…Essentially thumbing its nose at residents who might like to make the air cleaner, combat global warming, or just have a prettier state, the Georgia legislature enacted a law in 2011 that banned trees within 500 feet of a billboard. In Georgia, home to 16,000 billboards, that could could be just about anywhere. The law, upheld this May by the Georgia Supreme Court, actually allows billboard companies to clear-cut offending trees, including those on public property, that might blot out a “Have you been injured in an accident?” or “Vote Republican” message. Billboard companies can also prevent new trees from being planted that might obstruct motorists’ views of their ads.
Although tree activists in the state had opposed the law, it has remained under the radar until recently, when sustainable development groups in Atlanta discovered that the law could eviscerate local plans, long underway, to make the city more pedestrian friendly.
Atlanta has some of the worst traffic in the country and isn’t especially well known for its walkability ratings or scenic boulevards. But a few years ago, Livable Buckhead, an Atlanta neighborhood sustainable development group, spearheaded new zoning regulations that would change all of that. The group spent the last couple of years developing landscaping plans and streetscaping measures to go along with some new development that includes biking and walking trails, conservation, and greenspace with lots of pretty, leafy trees.
Now…those plans and the zoning regulations that went with them are in jeopardy thanks to the billboard lobby, which, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, spent about $200,000 persuading Georgia lawmakers to give it power over city streetscapes. The billboard companies will have veto power of those local projects, and trees that have already been planted may have to be cut down to placate the billboard owners and all of those crazy Georgians who want to make sure no driver misses their signs comparing Obama to Hitler, fall foliage be damned.
Get ready for the Leaf Patrol to be added as a division of the Georgia State Bureau of Investigation to keep an eye on arboreal insurrection.
owww that stings, Yawn….
Quite a vacuum between the ears you got going there.
There is “lots” to be said/thought/recognized about “legislation” like this and you give it a yawn?
Not the move of even a FLERP.
………………more a paid shill…. right?
Paid, stupid, human filth. Hard to tell the difference.
I bet all the Pols go around talking about “preserving the quality of life”.
Let commercial goals supercede the better interests of the general public, with the civil and police power of the state to enforce, behind it. Free market or fascism? Look it up. What about the rights of people to be free of advertising blight? To oxygen generated by trees?
$200k is all? Those guys come cheap. Then again, having spent some time in the Atlanta area, it’s not like there’s much to see.
Remembe when Agnew was bought for $5,000?
That made me slap my forehead.
I think that I shall never see a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall, I’ll never see a tree at all. — Ogden Nash
Excellent. I was unaware of this poem by Ogden.
Democracy “should” rule: most localities are banning billboards but if the good citizens of Georgia prefer billboards, I say: thats Democracy.
Course here….. its rather obvious will shills like Tinfoil in the background, that the gubment has been bribed by Billboard interests. An excellent subject for the voters of Georgia to figure out: VOTE EVERYONE WHO VOTED FOR THIS LAW ===OUT OF OFFICE.
Its a small thing, all things considered. All things considered, very few issues isolated are not small. But here we see if an elected official is bought on this issue of general common sense, they are properly thought of as bought and sold for any of the more important issues.
It is “all of a thing.” I first became aware of the Thing on the Munsters. His name was sullied later by that Alien at the North Pole.
Sad when things get corrupted.
To be perfectly honest, my conspiracy/hidden agenda tripwire has clink-clanked on this one — But, then again, it also does that when flies are hard to swat.
Many towns, including Atlanta, are considered nonattainment areas and are being industrially and financially bitchslaped by the EPA. The policy, as implemented, is stupid; The way to keep the levels down (mostly, surface ozone and its nitrogenous precursors) is, in fact, to defoliate upstream of the city along interstates as the combustion gasses interact while at the same time greening the city up to keep temperatures a little lower (atmospheric chemistry stuff). The end effect is to shuffle the appearance of the offensive gasses on downwind to some other little township while making it worse for them at the same time.
I have a hunch that there will soon be many more billboards lining the interstates (75/85/20 — 95 would be pointless as it is east of town and the prevailing wind is away) and thus a broad clearcut. Inspecting that hunch leads me to bet that areas inside the beltway are not defoliated but perhaps just trimmed (expensive).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-attainment_area
http://epa.gov/oaqps001/greenbk/ancl.html
—————————–
Also, a nice clearcut along the interstates would make for a utilitarian staging area and alternate road for military vehicles fixin’ to start fema-camping people whose cars broke down from the emp attack. FEMA region III (eastern seaboard) is awful antsy about something, at any rate.
——————
My current gripe
There are a couple scenes in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil where the entire road from city to outskirts is laid solid with billboards on both sides — He’s just driving down a narrow tunnel of billboards!
However, since these asshats, ‘movieclips’, has moved in with their poorly clipped and rarely relevant segments, things like that are getting hard to link to.
I been double dictionary slapped as Timmmmay says: 9/24/2013 at 9:19 am
To be perfectly honest, my conspiracy/hidden agenda tripwire has clink-clanked on this one — But, then again, it also does that when flies are hard to swat. //// Conspiracies or dont care? Conspiracies or trumped by other good faith issues? Fair enough.
Many towns, including Atlanta, are considered nonattainment areas and are being industrially and financially bitchslaped by the EPA. //// New concept for me. DEFINED: Areas of the country where air pollution levels persistently exceed the national ambient air quality standards may be designated “nonattainment.” …. but I didn’t research further. Too many good facts might be dislodged if I force new info into my brain.
The policy, as implemented, is stupid; The way to keep the levels down (mostly, surface ozone and its nitrogenous precursors) is, in fact, to defoliate upstream of the city along interstates as the combustion gasses interact while at the same time greening the city up to keep temperatures a little lower (atmospheric chemistry stuff). The end effect is to shuffle the appearance of the offensive gasses on downwind to some other little township while making it worse for them at the same time. /// I think, like Colder climates being more “weather active” you have this a bit garbled. But again, I won’t take the time to unravel… or more to confirm what you might mean. I don’t think city councils have the issue of non-attainment in mind, nor Regans “Trees Pollute” in mind. City Councils are much closer to: GREED.
I have a hunch that there will soon be many more billboards lining the interstates (75/85/20 — 95 would be pointless as it is east of town and the prevailing wind is away) and thus a broad clearcut. Inspecting that hunch leads me to bet that areas inside the beltway are not defoliated but perhaps just trimmed (expensive). /// That would be a different law than the one described.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-attainment_area
http://epa.gov/oaqps001/greenbk/ancl.html
—————————–
—derp—
——————
My current gripe
There are a couple scenes in Terry Gilliam’s Brazil where the entire road from city to outskirts is laid solid with billboards on both sides — He’s just driving down a narrow tunnel of billboards! //// I just watched Brazil trying to like it. Missed that scene once again. I think for the third time I deleted that Movie from my hard drive. Was that because I do think, or that I didn’t think enough? Of note… I think I actively like every other Giliam movie. This one is just too silly regardless of the symbolic issues raised. Its what on film that counts.
However, since these asshats, ‘movieclips’, has moved in with their poorly clipped and rarely relevant segments, things like that are getting hard to link to. /// Yeah, wouldn’t mind seeing it. While it ebb and flows there is so much more generally available now than ever before. Issue by Isssue.
Reply /// Thanks.
City councils do what it takes to refill empty coffers — When they can’t pilfer funds by declaring ephemeral coffins and not really burying people then they look to how to open the next street sweeper truck spindle manufacturing plant and that requires the good graces of EPA. Of nonattainment fed-funds and industrial growth blocking, they are acutely aware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tri-State_Crematory
Yea yea “bobbo, we think with words, and flower with movie references”…
bobbo, such beauty of prose, you must not limit yourself but sing it, sing out loud! We, who are one, are both divided from unity into eternity of a singularity of many!
The clarity of references you proffer is defoliating the banal obstruction to bring view into the wonders of harmonious light of attainment in this “non-attainment in mind, nor Regan’s “Trees Pollute” in mind.”!
So zang that thrown sponge and slap that allergic ducky just as the doc zips as light into the expressway with!
Word. ^^
“”…
Years ago
I was an angry young man
I’d pretend
That I was a billboard
Standing tall
By the side of the road
I fell in love
With a beautiful highway
This used to be real estate
Now it’s only fields and trees
Where, where is the town
Now, it’s nothing but flowers
The highways and cars
Were sacrificed for agriculture
I thought that we’d start over
But I guess I was wrong …
— The Talking Heads, Nothing But Flowers
http://youtube.com/watch?v=068AFYvd58E
How dare nature infringe on our god given freedom of Speech!
Die trees, die…
We only need one tree! If you have seen one tree, you have seen them all and you have seen one too many!
Nothing that our freedom loving Agent Orange can’t fix!
After the trees are gone, Florida needs to destroy all clouds! Clouds steal sunshine!
Having an unobstructed view of the Sun is a god given right!
“The trees, the???”
Parole is denied.
Beavers rule, you can’t oppress a beaver forever!
Nice tune. Not Great, but thematic if you want to listen to music. Not really the point of music I think.
On my top ten is “♫..Burning Down the House…♪.♪”
(Number Lock, Alt, Keypad 1-4)
Ahh, yes. That is a good psycho-visual aid for 2’nd year bio-physics students as it demonstrates that, in a very low pressure, very high oxygen content environment, spontaneous human combustion is overwhelmingly thermodymanically favorable and particularly good for aromatheopy and anyone who thinks blue smoke indicates more than blown head gaskets.
in other news; the entire state of georgia was strangled by kudzu. film at 11.
Kudzu took my dingo {really}.
The Mother Jones article has a picture of a billboard.
Dvorak Uncensored has a picture of a lot of signage but not one billboard.
Trees are a bit different in the South than other places. We consider them a crop. They also grow like weeds. In Georgia unattended land has trees on it. The intent of the law is to allow the billboard company to maintain the area in front of the sign.
Georgia did inadvertently declare war on trees a few years ago. They passed a law that levied taxes on the value of standing trees. Owners of land with a large stand of trees began clearcutting to avoid the tax. They dropped the tax PDQ.
A better headline “Do-Gooders find that they can’t do-good any damn place they want.”
William–do you think the majority of citizens want billboards or trees?
Be as honest as you can…..
Not really the question at hand.
In Georgia there are fast growing trees. This is good and bad. Good because you can have a really good timber industry. Bad because they pop up a lot of places you don’t want them. Along power lines, railroad right of ways, highways, your lawn and even in front of billboards.
There are nuisance trees in the world. In Georgia you can bush hog them if you’re quick enough. If not it’s time for the chain saw.
That reminds me I’ve got a pine in my fence line that has got to go.
As Green Party Mother Earth biased as I am, I slow down as WmDE says:
9/24/2013 at 9:59 am
Not really the question at hand. /// It was MY question, and I think the basis for our good Ed to post the issue, but as all issues are many issues, I agree you remain true to a different issue. All such issues are however “at hand.”
In Georgia there are fast growing trees. This is good and bad. Good because you can have a really good timber industry. Bad because they pop up a lot of places you don’t want them. Along power lines, railroad right of ways, highways, your lawn /// and with you so far
and even in front of billboards.//// ….. and then I lose you.
There are nuisance trees in the world. /// I agree.
In Georgia you can bush hog them if you’re quick enough. If not it’s time for the chain saw. /// I agree.
That reminds me I’ve got a pine in my fence line that has got to go. // As you determine.
So…. I guess what we have left is what I found to be at hand: who is the YOU in the various decisions at hand? Our good Ed I do assume biases the meaning to Billboard Owners laying waste to the environment. Could there in fact be a reasonable tween ground??? Hypothetically… yes. In practice… its usually the extreme that gets the upper hand, then swings back and forth.
There should be “a law” that balances the competing interests. Notice of intent to raise a Billboard with identification of trees and open to veto by those within 500 feet” should do it. Quibble as experience shows is justified?
Then, I decree that all billboards should be over 500 feet tall Diamond-Vision displays and depict a relatively small image of trees in the bottom, right corner.
I hear the Georgia legislature has their eye on water next. Water is free in Georgia and therefore has an unfair advantage over the private beverage industry. Apparently no one drinks Busch Beer when toilet water is available at no cost.
Can’t wait till season one of “Ouch! My Balls!” starts streaming.
The local brew made with actual barley, hops, and water instead of rice, corn, and sweat-flavored piss, is far superior to anything Inbev.
http://sweetwaterbrew.com/
thank you reputation.com bot for bringing the sweetwaterbrew brand to our attention
Actually, Back Forty Beer is kicking the krausen out of their fermentors!
http://backfortybeer.com/
I just want to check out that place in the photo where they have bulls walk across hot coals with chickens on their backs. That would be worth a visit!
It’s Las Vegas. Hard to find anything identifying it until you look just above and to the left of the 30 Speed Limit sign and it there’s a 1301 Las Vegas Blvd. South address on one of the signs.
No “casino” anywhere to be found ?? Weird.
sp===Excellent catch there. For some reason, I spent a little time trying to id the location. Interesting how the mind will just pass over specific clues like that one.
….. yeap, if I had absolutely nothing better to do…. tracking down such locations could be a developed skill. …… I didn’t even use Googles Image Search Engine. I have to go into “paint” to do that. Too fiddly.
Except that — Tress grow like weeds in Georgia. If you don’t clear the shoulders of the roadways back 100 feet or more (and keep it cleared) drivers don’t have the sight lines they need. Just sayin’.
Thats a different issue. Actually UNRELATED to the issue posted.
In my humble experience, I have found that those drivers are quite effective at swinging into the oncoming lane to get a better look at what might be coming.
The Nation needs an overhaul big time…!
noname departing from his normal on topic discussions (Pedro exception notwithstanding) favors me with a personal review and says:
9/24/2013 at 5:19 pm
Yea yea “bobbo, we think with words, and flower with movie references”… //// Ha, ha. I envision you noticing only for the very first time. Of important note, its all first impression as well. Worse than even a first draft. But unlike Blaise Pascal the more time I spend on first efforts, the worse the final product is. Funny that and why the world is spared another John Fowles wanna be.
bobbo, such beauty of prose, you must not limit yourself but sing it, sing out loud! We, who are one, are both divided from unity into eternity of a singularity of many! //// Yes, we all love that music. I truly communicates on a different level…. sadly with about the same precision as the words we use. But “sing it” reminded me of Niel Diamonds “Holly Holy:”
http://youtube.com/watch?v=RQwqQwD6OOw
I love getting my emotions all stirred up and then I reflect on what it means…. and I can’t come up with anything. Just as stirring but more decipherable meaning is another top ten song of mine that makes few lists: http://youtube.com/watch?v=to2KasivROc “♫… Here’s to the babies of a brand new world….♫” —and I usually subvocalize: “♫ … We f*cked it up and leave the trash for you….♫” In a good mood, I just wait for the next line. ymmv.
The clarity of references you proffer is defoliating the banal obstruction to bring view into the wonders of harmonious light of attainment in this “non-attainment in mind, nor Regan’s “Trees Pollute” in mind.”! /// Yea, I didn’t read enough about non-attainment to know just how harmonious it might be. Harmony is rare. Now…Regan’s Trees Pollute I could go on for a while. All about the conservative right being science illiterate at best and deniers all too often.
So zang that thrown sponge and slap that allergic ducky just as the doc zips as light into the expressway with! /// The Muppets singing Rubber Ducky is on my Top 20… so I won’t link to it. Otherwise, this para makes no sense to me. Sounds like a private allusion of a tangential type. Timmmmay could add his own twist to it, or you could take another go.
What a pleasant early morning surprize as I’m somewhat of a fan of The Call, myself. I guess that particular one wasn’t too sullied by being conscripted into Al Gore’s presidential run.
You know, Into the Woods was Been’s favorite work as a whole —
“I feel the worst human among us isn’t that much worse than the best human among us. Like the person convicted of a crime – – if you follow that person’s history – – you’ll find that there were circumstances in their life that led them to that crime, and given those same circumstances, any one of us may have turned out the same way.”
It could have been me
Living in that prison
Locked in a cage
Damning the walls
Damn the division
Wondering why it had to be me
Well it could have been you.. — The Call, It Could Have Been Me
http://the-call-band.com/discography/discography/into.html
—————–
I can see night in the day time
Into the woods I quietly go
It takes all the strength I have in me
These are the woods
The night of the soul
Painful to see Love without action
Painful to see years of neglect
Achin’ to see all that they see
Still telling lies to the remains of respect
Creatures we are worth defending
It takes the right word said from the heart
Given to you without ending
Given to you, the purpose of art
Thousands of plans, I’ve made many
I wonder just how many plans I have made
Feelin’ this mood overtake me
Finally to see the truth as it fades
Out of these woods will you take me
Out of these woods, out of the strom
Sinless child can you save me
Guilty man, freedom is yours. — The Call, Into the Woods
{Yes, I believe the word is intended to be ‘strom’ — stream, river, current, flow, torrent; electricity, type of energy which results from the existence of charged particles}
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ViVF_wkebnU
Sadly, while his work will live on, the Micheal Been physical entity itself now resides amognst the somewhat decomposing composers.
I agree. Don’t know why this excellent band is not more famous/know/appreciated than it is. Even less known than Dread Zeppelin, and that is a shame.
As a word-o-phile and a lover of poetry and tangents but mostly of just my own, I checked google and “strom” does not appear. I thought it might be part of a German Phase referencing Impending Doom, even the name or movement of something by Wagner, but it is simple German for Storm.
Even Storm though doesn’t make a good fit with the rest of the song/poem/lyrics which are all about depression, failure, lost opportunity. Storm is a different reference, as you say, more energy to it.
But these are my own woods, and I’m still walking.
I think what tangent dude was trying to say is that the word ‘strom’ is not a misquote or typo of ‘storm’ (even though it sounds like it in the dubbed song) but the intended word. Perhaps a shortening of the word ‘maelstrom’ ?
“”obsolete Dutch (now maalstroom), from malen to grind + strom stream
First Known Use: 1682
http://merriam-webster.com/dictionary/maelstrom
http://dictionarist.com/Strom
♫… Isn’t it good, Norwegian Wood?…♫
Bobbo & DU Woodzy: There is allot to reference here, if not too much to cover without me getting everyone muddled in my “inarticulatude”.
Let’s cart into the good stuff:
Bobbo first, you referenced Niel Diamonds “Holly Holy” and say “I reflect on what it means…. and I can’t come up with anything.”
Wow, to me the song is ripe with longings of many over eons:
“and you Call the sun in the dead of the night
And the sun’s gonna rise in the sky
Touch a man who can’t walk upright
And the lame man, he’s gonna fly
And I fly”.
Bobbo, your reach and depth of incite is oft refreshing; but here, you seem profoundly barren of a simple faith!
I too am very much a man of the hard sciences; it is my career choice and yet all the science I have ever learned only extends to what I can perceive objectively. I think that everything is way gargantuanly larger than what I perceive objectively!
Bobbo can you answer affirmatively; that everything existing, is only that which is objectively perceivable? Those who say yes; take such an answer on a faith that is not based on their own standards of objectively perceivable truth!
We all daily strive to extend our intake of objectively perceivable truth! And yet knowing the limits of objectively perceivable truth and listening to our longing awareness how does one intake truth beyond the limit of the objectively perceivable; only by the profound saving grace. I only hope to obliquely nudge your curiosity & awareness onward to seek an honest and profound understanding of the saving grace and truth, while you can.
DU Woodzy, seems too intaken this profound understanding of saving grace and truth.
As for Holly Holy, that one is trivial to decode.
~~The world is filled with evil people and some of them figured out how to make a word that is rock solid, military-grade, no way to Spoonerificaspisifitillerafunpuckingitationate that concatination. Those bastards.
Conservation becomes politicised when it stands in the way of easy money.
Pretty ironic because the Southern states during the colonial period had an economy based on farmland, trees, and nature rather than on industrialization.
The economy of the South was based on cotton and slavery. Billboards have only a coincidental overlap with industry.
“There is trouble in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the billboards want more sunlight
and the oaks ignore their pleas…..”
“The Trees” – Rush
Just insert “billboard” where ever “maples” appears.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JnC88xBPkkc
I will not!!!!!!
However, if the metaphorical allusion were to be taken as humankind vs. machine instead of class struggle and racial divide then, I guess, the substitution might be valid.
My wife suggests that Georgia is one of the states where officers can still legally hide behind billboards to run speed traps on motorists… Anyone from Georgia can deny or confirm?
I’m pretty sure you can still offer to pimp out the officer’s son to help deferre the cost of the ticket and the will then just wave you on your way; But, then again, my Google skills lag by several milliseconds after the final consensus between reality and tweets from Ga.
What good is a tree if a lard sized Georgia Officer can’t hide behind it!
Best cut those trees down and put up Billboards. The Billboard pays for itself after a few tickets!
noname challenges me in a quite provocative way and says:
9/25/2013 at 7:41 pm
Bobbo & DU Woodzy: There is allot to reference here, if not too much to cover without me getting everyone muddled in my “inarticulatude”. /// And in typo’s and I am a shitpile. You can’t do worse.
Let’s cart into the good stuff:
Bobbo first, you referenced Niel Diamonds “Holly Holy” and say “I reflect on what it means…. and I can’t come up with anything.”
Wow, to me the song is ripe with longings of many over eons:
“and you Call the sun in the dead of the night
And the sun’s gonna rise in the sky
Touch a man who can’t walk upright
And the lame man, he’s gonna fly
And I fly”.
Bobbo, your reach and depth of incite is oft refreshing; but here, you seem profoundly barren of a simple faith! /// Yea, WELL>>>>>this is an EXCELLENT example of what I said. It gets my heart pumping and my emotions on full tilt====>BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN? ….. absolutely nothing. Yes, the sun comes up every morning. What does that mean? ONly that the earth rotates. Nothing to do with lame men flying. Stupid. My heart soars, buts the lyrics are plain stupid and meaningless.
I too am very much a man of the hard sciences; it is my career choice and yet all the science I have ever learned only extends to what I can perceive objectively. I think that everything is way gargantuanly larger than what I perceive objectively! /// or, its not. How to tell the difference? I am a man of the humanities, and the questions are the same. How about the answers????
Bobbo can you answer affirmatively; that everything existing, is only that which is objectively perceivable? /// Well—just LOOK. Of what import is that which cannot be perceived? ANSWER===ZERO. Think about it. If something is of zero impact, what impact does it have? Simple really.
Those who say yes; take such an answer on a faith that is not based on their own standards of objectively perceivable truth! /// Sorry…. that is gibberish.
We all daily strive to extend our intake of objectively perceivable truth! And yet knowing the limits of objectively perceivable truth and listening to our longing awareness // blah, blah……
how does one intake truth beyond the limit of the objectively perceivable; /// one doesn’t
only by the profound saving grace. /// Rephrased: only by riding pink unicorns?
I only hope to obliquely nudge your curiosity & awareness onward to seek an honest and profound understanding of the saving grace and truth, while you can. /// Man of hard science huh? Define: hard. ………. I got something hard for you right here: ARE WE MEN OF SCIENCE….. OR DEVOLVING BEFORE OUR VERY PALINGENESIS? I AM: bobbo, the pragmatic, existential, evangelical anti-theist. With love of poetry and the mystical. Nothing in conflict. I accept mystery and ambiguity without putting idiotic label of faith on it.
DU Woodzy, seems too intaken this profound understanding of saving grace and truth. /// I can’t reconstruct your typo. Thats my limitation. A hard limitation if you will.
Thank you.
sad, some rocks are just intentionally too dense!
An over-voltaged and well-focused lithotripter might whiddle those too-big-to-fit-comfortably-in-the-new-scanner balls down to size.
Different state but same state of mind.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Positively_no_trees,_Leesport_PA.JPG
Joni Mitchell said,
“They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
Then they charged the people
A dollar and a half just to see ’em”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Yellow_Taxi