What I’ll be doing in November 2019

Just got around to following the link Tweeted yesterday by Eva Moore at the Free Times, leading to that paper’s “Tongue-in-Cheek Look at the Next Quarter Century.”

In the section on the year 2019, I found this:

November: Blogger and former The State editorial page editor Brad Warthen, having moved to an apartment above Main Street, wins the election for Columbia City Council’s District 2 seat. Transparency improves, but the length of the average council meeting immediately doubles as Warthen pontificates for hours.

So now you know. I would start working on my campaign speeches now, but I don’t need to. I can wing it.

27 thoughts on “What I’ll be doing in November 2019

  1. Doug Ross

    What would be the harm in giving it a shot sometime? What better way to truly understand the process than to live it? I learned more about politics in six months when running for school board than in my entire life up til that point.

  2. obiewankenobie

    “moved to an apartment above Main Street”

    Hopefully that isn’t due to lack of public transportation after Bud does an Intervention and takes your driver’s license away.

  3. obiewankenobie

    “…we’re all one circumstance away from, ourselves, being dependent on public transportation…”

    Right Rev. Charles P. Austin, Sr.

    [The State October 26, 2012, page B6]

  4. obiewankenobie

    Please don’t take that in the wrong context, Counselor Fenner. It was not a threatening comment, the kind some can make; it was mostly directed at Bud’s overreaching concerns/counciling.

    Brad NEEDS to be situated somewhere over Columbia — he seems to have it in his heart, and its citizenry does seem to be under attack. Yay, some may just use this fair capital of ours as a stepping stone to other, grander prairies, but not D. Bradley Warthen. No?

  5. Doug Ross

    Is every disabled person dependent on public transportation?

    Please describe the one circumstance (one) that would make you dependent on public transportation.

    In my case, it would probably take about eight circumstances. Get disabled, lose insurance, family disowns me, run out of cash to pay for transportation, church ignores my request for help, friends ignore my request for help, house foreclosed on, move to an area where there is public transportation.

    But it sounds more daunting if you present it as everyone being that close to needing to ride a bus. Because everyone lives in cities with bus service.

  6. obiewankenobie

    Doug says:

    “Please describe the one circumstance (one) that would make you dependent on public transportation.”

    1. One. Uno.

    When your spouse is a mechanic and you live in the boonies and get in a domestic dispute and ¡Hello! the car is disabled until you can get another mechanic to look at it.

    Just like that, you are disabled if you earn your substance in the (in any) Metropolis.

  7. Kathryn Fenner

    Huh, Doug? I didn’t say every disabled person is dependent on public transportation.

    Aren’t you and I fortunate that we currently have a deep enough safety net so that we are not likely to become dependent on public transportation….we would just become dependent on our family and friends. Maybe we want to be independent; maybe our whole family is killed in the horrible accident that leaves us paralyzed and blind. I think outside our families, depending on others for all our transportation would grow increasingly difficult. Can I count on you to take me to my doctors’ appointments, as I’ll surely have plenty, after the accident.

  8. Phillip

    For me personally it’s not so much a matter of being dependent on public transportation as being NOT dependent on using a car. It’s only a 10-minute drive to work for me but parking and traffic is getting to be an increasing hassle, there’s a bus stop 2 blocks from my house and if they just ran a wee bit more frequently, I would be on them a lot, to be sure.

    As for the Free Times “predictions,” many of which are pretty funny, I think they overestimated The State’s remaining lifespan, at least as a print operation.

  9. Karen McLeod

    Doug, all it takes is a stroke that leavesyour mind intact, but your body in such a mess as to need a wheelchair that is too big for most transit. Is your family ready to hire an ambulance every time you need to go to the dentist? Or elsewhere? With strokes, problems proliferate.

  10. Steven Davis II

    @Kathryn – Maybe if you’d drive something other than a Prius (glorified golf cart) you’d have less serious injuries in that accident.

  11. Doug Ross

    @kathryn

    Mr. Austin said ALL of us are ONE circumstance away from needing public transportation. That is a false statement made to try and push for a tax increase.

    As for whether I would assist you if you were in need, try me. Make the request and see. I might surprise you.

  12. bud

    It was not a threatening comment, the kind some can make; it was mostly directed at Bud’s overreaching concerns/counciling.
    -Obie

    Overreaching? Here’s a classic case of how people worry about all the wrong things. Currently we are engaged in an endless discussion about how safe our consulates are overseas. Why? Because of one especially nasty incident that claimed four lives. And yes we should make our foreign diplomats safer. Thanks to Republicans in congress we are far less likely to provide the necessary security. Nonetheless I’ll go on record saying this is important.

    But compare the tiny number of Americans who die overseas each year with the number of people who die in traffic crashes and it quickly becomes apparent where the real risk is to American lives. The good news is after many decades of apathy Americans finally began to take impaired driving issues seriously in the 1990s. And the result was a dramatic drop in highway fatalities last year to the lowest level since the 1940s. Still, more than 30,000 die each year.

    So rather than dismiss my comments about impaired driving as “overreaching” consider the serious nature of this problem and offer sollutions to make our highways safer.

  13. Steven Davis II

    People, people, people… remember one thing, we’re not talking about the bus system in general. We’re talking about the Columbia bus system which transports tens or even dozens of people around the city daily.

  14. Kathryn Fenner

    Well, Doug, first you’d have to be in town….

    The one circumstance is a horrific car accident.

    Hey, Phillip, you know you can get a more or less free bike from the school?

  15. Steven Davis II

    @Kathryn – Why would Doug need to be in town? You have a Mayor who lives in Elgin, and a county sheriff who lives in Lexington County. They seem to be able to weigh in on the subject.

  16. Doug Ross

    @SD

    Kathryn knows I travel frequently.
    But that doesn’t mean I don’t have resources available to assist if I was not local. I consider her a friend (a member of my liberal leaning cohort who will eventually see the light 🙂 ) If she asked me to do something for her, I would do my best to do help.

    It’s amazing what happens when people ask for help. Liberals just need to have a little more faith in humanity rather than enforce it through government.

    I’d like to think I’m the type of person who would respond to anyone in need. As I said, try me. Brad has my email address. What can I do to help? (Besides pay a 14% higher sales tax).

  17. bud

    I’d like to think I’m the type of person who would respond to anyone in need. As I said, try me.
    -Doug

    Can a borrow a hundred dollars until payday?

    Seriously altruistic behavior does exist and I’m sure most people are willing to help their neighbors and friends and even to a certain extent total strangers. The problem is when the policies of the government make it difficult for people to earn a living there is little left for the more fortunate to help. If we continue to shovel more and more wealth to fewer and fewer people there will certainly become a time when nothing is left for generous people to contribute. Given the greed of the 1% you can bet $10000 they won’t step in to fill the void. It’s just not in their nature.

  18. Steven Davis II

    “The problem is when the policies of the government make it difficult for people to earn a living”

    Such as? I don’t think there’s been a time in my life that I wasn’t able to work because of a governmental policy.

    I just realized today that the NFL is a non-profit organization and their income is not taxed. Probably the same is true with the other major league sports.

  19. Silence

    @SDII – I think the “league” is a non-profit but the individual teams are regular plain old for profit entities and are taxed as such.

  20. obiewankenobie

    Bud, Bud, Bud.

    You are way over my experience and compensation levels there with foreign policy and highways.

    I drive the rural roads here in Lexington County. Impaired driving may not be NEAR the problem stupid ambulating is.

    Case in point: this morning, I got in the largest vehicle I have keys to and rode to see where and maybe how a “group” (why wasn’t it a herd — are they that organized now?) of deer recently crossed the road and APPARENTLY caused a fatal motorcycle accident. I was a bit nervous, yes? — looking from left to right to avoid any unannounced “reindeer games.” All of a sudden a splash of orange comes bouncing up and down into my field of view.

    ‘What the hell is that’, I’m thinking. What it was, was a jogger, dressed in a color very close to his own skin tone but wearing a bright orange Speedo over all of that business.

    Does he have no neighborhood to exercise in? The pricey outfit would lead one to believe that he does.

    Joggers are much safer in neighborhoods. Don’t you agree?

  21. Doug Ross

    @Bud

    If you need anything, ask. As I said, try me.

    It’s an interesting question to ask yourself – how many people do you know who you could call at 2 am and say “I need your help” and be confident they would show up? How many people could you ask for $100 no questions asked and get it?
    How about $1000?

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