency will depend on "the proper signs"--as in consultation with astrologers and fortune-smellers of the worst possible repute, and @ public expense (howbeit subject to rather clumsy attempts @ euphemism to avoid attracting the attention of "those meddling Secular-Progressive Bloggers" in case suspicions start to arise).

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STAYING WITH McCAIN'S PRESIDENTIAL DELUSIONS FOR A MOMENT, it's enough to make you wonder if his "real" agenda for socioeconomic recovery is conditioned by a warped and twisted agenda suggesting that a "pure" form of free-market capitalism with American characteristics is Great White Father (cf. United States Government policies towards Native Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as concealed the real intention of same being, for one, the forced relocation of Native Americans to the worst possible sort of lands as have been designated "reservations" ... and, for another, the desire of Native Americans to assimilate by denying any and all right to exercising their heritage and culture).

The same expected to be pushed all the more upon the Lower Classes seen in conservative thought as being "helplessly enslaved into Socialistic or otherwise un-American thought" by way of State Welfare (howbeit discreetly), same to essentially be "reeducated" into seeing the free market (per Ayn Rand in particular) as their Last and Only Hope and Salvation for their Empowerment and Developing Healthy Tendencies towards Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life--unaware all along that a "pure" free-market capitalist system only concentrates wealth into the fewest possible hands, and by deliberate design @ that.

That, and a belief in "complete, final and binding regulatory relief" which expects "undue and unnecessary [governmental] regulatory burden" to be replaced by "healthy" Self-Regulatory Codes of Good Practice which, on closer inspection, indirectly endorses cartel behaviour in the name of offering greater selection thanks to "freedom of choice" @ lower prices.

Unfortunately, though, cartel behaviour serves only to limit competition through price-fixing (usually reinforced by Reseller Price Maintenance Agreements) and/or "tied-house" agreements (limiting retailers to carrying only one particular brand under preferential terms) ... not to mention controlling or limiting supplies from time to time to create the aura of scarcity which, in its turn, can be used to manipulate prices and profits ... controlling or otherwise proscribing brand advertising ... even creating a "back door" by which fraud, waste, inefficency, mismanagement and corruption can be excused (howbeit requiring all manner of trick and deception to avoid "attracting unwelcome attention").

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NO WONDER THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT IS AS PATHETIC AS THEY ARE in their whining about their message somehow being "misquoted" or "misunderstood" or otherwise "taken out of proper context" by groups like Media Matters for America and People For the American Way, who are usually the first to expose Religiopolitical Right pronouncements to air and sunshine--and in their entirety, the better to ensure their being in full context.

Which hasn't stopped the ilk of Pat "700 Club" Robertson from whining about "misquotation" on their propaganda outlets (as per PfAW's Right Wing Watch blog):

Dittoes for South Carolina State Senator James DeMint (again, per Right Wing Watch):

Which begs the question of what exactly the Religiopolitical Right sees as "misquotation" or "misinterpretation" in their remarks short of their manipulating or otherwise heavily editing same to mislead or confuse once the damage has been done with the initial revelations--as in "what did they really want us to believe before it was somehow misread?"

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WITH A HAT TIP TO THE GOOD PEOPLE @ BRAVE NEW FILMS COMES THE FOLLOWING REMINDER of the sheer tastelessness of The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang in Indecision 2008--as in Keith "Countdown" Olbermann making note of where TTMB offered up a joke about interspecies rape @ a campaign appearence back in 1986 (with documentation made), and yet seeks to deny any and all liability therefor, let alone its consequences:

Something for to swift-boat The Terrible-Tempered Mr. Bang with for once, especially considering his seeking to play footsie with the Elmer Gantry Institute for Advanced Religiopolitical Thought and its articles of faith calling for a defence of "Traditional Morality" as ranks right up there with what White South Africa expected as a direct result of apartheid and its supposedly "empowering White Christians" based on their own warped delusions of Civitas Dei and "rights by conquest," among other bromides.

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I WOULDN'T EXACTLY KNOW HOW THIS RELATES, but in any event, I feel it's worth noting:

You may/may not have heard by now where the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the Federal Communications Commission's imposing a US$550,000 penalty upon CBS for that infamous "wardrobe malfunction" of Janet Jackson's back during the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show, contending where it was "capricious and arbitrary" for the FCC to impose such a harsh penalty for fleeting obscenity.

In the Court's words, as quoted by the AP:

The Commission's determination that CBS's broadcast of a nine-sixteenths of one second glimpse of a bare female breast was actionably indecent evidenced the agency's departure from its prior policy. Its orders constituted the announcement of a policy change—that fleeting images would no longer be excluded from the scope of actionable indecency.

But then again, there might want to be raised the question of whether the complaints as triggered the action were the byproduct of manufactured and carefully-scripted hysteria from the Elmer Gantry element, knowing the ensuing "call to action" would be unfailingly responded to among their weak-minded and easily-led droogs.

Especially when said scions of Elmer Gantryism are more than likely of the emotionally-disturbed sort, unlikely to come to terms with hidden mental disorders as may have been the product of childhood or juvenile abuse or neglect the parents would likely defend as necessary for "building character" and/or "teaching Christian Love."

Something worth asking.