Editorial: Get that high-speed rail killer out of state budget - San Jose Mercury News

The budget appropriation includes a sentence, apparently inserted by clueless staff members, that calls for further study of different routes through the Bay Area. But all the routes, including the environmentally devastating Altamont Pass option, were thoroughly studied and argued at public hearings. This led to the selection a year ago of the Caltrain route through San Jose and the Peninsula to San Francisco. Some Peninsula residents don't want the trains, but it's not for lack of study.

Redoing the work would set the project back a year or more and squander the federal dollars, which will be contingent on a 2012 groundbreaking. The lack of legislative support for the current plan implied by the study requirement could be another crippling blow in future quests for funding.

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Which is sexier?

 

Or:

 

 

If you had asked me a year ago, I’d have said the Ferrari.  Sure, as a status symbol of one, a fast car is king.  But it serves no greater purpose and is of course a money sink at the same time.  So while I won’t have the funds to buy a Ferrari or have access to a local High Speed Rail service anytime in the next 10 years (CAHSR supposedly will open for service in 2018ish) I much prefer to drool over the beauty and potential that is modern heavy rail: the status symbol of region.

 

*Note:  This choice is more difficult when you substitute a Tesla for the Ferrari.

I'm tired of turning the cheek

One of these days I will treat the "honesty" I receive myself with like.  

When someone tells me I'd be better off with faith/god in my life I'll tell them what their religious beliefs amount to: mainly that as far as fantasy novels go, the Bible doesn't even make my top 40.

When someone tells me they tolerate gay people but don't condone their sinning ways, I'll tell them them my tolerance but non-condoning of their bigotry is infinitely more justifiable -- bigotry, unlike ones sexual orientation, being an _actual_ choice!  Yes, I tolerate you, but I don't enjoy it.

When someone tells me they're against High Speed Rail because they never fly to LA or SF... well what can I say?  Obviously I'm dealing with some new form of Super Intelligent breed of humanity so advanced they no longer need employ the reasoning of _Future_Preference_!  Just how advanced is this new mutant breed?  Well, they have quickly deduced that we receive ZERO benefit TODAY for what we do TOMORROW (news flash to all college students -- you're wasting your time! Did you know you could be making $8/hr at the starbucks down the street instead of paying tuition??).  Of course we don't need an alternative to our congested freeways, polluting airplanes/automobiles, and dependence on foreign oil.  IT works for us today, and IT will work for us 20 years from now.