Recent Comments

1. 11 minutes ago on Henry Payne

   I guess I should take my own advice & simply ignore your comments.

   Regarding the notion that your comment was “ill conceived,” I offer a comparison between the federal funding of the T-C RR during the Civil War & the need to build EV infrastructure. The need for better transportation was there, the technology was extant# (but like EV’s, it was not fully developed, until the infrastructure had been in place for many decades), & the government put up the money & other incentives while private enterprise built the road & kept the profits. There was also the time involved to build it (actually to rebuild it, it was so poorly constructed in some places that it fell apart almost upon completion), &, of course, there was the graft and the enormous emoluments in the form of credits & land grants for the railroads (& their soon to be robber baron owners). For example, there was the Credit Mobilier scandal which effectively (almost) doubled the initial cost of the project, & put about $44M straight right into the pockets of the investors, the scandal that involved the innocent Ames company, & other such malfeasance. The railroads peaked in the ’20’s, but for their advantage of bulk freight transport would be withered even more today. One might also consider the federal & state Good Roads policies after WW1, as well, for those circumstances have led us directly to the continued need for better transportation, the need to abjure fossil fuels, and the need to develop EXPENSIVE infrastructure for EV’s, a project, like the T-C RR, that only the federal government can fund. Compared to the $94M (in mid-1800’s dollars, 47% of which was graft) that the T-C cost, $7.5B doesn’t seem like a lot — except that the private sector doesn’t seem as interested to build the EV infrastructure as the Big Four, et al., was to build the T-C RR (ergo 7 chargers?). Maybe the opportunity for graft isn’t as great? —)

   (#)Sierra NV tunneling was impossible w/o the novel explosive,nitroglycerin.

2. about 1 hour ago on Clay Bennett

   Some of those statues (and memorials) were installed decades after Appomattox. Indeed, the South put them up during the height of the Jim Crow era when the Klan was flying high and tree after tree in the South bore crops of strange fruit.

3. about 1 hour ago on Henry Payne

   This colloquy started with your mistaken omission of three aughts in a previous, and ill conceived in my judgment, comment. I responded accordingly: “$7,500,000?”. Some folks might have acknowledged the error, or the inconsistency, if you will, and left it at that. You chose to go further and to reply with a snarky comment: “Yup. I missed three zeroes. No one is perfect. Not even you.” Evidently this was an attempt to assuage yourself for an imagined personal affront. With a second comment, I merely acknowledged your unnecessary snarkiness. In response you have confirmed, and continue to confirm, your peevishness with your personal gibes. There you have it: actual effrontery for an imagined affront.

4. about 3 hours ago on Clay Bennett

   It was for a (free) Gideon Bible. The $59.99 (+ handling fees, tax, and shipping) went into Trump’s coffers.

5. about 3 hours ago on Jeff Stahler

   I don’t think that anyone (except sun and his ilk) would criticize Carter today. Having said that, Carter, like Nixon, did have a mixed revue administration. But Carter was saddled with economic problems arising from oil embargoes and the aftermath of the Vietnam boondoggle (also a product of Nixon’s and LBJ’s tenures), and, most seriously, the Iranian hostage crisis. Nixon has undergone a sort of reconstructive rehabilitation based on the good things he did during his tenure (e.g., the EPA) but Nixon’s soul remained dark ‘til the end of his days. Most of Carter’s good works — which have far outstripped those of all other ex-presidents — occurred after the (undeserved) accusations of a failed administration. (Buchanan’s or Fillmore’s, or Andy Johnson’s, or Trump’s, for example, were failed administrations.) Carter’s life — for anyone who has the volition to actually consider it — has been anything but one of malaise. But then sun and his ilk would lusst after any opportunity to shy brickbats at anything of real value. So we have sun’s stupid and utterly baseless cheap shot above.

6. about 3 hours ago on Jeff Stahler

   And he had the brains to do it.

7. about 3 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Fond of flags. But only the RIGHT flags ….

8. about 3 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Basturd Latin For a right-wing basturd? Or basturd-esse?

9. about 6 hours ago on The Flying McCoys

   Jeez! Polkas don’t get no respect!

10. about 6 hours ago on Edge City

    All three were done in the WW2 era. Victory Gardens were popular. Paper (for cellulose based explosives), rubber, and scrap metal were all collected, too. The collection of fats which, when saponified, yielded glycerine used in explosives, and the fatty acids had other uses, too.