Well Margaret, after 48 years of running, planning, and finally seeing built various types of rail projects, transit, intercity, commute, and freight, I guess I'm just too ignorant to consider the impacts of earthquakes, right? All those meetings I was invited to with folks like Dr. Lucy Jones to plan for infrastructure impacts and recovery from earthquakes were just a waste of her time, and apparently mine, right?

WTF?

Is it because we Americans have suddenly become a nation of ill educated ranting partisan idiots, moronic self centered nimby's, and pseudo-science spouting crackpots, that we can't seem to do anything very well anymore?

Then why do we still wonder, with a comment like this, that our politicians pander to such ignorance?

Apparently, as others have noted, these politicians are a true reflection of our current knowledge and skill levels..... And now, I can only wonder when the electricity will go off, the water will stop running, and we all freeze to death in the dark, or die in plagues of preventable diseases?

Yes, Margaret, I will feel perfectly fine about having my family riding a properly designed HSR in earthquake country, since we would probably have earthquake detectors, and would, like is done in Japan, and all of our other American rail system operators, immediately stop and inspect for damage after potentially earthquakes.

I know with an answer like this, based on actual knowledge, and not based on pandering to emotional fear-mongering and ignorance, you may think I must hate my family, but I don't....

Thanks Max, sometimes, when confronted with this kind of nonsense, I think that taking all the hard classes was just a waste of time, but then you remind it wasn't.