I just can't resist ... rant warning!

Buffalo: Two seek to derail high-speed train...
[www.buffalonews.com]

What do these guys (and many if not most of the TPartiers) really want? What they're going to get (unless enough people have enough courage to stand up to the idiots) is a 3rd or 4th-world place that can't make anything for itself, kills people and other creatures for the fun of it, has health care only for the rich, can't afford to get around after the gas prices hit $10 (with no taxes by then), can't afford the monopoly-owned everything, etc. etc. (Wait a sec; we're already mostly there aren't we?) They will be the death of the United States as a country, and are already doing a good job of it. Why not just declare civil war and get on with it? Frankly, I see many (at least the most vocal) TPartiers as pre-terrorists; they just haven't started shooting randomly and blowing things up yet.

HSR can be a boondoggle, but there are many places where it makes sense. NYState is one of them, even up/west-state, even at only 110-120 mph (which is hardly High Speed anymore). With oil getting scarcer and more expensive, even Mudville (read the article for that reference) will need some form of non-car alternative -- and I'm not sure all the residents of Buffalo and the rest of the N&W State agree with that characterization of their home and its transportation needs. So it takes some govt muscle to get it going; so what? If properly thought out (and more of that proper thinking seems to be happening lately, thank goodness) the govt could easily be paid back over a reasonable amount of time (like the TARP stuff - turns out that the burn wasn't very bad after all and more improvement could happen - the govt could end up with a profit like France did on several of their TGV lines).

Would UP and CP have done what they did when they did it without the "govt giveaway?" Hardly. Did the govt get paid back? Yes, long since, in economic development and the taxes that come from it.

Anyway - all you anti-govt types - there's a big difference between "govt inefficiency" (which exists and always will to some degree, there as in all big institutions, but which can be minimized while making the place safe for both people and business) and "govt is the problem" which leads to anarchy. Anarchy is Not Good For Business.