Why Southerners Hate Government:

Shaila Dewan reports in today's New York Times on the economic situation in Jefferson County, Alabama, where government corruption, ineptitude and political infighting have bankrupted the county, bringing human services of all sorts to a near halt. If you want to understand the southern perspective, this is a good place to start. By the way, the practice of slavery continued in this county well into the 1920s, sixty years after the Civil War. Black males were continuously rounded up in Jefferson County by the sheriff, on flimsy charges, jailed, and then "rented" to the northern owned coal and steel industries that boomed with the cheap labor in the early part of the twentieth century.

Have You Traded in Your Clunker for Cash, Yet?

Is the "Clunkers for Cash" program a runaway success or a program that has gone off its hinges? The house had to approve more cash yesterday because so many people are trading in their 16 mpg sport utility vehicles for 18 mpg ones. Am I missing something here? (See The New York Times' story.) I thought the idea was to boost mileage, at least get everyone driving vehicles that have 25 mpg ratings and preferably higher. The savings a two or three mile-per-gallon increase can easily be wiped out through just a small amount of extra driving.