The Illinois Toll Authority and other bullshit

Well, as my profile says, I live in Illinois. Thankfully, I reside in a small agricultural town, between Rockford and Chicago, so I don't deal with a lot of urban traffic, but I do deal with the Tollway a good deal, when my longing for urban traffic becomes too much to bear, and I must escape to the city. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar, the Illinois Tollway system is fantastic, but horrid. Some of the roads are far too busy for their own good, some tolls (294 South, particularly) are too frequent, etc. Now, the good bits. First, tolls are only 40 cents, and you can get this great little dealie called an I-Pass, which allows you to pass through special lanes without stopping, thus giving you the illusion that you're saving time. "Well gee, Doc, that ain't that bad," I can hear you say. No, it's really not. It's getting worse, though. Thanks to our wonderful Gov, the intolerable Blagojevich, we'll be paying double the amount unless we get an I-Pass. Now, I'm very happy with my I-Pass, but I'm also weary of it. If they become a standard, what's to stop The Illinois State Toll Authority from passing over info to the police? For instance, you pass an I-Pass collector, and it grabs your I-Pass number, which is linked to your license plate or vehicle, or both, depending on what you put on the form. Now, in between tolls, you speed up, going, oh lets say, 90 mph. Now, you hit that next toll, but you've hit it a lot earlier than you should have, so you must have been speeding. They can collect how long it took you to make it between tolls, calc it, and mail you a ticket, which they seem to be very fond of. Thats my main reason for distrusting this line from Blagojevich, but my buddy Aaron brings up some good points:

Here is my take:

Pros:
Toll booths contribute to highway deaths and delays. I drive through the Cumberland toll every day, and every day traffic is jammed until after the tollway merge. People are always cutting across lanes to go to the manual or automatic lanes, and toll booth workers are always running across lanes. This causes a dangerous situation. One case in point is the busload of people killed up north on I90 due to tollbooth construction and a sudden stop in traffic. By forcing everyone to get an Ipass, the toll booths can be replaced with electronic transponders above the normal 2-4 lane road. No more merges.
Editors Note: These 2-4 lane transponders are already present on I-294 South, plus a standard set of booths. It's quite nice.

Cons:
By using an Ipass, the toll authority steals your money. The toll authority charges $40 up front which is then used up as you go through tolls. This up front charge is $40 that could have been sitting in your bank gaining interest, when instead it is sitting in their bank gaining interest. Not a big deal you say, but when you add up all of the ipass user's dough, that is a ton of consumer surplus that is captured by the toll "authority".


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For us Chicago people, I think this will not be a huge issue. Most of the people I know use the highway enough to justify a $10 Ipass and a minumum $40 in tolls over the course of their life. I think the people that will be hurt most are people from out of state of those from downstate having to pay double. But, as most of you know, I think everything below I80 should be sunk into the ocean, so screw those guys.

By the way, don't take this as any form of endorsement to the Illinois State Toll Authority. I think those guys are the biggest crooks I have ever heard of. They all have a special place in hell waiting for them.

Solutions to this problem? Vote, I suppouse, but I don't see how anyone is going to get us out of this budget crisis created by Ryan without completely pissing off quite a number of Illini (or Illinoisians, or flatlanders, whatever you want.) Getting an I-Pass will keep you from having to pay 80 cents for now, but I guarantee that they are going to raise the cost soon enough. How about we go with original agreement as set forth by the Illinois government? The agreement was that after the roads upon which the tolls sat were constructed and paid for, the tolls would be abolished. This happened sometime in the 70s. Now, I'm not saying that this is the best idea, especially right now, with the budget crisis in Illinois, but I'm down with it, especially since it was "part of the deal."

But what do I know, I'm just a bass player.

Personal update

Ahhh. I'm back from Florida, I'm rested, and don't make me run, I'm full of hot sauce. Lets see... short recap for the past near-month:

Florida was awesome. It's always a good time, and I may be headed back in a few weeks to help with some repairs and remodeling on the condo. Hurrican Charley, which we missed by a day, apparently missed the condo we stayed in by a few miles. That's still some ugly-ass weather, though, so I'm glad we got out. But it was a hip time.

I'm an official member of Deuce, so I traveled with them to St. Loius, MO, to go play some shows. We had a GREAT time, and we met some killer people. I would personally like to thank Madahoochie, especially Berdo, who put us up for a night. Thanks man. Also, Josh and Emily from Pops Blue Moon, who put all of us up for the night, all after having met us only 4 hours prior. They were awesome.

The past two-weeks have been filled with a shit-load of work, work and more work, with some giggage thrown in. I'm also stressing about my relationship with Becca, although it's probably something I'm creating and then blowing out of proportion, which I tend to do. But whatever.

Anyway, thats my short personal recap. Now, I'll get back to the scathing political and technological rants.

I'm back, bitches. Buckle it up!

It has been found...

For those of you that are familiar with my penchant for hot sauce, know that I am on the border of being insane with pain when it comes to that red gold. A local joint, called the Daquari Deck supplied the hottest sauce I had ever had the pleasure to consume, a hot sauce that actually ate through styrofoam, when allowed the proper chance. We still have half an Absolut Vodka bottle full of it, in all it's delicious heat. We went back to "The Deck" this year to find some more hot gold, and they had changed their recipie, to reflect the fact that there are a lot of culinary pussies here in Florida, who apparently don't like a little heat in their food. Needless to say, we were disappointed, as three on this trip enjoy the heat and discomfort of a good hot sauce. We thought we would never find anything hotter than "The Deck Death Sauce", without it being a pure extract. Well, I was wrong. I have found a bottle of Habanero and extract that takes you out back and kicks your ass, steals your wallet, and then pisses on your crumpled body. It's... awesome. Nothing cuts the burn, either, no milk, honey, bread, or various assorted bases can stand to the withering heat of this firey concoction. It's heavy, baby.
I can't wait to give some to Boyle.

Florida Update pt 1

How to put this succinctly, so that I may get back to bummin around...

Florida rocks, and I'm sorry you aren't here. Sand castle time is almost upon us, since I need to build a good base tan, in order to prevent the horrible burning of the pervious two years. I have good stories, which I shall relate when there isn't so much... Florida to enjoy.

Dyaarr, maties, prepare to be boarded.

First Few Days in Florida

Howdy all,
I've been in Florida for not even two days, and I'm already nice and relaxed. It's very nice not to have to worry about anything, although I am a bit disappointed that I couldn't bring my bass, so I could do a bit o' practicing. Ah well. Here's some news that we saw on the local Florida news, that may or may not have made it to Fark.com.

A local Florida woman was arrested for shooting at lobster fisherman from her yard. She claimed that the canal that they were fishing in was her property, and that they were trespassing.
[CNN News]

Only in Florida, folks. Well, we went to the flea market, as is our tradition here in Florida, and we shopped around a bit. Well... there is nothing quite like a flea market in Florida to get you thinking about why you brush your teeth every morning. It also gets you to jerk your head, cause there are a lot of hot chicks walking around in barely anything. Of course, they're missing teeth, too, but as long as they don't smile at you, it's a good time. Anyway, there's some fantastic folk out here, and we're having a shit load of fun, with the exception of the tropical storm moving in. Ah well, at least it's not a hurricane yet.

I love hot beaches.