Mr. Cab Driver

I wanted to weigh in on the current inanity that is the Metro Council taxicab commission. Several local bloggers have already weighed in against the decision, and I hope not to repeat their reasoning. Bill Hobbs has the best:

Taxi!

On peak weekends in town, it is not possible to get a cab in a timely fashion. 526 cabs cannot handle the size. Having more cabs on the road will do two things: lower fares and improve service. How so? Competition. Instead of having a virtual monopoly on service, cab drivers and companies will be forced to improve their businesses.

The other direct effect that more taxis will have is to decrease drunk driving. When alternative transportation is either expensive or not readily available, an intoxicated person has one other reason to choose to drive himself. This is a public safety issue - one which can be easily rectified by either granting these additional licenses or overhauling the entire Metro taxi system to accomodate an unlimited number of taxis.

Bo Schembechler pulls an Obi-Wan Kenobi

"You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

- Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope




That's right. I truly believe that Bo Schembechler let himself die so that his spirit could compel the Michigan Wolverines to victory over Ohio State in Columbus. I'm a diehard OSU fan, and my reaction when I heard the news was "uh oh". Talk about your motivation.

Actually, I feel the loss of Bo pretty acutely. Tomorrow is probably the biggest regular season football game in history - when the big game is truly The Big Game - and I was ready for a truly great performance on both sides. Bo should have enjoyed it and I should have enjoyed cheering against Michigan more than I ever have in the 30th Michigan-OSU game of my life. Now I'm worried the Force is with Michigan.

At least my rational side knows that this is the best Buckeye team in years. If we win, we win big. We keep the turnover margin in our favor, we win. Give me the Buckeyes, 27-13, but we really need to carry Woody Hayes ashes with us to dot the I in Script Ohio.

I Voted Yes on #1

…and I’m not certain that I should have. I agree with the left - gay marriage supporters - that every adult should have basically the same rights under the law. On the other hand, I agree with conservatives - gay marriage opponents - that marriage is at its core a spiritual union between two complementary people, a man and a woman.

State-sanctioned marriage is a historical artifact, really; because men and women married and it acquired certain benefits and responsibilities (inheritance, shared child-reading, etc.), the state (government, generally) began to sanction it. Of course, the original sponsors of these unions never foresaw the day that two men or two women would want the same legal rights.

Now that that day has arrived, it's time for the state to get out of the marriage business and into the civil union business. Now, anyone who marries - however they choose to do so - should get a license of civil union under the law that has the same legal binding as the old marriage license. Instead of giving the title of marriage to one group, it takes it away from the other - and perhaps we never should have had it to begin with.

Isn't that a lot of ministration, when you could just allow gays to marry? Yes it is. Is it that important? Yes it is.

And that was enough to vote yes on #1? It was last Thursday.