Nothing Says Tranquility Like the Hum of a Huge Diesel Engine

The Mark Sanford scandal is a bit off topic for Streetsblog but Sean Roche at the Newton Streets & Sidewalks blog points us to this incredible passage from one of the e-mails between the South Carolina governor and his mistress in Argentina. Sanford writes:

To
me, and I suspect no one else on earth, there is something wonderful
about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner
running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the background, the
tranquility that comes with being in a virtual wilderness of trees and
marsh, the day breaking and vibrant pink coming alive in the morning
clouds — and getting to build something with each scoop of dirt.

How romantic!

And as if this story weren’t weird enough already, a profile of Sanford in American Conservative magazine provides another sordid tidbit about the governor’s diesel-powered meditation technique:

During Sanford’s first gubernatorial campaign in 2002, an 8-year-old
African-American girl wandered onto a Sanford family property on Lady’s
Island and drowned. A source close to the governor said she fell into a
“retaining pond.” Her family’s lawyer, Manning Smith, called it a
“pit.” Other sources claim that Sanford, who owned a hydraulic
excavator at the time, digs holes on his property to unwind.