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Friday, January 20, 2012

The Freeway Blogger Strikes Again!

I got a note from the Freeway Blogger:
Hey there Sacramento-area blogger, thought I'd share some of my work with you on your freeways. Hell of a lot of fun... yours, scarlet p.
That looks like a lot of fun! I will repost.

I’m a native of Albuquerque, NM, where oddball signs and murals are relatively-common, and I’ve often been disappointed at the staidness of Sacramento, CA. We need to loosen a few screws here, I fear.

Not long ago, I was chatting with a lawyer regarding corporate personhood and he made an interesting point (which I would need to follow up on to be sure of) that a degree of corporate personhood is welcome. Lawsuits against corporations used to be impossible until corporate personhood was granted to them. The question may be whether corporations have free speech rights to go along with their corporate personhood. That seems to be where the train runs off the rails. But I’m not a lawyer and I don’t know the history and can’t speak authoritatively on the matter.



The Freeway Blogger replies:
I biked from LA to Albuquerque twice last year (although once was with a car assist from Baker to Flagstaff) and frankly can hardly wait to do it again.

I've been at this signposting gig for a Long Time now (thanks Bush!) just waiting for folks to catch on. Originally I figured it wouldn't take more than fifty or a hundred signs, each seen by a few tens of thousands of people, before people would realize how obvious a means of protest it was. Still waiting on that part. I'd have given up long ago except 1) somebody needs to do it and 2) it's a Hell of a Lot of Fun. And by that I mean just about every aspect of the process

As far as the messages go, however, I don't have a lot of room for nuance. I have to keep it short, which is a lot tougher when dealing with issues like corporate personhood and economic disparity. It was a hell of a lot easier when I was just bitching about Bush.

Nice chatting with you. I'll give you a heads-up next time I'm decorating your freeways. -scarlet p. (not my real name)
The sounds like a lot of fun!

I remember as a teenager being stranded for a long while in the VW Campmobile with the rest of my family by a flat tire on the Surprise Overpass between Flagstaff and Winslow. At the time the episode filled us with dread, but I always thought the area would be lovely if experienced in a different, more-prepared way, like by bicycle.

Thank you, and the best of luck on your future exploits! I’ll keep an eye out for your work!

Marc

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