Vee ah Norveigan!

I went and took a late afternoon bicycling tour of downtown Wilkes-Barre yesterday. And I have to say, as an avid cyclist, Mayor Tom Leighton has all but ruined the downtown for me and mine.

Where once I could ride those little-used sidewalks with my eyes closed, now I'm all but banished to the streets due to the heavy foot traffic. And there was a time not too long ago when I could dart right through the heart of the downtown in a minute flat, while now I found myself having to share the roads, too. Will it never end?

I neglected to snap a picture, but Blum Brothers is gone. Torn down, trucked away and never to be seen again.

Here's the new intermodel facility at street level.


I kind of paused there because at first glance, this scene reminded me of something from my boyhood years. Deja vu all over again, I suppose. Not sure. Perhaps Port Authority in NYC. Maybe Bridgeport. I dunno.

The new streetscaping is so long overdue, it's sick. And if we remember, an investigation by the staff and management of the now defunct Wilkes-Barre Online revealed that the city had pallet upon pallet of replacement pavers, and could have repaired those fast-fading sidewalks at any time since the Great Flood of '72. But for whatever depraved reason, the City chose not to.

I guess the vertical parking idea has been deep-sixed. And if it has been, I'm all good with that. The mere thought of drivers trying to back into the traffic on Public Square always made me fantasize about bidding on the towing contract.

Ah, never mind.

You simply have to check these pictures of Bowman Creek that Kayak Dude has posted on his site.

When my three kids were really small, we used to drive to Tunkhannock's very edge--Eaton Township, right there at the big steel bridge, and go tubing down the creek in inner tubes taken from the spent tires of tractor trailers. Big fothermuckers!

Sometimes it was kind of sedate. And many other times, it was a raging torrent of rushing water to be respected for the omnipresent danger that it was. Guess which one I preferred.

Anyway, we visited this spot when the creek was rain-engorged, even dangerous, and also while drought starved and lame. But never did I ever see the water level even near this low. Not even close.

So, with the frickin' fracking now a part of the local lexicon, where did the water go? Was it siphoned off for the purposes of hydro fracturing layers of sub-strata rock? Methinks, yes it has.

Keep an eye on this sort of stuff where you live.

Oh, and a camera on your person.

Yeah, some of you sent along snarky emails when I made numerous mentions of The Naked Communist. Yep, some objected to striking similarities I listed between the-then (?) long-term agendas of the Soviets and of the Democrat party right here in the fast-fading USofA.

Soviet infiltration? Sleeper agents spending decades living here among us and trying to dictate U.S. policy?

Wow! This Mark guy was off his rocker, you said.

From CNN.com: New arrest in Russian 'deep cover' case

An excerpt: According to the court documents, some of the suspects adopted phony identities, including those of dead Americans, and posed as married couples. The suspects engaged in secret communications including exchanges of bags, money drops and use of invisible ink, as well as more modern touches such as private wireless computer networks between specific laptops, the documents said.

A decrypted message from Moscow to two of the suspects said they were sent to the United States for "long-term service," one of the documents said.

"Your education, bank accounts, car, house, etc. -- all these serve one goal: fulfill your main mission, i.e, to search and develop ties in policymaking circles in U.S. and send intels (intelligence reports)," the document said.

Yep, you laughed, didn't you?

One of the main goals listed in The Naked Communist was to wrest control of one of the two dominant political parties in the U.S. for the purposes of manipulating legislation to the point of setting forth an accelerated societal decay in this country.

Seen much societal decay in this country lately?

Buy the book. But be warned, you might not like what you read. Especially if you're a registered Democrat.

Oh, and your apologies will not be accepted.

Nyet!

Later