Los Angeles is falling apart.
The traffic is horrible, making any trip through town take hours. It took us nearly 6 hours of back and forth traffic to get in and out of Westwood today. On top of the constant people abusing the system, using the carpool lanes (with just one person in non-eco cars) and jumping the barriers on the 91 after the check point. Not to mention, cars darting in and out with no care for passing traffic.
Graffiti is everywhere. Industrial areas are rusting. Traffic signs can be barely read. The air smells oddly good, probably from the local bbq joint. So it does have some positives, to be sure.
At the heart sits the LA Times, supposedly at the heart of the news here in southern California. It's no surprise it sits surrounded by the mess it helped create. The LA Times has become just as archaic as the buildings that surround it. Around it lies a jungle of freeway that is constantly vandalized. Is it no surprise that they have taken upon this adolescent mentality in their own articles.
In 2007, they ran an article claiming a study supported the conclusion that non religious persons know more about religion than their own adherents. This ignorant headline was supported by the claim that protestants didn't know who Martin Luther was, as if that proves it once and for all! The LA Times wanted to create a narrative, but it failed. The study doesn't prove a thing, nor does it say much about religious people v irreligious. However, from there, the articles headline, was passed on via wikipedia and other media sources. People for whatever reason seem to trust the LA times without question, and that should change.
Just down the road some more is UCLA. In the quad of UCLA sits a mural accusing Israel of apartheid. The Muslim Student Association there at liberty to push genocidal maps of the Middle East. That it's all UC schools is apparent, but perhaps no more so than at UCLA or UC Irvine.
I'm always happy to get home.
