dagblog - Comments for "Homage to Amtrak"

It would mean less social

Orion — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 02:36:57 +0000

In reply to Telegram was efficient before

It would mean less social media, so maybe. :P

Telegram was efficient before

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 02:24:16 +0000

In reply to Ugh, Cato Institute. Here is

Telegram was efficient before government got involved with subsidizing phone and internet. We should reverrt to those more pristine Adam Smith times.

Ugh, Cato Institute. Here is

Orion — Tue, 20 Jul 2021 01:21:59 +0000

In reply to The soft bigotry of lowered

Ugh, Cato Institute. Here is the thing. The interstate highway system is actually the big government solution. Before it existed, there were massive private rail enterprises. Amtrak only came to be as all those enterprises went suddenly bankrupt. There are indications of such things rising again. We should dismantle the highway system and then watch as such systems rejuvenate.

That would be the real libertarian solution.

The soft bigotry of lowered

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 12:29:00 +0000

In reply to Yglesias, train enthusiast,

The soft bigotry of lowered expectations. Is your children levitating yet?

Cato Institute tears it down - it's just not very affordable, with a ton of upkeep, and the speeds wouldn't ever get there unless the infrastructure costs ballooned (which they will anyway)

https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/high-speed-money-sink-why-united-st...

Yglesias, train enthusiast,

artappraiser — Thu, 15 Jul 2021 05:56:30 +0000

In reply to Homage to Amtrak

Yglesias, train enthusiast, has some thoughts. They are not nostalgic:

Amtrak is so wild they’re actually asking for $117 billion to upgrade the northeast corridor pic.twitter.com/Iq58DSF4ph
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 15, 2021

I am begging Amtrak executives to like read a Wikipedia article about a foreign high speed rail system or something.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 15, 2021

For $117 billion we should get a DC/Baltimore/Philly/NYC/Boston maglev.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 15, 2021

Speaking of bored: Fox News

Orion — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 05:07:31 +0000

In reply to People be bored. Remember how

Speaking of bored: Fox News is covering Bill Cosby being released from prison like it is O.J. Simpson 2.0, complete with alleged victims saying they will take a civil suit up with him and an aerial video of him driving off. I remember when the Right actually loved him: https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-obama-can-learn-from-bill-cosby-2015-3

People be bored. Remember how

PeraclesPlease — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:25:05 +0000

In reply to Romantic Amtrak embellishment

People be bored. Remember how much they tried to catch Al Gore in some minor discrepancy - FEMA visit, DC hotels, Love Canal... Screw 'em.

Romantic Amtrak embellishment

artappraiser — Wed, 30 Jun 2021 20:18:57 +0000

In reply to Homage to Amtrak

Romantic Amtrak embellishment: Foucault might ask "where's the harm?"

Biden keeps telling a vivid story about a conversation he claims to have had with an Amtrak conductor he knew...who, in fact, had been dead for more than a year at the earliest point the conversation Biden describes could possibly have taken place: https://t.co/VvUdqCheRs
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) June 30, 2021

The Amtrak system almost

Orion — Mon, 28 Jun 2021 15:43:27 +0000

In reply to I took a cross-country trip

The Amtrak system almost doesn't cross in to the Midwest or the South at all. The latter just a little bit more than the former. That's free market economics for you.

I took a cross-country trip

PeraclesPlease — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 15:10:09 +0000

In reply to Homage to Amtrak

I took a cross-country trip 1969, half on train - pretty amazing experience. If course didn't realize these routes were on their last legs, end of an era. Yes, got to see a lot of America without hitchhiking. Stations seemed a lot safer in that age as well.