One of the reasons I’m a devotee of our fearless frog is a shared, dare I say philosophical, pedestarian attitude. Society has become so dependent on the motor car we seem to prefer a lemming like approach to destruction rather than forgo a personal comfort capsule (aka car).

Still, I wonder about The Frog and I. Trains… Because We Have No Choice The fact is, we live in a society where market forces rule, and where transit solutions are increasingly being revealed as mere money making ventures for the Fat Controller (refer Thomas the Tank engine) rather than a solution to reducing carbon fossil fuels.

“Alan Altshuler and David Luberoff are American academics whose book Mega-Projects, The Changing Politics of Urban Public Investment provides a respected summary of America’s experience with new railways, as well as other big projects. Their conclusion is stark.
“Since the mid-1970s,” they write, “transit has consistently received about one-half of all public money spent on surface transportation in urban areas”. Despite this, today it serves fewer than 2per cent of all passenger movements.
So rail has failed to get people out of cars, at enormous expense, in many different cities across America…”

Rail infrastructure is a massive boon for those engineering/investment corporations who regularly plunder the public purse at our expense. Its easy pickings, we want carbon efficient transport, the corporations want plunder. We are generally naïve enough to accept the carefully presented rationalizations, but not see the realities.

We are being screwed over because we continually play into the hands of these psychopathic control freaks who obviously believe the ‘common man’ simply does not grasp the importance of their wealth generating mission.

Following on Thursday’s train post, I thought I’d use National Train Day as an excuse to explore the economics of train travel. Though it’s not practical in much of the US, when you’re talking the East Coast, going by plane is quite frankly…insane!

Acela Express - NY Penn Station to Washington DC Union Station
Time: 2:48
Cost: $334 (roundtrip, May 15th - May 16th)
Business Class (comfortable seat and the ability to work)

“Shuttle” Flight - Manhattan to Washington Reagan (via LaGuardia)
(United, US Air, American)
Time: 3:15 (approximately)
Cost: $635 (average flight) + $50.00 (cab to LaGuardia)
Coach Class (crappy, cramped seat)

CNN today outed former Rear Adm. John “Boomer” Stufflebeam for having sex in the White House. Apparently the fired Navy Admiral was banging a female federal employee. Seems he told his little single chipy that he was widowed. According to the investigators, “Stufflebeem told her that his wife had died of breast cancer, that a woman who answered the phone when she called his home was the children’s nanny and that he continued to wear his wedding ring “for his daughters who missed their late mother.” During the investigation he denied that the affair had gone beyond a kiss and said that he couldn’t remember the woman’s name. His inconsistent testimony and the wealth of evidence provided by the woman and her superiors buried him and he was summarily fired. Oh did I mention that the White House incident happened in 1990? Your government is working fast to correct any moral outrage on your behalf.

If Cindy McCain released her tax returns, what would they contain? Discuss.

When politely asked for her tax returns by journalists, Cindy McCain dove out the window of the Forked Tongue Express, ignited a jet pack, and hovered for a moment saying, “Meh, you’ll never get my tax returns copper, meh!” before she flew away, cackling madly.

True story.

From the iNews 9000 Turbo Wi-Fi headline translator–

Headline: Supreme Court upholds photo ID law for voters in Indiana
Translation: Indiana Doesn’t Want Me

Headline: Yanks turn to Wang versus Mariners
Translation: Seattle fans work on new versions of ‘Yankees Suck’ chant

Headline: Clinton calls for gas tax vote, Obama calls it ’shell’ game
Translation: Shell says reaping billions in profits is fun, but hardly a game

Headline: Scott Ritter - Attack on Iran ‘virtually guaranteed’
Translation: Cheney denies guarantee - “Absolutely no refunds”

Headline: North Korea turns over cache of long-sought nuclear weapons documents
Translation: “Misfiled under ‘nucular’,” Pyongyang says

Headline: Facebook Partners With AGs for Kids’ Safety
Translation: Kids invited to be Michael Mukasey’s friend, chat online about enhanced interrogation techniques

Headline: Dread-ed night comes for ‘Idol’ Castro
Translation: Paula Abdul criticizes Cuba for policy it hasn’t implemented yet

Headline: Did Rush Limbaugh Tilt Indiana?
Translation: Rush Limbaugh goes for walk along Lake Michigan - Low-lying areas of Gary report major flooding

Headline: McCain’s wife won’t release her tax returns
Translation: McCain denies withholding tax returns - “Cindy hasn’t filed in years”

Headline: Clinton Aide Says Race May Not Go to Convention
Translation: One race not invited - Clinton aide coins new term, ‘a-party-heid’

“A US official has suggested the American military could drop unauthorised food aid over Burma, as the White House expressed outrage at the junta’s obstruction of international relief efforts in the wake of Cyclone Nargis.” The AUSTRALIAN

While we are all concerned for the people in this tragedy, and the food drop suggestion was quickly shot down by Defence Secretary Gates, there was still a lingering question in this country: why don’t they just send the aid and reconstruction effort to New Orleans and get their own house fixed?

This issue simply highlights the general international skepticism over official US reactions. While other countries are treading warily, trying to find some way of delivering much needed aid, Bush is still firmly planted in combat mode. Dare I say it but; thank you Robert Gates for some sanity.

Sadly any aid that does get through will be too little too late, but that is down to the junta and the people. It is not a pleasant prospect, nor historically isolated. We can only hope that out of the inevitable pain will come a resolution to Burma’s dictatorship.

OK…ok. I admit it, I’m a crank on the subject of global-warming. I’ve lived for 10 of the last 12 years without a car, and yet a constant criticism directed toward me often goes like this: “Sure Kvatch. You live in a city with good public-transit, but I don’t…” …as if, somehow, this arrangement involves no sacrifice. But let me be clear: I spend a more time commuting than most people can conceive of, and I have to turn down plenty of work—work that pays much better than what I get paid now—because I simply have no way of getting to where the work is.

Simply put, I’ve made significant adjustments to my lifestyle to cut the biggest carbon emitter out of my life. So what’s left? Unfortunately…air travel, and damnit I love to travel!

Though estimates vary, flying creates more greenhouse emissions per passenger mile than almost any other form of transport. The Eurostar Consortium, for example, estimates that their emissions per passenger mile are 1/10 that of an equivalent plane flight. Now, the Eurostar runs at near capacity, but no matter how you slice it, air travel is problematic. Check out this chart:

Pretty sobering huh? You could do better in a car (assuming you’re not by yourself), much better going by train, and much, much better by bus. But that’s not even the whole story. Jet aircraft emit greenhouse gases—not just CO2, but NOx and water vapor—directly into the upper atmosphere where they do more damage and are less likely to be absorbed.

So where does this leave countries like the US, countries that lack well developed alternatives to air travel? Unfortunately in the position of playing catch up. We need to begin upgrading our rail systems, and we need to do it right-f*cking-now! More high-speed corridors? Yes. Infrastructure to support work and life during longer cross-country trips? Hell yes! I want to cut that last big carbon emitter (roughly 1/3 of my total footprint, and…yes…I did calculate it) out of my life.

This is something that we all need to be agitating for, because if we don’t a latter-day Era of the Zeppelins may be the only way to drastically reduce emissions from long distance transport. Though, I have to admit that I love the idea of traveling by zeppelin.

Apparently we aren’t allowed to question economic growth, or ‘the growth fetish’ as one renegade Australian economist puts it. The fact is, we have slowly started to move toward thoughts of social equity, painfully slowly, but out of the mouth of David Cameron, the Conservative leader in Britain:

“It’s time we admitted that there’s more to life than money, and it’s time we focused not just on GDP, but on GWB - general wellbeing.
Wellbeing can’t be measured by money or traded in markets.
It can’t be required by law or delivered by government. It’s about the beauty of our surroundings, the quality of our culture, and above all the strength of our relationships.”

Those with an historic bent will recognise that a former leader of Britain’s Conservative Party was Ronnie Reagan collaborator Maggie Thatcher. John Howard’s replacement as conservative leader downunder once asked:

“Towards what are we striving to grow?”

I lie of course on growth, I am not totally opposed to growth. I want to see growth in our social and creative infrastructure, growth in sustainable resource use. I want to see growth in our engagement with the policy development process and, God forbid, a growth in real democratic practices.

The trouble with the market growth fetishists is they’re always confusing quantity with quality - or refusing to admit that the former comes partly at the expense of the latter. As the guy who coined the growth fetish (Clive Hamilton) put it:

“…there is far too much emphasis on promoting economic growth over other things that affect our wellbeing.”

Prime minister Pratibha Patil of India has called on his people to do their part in fighting world hunger.

Patil’s announcement was in response to President Bush’s alarm over the size of India’s middle class, and how its rising standard of living is contributing to higher prices around the world.

“When you start getting wealth, you start demanding better nutrition and better food,” Bush said last Friday. “Demand is high, and that causes the price to go up,” the president said.

“Corn is yummy,” said Bush gravely. “But demand for corn to eat competes with corn for ethanol. Again, prices go up.”

“That’s economics, I’m the economister,” Bush said.

Patil appealed to Indians to do their part to help America.

In a nationwide TV address, Patil depicted an America in dire straits.

“Too many American cars are being parked at night with empty fuel tanks,” Patil said. “Fire up the tandoor and cook something other than corn. Something basic, like rice. Or something more nouvelle — a mushroom ragout, for example.”

E85 ethanol prices responded to the act of goodwill by falling 5 cents to $2.94 a gallon. Fewer American cars are expected to go to the garage hungry tonight.

McCain misspoke on reason for war - Meant to say Iran a danger to olive oil supplies

John McCain said today that he misspoke in recent campaign remarks, in which when he appeared to link the Iraq war with America’s dependence on Mideast crude.

“My friends, I will have an energy policy that we will be talking about, which will eliminate our dependence on oil from the Middle East that will prevent us from having ever to send our young men and women into conflict again in the Middle East,” McCain said Friday in Denver.

Today the presumptive Republican nominee to succeed President Bush clarified that he meant to refer to olive oil, not petroleum.

“Olive oil is a vital staple in the Mideast as well as the pantries of cooks the world over.”

McCain said if he is elected, he would lead a coalition of haute cuisine nations in preemptive military action against Iran. “We must prevent disruption of olive oil supplies, we cannot wait for the smoking tandoor which could come in the form of a mushroom ragout,” he said.

McCain said the use of olive oil would be demonstrated for reporters traveling with the McCain campaign. Cindy McCain has prepared a generous Mideastern-style buffet with falafel, lamb kebabs, gyros and hummus, he said, so journalists should stop asking questions and head over to the hospitality tent as soon as possible.

Good news on health care

John McCain today hailed recent news that 8 million additional Americans have lost health insurance coverage during the Bush presidency.

He was responding to an announcement by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) that a total of 47 million Americans now lack coverage.

“The way to look it is that an additional 8 million Americans are getting their health care through the free market,” McCain said.