A pleasant evening

We spent Sunday evening in a quintessentially American activity. No, not watching the Super Bowl, but rather eating meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans. Can't get more American than that. Our host carefully described it as supper, not dinner, a nice distinction. It was a great meal. A lot of the talk was of the odious Trans-Texas Corridor, which all seemed to regard, for various reasons, as a profoundly stupid idea. My biggest objection to the TTC is that it isn't expected to be completed for many decades. By the time it is done, I strongly believe that highway traffic as presently constituted will not exist -- no 18-wheelers moving Wal-Mart merchandise, no huge SUVs with one tiny little yuppie mother sitting at the wheel, no carloads of teens riding around for fun, no Houston sports in monster trucks pulling monster boats 200 miles to spend a day tearing from fishing hole to fishing hole. No monster boats, no monster trucks. There's not gonna be any miracle that will permit us to continue to live as we have -- no switchgrass, no tar sands, no corn ethanol [especially no corn ethanol], no Alaskan bonanza. We'll need fewer highways and more public transportation. Poor ol' Pendejo Rick Perry might genuinely have gained a legacy if he had pressed for a great public transportation system in Texas instead of pursuing this ill-advised project.