{"id":84399,"date":"2023-02-03T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-03T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84399"},"modified":"2023-02-03T06:35:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-03T12:35:15","slug":"its-about-suburban-maryland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84399","title":{"rendered":"It’s About Suburban Maryland…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

…but Jude Russo’s description of a train ride from his home into the District of Colombia may as well be about the Twin Cities<\/a>, from the post-Covid pathologies of the drivers on the freeways…:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I rarely leave the greater D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, so I cannot speak to the case in other parts of the country, but here the drivers have simply become worse since the pandemic shutdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In particular cases, it is clear what is happening\u2014a 20-year-old Camry in the passing lane, going ten under the limit and reeking of the botanicals that the people of my state last year voted to legalize, holds no mystery. But we have also added speed demons and weavers and those inscrutable drivers who insist on going the exact speed as the cars in the lanes next to them, making passing impossible. The etiology of these pathologies, whether chemical or spiritual, is unknown to me.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

…to the state of the state (or, I guess, district) overall:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It is difficult not to feel that something has come loose these past few years. Public standards for everything from dressing to doing your job to maintaining infrastructure have slipped. But the Maryland government ran a surplus<\/a> last year, and may repeat the feat with the help of gambling tax revenue<\/a>; Alstom is in the black<\/a>, as is SP Plus<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone has more money but is poorer; things are more profitable but worse; there are more legal ways to have fun than ever, but everyone is miserable<\/a>. \u201cThe purveyor of rare herbs and prescribed chemicals is back. Will we never be set free?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It’s worth a read…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…assuming you haven’t been living it,here or there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…but Jude Russo’s description of a train ride from his home into the District of Colombia may as well be about the Twin Cities, from the post-Covid pathologies of the drivers on the freeways…: I rarely leave the greater D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area, so I cannot speak to the case in other parts of the country, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-western-civilization"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84400,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84399\/revisions\/84400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}