Having driven mostly compact cars since forever, I'm familiar with this problem.  When they first started putting sensors in the pavement to make stop lights 'smarter', they didn't always work too well.  My Chevette and Omni didn't always trip the signal out of my mom's neighborhood - leaving me to make a left on red onto a fast 2-lane highway, next to a blind hillcrest,  on a bus route, across from the landfill entrance, just down from a police station.  It's a miracle I was never scissored in two between a garbage truck and the 7:30 route #47, with a cop on scene to write my remains at-fault.

But now, just in time for me to get a motorcycle, the good people at ABATE-SC worked with the South Carolina legistature to get the laws updated to match physical reality.  Now any bike that pulls up to a sensor controlled intersection, waits for 120 seconds (! *),  and still sees red can proceed "with due care".  Yay us.

So who are the good people who brought us this bit of legal reasonableness?  The kind of people who wear jeans and leather vests to a ceremony at the capitol building!

I think there's a bottle of Natural Light in the one guy's hand.

They had time to debate legal traditions and the origin of the democratic framework.


The ladies came too, and didn't have to worry about going with or without shoulder pads in their business dresses.


It makes me feel all warm inside to be represented by such a crew.  Actually, it makes me feel a little warm on the back of my neck.  Is it looking a little more red back there...?

So, today I sympathize with those whos' needs are publicly represented by a vocal minority, that doesn't always get the larger picture.  Quiet suburban homosexual couples?  Three cheers for this year's gay pride parade!

It's sure to help everyone get along and be comfortable with each other.

Are you proud of your nation and ready to stand up as a patriot to defend her and continue to make her a better place?  Well so is this neighbor of yours, who's already out at the rally with a sign.


[* - 120 seconds??  That's like forever at 1:30 in the morning, staring across an empty dark highway, when you're trying to get to the other club where you think that one cute girl you never got around to talking to might've gone!]