Radical Georgia Moderate

I made up some logos for the upcoming PodCamp Atlanta unconference this morning. Amber described what PodCamp is all about here. Please help us get the word out about this awesome event by posting these on your site and linking them to the Podcamp Atlanta wiki:

Cross-posted on my Georgia Podcast Network blog

Thanksgiving break was supposed to be a four-day respite from work, but for me instead turned out to be four days of sweating, shivering, stinking and sleeping through a flu. Then it turned into seven days, which got me out of some work but not out of the aforementioned S verbs and some fitful coughing. I returned to work today, still coughing but feeling generally decent otherwise. The only good that came from all this was I finally got to play some Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the Xbox (thanks Thomas).

That’s all I’ve got really. If you’re in the Savannah/Lyons/Vidalia area, Amber and I were on the What Is Goin’ On radio show on WLYU this morning at 8 a.m. and will be on again today at 5 p.m.

Amber did most of the talking because I was too sick to add anything but muttering and sentence fragments when the interview was recorded yesterday morning. Thanks to host Wilson R. Smith for having us. An MP3 archive of the show will hopefully be available on the What Is Goin’ On web site on Friday. Link to follow…

This is where I should make a joke about Georgia retiring Reggie Ball’s number. But I won’t. The situation is too dire for jokes. Unlike Peyton Manning, who never beat Florida, Ball has no NFL future to make people forget about his inability to beat Georgia. And unlike Manning, Ball lost on at least one and possibly two occasions to a markedly inferior team due almost entirely to his poor play.

In fact, the best thing that will happen to Ball for the rest of his life will be for me to mention him in the same sentence as Peyton Manning, an accolade he doesn’t deserve even when comparing the worst of their statistics. No, what’s in store for Ball is a Sonny Liston-Mike Tyson-style carnival of depravity, only without the fame and drugs and illusion of fortune to blind him to what he’s become. He’s doomed to watch it happen.

He’s Roy Munson and Ray Finkel. When future Georgia Tech quarterbacks lose even a single game to the Puppies from Athens, they’ll instantly draw comparisons to Ball, whose shady legacy will be dragged through the gutter for generations long after his bloated body turns up in the Chattahoochee, penniless and weighed down by vodka.

I recommend that Tech fans start a fund to hire a personal “bodyguard” for Ball to protect him from himself. Everything he touches shows promise then whithers and dies violently, so he shouldn’t be allowed to touch himself.

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto made the famous observation that 20 percent of Italy’s population owned 80 percent of its land. I have my own version of this rule, updated to reflect current world events: 20 percent of the world owns 80 percent of the stupidity. To wit:

Guess we don’t have to worry about that undefeated Rutgers scenario now, eh?

Good luck to the Rambling Wreck this weekend.

It took Creative Loafing nearly a month to get back in touch with us after we inquired about our Best of Atlanta award. When they finally mailed it to us, this is how it arrived:

Standard brown envelope. One layer of bubble wrap. Broken glass inside. Tears on the certificate. This was printed on the envelope:

Here is how Mel at Blog for Democracy explained (RED):

What’s it all about? Altruistic consumerism, enlightened capitalism, intelligent humanitarianism, venture philanthropy. Red is the new black. Give it up for women and children in Africa with HIV.

So, companies sell one or more of their products as “red products.” When you buy one of these products, part of the proceeds go to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa. For an example, see Apple’s red iPod Nano. At least in the case of the red Nano, everybody wins: no extra effort or money is required from the consumer, Apple gets some advertising and philanthropic credentials in exchange for a cut, and money goes to combat AIDS/HIV.

Some of you may balk when you see the proceeds go to The Global Fund, which is a U.N.-supported conglomeration of government, private and non-profit groups. And that’s okay. I’m not suggesting you should participate in the program if you don’t support the cause or the group receiving the proceeds to support the cause, only that other altruistic groups should adopt this model because it’s a good one.

How about a (PINK) group for cancer research? Or a (TURQUOISE) group for stem cell research?

I really dig this sort of thing because when something is voluntarily-funded privately rather than government-funded it’s unimpeachable by the fundies, which is important in the cases of combating HIV/AIDS (since they generally oppose birth control) and my latter suggestion for a stem cell research group. And there’s more accountability built in since if The Global Fund slacks on the job or gets caught up in a corruption scandal, companies can pull their red products or consumers can quit buying them.

If Rutgers goes undefeated, should they play in the BCS championship game over a once-beaten Ohio State or a once-beaten Michigan?

I say yes. They’re in the Big East, a BCS conference whose top three or four teams can play with the top three or four teams from any other conference. They’d have beaten two Top Ten teams in West Virginia and Louisville. If either of those two teams deserved a shot in the title game had they gone undefeated, then so would an undefeated Rutgers.

I pondered this question while listening to this week’s episode of The Cover Two, where the topic was discussed.

Cobb OKs year-round MARTA service from the AJC

From a practical standpoint, this doesn’t really change anything. Basically, MARTA is taking over the last leg of CCT route 10 that went from the Cumberland Mall CCT hub in Cobb to the Arts Center MARTA station in Atlanta.

As a symbolic gesture, the importance can’t be understated. By inviting MARTA into the county to run a full-time route that transports commuters (not just a part-time route that transports tourists), it says Cobb is shedding its xenophobic past and that it wants to be part of a regional transportation system. That’s a seismic shift from the last 40 years.

The $25B solution to Atlanta’s gridlock? from the Atlanta Business Chronicle

I’d like to get your opinions about this article. A Reason Foundation report proposed that Atlanta traffic congestion could be reduced by making every single freeway lane in Atlanta a toll lane, with regular and premium lanes (”Lexus Lanes” where you could pay even more than the normal toll to avoid heavier traffic). My understanding of the ideas presented is there would be more arterial roads built to accommodate people who don’t want to pay.

Whenever I read anything proposed by the Reason Foundation, my instinct is to dismiss it as a Utopian fantasy. Judging from its official rebuttal to Reason’s report, the Atlanta Regional Commission shares my attitude:

Strategies must be proven through real-world feasibility and supported by legitimate studies, not the guesswork of outside advocacy groups determined to support a limited approach to the region’s complex challenges.

I would be intrigued by this idea if building viable mass transit options were also on the table, but they don’t appear to be. As I understand it now, it looks like a plan to reduce congestion by kicking poor people off the roads. Those arterial roads would be a serious clusterfuck.

UPDATE: Jeez, this was a glaring omission from transportation news. There’s new information about the Atlanta-Lovejoy rail line.

I bounced back to first in the overall standings using blood money (points really, but it doesn’t have the same ring), betting against my own team. And they were ritually executed, gangster style, in front of a prime time audience. The fucking running back threw a touchdown.

Vanderbilt and Kentucky are the difference between a respectable 9-3 regular season and a disappointing, coaches’ job-threatening 7-5 season. Georgia has demonstrated that neither of those games are gimmes. Beware of the 9.5-point spread on UT-Vandy this weekend, particularly if Erik Ainge is still out.