May 06, 2008
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Road conditions across New York's southern tier
The Southern Tier "is a geographical term that refers to the counties of New York State west of the Catskill Mountains along the northern border of Pennsylvania."
It's been a while since I've traveled across the southern tier and nnnow I remember wwhy - the roads are in terrible condition with bone jarring pavement breaks and potholes galore. Let's see how long I can remember this time not to choose this route again. I'm getting tttired of ccclosing dddrawers and pppicking stuff off the fffloor and rrrighting stuff in the cccabinetsss.
Night camp:
Wal-Mart parking lot, Painted Post, New York
Emergent democracy
Culture brings us together, usually at a very small scale through mutual belief, trust and common interest. It educes, not compels, behavior. Culture codified is law. It is as inevitable as the day the night that as scale increases, law increases. Law enforced is government. Government does not, in the main, educe behavior, but compels it. Democratic or otherwise, rarely, very rarely, does any concentration of power or wealth desire to see subjects well informed, truly educated, their privacy ensured or their discourse uninhibited. Those are the very things that power and wealth fear most. Old forms of government have every reason to operate in secret, while denying just that privilege to subjects. The people are to be minutely scrutinized while power is to be free of examination.