I recently spent a week on business in the Australian capital Canberra. It is a beautiful, modern city that was entirely planned (by American architects) and constructed about 100 years ago. I much prefer it to DC (17 hour flight notwithstanding). The city features lots of slices of undisturbed landscape throughout, and I enjoyed it very much during a long run. One particular trail crosses a curved highway off ramp. I had been following the dirt path when I came upon this single lane of unmarked asphalt. I saw the path pick up again on the other side of the road, complete with breaks in the curb that you'd see with a sidewalk at any intersection. This was definitely a planned feature, but there was no crosswalk, no signals, and no signs for pedestrians or cars. It took me a moment to determine which way the traffic would be coming from, another few seconds of waiting as a group of cars whizzed past, and then I crossed safely.
The point of this story is you would never find a government-sanctioned pedestrian road crossing of this type in the US. Somebody would get sued. But in Australia it's apparently just fine. The same Australia that forcibly collected millions of firearms from law abiding citizens. The same Australia that won't even let you carry a pocket knife without a "good" reason.
I am very thankful that we have the Second Amendment to stem the flow of the Nanny State in the US and I wonder how far down the rabbit hole we would travel if it ever goes away.
Posts: 942 | Location: The only state with a state bird named after another state. | Registered: December 11, 2009
Originally posted by shikemd: I recently spent a week on business in the Australian capital Canberra. It is a beautiful, modern city that was entirely planned (by American architects) and constructed about 100 years ago. I much prefer it to DC (17 hour flight notwithstanding). The city features lots of slices of undisturbed landscape throughout, and I enjoyed it very much during a long run. One particular trail crosses a curved highway off ramp. I had been following the dirt path when I came upon this single lane of unmarked asphalt. I saw the path pick up again on the other side of the road, complete with breaks in the curb that you'd see with a sidewalk at any intersection. This was definitely a planned feature, but there was no crosswalk, no signals, and no signs for pedestrians or cars. It took me a moment to determine which way the traffic would be coming from, another few seconds of waiting as a group of cars whizzed past, and then I crossed safely.
The point of this story is you would never find a government-sanctioned pedestrian road crossing of this type in the US. Somebody would get sued. But in Australia it's apparently just fine. The same Australia that forcibly collected millions of firearms from law abiding citizens. The same Australia that won't even let you carry a pocket knife without a "good" reason.
I am very thankful that we have the Second Amendment to stem the flow of the Nanny State in the US and I wonder how far down the rabbit hole we would travel if it ever goes away.
Sounds like they care about control of the people.... vs caring about the people. Without the 2nd we are headed straight for the bottom of the rabbit hole IMO. .
