Usa Thread

[cavanami]

...and big oil and the air lines and the auto industry all said NO to fast railways!

 

Those three alone and their lobbyists (bribe money people) throw down more money then the railways, done deal, fark the American people, another day in the office!!!

[Steve]

The law of unintended consequences.

 

General Eisenhower viewed the German Autobahn during WWII.

He liked it.

As president we got the passage of the Interstate Highway Act.

This act was passed under the guise of national defense.

Nice idea.

But.

No provisions were made for the railroads.

All but a few of railroads died.

Passenger rail died completely.

All of the major cities and many towns and hamlets had railroad stations.

City after city, town after town . . . let these beautiful archtecual buildings crumble or be torn down.

Amtrak passenger has to be subsidized by the Federal government. And the yahoos who hate government want to do away with that.

The Germans still have their Autobahn as well as high speed so the two can coexist. LA shut down it's trolley system even though it was popular. I am not sure it had to be either or. Finally, what specifically do the Republicans in California have against it? I'd be very curious to know. Maybe they have cogent reasons.

For that matter, the same for the reasons the Republican govs if Wisconsin and Florida as well.

[Flashermac]

 My grandfather told me what really killed the railways was taking the mail service away from them and giving it to the airlines. (He was a railroader.) The rail lines had made a lot of money from carrying the mail. Remember those hooks they use to hang the mail sacks on? I liked to watch the passing trains snatch them up. 

[kamui]

The US Railroad Systems in in 1890!

[Bangkoktraveler]

Zimmerman made 1 million dollars bail.

[Bangkoktraveler]

Libyans get to vote today.

 

Will they vote for the right party?

 

Democracy in action....

[Bangkoktraveler]

Sunday and Monday are suppose to be the big day

to see if some malware nails your computer.

[Steve]

Zimmerman made 1 million dollars bail.

I've been involved in a thread on another site regarding this case. I never got into the racial aspect. I just wanted to know the facts. The logic of it didn't make sense to me at first.

According to Zimmerman, Martin arbitrarily approached him and picked a fight and was enraged to the point that he told him he was going to die and the comments Zimmerman said that Martin said just didn't make logical sense to me given Martin's background (no history of violence that comes close to that) and that he was on his way home to his father's house who was a disciplinarian. His suspension from school was non violent (pot and that was sketchy as the amount was superficial at best).

I just didn't see it happening the way Zimmerman said it did. Nevertheless its become a racia cause celebre on both sides. The introduction of Jackson and Sharpton made it a circus. Given their history, just having them involved is going to evoke so much bad sentiment that I think some wanted Zimmerman innocent just to tweak the noses of those two despite the reasoning and logic of it all being highly suspicious at best. Fox News has been very sympathetic to Zimmerman. He's become a bit of the 'payback' for OJ for some whites I think. Just being honest from what I've read on other sites. I can see some reason to believe he may be innocent. His passing of the non admissable lie detector test. His injuries as well. Consistent with someone losing a fight. However, I would ask how he got into a fight in the first place. He wouldn't be the first person to instigate a confrontation and lose. Also, given what we know about Martin, if he was so enraged to do that, what must have been said to him? His gf tells of someone who was worried about being followed while Zimmerman followed him initially. What could Zimmerman have said that enraged him? I don't see Martin arbitrarily going after him. Its possible but very unlikely from what I've seen.

I hate that its become a racial thing. I want the facts to speak for themselves. My guess is Zimmerman will be found innocent. I don't think here is enough evidence to convict him. That doesn't mean he is innocent in my eyes. OJ was innocent in the eyes of the law but there is no doubt he was guilty and although very few blacks will admit, amongst ourselves I've never heard anyone claim he was innocent. OJ was payback for Rodney King and historical crimes. Not right to do that. "We" sometimes take on 'heroes' in desparation just to have one. OJ, who shunned the black community after he made it. Obama, who never grew up as part of the black community has no familial ties to it with his African father. I understand it, even if I sometimes don't agree with it. I was always different because of how I grew up. Parents who never spoke of anger against whites even though they went through painful times in the '60s and such, and also having a brother who was Italian (long story...lol...a couple people who know me on this forum knows the story).

There is a lot of sentiment by many whites toward Zimmerman because I think there is a feeling that any thing that is done against a black person gets brought into the murky, emotional realm of racism when its just an incident, nothing more, nothing less. Also, any incident against a white person by a black person that is obviously based on prejudice gets swept under the rug.

I get that and I understand it and even sympathize. America has made huge progress over the last 40 years and I would say progress that has far, far exceeded expectations from where we were. I would say that any of you who were old enough to remember the '60s (I don't) would say that you never would have imagined a black person in your lifetime under any type of scenario. Maybe not even your childrens which indicates just how things were polarized back then.

So, its not surprising to me that Zimmerman was able to raise a million bucks. Funny thing is he's not white. But just like the Black community embraced someone not of their own (OJ, Obama) so has many whites with Zimmerman. While I think there are some racists who will support Zimmerman no matter what the facts are, I think there are quite a few whites who do out of frustration. Whites who don't regard themselves as racist but feel are marginalized by the race card being played too often.

In their grief and for justice, the Martin family accepted the help of Jackson and Sharpton and although its understandable, I would not given the same situation. At least I'd like to think I would but in grief and seemingly no one to turn to people get desperate and I think that's what has happened with the Martin family. Given what they knew it was painfully frustrating. Their son, who they believe to their core had no capacity to arbitrarily attack someone was killed.

The whole thing is sad and the verdict will not end it. If Zimmerman is found innocent, Blacks will point to it as evidence that institutionalized racism as well as white racist sentiment is still alive and kicking. If he is found guilty, Whites will see it as Jackson and Sharpton and some in the media influencing a verdict and I fear it will harden some. Some neutrals in terms of views of race may start harboring sentiments they didn't have before.

 

Its a mess.

[Steve]

Libyans get to vote today.

 

Will they vote for the right party?

 

Democracy in action....

I don't see it as the right or wrong party. In the infancy of a lot of new democracies like this, the religious conservatives sometimes does well like in Egypt.

I wouldn't worry about it. Whomever is elected they will be judged eventually on the kitchen table issues: jobs, education, cost of living.

I think its actually a good thing that the Muslim Brotherhood won in Egypt. The country is a mess economically to some extent and when the people see that being a militant doesn't translate to running an economy they will vote them out.

 

The Libyans will get it right eventually I hope. They will make mistakes as any new democracy does and find their way. The goal or rather the hope is get to a similar level as Turkey. A successful, moderate moslem state.

 

In all these Arab spring countries they will learn that you can't be too extreme. You need moderation to invite in capital. To make it a place where foreign investors, banks, tourists, etc. will want to invest and spend their money. The world has become a whole lot smaller with technology and we are more interdependent with each other than we ever were. You can't operate in a vacuum. Iran and Syria are seeing that for themselves.

[Flashermac]

CS, people have different takes on Zimmerman, not always racist. My sister - as a mother - is furious about the shooting. She rants about an armed man stalking a young boy and killing him. She pays no more attention to the facts than Al Sharpton. As to Zimmerman's ethnicity, he is supposed to be 4/8ths white, 3/8ths Hispanic and 1/8th black. In the bad old days, he wouldn't even be considered as white.

 

As to OJ and the black community, it wasn't a uniform feeling either. I worked with an attractive and educated young black woman who despised OJ and the other black athletes and stars who only go after white women. She practically shouted when she talked about how black women suddenly weren't good enough for them once they got rich and successful.

 

 

Meanwhile, a job offer for anyone interested:

 

My link