High Speed Rail Questioned in California

"The lack of a clear financial plan is a critical concern. There is an air of unreality about a plan that includes $17 (billion) to $19 billion in 'free' federal funding from programs that do not yet exist."

Report on California High Speed Rail



"As California prepares to start construction on its $43 billion high-speed railroad, another group of experts has cast doubt on whether the project can succeed.

The California High-Speed Rail Peer Review Group, which the Legislature and voters created to scrutinize the project, said in its first report released last week that the state's largest project suffers from the "absence of a credible financial plan."

The study -- now the fifth of its kind issued by objective analysts this year, all stinging rebukes of the project -- calls for a "thorough reassessment" of several engineering, financial and managerial issues.

The group of transportation and financial engineers and managers headed by former Caltrans chief Will Kempton said the state's plan to attract funds from both the public and private sectors seems unlikely. Bullet train planners are gambling they're wrong, and voted last week to spend $4.15 billion to start construction in the Central Valley in 2012 while hoping to secure an additional $30 billion this decade to complete the full line..."



Read Experts criticize high-speed rail financial plan@ Mercury News.

Ronald Reagan: "Facts are stupid things."

"Shoot, I must have lived such a doggoned sheltered life as a normal, independent American up there in the Last Frontier, schooled with only public education and a lowly state university degree, because obviously I haven't learned enough to dismiss common sense."
Sarah Palin

"We need to uptick our image with everyone, including one-armed midgets."
Michael Steele

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test."
George W. Bush

"Carbon dioxide is portrayed as harmful. But there isn't even one study that can be produced that shows that carbon dioxide is a harmful gas."
Rep. Michelle Bachmann

"When I see a 9/11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh shut up' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining."
Glenn Beck

"If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president."
Ann Coulter

"The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them."
Rush Limbaugh

Jesus - Sermon on the Mount

Where was Ayn Rand when Jesus needed her philosophical guidance?



I find the Gospel of Matthew contains some of the core principles of the teachings of Jesus. Below are a few verses I find helpful in guiding my path through life and helping me view the things that go on in the world around me. Please don't look to me for religious guidance. I'm only human and, like the rest of you, I just working to get through life the best I can. I'm not bible scholar and don't pretent to be...

What can I say...the beatitudes:

And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.


You can't take it with you...

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Who you going to serve...

No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

Who am I to judge...

Judge not, that you be not judged. for with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.

The Art of Politics: Thomas Hart Benton

The Strike (1933)

Thomas Hart Benton was born on April 15, 1889 in Neosho, Missouri. He spent most of his childhood in boarding schools and in Washington, D.C. and landed his first job as a cartoonist for the Joplin American in Missouri. Benton studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, resided briefly in Paris and New York City, then settled in Kansas City, working as an instructor of drawing/painting at the Kansas City Art Institute. His most famous pupil was the Abstract Expressionist Jackson Pollock; his well known Nebraska students at the Institute were Aaron Pyle and Bill Hammond.
Benton was part of the Regionalist movement and is well known for his mural paintings that depict commmon everyday scenes of Midwestern life. The figures in his works often appear cartoon-like through the way he distorts the bone and muscular structure of their faces. His most famous murals are located in the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City and in the Truman Library in Independence. Benton died January 19, 1975 in his studio.