All the Roads are Haunted

I wrote a thing for a site called GrumpTroll.

I don't think we have anything else up there, yet. Presumably, we will be doing weekly stuff?

Anyway... It's a bit of a rehash of ideas from previous blogposts that were the firstdrafteryfodder of some longer stuff.

http://grumptroll.wordpress.com/2014/10/04/all-the-roads-are-haunted/

We’ve all seen the little crosses and corsages left standing, undisturbed, along the highways and byways of the world. One of the great miseries and mysteries of humanity is the automobile. We climb into our little, mobile living pods, and rev powerful engines, take to the roads for absolutely everything. We go to the store, go to work, take our kids our school – everything, everything – driving – driving – driving. Car sales are up. Warren Buffet is buying car dealerships. The planet is choking on our exhaust fumes, and we’re driving, driving, driving. In all the talk of the dangers of socialized health insurance, and the mandate to maintain health insurance, the little niggling tidbit underneath the headline was the necessary distinction between car insurance and human insurance. Apparently, cars are a luxury, not a necessity. I challenge anyone to live in any city in America west of the New England states without an automobile. Have fun on those 3 hour bus rides, those endless, endless bus rides that swallow every waking moment between work and home into a commute. No, my friend, we all need cars, too. We all need private insurance for our cars. It would be cheaper and safer if there was universal car insurance, but no one wishes to even have that discussion when the idea of socialized medicine is apparently too contentious for polite society. It would also be cheaper and safer to reconsider how we build our cities.

continue?

One of the nice things about art versus firefighting or plumbing...

The consequences for failure - in this case a failed kickstarter - is very slight. No one died. No one lost anything.

The book still comes out, except without pre-orders and without bonus extras, in December/January.

Thanks to everyone who pitched in a little. I love you all, and I am very grateful to know that you're out there and you have my back.