Health Care

[Arative]

Originally Posted by Knucklehead

I think I finally get what drives IRB. I hear solid details about this new high-speed rail system; I get excited; then my mind starts wandering down dark corridors where right-wing pundits rail against government spending, and I start to think of how they are going to ruin it.




You know we didn't build the interstate system just so people could to drive between cities, right?

Yeah we built the interstate system for defense, an easy way to move ground troops.

As I said, I think the money being spent, and the Administration is touting it as a way to help curb our energy usage, would be better spent on the Amory Lovins plan I posted a few posts up from this one. The plan will revitalize entire sectors of our economy by building cars more efficiently. There is a demand for cars, that outpaces the demand for a rail system, there would be a higher demand for cars that got 100 MPG.

I'm not saying lets not spend the money, I'm saying lets spend the money more effectively. As that would have a much greater impact on our society. Right now I just don't think that building high speed rail is spending the money as effectively as implementing the plan I link earlier would be.

[The Edge]

Originally Posted by Arbiter

Exactly.

We are not to be wasting money on something that has no sign of use.

"Look grandma, I'm doing something!" That is hardly the position to take on spending our money.

Looks pretty sweet to me. I'd use it npnp.

[Etoille]

Originally Posted by The Ancient

New York and DC also both have great public transportation. New York thanks to comprehensive subway coverage, DC from Rail+Bus.

Public Transportation is great if you aren't scared of being around other people. I'd love if I lived in a city I could be taken where I wanted to go while I read, played my DS, etc. Traffic blows.

eh I think DC public transport is just meh. I thought Chicago's was better.

then again as chaos said I live past Arlington but I find the metro to be way overpriced and generally speaking not worth it.

Best public transport I've ever seen = Tube in London. Hands down. Nothing comes close.

[Eomer]

Originally Posted by Etoille

eh I think DC public transport is just meh. I thought Chicago's was better.

then again as chaos said I live past Arlington but I find the metro to be way overpriced and generally speaking not worth it.

Best public transport I've ever seen = Tube in London. Hands down. Nothing comes close.

Tokyo's system I would imagine is as good or better. But yeah, it's no coincidence that the places with the best public transport tend to be ones most of us North Americans like travelling to, but would probably hate living in.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T HAVE A HALF ACRE LOT?

It will take a cultural, demographic, and population shift for North American cities to get public transit systems like what Europe and Asia have. So long as the American/Canadian dream is a big bungalow with a lot of grass and a three car garage, it's just not realistic.

[Draegan]

If I could go from NY-Miami in 8 hours and it's cheap.. say under 100. I'd take advantage of that shit.

[Smocca]

For anyone following the release of the torture memos today here is a link to one:

http://stream.luxmedia501.com/?file=....pdf&method=dl

from: The Banality of Evil : Rolling Stone : National Affairs Daily

Does anyone have links to the others?

[Knucklehead]

Originally Posted by Arative

Yeah we built the interstate system for defense, an easy way to move ground troops.

As I said, I think the money being spent, and the Administration is touting it as a way to help curb our energy usage, would be better spent on the Amory Lovins plan I posted a few posts up from this one. The plan will revitalize entire sectors of our economy by building cars more efficiently. There is a demand for cars, that outpaces the demand for a rail system, there would be a higher demand for cars that got 100 MPG.

I'm not saying lets not spend the money, I'm saying lets spend the money more effectively. As that would have a much greater impact on our society. Right now I just don't think that building high speed rail is spending the money as effectively as implementing the plan I link earlier would be.

I guess we can just agree to disagree. Because you can tout better, more efficient cars, and I'll just imagine a future where I'm still gnashing my teeth while stuck in traffic because somebody created a better, more efficient, bigger car.

I do agree, energy optimization is useful and needed, but our infrastructure has more in common with the iron age than it does the information age. And infrastructure improvement is what I want. You build better roads, and I'll get behind better cars over high-speed rail.

[Simas]

Bush Torture Memos Released By Obama: See The Complete Documents

They're all up here but its a pain in the ass to read them. Theyre in some sort of document viewer thing I havent seen before.

[Soriak]

Remember that train stations can be located right in the middle of a city (e.g. New York), whereas it usually takes a while to get from the airport to the city center. Aside from that, domestic flights just suck at this point - tons of time wasted on security, terrible service and they may just lose your bags on the way. The time on the train may be longer than on the plane, but the total travel time may still be shorter. Especially once there is a high-speed network up and trains don't have to wait on other trains crossing.

[Fender]

Originally Posted by Etoille

eh I think DC public transport is just meh. I thought Chicago's was better.

then again as chaos said I live past Arlington but I find the metro to be way overpriced and generally speaking not worth it.

Best public transport I've ever seen = Tube in London. Hands down. Nothing comes close.

I think they're going to build a line all the way out to Dulles in the near future. Near future, of course, is tough to define with this kind of stuff.

I've also wondered why they've never built a line parallel to the beltway. As it stands now one would have to go inward towards DC proper for miles and change trains to go back out for miles if they wanted to go somewhere else on the periphery of the system, like the end points of the blue and orange lines in Virginia. Blah.

[Malakriss]

You mean the drug cartels will be able to ship new product to New York in only 8 hours? That is some damn fine progress there, boys. Now just imagine if we taxed that shit instead of wasting billions trying to stop it.

[Araxen]

The reason no one uses Amtrak is because it's SLOW AS SHIT.

[Smocca]

Originally Posted by Simas

Bush Torture Memos Released By Obama: See The Complete Documents

They're all up here but its a pain in the ass to read them. Theyre in some sort of document viewer thing I havent seen before.

Reading these things just makes me furious. Of course no word on this on Drudge or Fox or any conservative blog in the country. War crimes are such a pinko-liberal pussy issue. Fuck brown people they had it coming anyway amirite?

This is just sickening. I don't even know what to say. There's probably no fucking chance anyone will ever be brought to justice over this, especially not anyone important. That would be partisan politics and it would make people sad. We can't have that. Better to pretend that none of this ever went on.



My bad fox is all over this story.

Former CIA Chief Hayden Criticizes Release of Memos Detailing Interrogation Techniques - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

[Arbiter]

Originally Posted by Smocca

Reading these things just makes me furious. Of course no word on this on Drudge or Fox or any conservative blog in the country. War crimes are such a pinko-liberal pussy issue. Fuck brown people they had it coming anyway amirite?

This is just sickening. I don't even know what to say. There's probably no fucking chance anyone will ever be brought to justice over this, especially not anyone important. That would be partisan politics and it would make people sad. We can't have that. Better to pretend that none of this ever went on.



My bad fox is all over this story.

Former CIA Chief Hayden Criticizes Release of Memos Detailing Interrogation Techniques - First 100 Days of Presidency - Politics FOXNews.com

That was another dumbass move from obama and his adminstration. Enemies always want to gleen things from top secret documents whenever they can, we are not suppose to hand them directly to them to do it!?!

I assure you, our military cannot be happy with a breakdown in our security protocol like this. Very miscalculated and wrong.

When is obama going to just accept his position for what it is instead of trying to look good by making another seem wrong? That's not leadership.

[Draegan]

Sooooo, what are we showing in these documents that is useful for the enemy?