The Crazy Presidential Race!

Well, with John Edwards out of the Democratic Presidential Race, and Rudy Giuliani out of the Republican, I feel like I can guarantee that the craziness that has been this presidential election so far is about to get crazier.

Between the people asking if Obama is black enough, to can Hillary Clinton handle the Presidency, can Mitt Romney be elected because of his Mormon religion, am I the only one standing on a mountain yelling, "Can we PLEASE just focus on the ISSUES people?"

Honestly, we should just stick the candidates in boxes, not tell anyone what their names are, and have them debate on the issues. When the elections are over, they get to come out of the box. We actually would elect a President on the ISSUES! Such a strategy has never been tried before! It's a groundbreaking new concept! GASP!

~Mer

Questions or Comments? Contact Mer at purplepineappletown@hotmail.com

A message from our buildings and bridges...

Alright- so a week ago the 35W bridge collapse was ruled to have been caused by faulty gusset plates. For those of you who don't know what gusset plates are, here's a picture-

The gusset plates essentially hold the bridge together. The 35W bridge's was only HALF as thick as they should have been. This caused 13 people to die, and 145 people were injured.

The thing is, this isn't the first time that builders and architects have cut corners- In 1996, a bridge in Ohio collapsed, because the gusset plates weren't adequate to support the design load. Thankfully, no one was killed in that incident, but it should have been a wake up call to builders and architects, as well as transportation departments, that you can't cut SAFETY to save money.

Another case in point- the Twin Towers. Involved was not only negligent construction of the building, they also violated fire standards dating as far back as 60 years! The planes scraped away the fireproof coating on the steel beams, allowing the intense fire to soften the steel. Also, other than the core of the two towers were built like regular high-rises, with clusters of heavy steel columns and beams linked into a cage-like matrix. Beyond that, the 110 floors in each tower had NO vertical support columns.

Was the money saved by using the cheaper fireproofing substitutes, and no vertical support columns, worth the 2,974 deaths, and the 6,291 injuries, not to mention the rescue workers now dying from inhaling the airborne particles.

How many more people are going to have to die, before builders and architects put safety over money? Or will we continue to have these disasters, with the Government writing them off as "isolated incidents."

A great quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, The Towering Inferno seems to sum this up.

Chief O'Halloran (Steve McQueen) : You know we were pretty lucky tonight, body counts less then 200. You know, one of these days, you're gonna kill ten-thousand in one of these firetraps, and I'm gonna keep eating smoke and carrying out bodies until someone asks us... how to build them.

So for once, lets ask the firefighters, the police officers, and the rescue workers- everyday people who risk their lives for the rest of us.

Dedicated to the victims of the 35W bridge collapse, 9/11 victims, and all who risked their lives to save them.

~Mer

What's that sound in the air...

Well, it's January, and you know what that means!

The whining of the Presidential Candidates!

I don't know about you guys, but as much as I love the craziness that is politics, I can't STAND when the candidates start sniveling and complaining about how they're getting attacked. If I'm old enough to know that as asinine as it is, that's basically what goes on during a Presidential election. You put your good (or bad) name out there, and your opponents try to tear you to bits.

Why is this such a surprise to them, I have no idea. This has gone on since before Abraham Lincoln's time, and will likely continue until the Sun explodes. (Or until we adopt another system of government.)

Don't get me wrong, I think that the attack ads are stupid, but we live in a society where there is (supposedly) free speech. I want a candidate that's going to be able to man (or woman) up and deal with this without crying to the media (or their mommy) about the so-called injustice of it all every time someone says something bad.

Memo to the Presidential Candidates- It's not the Elementary school playground anymore. You're big boys and girls. Deal with it.

~ Mer

Questions or Comments? Send them to: purplepineappletown@hotmail.com