Hobo Jungle

[dougdagrump]

San, Good news, don't know if it is officially opened yet but it appears that the CalTrans $10,000,000 bike/foot bridge across Lake Hodges has been completed. Now you know why this once glorious state is going down the dumper, not the bridge per se but the decision making process behind it.

[Tramp]

JimTT, I think your idea of the "classic hobo" comes from Hollywood. Real hobos tend to have a few things in common--they like traveling, trains, and I never met one who didn't like to drink, but beyond that they're as varied as any other subculture. Just like here.

[JimTT]

Der Mar and all; I think we should move on to string theory (after we have a few drinks).

[MurphOnMillerAve]

I sometimes wonder if these same conversations would occur if we all met in person. Eh? Somehow, I just can't picture it.
Just a thought.

[webenda]

Der Mar and all; I think we should move on to string theory (after we have a few drinks).

Jim,

Are you sure you want to go there? The last time San was talking about calculus and string theory, Jon was quoting something about Shakespear and witches, Pete was talking about nursing and I was on the subject of my new Atlas caboose. Then, all events being connected in string theory, this happened...

[Tramp]

Here's some great news!

Obama outlines vision for high-speed rail network
By JIM ABRAMS – 27 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday outlined plans for a high-speed rail network he said would change the way Americans travel, drawing comparisons to the 1950s creation of the interstate highway system.
Obama characterized his plan as a down payment on a rail system that will take decades and hundreds of billions of dollars to build, connecting Chicago and St. Louis, Orlando and Miami, Portland and Seattle and dozens of other metropolitan areas around the country.
"This is not some fanciful, pie-in-the-sky vision of the future," Obama said during an event at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is adjacent to the White House. "It is happening right now. It's been happening for decades. The problem is it's been happening elsewhere, not here."
The United States trails other developed countries in developing high-speed rail. The Spanish can travel the 386 miles from Madrid to Barcelona at speeds averaging almost 150 miles per hour. Japan's Shinkansen links its major cities at speeds averaging 180 mph and France's TGV train averages about 133 mph in carrying passengers from Paris to Lyon.
The only U.S. rail service that meets the Federal Railroad Administration's 90 mph threshold to qualify as high-speed rail is Amtrak's 9-year-old Acela Express route connecting Boston to Washington, D.C.
Initially, regional transportation offices will compete for the $8 billion included in the $787 billion economic stimulus spending package for high-speed rail, bolstered by $1 billion a year for five years requested in the federal budget.
The $8 billion is part of $64 billion in the stimulus package for roads, bridges, rail and transit, what Obama called "the most sweeping investment in our infrastructure since President Eisenhower built the Interstate Highway System in the 1950s."
Obama said the first round of money would go to upgrading and increasing speeds on existing lines where people could quickly be put to work. The second and third phases would focus on high-speed rail planning and money to jump-start corridors not yet ready for construction. The Transportation Department is to announce first-round grants before the end of the summer.
Obama said a mature high-speed rail system would reduce demand for foreign oil and eliminate more than 6 billion pounds of carbon dioxide emissions a year — equivalent to removing 1 million cars from the roads.
Any region could present a long-range plan, he said, although the stimulus money can go only to the 10 major corridors designated by the Federal Railroad Administration and covering lines in Texas, California, Florida, the Pacific Northwest, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the Southeast, northern New England, Pennsylvania and New York.
The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative, joining Chicago and 11 other metropolitan areas within 400 miles, is a front-runner. The governors of eight Midwest states wrote Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood this week appealing for money for the region, one of the hardest hit by the recession.
Howard Learner, president of the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Center, a group promoting the rail network, said that with about $2 billion of the stimulus money they could complete or upgrade lines linking Chicago with St. Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee-Madison.
"It's a way of solving our global warming problems that also creates jobs and provides a boost to the economy," he said.
But the competition will be fierce.
"We are very jazzed about it," said Karen Parsons, executive director of the Southern High-Speed Rail Commission. She said preliminary numbers showed that they could increase capacity and speed on the existing New Orleans-Baton Rouge line for about $150 million to $200 million, and for $500 million they could expand service from New Orleans to Mobile, Ala.
Mehdi Morshed, executive director of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, said his state has a plan to build 800 miles of track for trains running 220 mph, at a cost of about $45 billion. He said the state may ask for about $4 billion from the federal government to work on lines between San Francisco and San Jose and Los Angeles and Anaheim.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement that his state leads others because voters last November approved nearly $10 billion in state bonds for high-speed rail. "With a boost from our federal partners, nearly 40 million Californians and millions of travelers from around the world will be able to experience the reality of America's first high-speed rail system."
Chris Lippincott, spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation, said his office was excited about advancing plans to build high-speed lines from San Antonio to Dallas and then up to Little Rock and Tulsa. But he added that the "nation's rail needs will exceed a single injection of money," citing estimates that just staying even with current level of congestion in his state will cost $313 billion over the next 20 years.
Some say the investment is too small, Obama acknowledged. "But this is just a first step. We know this is going to be a long-term project," he said.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Der Mar and all; I think we should move on to string theory (after we have a few drinks).

Let's have several (many!) drinks and just move on to super-string theory and then maybe after that grows up we can contemplate --> rope theory,

[Rufus T. Firefly]

I sometimes wonder if these same conversations would occur if we all met in person. Eh? Somehow, I just can't picture it.
Just a thought.

Why not? I'm completely calm and relaxed in real life person-2-person situations..........



when I'm on my meds and have gotten some sleep,

[dougdagrump]

Who in the hell would be willing to buy ANY California bonds now, unless they are looking for one hell of a future tax write-off. When they might not even be able to pay people's tax refunds how can they expect to float billions of dollars of bonds with a junk bond rating.

[2railjon]

Yeah. Blind-sided once again. Like being smacked between the eye's with a dull axe. Cruising to work and WHAM, Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" starts oozing out of the radio. Ya know:
Where it began, I can't begin to know when
But then I know it's growing strong
Oh, wasn't the spring, whooo
And spring became the summer
Who'd believe you'd come along

Just change the station ,huh? Remember I'm driving a 19 year old truck with a radio whose buttons work when they feel like. You have to "thump" the radio with your hand just right to get it to respond.
Thump.
Hands, touching hands, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
I've been inclined to believe it never would

Thump.
Thump.
Bang. BANG!

It was frightening. Rolling down an empty highway with the sun just cresting held captive by my evil radio.

BANG. BANG<BANG!$545%%$$
AARGGHHHH!!!!! Tie me naked to the bed posts and whip me, please. No use, I'm cursed. Doomed. Just sit back and sing along now. There's no escape.
Oh, one, touching one, reaching out
Touching me, touching you
Oh, sweet Caroline
Good times never seem so good
Oh I've been inclined to believe it never would

Ohhh, sweet Caroline, good times never seem so good

[The Dirt]

Wayne, LOL!

Tramp, cool! Makes perfect sense.

Rufus, you're better-looking than I had imagined!

Jon, Jon, Jon.
Jon? You're scaring me.
Neil Diamond?
Can Barry be far behind?

[JimTT]

Wayne you are a true artist. I would recomment large breasts (as in my post here).


Tramp you have exceeded my 25 word attention span.


Let me ask the following question: If Barron Vladimir Harkonnen was a hobo what brand of chew would he favor?




And I quote

Code: Select all

Who in the hell would be willing to buy ANY California bonds now, unless they are looking for one hell of a future tax write-off. When they might not even be able to pay people's tax refunds how can they expect to float billions of dollars of bonds with a junk bond rating.



Does this have anything to do with the color of our monny?

SO Neil Diamong is code for : sweet Caroline...which is code for Danni Ashe




Here is another example of no adult content Danni so aptly represents!

[img]Aptly%20represents[/img] ... do you understand this code?



By the way I think Groucho liked bif (bif is a Freudian slip for BTILTF {code}) tatas/tits.

[rogruth]

Jim,

Those three pictures in the same post?Oh my.

Which one is inflated the most?
I hope what happened to the baron doesn't happen to the Barbies.

[JimTT]

Rogruth ....Those are real my friend ....you will just have to get used to it. If I violated the rulles I could produce better evidence

[Del Mar]

Wayne,

I think that's about right.



It was hard to remember that.

High speed rail is exciting, but in government hands it becomes a method of controlling the proles and disfranchising them from choice in individual transportation. In conservative and liberal administrations, AMTRAK has failed miserably. I don't have a good feeling about government administration of new transportation methodologies and taxing the hell out of my personal transportation choices to support it to the point of personal transportation financial infeasibility.

OTOH, it is folly to think that the passenger service that some of us love to model at its apex (1950s) was not subsidized. Railroad moguls of the 1800s were granted land on either side of the tracks they constructed that made them rich through real estate developments. The proles didn't benefit from that either. The aeroplane and interstate highway system came along later to make those systems less desirable than rail travel for passengers. My somewhat cynical father would have said that the interstate highway system was promoted (under Eisenhower) not to provide personal mobility, but to provide military transport in the event of an attack from external sources or an internally generated insurrection. Interesting that they chose highway system development over enhancement of the rail system.

That being said, hobo's travel in boxcars, on their dogs, or cheap bicycles left by other hobos.

San (Winston Smith)