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Re: Barbara Boxer P.O.'ed At Metrolink - Question for OPB
Author: OldPoleBurner
Date: 09-20-2009 - 17:29
OK - So I went and looked it up!
Barbara Boxer was indeed "in office" a long time before 1991, albeit in the House of Reprehensibles. She represented California's 6th District from 1983 until her election to the Senate. And who do you suppose took her place in the house? Yup - "The most powerful woman in the world" (her own words), Nancy Pelosi.
And where do you suppose the 6th district is? Surprise - surprise - surprise! NWP country! Yup - California's North Coast, including Marin County; which congressional district, according to Wikipedia, is among the most affluent in the nation. (need I say more about Marin voters!)
The Cantara Loop Spill took place July 14, 1991 on Southern Pacific Railroad trackage. The accident caused a chemical tank car to fall into the Sacramento River, spilling 19,000 gallons of the herbicide metam sodium (sometimes sold under the name "Vapum"). The chemical spill appeared to kill every living thing in or near the Sacramento river, over 20 miles from the spill site to Lake Shasta.
So, I concede; it appears she may have began the charge against SP and the FRA while in the House, rather than in the Senate. But big deal - she's still doing stuff like that.
The charge against the FRA and the railroads did in fact, continue after she went to the Senate. Sen. Feinstein is less of an extremist and usually better informed; but she too has been having temper tantrums lately over railroad issues - at least according to leading trade journal reports, where descriptors such as "infuriated", "outraged", "flummoxed", etc have been used to describe both senators.
As Boxer could not understand that the cause and effect of the Cantara Loop Disaster, leads right back to congress itself; she also doesn't seem to understand that being presently flimflammed by electronic snake oil salesmen, will cause similarly disasterous results in the future; nor do they seem to understand the grave seriousness of a railroad vendor compromising the independence of the NTSB. And how do I know this is the source of their confusion, and the NTSB's recent bias? Right from the horses mouth - from a colleague working on the national CBTC committees of A.R.E.M.A., when I asked him a year or so ago; what was causing the NTSB's obvious bias.
Plain old honest common sense tells us, that when any scientific endeavor gets corrupted by politics, or commercial greed, or any loss of objectivity; the endeavor fails and mankind goes backwards. These Senators current interference in what is in essence, a technological matter, will doom the effort to be just another corner-cutting slipshod half-fast failure. The accident rate will then not drop, but will actually increase!
But hey - We elected them, and may well keep on electing them. So it's our own damn fault ultimately. And its us that will ultimately suffer - Justice served.
But wasn't there an old proverb somewhere in the Old Testament that says, "When the wicked rule - the people mourn". I glad I'll be retiring from the railroad industry soon!
OPB
Barbara Boxer was indeed "in office" a long time before 1991, albeit in the House of Reprehensibles. She represented California's 6th District from 1983 until her election to the Senate. And who do you suppose took her place in the house? Yup - "The most powerful woman in the world" (her own words), Nancy Pelosi.
And where do you suppose the 6th district is? Surprise - surprise - surprise! NWP country! Yup - California's North Coast, including Marin County; which congressional district, according to Wikipedia, is among the most affluent in the nation. (need I say more about Marin voters!)
The Cantara Loop Spill took place July 14, 1991 on Southern Pacific Railroad trackage. The accident caused a chemical tank car to fall into the Sacramento River, spilling 19,000 gallons of the herbicide metam sodium (sometimes sold under the name "Vapum"). The chemical spill appeared to kill every living thing in or near the Sacramento river, over 20 miles from the spill site to Lake Shasta.
So, I concede; it appears she may have began the charge against SP and the FRA while in the House, rather than in the Senate. But big deal - she's still doing stuff like that.
The charge against the FRA and the railroads did in fact, continue after she went to the Senate. Sen. Feinstein is less of an extremist and usually better informed; but she too has been having temper tantrums lately over railroad issues - at least according to leading trade journal reports, where descriptors such as "infuriated", "outraged", "flummoxed", etc have been used to describe both senators.
As Boxer could not understand that the cause and effect of the Cantara Loop Disaster, leads right back to congress itself; she also doesn't seem to understand that being presently flimflammed by electronic snake oil salesmen, will cause similarly disasterous results in the future; nor do they seem to understand the grave seriousness of a railroad vendor compromising the independence of the NTSB. And how do I know this is the source of their confusion, and the NTSB's recent bias? Right from the horses mouth - from a colleague working on the national CBTC committees of A.R.E.M.A., when I asked him a year or so ago; what was causing the NTSB's obvious bias.
Plain old honest common sense tells us, that when any scientific endeavor gets corrupted by politics, or commercial greed, or any loss of objectivity; the endeavor fails and mankind goes backwards. These Senators current interference in what is in essence, a technological matter, will doom the effort to be just another corner-cutting slipshod half-fast failure. The accident rate will then not drop, but will actually increase!
But hey - We elected them, and may well keep on electing them. So it's our own damn fault ultimately. And its us that will ultimately suffer - Justice served.
But wasn't there an old proverb somewhere in the Old Testament that says, "When the wicked rule - the people mourn". I glad I'll be retiring from the railroad industry soon!
OPB
