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“The party’s over…..it’s time to call it a day…..” warbled Judy Holliday in the 1956 musical comedy, “The Bells Are Ringing.”

I know just how she felt. Christmas merriment has come and gone, shuffled off into the void along with the rest of 2008. Suddenly the long, cold, dark days of winter loom into the distance, only eventually to be dispersed by Easter bunnies that aren’t yet so much as a twinkle in their daddy buck’s eyes, and chocolate eggs it’s way too early even for Wal-Mart to consider stocking.

“Ah, but wait,” I hear the cry, “this year is different. In a few weeks the dragon Bush will be vanquished by Saint Barack; winter will immediately be displaced by endless summer; life will revert to wondrous joy, and children will sing once more in the streets.”

Unfortunately, these cries only emanate from deep within psychiatric establishments, or from the lips of Democratic party workers so long on the campaign trail their brains were fried by overly-enthusiastic political promises, and lies intended to trick simple-minded religious fundamentalists into voting for the candidate who really believed in abortion, birth control, and Jesus being gay.

Let’s stare the grim reaper of reality in the face, here. Barack Obama may, or may not, be the one great American prodigy plucked from obscurity by a benevolent God to answer the call and right the wrongs of the evil Bush administration, but lacking the long, gray beard and magic wand of Gandalf, even if he proved to be the latest reincarnation of the bastard son of Mary and Joseph, his ability to produce drastic change in Washington, tame the financial gurus who own Wall Street, or convince the corporate drug barons and medical insurance mafia to lay down their check books for the good of the common people, is likely to be severely limited.

And let’s not forget what happened to the last one who tried that, with the money merchants in the Temple of Jerusalem.

Of course, no-one expects Barack Obama to be perfect. After all, the Bible tells us Jesus of Nazareth had his faults. Not least of all, his choice of Judas Iscariot as an apostle.

Well, come on! Would the all-knowing son of a god deliberately pick a follower he knew would betray him?

(At this point, Christian readers are nodding sagely and murmuring, “Oh, yes, yes, He would, because the Bible required He fulfill the ‘prophecy’.”) (Whatever THAT means.)

Jesus was flawed. Obviously, so is Obama. Otherwise, why would he have chosen Tom ‘Ethanol’ Vilsack as his Agriculture Secretary? On November 24th, Vilsack stated he wasn’t in the running for the post.^[1] Three weeks later, Obama named him as his twelfth apostle.

Vilsack, governor of the ethanol capital of the US, namely Iowa, has lauded the benefits of ethanol production, is heavily invested in the industry, strongly supports GM crops, founded and chaired the Governor’s Biotechnology Partnership, and was named “Governor of the Year” by an industrial lobbying group, the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

Obama, himself, is heavily into the “benefits” of ethanol production. Benefits that include being more polluting of the environment than gasoline, and creating a hike in world food prices that has already forced millions to the brink of starvation.

However well-meaning, caring, or capable of working miracles Obama proves to be – and, let’s be honest, he may be none of those things – he’s still only one man against the Machine. The last man who took on the Machine ended up nailed to a wooden cross.

Can Barack Obama do better than Jesus of Nazareth?

“The party’s over……it’s time to call it a day…”

Those long, cold, dark days of winter still loom into the distance……

^{[1] “Vilsack Says He’s Not in the Running for Ag. Sec. Spot” Washington Post, November 24th 2008}

Filed under: Tidings of comfort and joy

To all Sparrow Chat readers.

Filed under: Cheeky

My thanks to Al DeVito of Vineyard Views for sending me an article from the WSJ describing the Aspirnaut Initiative. ^[1]

The Aspirnaut Initiative was developed by Bill Hudson, Director of the Center for Matrix Biology at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. On a journey back to his home town of Grapevines, Arkansas, he was alarmed to note that students were spending three hours a day riding the bus to and from school.

The program provides laptops, iPods, and wireless internet access on the school bus, allowing students living in remote rural areas to study educational courses while traveling between school and home. Still very much in the ‘pilot’ stage, it is hoped to expand the project to take in other geographical areas over time.

The advantages of the program are obvious, though – says the WSJ – some students find it difficult to focus on work when the bus is bouncing over gravel roads. As an expert on the school bus environment, I can categorically agree that few students would have the necessary concentration to overcome distractions created by such surroundings.

The American school bus is of profoundly antiquated design. Even the most modern leave a great deal to be desired. Transporting kids to school does not, in the view of authority, warrant much in the way of creature comfort. Seats are cramped, air-conditioning usually non-existent, and lighting would be drastically improved with the addition of half a dozen candles.

The latest model, the inaccurately named, ‘Saf-T-Liner C2’, may, according to the manufacturer, Thomas, “define the future of school bus transportation,” ^[2] but, if that’s so, then the future for America’s schoolkids will look alarmingly similar to the past. The C2 is somewhat quieter, and the ride comfort improved, over its predecessor, the FS-65, but then that would be true for any vehicle more sophisticated than a go-cart.

The C2 is also an inherently unsafe vehicle. Thomas’s blurb describes the bus as having “a driver visibility footprint that no other Type C could match.” This is true with regard to the driver’s view of the road ahead, but side visibility is grossly impaired by two over-sized window stanchions – one 9 inches wide, the other 6 inches wide and aligning perfectly with the large side-view mirrors – which make pulling out across traffic a nightmare, given the plethora of blind-spots created by these obstacles. The old FS-65 was a much better design, at least, in this important regard.

I began driving buses in 1967 for Birkenhead Municipal Transport Corporation – later, Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive. By the early 1970’s, the vehicles I was driving were far in advance of anything used to transport schoolkids in the United States today. The front loading, rear-engined, Daimler Fleetlines and Leyland Atlanteans of the era were smooth, quiet, had semi-automatic gears, pneumatic doors, and a braking capability far in advance of the Thomas Saf-T-Liner of 2008.

Above, a 1973 Leyland Atlantean – an absolute joy to drive. (Note the wrapped windscreen, curved back almost to the entrance doors for maximum all-round visibility).

Below, a 2008 Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2, a bus with the worst side visibility of any vehicle I’ve ever driven: (Inside, the yellow windscreen stanchion measures 9 inches in width, and the one behind the tiny triangular side window is 6 inches wide):

But what, I hear you ask, has any of this to do with the Aspirnaut Initiative?

The Aspirnaut Initiative is, at best, a stop-gap. The number of kids capable of benefiting long-term from the program is small, due to its environmental limitations.

Quite simply, if the school bus is to be a classroom, then it’s necessary to provide a classroom-style environment: quiet, peaceful, supervised. The present-day transport utilized to carry schoolkids satisfies none of these requirements.

Frankly, subjecting children to a three hour round trip each day is appalling. It borders on abuse. These kids lost their rural schools for one reason only – to save cash. It’s cheaper to transport them many miles each day than provide the necessary educational establishments closer to home. But, that transport also has to be the cheapest possible. Hence, the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2, a cheap and crappy vehicle Europe wouldn’t have tolerated even back in the 1970’s.

The internet is a great tool for teaching kids. It has the capacity to beam the best possible education into small local schools, allowing one or two teachers to act in a supervisory capacity, while the main teaching is done onscreen from a larger establishment.

That way, kids can go to school locally and still receive a similar standard of education to those in the larger towns.

It makes far more sense than expecting kids to study while traveling for hours in something that has advanced little since the days of the Deadwood stagecoach.

^{[1] “Internet Access Turns School Buses Into Rolling Classrooms” WSJ, December 29th 2008}

^{[2] “Merls Bus Sales”}

Filed under: More wrong answers