117 replies to this topic

[Ozark Southern]

Just plain nuts...

Bill to compel firms to admit Holocaust role advances

"Essentially targeting a French rail operator, a key state Senate committee Tuesday advanced legislation that would require companies interested in working on the California high-speed train project to admit whether they transported people to concentration camps during World War II."

Just wow. I can't imagine what good that would do. Seriously, anyone who was working for that company is at least retired now, if not deceased. One would think sixty-five years would be enough time to forgive and forget.

[Devil's Advocate]

No biggie. Just freely admit you transported Jews to their death. Your admission will be met with general apathy. Then when another refinery explosion or mine collapse or oil rig disaster happens a few days later the media will be rushing off to cover the next preventable tragedy with kid gloves and forget all about whatever the last thing was. Bad news has become no news in this era.

[PetalumaLoco]

"There were two important high speed rail reports released this week in California. One of them, by CALPIRG, showed how HSR is a clear success around the world, having no trouble meeting its ridership goals and improving transportation. The other, by the Berkeley Institute for Transportation Studies, questioned some of the assumptions of the HSR ridership study.

Guess which one got covered breathlessly by the media - and guess which one was ignored."

Complete article from Calitics, How the media gets HSR wrong.

[WhoozOn1st]

Just plain nuts...

Bill to compel firms to admit Holocaust role advances

"Essentially targeting a French rail operator, a key state Senate committee Tuesday advanced legislation that would require companies interested in working on the California high-speed train project to admit whether they transported people to concentration camps during World War II."

Just wow. I can't imagine what good that would do. Seriously, anyone who was working for that company is at least retired now, if not deceased. One would think sixty-five years would be enough time to forgive and forget.

I don't think forgiving and forgetting are in order where genocide is concerned, but it's pretty absurd to attempt to hold people or companies accountable for policies and actions taken by earlier generations. It's like holding a grudge against the modern South for slavery and the Civil War. Oh wait, I actually do that.

[WhoozOn1st]

"There were two important high speed rail reports released this week in California. One of them, by CALPIRG, showed how HSR is a clear success around the world, having no trouble meeting its ridership goals and improving transportation. The other, by the Berkeley Institute for Transportation Studies, questioned some of the assumptions of the HSR ridership study.

Guess which one got covered breathlessly by the media - and guess which one was ignored."

Complete article from Calitics, How the media gets HSR wrong.

Officials defend high-speed rail project

"The state panel charged with building California's 800-mile bullet train network pushed back Thursday against an academic analysis challenging the reliability of ridership and revenue estimates underpinning the massive project."

[jis]

It's like holding a grudge against the modern South for slavery and the Civil War. Oh wait, I actually do that.

How about holding a grudge against what the damnyankees did to the South during and after the War Between the States? That makes a lot more sense. The basic motto of most of the yankee troops, particularly those under Sherman seemed to be pillage, rape and burn, and after the war steal whatever was left. Learn the real history, not the victor's propoganda.

Learning history from all angles is good. But I still think that holding either of those grudges against presumed descendants of the original perpetrators is silly at best and quite pointlessly provocative at worst, unless of course said descendants are behaving in the same abhorrent way. In which case they should be dealt with based on their current actions, and it would not really matter if they descended from saints or tyrants.

[WhoozOn1st]

Learn the real history, not the victor's propoganda.

"Real" history, in the Confederate telling, usually amounts to little more than Southern revisionism and hagiolatry of losing generals. Relying on the blinkered version as sole source, one might be hard pressed to learn that the Union actually prevailed over treason, insurrection, and the vile use of "states rights" doctrine (think Arizona) as a tool to preserve slavery. That's the real history, not propaganda by victor or vanquished.

And now back to high speed rail!

[KayBee]

Learn the real history, not the victor's propoganda.

"Real" history, in the Confederate telling, usually amounts to little more than Southern revisionism and hagiolatry of losing generals. Relying on the blinkered version as sole source, one might be hard pressed to learn that the Union actually prevailed over treason, insurrection, and the vile use of "states rights" doctrine (think Arizona) as a tool to preserve slavery. That's the real history, not propaganda by victor or vanquished.

And now back to high speed rail!

Whooz: I have thought about how to make a reasoned response to your flame, and decided it was not worth bothering. Suffice to say you are welcome to have a right to your opinion regardless of how insulting or poorly suppported by reality, and the same right to free speech was also in the Constitution of the Confederate States of America.

Well said, George!

Never forget that the histories are always written by the victors.
You wouldn't suppose there was any "Northern Revisionism" going on at any time, would you?
Just sayin'

[WhoozOn1st]

Ah, politics...

Inquiry into state rail board sought

"Critics of California's high-speed rail project Tuesday urged the state attorney general to investigate whether two prominent officials in Los Angeles County and Anaheim have conflicts of interest because they sit on the bullet train's board while holding other public offices.

"A Palo Alto group known as Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design asserts that Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle and Richard Katz, a board member for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, might be violating a state law that forbids public officials from simultaneously sitting on a board, commission or other government body whose interests are likely to clash with their public duties.

"The group cited an opinion from the Legislature's legal office, which concluded in April that a court would probably rule that Katz and Pringle hold incompatible offices — a finding that could force them to resign one or more of their positions.

"Anaheim City Council members and the MTA board make decisions related to segments of the high-speed rail project planned for Los Angeles and Orange counties. A leg of the system would end in Anaheim."

The story also notes that a proposal to waste - I mean utilize - $200 million of HSR funds on an Anaheim Transportation Center next to Angel Stadium has been dropped. Among more practical reasons I consider this good news, as based on the renderings I thought the thing woulda been an architechtural and aesthetic abomination:

EDIT: Looks like the business end of a giant golf club lying on the ground!

Edited by WhoozOn1st, 30 September 2010 - 12:49 PM.

[WhoozOn1st]

Same gripe as yesterday, from a different direction. Perhaps future generations will be able to read about actual groundbreaking and construction progress.

Conflicts alleged on high speed panel

"Tony Bushala, a Fullerton businessman, and Denis Fitzgerald, a mayoral candidate in Anaheim, are seeking an investigation of Anaheim Mayor Curt Pringle, the chairman of the California High Speed Rail Authority board, and Richard Katz, a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member."

[WhoozOn1st]

It's the latest thing in Politics, the outs will "Investigate" the crooks, er statesmen in power soon as they take over! Been big ever since the 50s when the witch hunts for "Communists" went on by Tailgunner Joe and Tricky Dick!

Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon were the "ins" when they used red baiting and the politics of fear as career advancement tools. EDIT: Nixon did use such tactics to get elected in the first place.

Edited by WhoozOn1st, 01 October 2010 - 11:21 AM.

[WhoozOn1st]

More heat, little light, in the ongoing ruckus over conflict of interest issues at the California High-Speed Rail Authority:

Sparks fly in rail plan e-mail

"The public and legal debate over possible clashing responsibilities involving [Cal HSR board members and multiple officeholders Curt Pringle and Richard Katz] has simmered for months. The attorney general, at the request of a state Senate committee, is examining whether decisions on rights of way usage, station development, final routes or other issues could present impermissible conflicts for the two authority board members."

[Devil's Advocate]

Ugh, I know. The North was so inhumane that it lacked any respect for basic human rights.

They should have followed the humanitarian nature of the Southern states?

[Anderson]

Look, while I'll say that I wish stations were a bit nicer than the "Amshacks" in some towns...that station you put the picture up is a wonderful waste of taxpayer dollars. Couldn't they build a functional, less showy station for...say, $100 million and put the other $100 million to good use (or if they're going to spend $200 million, at least use some taste with it)?