This recently passed my desk again, though it’s pretty old, from Mother Jones:
TEA party target: sustainable development
Ok, forget the basic nuttiness of the worrying or the worrying about the nutjob worrying about living in an America where planners actually have any real power in development.
Let’s just focus on the important stuff, like hobbits:
In the tea partiers’ dystopian vision, the increased density favored by planners to allow for better mass transit become compulsory “human habitation zones.” They warn of Americans being forcibly moved from their suburban dream homes into urban “hobbit homes” and required to give up their cars and instead—gasp!—take the bus to work. The enemies in this fight are hidden behind bland trade-association names like the American Planning Association or ICLEI (Local Governments for Sustainability).
Am I the only person who is kind of excited about the idea of living in a hobbit home?
We could have second breakfast, elevensies and tea, and we could have lots of dogs and fireworks, and we could avoid relatives we don’t like with magic rings.
Crawl under a tree. To be human is to have a car if you want one and can afford it
“To be human is to have a car if you can afford it.”
—–
How lucky we are then to live in the 110-ish years of human history in which it has been possible to be human.
[segue]
Man, those hobbit homes were built into the sides of hills. That would be pretty interesting. Gives new meaning to “man cave”.