Coyote Mercury Posts

I’ve always loved driving through thick fog. There’s something soothing about the way everything seems so quiet even as large trucks float past. Buildings, ordinarily rooted to their familiar spots, appear to have moved farther from the road or to have disappeared altogether until I get a bit closer and outlines emerge only to be swallowed up again as I continue along the highway.

This morning, sipping my coffee and listening to NPR talk about email encryption when it felt like they should have been discussing werewolves and witches, I drove through the all encompassing fog, unable to see the exit signs. I took the one that seemed right and drove alone into a silent realm. It was the correct road, but a different world where I found myself waiting at the last stoplight before school.

The light hangs above a lonely crossroads such as the one where Robert Johnson might have made his famous deal with the devil. I sat waiting for the light to change when a large shape appeared and grew out of the fog. The shape grew familiar, forming into a school bus that passed in slow motion. I watched the kids drift by, their faces blank. One little girl stuck her tongue out at me, and then they were gone, swallowed by the fog. I nearly choked on my coffee from laughing.

This morning NPR reported that Google, Yahoo, and MSN were testifying before Congress about their dealings with China, in particular the way in which they seem to helping the Chinese government quell dissent. Check out San Bei Ji for an interesting example of a censored Google search.

On its face this appears pretty hypocritical when one considers that information companies would probably not enjoy the success they’ve had if they didn’t originate in societies where the free flow of information and free speech were not so highly valued. Of course a company’s main responsibility is to the shareholder, but does that mean that there is no place for higher values?

Last week’s rioting Islamists demanded limits to free speech in western societies. The rioting was terrible and hopefully counterproductive to their twisted cause, but ultimately the demands are laughable. Too many people have fought too hard throughout history for the right of free speech. Rent-a-mob rioters won’t change that.

We see the lack of respect for free speech in our society, however, when western companies accept government censorship, denial of human rights, and oppression as the cost of doing business. I know there are fortunes for western companies to make in China, but is greed really a suitable justification for denying the very principles of free speech that allow internet companies to exist in the first place?

Google’s position appears to be that this is what must be done to do business in China and that the end result will be a freer flow of information and a freer China. Perhaps they’re right. Engagement with China seems to have opened it up somewhat and I do support more engagement with Cuba for that very reason.

I hope Google’s theory is right in the long run, but it sure doesn’t make the western capitalist model of society look very good when people see western companies aiding oppressive governments to turn a profit.

That’s the sort of thing that angers people and drives them to riot in the streets or to join terrorist cells.

To abuse Voltaire: I may not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it unless I can profit by keeping you quiet.

In order to avoid a traffic jam on I-35 last weekend, I made my way to Parmer by way of old McNeil Road in Round Rock. I don’t find myself around there often, but I’ve known McNeil for the past eighteen years. It’s a long straight stretch that with very little traffic tempts any car to ignore the posted 45mph. There is a quarry (which I’ve photographed on a few occasions), a small general store/post office of the sort one finds in small towns, and not much else.

As I was cruising along, I saw a gigantic traffic interchange in the middle of what was once open land. Old McNeil runs under this behemoth and continues along its merry way past the quarry and towards the new version of McNeil that is sort of an extension of Howard Lane.

Driving toward the new – and as yet unopened – interchange, I was struck by the fact that I had no idea what highways the interchange had been built to connect, and yet they come from three directions and meet in the sky above McNeil. I’m pretty familiar with north Austin, but what were these strange roads and whither do they go?

I’ve been trying to wrap my mind around the ongoing festival of road construction in north Austin for quite some time. Interchanges and new roads are springing up everywhere, and rather than research the issue at TxDot, I find it more fun to figure it out on my own. It’s like a mystery written in concrete or a game that you only play at those odd times when you’re transiting across the playing field on the way to somewhere else.

The McNeil interchange is a piece that I haven’t quite figured out yet. It appears that the highways leaving the mysterious interchange might connect 620, I-35, and possibly Mopac, all of which are undergoing extensive remodeling. Of course none of these highways have ever traversed McNeil. Perhaps one of the two new highways: TX-130 and TX-45 is involved, and when these roads open they will lead to this interchange, thus solving this piece of the puzzle.

I guess when all the construction is complete and all the new roads open, we’ll have to learn our collective way around north Austin all over again, which should provide a few weeks of missed turns and bad driving just to add to the sport.

UPDATE: An alert reader who knows every road in the area (that’s you, Dad) sent an email that explains the workings of the mysterious overpass in the sky. Those of you who enjoy mystery as a part of your drive should not read any further or you’ll find out that this is where all the roads go:

The interchange at McNeil connects the Mopac extension (toll) with SH 45 (toll) which runs from 183 and 620 (Lakeline area) to Tx 130 (toll) in Pflugerville near where you guys used to live via the new interchange at I35 and La Frontera. In addition, at 620/183 it will link to 183A (toll) which is the bypass around Cedar Park and Leander. TX 130 runs from north of Georgetown (near Walburg) to Seguin (eventually).

So there you have it.