FROM THE “I WISH I HAD MY CAMERA” DEPARTMENT

Leaving my office last week, I walked through the parking garage past the stairwell leading to the other garage levels and saw something I hadn’t noticed before: the stairwell landing has a skidproof wheelchair ramp leading up to the stairwell (there arefour stairwells; each has a wheelchair ramp on the landing of each garage-level floor; none has anything beyond a stair).

Going down, at least, it may be a bumpy ride, but it’ll be a smooth exit (if you make the turn at the landing).

And then driving home, one of the little Smart Cars passed me on the freeway – with a wind-up key on the back hatch! Here’s a photo I found on the internet.



I wonder how many turns of the key it takes to go 30 miles ....

A THOUGHT ON SARAH PALIN

I just watched former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee comment on the Palin resignation.

How about Huckabee/Palin 2012 followed by Palin in 2020? I'd be 73 to vote in that election, but it's one I'd hang around for.

[Update] Oops, math error - I'll be 75, not 73, but I'll still hang around.

FOURTH OF JULY FIREWORKS - TWO VIEWS

From the Left:

[T]he National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) has co-founded an Alliance to Stop Consumer Fireworks. NFPA president Jim Shannon says, "Each year, nearly 10,000 people are treated in U.S. emergency rooms for fireworks-related injuries, and many of these injuries go hand-in-hand with Fourth of July celebrations" ... Suggested instead, "attending public fireworks displays put on by 'trained professionals'."

From the Right:

States such as New Jersey that have adopted more stringent regulations or bans haven't seen significant drops in the number of fireworks-related deaths, in part because there were few such deaths to begin with. During the last three years, states with bans actually had a higher fireworks-related death rate (.018 per million people) than states without restrictions (.014 per million).

Government can protect people from only so much, and if we banned all the products that caused more deaths and injuries than fireworks, there would be virtually nothing left to use. The freedom we celebrate on the Fourth of July doesn't mean much if we criminalize even the tiny risks associated with fireworks.

I lean toward Instapundit's view:

I say, do it yourself if you want, just be smart. 'Leave it to the trained professionals' is one of the cancerous mantras of our age, and there’s a big difference between setting off your own fireworks and sitting passively while others do it for you — the difference, if I may say so, between having sex and watching porn. And, in both cases, the presence of a degree of risk is part of the difference.

Reynolds is absolutely correct on the "leave it to professionals" comment; if government can ban any activity on the basis of some perceived risk, then what is left of freedom?

PALIN QUITS

Fox News: "Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin shocked the political word Friday by announcing that she will step down at the end of the month and transfer power to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell."

I wish her well.

[Update] More from Instapundit.

FOURTH OF JULY TEA PARTIES

Find a tea party in your area here. Here are some I'll be following:

Austin, TX at the State Capitol from 2-6 pm
Bastrop, TX at the County Courthouse Gazebo from 12 noon-2 pm
Clear Lake, TX at the Clear Lake Courthouse from 11 am-2:30 pm
Dallas, TX at South Park Ranch from 2 pm-midnight
Woodbridge, VA at the County Courthouse from 1-4 pm
Washington, DC at the Capitol Building from 9:30 am-2:30 pm

I'll be going to the one in Woodbridge since I'm hoping that one in my congresscritter's back yard will have more impact than the one in DC. Only time will tell.

If you attend one in your neck of the woods, pictures and links will be cheerfully accepted.

THE WA$HINGTON PO$T

The Washington Post is having a fire sale.



Any doubts that the MSM is part-and-parcel of the Obama administration?