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The Texas Side Of Things

published: September 18th 2008
by: Jim Banner

I use to  enjoy waking up in the morning, pour myself a cup of coffee,  sit back and relax while reading the newspaper.  It was indeed a daily ritual for me and as they say, one of the few things in life that didn’t cost me much.  But some how I got out of this routine and I really don’t know if I just don’t have the time any more or don’t take the time.  But last Friday morning, I was feeling kind of selfish and took some well deserved time off for myself, went to the neighborhood store and picked up a newspaper. Next I poured myself a cup of coffee and spent about an hour by myself reading what was going on in the world according to the print media.
    One of the interesting articles that I came upon was a story describing the recent success of Swiss physicist who successfully tested the largest ever atom smasher.  The scientist it seems fired a beam of protons in a clockwise direction around a 17-mile tunnel and another beam in the opposite direction hoping to eventually create a situation that would provide the evidence necessary to prove the “big bang” theory of how Earth and the universe were formed.  Not a bad experiment for only $10 billion…and I thought the United States was the only country with frivolous spenders!
    I thought to myself now haven’t I heard of a project similar to the one described in the article?  Does anyone remember back in the 1980’s & 90’s when the U.S. began building the Super Collider/Super Conductor near Waxahachie, Texas?  It was touted as being Texas sized… the biggest, longest and first.  But after spending over $2 billion, the project was halted after completing only 15 miles of it when Congress killed the project in 1993. The proposed cost of the super collider was originally budgeted for $5 billion but Congress pulled the plug when a new projected estimate soared to as high as $12 billion.
    Now 15 years later the American citizens have an abandoned, 15 mile underground tunnel which cost $2 billion without a use for this abandoned project.  Supposedly cows and weeds have taken over the wasted project and guess what; the citizens of the United States have had to pay for it.  More importantly we have allowed our government officials to do this without holding them responsible for not finishing this B.S. project but more importantly why did they start it in the first place?
    Oh well at least the article made me remember why I stopped reading the morning newspaper…I kept finding stories like this one that made my blood pressure rise to the point  that the doctor told me to quit.  Government…can’t live with it and can’t seem to get rid of it! 

UNTIL NEXT TIME,
THINK TEXAS!!!