It's very popular in Portland. Imagine rush hour without our light rail. I heard an ex mayor of Seattle lament that they never built a light rail system like Portland.
There are talks underway about building a high speed rail from San Diego to Seattle. You know, the enlightened West Coast.
I didn't notice this thread was from 2011 and started to respond to the first post, and then realized that I'd weighed in already quite a bit... I guess the one thing that has changed my perception a bit since then is self-driving cars. They have the promise (still several years from reality) of being able to reduce congestion by moving traffic more efficiently - and also to make travel by car more like travel by train. barfo
They've got very cheap public transportation in South Korea. It used to cost less than a nickel to ride the bus back in 1980. Taxis at that time were about $1 per kilometer. Taxis were so cheap that we would take a taxi from the Seoul airport about two thirds of the way down until we got to Taegu. Trains were a bit more expensive. I think a train ride from one end of South Korea to the other was about $50. You had to pay a porter to carry your luggage across the train station.
We give probably a 1000 bucks to Goodwill a year just in clothes. My wife's closet likes fresh stuff.
Everybody gives clothes to Goodwill. We give them quite a few upscale clothes and furniture. In fact, my mentally disabled brother, now deceased, use to work for them. We give to our church and we give food, and not cheap food, to various food banks. My concern was that you were suggesting that someone in here donate to build a high speed people mover train. Which makes no sense unless you're implying that such people who donate to that ought to build such a train for the use of deadbeats who don't want to contribute.
When I was a young teenager, I loved electric model trains. I use to have O guage trains and then stepped it up to HO gauge. As for a high speed commuter rail, I would be all for it except for my concern about terrorism. If we could get around the terrorism concern, I'd be all for it. Some people, like my now deceased mother, had such a fear of flying that they preferred the train. John Madden, one time coach of the Oakland Raiders, only traveled by train.
Madden had a top of the line RV if I remember correctly. As for terrorism I'd much prefer we stop bombing and occupying large sections of thr middle east. Maybe just maybe they would leave us alone if we didn't kill their children. There were kids I didn't like in school and there were older kids that bullied me. If I were to run into one of those I didn't like I'd ask them how they were doing. If I were to run into one that picked on me mercilessly before I hit puberty I'd tell him he better start running.
Madden went from game to game by rail even though he may have had an RV for shorter trips. I can't recall but he may have even had his own RR car. The terrorists were killing Americans long before we killed any of their children. The only children being killed that we should stop are in Yemen. I don't know about the others, I think they're mostly being killed by Syrians and Russians. I ran into a couple of bullies that terrified me as a small child. I was then much much stronger than them and they steered clear of me although I displayed no aggression whatsoever.
Maybe he took the rail in earlier times but broadcasters used to comment on it. This from Wikipedia: "In the mid-1980s Madden was a frequent rider on Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited."
You could, in Aug 2017, go Busan to a Seoul on the fast train (In 1st class!) for $65. Maybe there was some funky currency trade stuff going on, but I was kind of shocked.
Having been to almost all of the shithole bases in the Middle East, I’m interested in which large sections you think we are occupying. We have a large presence in one small area of Kabul, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, and Al Assad Iraq. Kuwait asks us to maintain a bunch of bases, as does Saudi Arabia near Riyadh. We are in Oman at the request of the government. There are more people in Henderson High school than Americans in Syria. I’d be stoked to go in on a land and resource grab. May as well get something out of years of my life spent and friend killed. But we don’t, and it’s hard to read about citizens who think we do as some level of excuse for evil people to do what they do.
Occupying wasn't the correct word. I said we didn't in the Israel/Imperialism thread. I don't think it is an excuse for them. I'd rather we leave them alone but let them know we'll incinerate the region if need be.
Reread the thread from 2011 - and the traffic situation in Portland pretty much shows that I nailed it in my arguments way back including the prediction of electric cars to reduce gas usage crunch - I am basically a modern Nostradamus, only more handsome, you all should be thankful for my contributions
I've got an altar with your name and photo on it which I worship every night before I lay me down to sleep.
