Monday, May 30, 2011

The Honey Badger vs. the Public Transit Zombies

The fearsome honey badger, here gaily narrated, will be the final animal in my “Month of Animals” entries. 

Memorial Day finds me having just returned from Brown (perhaps some new Brown alums will Facebook-friend and Twitter-follow me – all are welcome).  The combo of hippie-green politics and travel reminds of this New York Times blog entry noted by Rick Sincere, which criticizes the Brookings Institution (among “thinktanks gone wild”), and by extension nearly all mass transit-boosting studies, for ignoring whether anyone uses the damn public transit systems when they rank which systems are “good.” 

This is exactly the kind of human-reality-ignoring move always feared by those of us wary of public-transit-loving planner-types.  If the planners say you're predictable cattle, America, then dammit, act like cattle!  Or get back in your car and drive quickly away from the socialists of all parties, racing toward your individual destiny like the fearsome honey badger. 

And for more socialist-bashing, HEAR MY SPEECH AT THE NYC JUNTO, THIS THURSDAY (7pm) at 20 W. 44th.

2 comments:

Dave said...

You know, it says on the agenda for the Junto event that they're going to *socialize* at 7. Seems a little out of the spirit of an event marked by socialist bashing, no? Maybe they should voluntarily interact with each other instead.....

Todd Seavey said...

David Boaz once said it's unfortunate we can't use the word "socialist" for the _opponents_ of big government, since _we're_ the ones who believe in letting people socially interact in diverse ways instead of simply doing what a few planners wish, so the dual meaning of that word actually does pain me a bit.

More painful for some Junto speakers is the fact that they don't really get to speak until about 8, after the start-period free-for-all is given over to announcements from anyone who wants to say something -- but I look forward to that phase and the traditional interruptions and questions during the speech as part of the experience. I will not blame anyone for showing up slightly late, though.