L.A.’S “CARMAGEDDON:” A big nothing? Plus this: “In another example of the expert malpractice I reported on the other day, road authorities have done a lousy job of making it clear to the public what time the closing of the 405 would begin. All week, highway LED beacons have given only dates of construction, not times. Today, they finally put in a correct time on this LED sign that was almost entirely obscured from drivers by shrubbery. . . . As commenters Rob McMillin and Fire Tiger have noted, there is a public-outrage angle to Carmageddon, involving the unnecessary overscheduling of this work, a bunch of NIMBYs, and general incompetence. While I appreciate that angle, I have been more fascinated by the spectacle of big government and big media taking an easily resolved problem (alerting people that a handy stretch of a major highway would be closed for 53 hours) into a condescending exercise in lifestyle hectoring. In La La Land, making it clear to drivers what time the work would begin and end took a lower priority than having William Shatner and Lady GaGa tweet about what they’ll be doing instead of using cars this weekend.”

Our public officials are increasingly more interested in lifestyle hectoring than in actually doing their jobs.