35W

Sympathies and prayers are with the victims of the Mississippi Bridge collapse. Nevertheless, less than four hours in, many thoughts are on my mind, particularly what I expect to see on news pages and/or my inbox in the coming weeks. So, at the risk of seeming flippant, here are some things I'm thinking:

1. Democrats will use this tragedy as a model of America's "crumbling infrastructre. For several days the news heads will talk about "how can we prevent this from happening again?" The correct answer is, very little, without imposing preventative costs greater than the risk. Nevertheless, the President will give a televised address to America and propose a $500 billion plan to "fix our bridges." The Democrats will be appalled. They'll demand $750 billion. The bi-partisan "compromise" will be $800 billion.

2. Like an NBA referee who gets in trouble with mobsters and fixes games, this was bound to happen sooner or later, somewhere in America.

3. I don't know if this was a terror plot. I also have no idea what else it could be. There are two possibilities if it is;
A) The government will cover up evidence of terror, to extend its post 9-11 "streak" of no terror attacks.
B) The government will use this to invade our civil liberties in whole new ways: more security checkpoints on roads, rivers, etc.

My guess is A, because although this is horrible, I think the Ruling Class wants the next "terror" attack to be bigger than 9/11.

4. It would interesting - unlikely, but interesting - if the local, state, and federal governments refuse to spend tax dollars to rebuild the bridge - but will allow others to build one if they choose. The people who benefit most from the bridge's existence would make sure that it gets rebuilt and pay for it themselves.

5. If you've heard of the NAFTA Superhighway, you probably know that it allegedly takes I-35's route. I don't know what ramifications this collapse has for it, but anti-North American Union conspiracy theorists will have a field day.

6. And now for some flaky/weird stuff. I was about to end this post, but now it just dawned on me that I had dreamt about a bridge collapse just last night. I mention it not to claim I have special abilities, because I don't; such a dream is not a "prediction" of this particular bridge collapsing on this particular day. I mention it because I recently started journaling my dreams right after I wake up. It's not very successful because I often lose the dreams immediately, but I think my desire to remember my dreams is what helped me recover this now. Of course, I could be mistaken and only think that I dreamt it, but then again both memories and dreams are outside of time.