So I write this as I am sure some vehicles are still in the ditch on Interstate 39-90 near Madison after Sunday's horrific crash on January 6th, 2008. They say over 100 vehicles were involved. One of my many tasks on one of my jobs is to drive a variety of delivery vehicles. People drive like asses by and large. For six straight weekends we have had bad weather in these parts. I have become fatigued just driving in it. Some might think driving is a milk toast job. Not when nearly everyone on the road is an ass and there has been so much bad weather.

I did not run up the highway from Janesville where I am camped out these days, to see the wreck. I was tired because I work two jobs and one of them requires me to drive all night on early Sunday mornings. Also, for 10 years I worked on an ambulance. I have seen my share of unnecessary wrecks. I can say that a wreck like Sunday's is a once in a lifetime experience for some emergency services folks. "Hey, I was at the 100-car wreck in '08." You emergency services people out there know what I am saying. Others with no clue, will be offended by my cynical comment.

At the very least we are lucky it happened on a Sunday afternoon after the holidays. You see, at least more volunteers were around to man the fire trucks and ambulances. Try facilitating a wreck like this one on a Monday afternoon around a holiday. There won't be any responders around.

It sounds like a perfect storm: A Sunday afternoon so the freeway is full of people coming home from some where; six straight weeks of bad weather so people have acclimated themselves to being comfortable with being careless; a January thaw causing thick fog; the same thaw keeping the roads wet; temperatures are now above normal perhaps giving people a false sense of spring frenzy; the fog was probably patchy causing people to speed up in clear spot to clear spot; a whole weekend of fog perhaps emboldened people's confidence in driving in it; freeways lend themselves to bandwagon driving in a hypnotic sheep mentality; and, of course, we must not forget the usual asses.

Reports are redundant ad nauseam that people were driving in excess of 70 miles an hour with no visibility. This no longer surprises me. We have taken on many characteristics of Third-world driving. I have driven in Third-world countries. Signs and warning lights are just merely suggestions. Also, this wreck was fit for "some-other-place." These types of wrecks rarely happen here in Cheesehead land. Although there was one bad one on the East side of the state back about five years ago. This kind of stuff surely only can happen out in California or New England way. I guess we have become the self fulfilling prophecy kind of place we have loathed for a generation - mindless commuters driving like asses in quasi-urban chaos. The old dairy farmers of the corridor of the wreck are rolling over in their graves.

My wife has to drive that same route every day to commute to work in Madison. She testifies the asses are always abundant. I have no anecdotal reconciliation for you, good readers. Other than a moment of thoughtful reflection, all I can offer you is this inadequate caveat, "If you drive through a fog patch on down the road, reflect for a second, slow your ass down, or you may revisit "the wreck of '08.""

                   Stupid pop culture, media-complex, distraction-from-reality story

    I am thinking, each day I should jot down the stupidest news story that is foist upon us by the big-media-complex as a distraction from the reality that has become America. So here we go - welcome to today's "Stupid Pop Culture, Media-complex, Distraction-from-reality Story." 

    Hey everybody, the economy is reminiscent of Gerry Ford and Jimmy Carter's era, we spend most of our extra cash filling up our gas tanks, unemployment is up, the war drags on. Ah, to hell with all that bull shit.  Here is the real damn story.  'Green funerals' feature biodegradable coffins.  Do I detect a timbre of, "You better get green when you die you fascist bastards!?"  Now there is some real God damned news! 

                                    Wisconsin military service person of the week

    This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Specialist Eric Poelman, 21, originally of Mount Pleasant was killed in Baghdad, Iraq, on June 5, 2005. A roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle. Eric was on his second tour of duty in Iraq. He was a tank driver with the L Troop, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Battalion. The unit's stateside home is Fort Carson, Colorado. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mentioned Eric's parents home-schooled him and his two brothers. Poelman enlisted in the Army on January, 2003. He was first deployed in Iraq in November 2003. He returned to the U.S. just under a year later and was then redeployed in March, 2005. He was married between tours. His wife Renate was living in Racine with family at the time of his death. Poelman is survived by his wife Renate, two brothers Andy and Greg, and his mom and dad Sally and Matthew. Specialist Poelman was the 39th military service member from Wisconsin to die in Iraq since the spring of 2003.

   3,904 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

   471 Americans have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

   28,882 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

   1,848 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

   82 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

   6 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

   125 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring, 2003.

   14 journalists (various nationalities) have been killed in Afghanistan since October, 2001.

Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; and, washingtonpost.com.