The ‘Bullet in the Brain Train’ will a stop at ‘Garlictown Boondoggle’
Dear Editor,
It would be cheaper for taxpayers to buy an airline, and pay the travelers air fares, than it would be to build the Bullet in the Brain Train. Instead of building on the quicksand of socialism, we would be building on the bedrock of capitalism. If the transcontinental railroad had been built in the manner proposed by the socialist rail transit (tax and spend) crowd, then our railroads would have ended-up as Nobel Prize winner Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn described the Soviet railroads in “The Gulag Archipelago” (1973), Ch. 2, “The History of Our Sewage Disposal System.”
If you thought electricity deregulation and MTBE mandated gasoline additives were colossal California state government mistakes, inflicting much more hurt than help on us, you ain’t seen nothing.
If they borrow the $80 to $100 billion (today’s dollars) from our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren and build the world largest boondoggle, the previous mistakes by our legislature will look microscopic in comparison.
If they do build it, I recommend that they name it after its philosophical creator: Karl Marx Bullet-in-the-Brain Train. And the Gilroy Depot should be named: Lenin’s Garlictown Boondoggle.
Joe Thompson, Gilroy
Learning from Massachusetts’ water
perchlorate limit level
Dear Editor,
This is to supplement my Dec. 26 letter about the city’s decision to scale back perchlorate treatment on its wells. I had a wonderful opportunity to speak with Carol Rowan-West, the director of the Office of Research and Standards of the State of Massachusetts Department of Health on Dec. 21. She points out that Massachusetts selected to use a higher proportion of perchlorate from food than the State of California in determining the Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) in our water supply. She cites recent studies from the FDA and National Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating high levels of perchlorate in our food supply. She also points out that the State of Massachusetts used the most current studies available in determining its MCL at 2 ppb. The director concurs that there are hidden dangers with perchlorate and its unseen effects on unborn and developing children and cites the work and publications from the Environmental Working Group for additional information.
What concerns me in this matter is that our City could not and would not provide me with this important information. I had to seek it out and make my own contacts to be able to bring this information to the public, our community, so that we can make the best decisions possible for our children and families.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill City Council member
Fraud alleged in letters about poor Charter Internet service
Dear Editor,
Thank you all for responding to my recent letter regarding poor Internet performance by Charter Communications. I am overwhelmed by the responses but not surprised. The letters you have sent indicate that the issue with poor Internet performance is pervasive. Charter appears to not have the infrastructure, the resources or where with all to address the problem. In essence you are and I was paying for a service they cannot deliver when a majority of the subscribers are on line. In my opinion this is fraud.
I have placed the matter in the hands of our local district attorney who has indicated interest. For those who did not read my first letter, I asked those of you with poor performance issues with Charter Broadband to send me a note about your experience. If you have not already done so, please send a note detailing your issue with Charter such a poor access speeds, disconnects, latency, or other related issues. These letters will be added to those who have previously responded. To check your Internet connection speed go to http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/, click on the San Francisco tab and watch the test. If you are paying for five mb/sec you should be getting five mb/sec, not three or two or sometimes 356 kb/sec, especially during prime time between the hours of 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. The speed should be steady and consistent.
Again, write to me, Councilmember Mark Grzan, at gr*******@*****on.net . Let me know of your issue. I will follow up with each respondent with progress. Again, thank you all for responding and please continue to provide me with your experience with Charter Communications.
Mark Grzan, Morgan Hill City Councilmember
Get the big rigs off the highways and onto a rebuilt railway system
Dear Editor,
At the recommendation of San Benito County Supervisor Pat Loe, the county transportation governing board unanimously included “truck only” lanes in its approval of Santa Clara County’s Valley Transportation Authority northern most alternative for strategic improvements for regional highways, i.e., “East-West Connector.”
While the Southern California Association of Governments had previously endorsed the same concept, the nation’s commerce and industry have been using a better form of freight transport, i.e., intermodal service. The 75 percent fuel savings, lower freight rates, and highway congestion and maintenance reductions, at truck-competitive service on trans-Mississippi loads induced U.S. industry to switch from trucks to intermodal even before fuel prices reached their current levels. Even the nation’s largest truckers have been tendering truckloads to railroads for long haul moves, improving their bottom line.
So, when Robert Poole, Ph.D., from Reason Foundation, repeated his “truck only lane” strategy at last year’s think tank meeting at the Metropolitan Transportation Associations Oakland headquarters, I reminded the audience that we already have them, and their called “railroads.” Tires on concrete or asphalt cannot compete with steel wheels rolling over steel rails thanks to the coefficient of friction.
So, instead of building highway lanes restricted for truck use only, why not do as former Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta, our Governor’s Goods Movement Plan, and Jim Nicholas, chief, highway programs for Caltrans all say: “we need more intermodal.”
You can find legislative support for the idea in the national intermodal transportation policy in Title 49, United States Code. For additional legislative history, see my article, “ISTEA Reauthorization and the National Transportation Policy: Overlooked Externalities and Forgotten Felt Necessities'” 25 Transportation Law Journal, pp. 87-et seq. (1997).
Omitting presently existing technology from transport strategy is why many are calling for termination of the MPO structure in the next highway bill (due out in 2009).
If local leaders truly want to reduce highway deaths and injuries, highway congestion and air pollution, then we must go back to the future, as I’ve been saying for more than 20 years now.
How can we justify higher taxes when we ignore private-sector options?
Why are we (Silicon Valley and the Salinas Valley) the largest urban area in North America without intermodal options? Why should shippers and receivers in this region be forced to dray loads to and from the piggyback ramps (intermodal facilities) at Lathrop (Union Pacific) and Stockton?
If we are now quoting philosophers to local leaders, then how about, “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Caveat Viator!
Joe Thompson, Gilroy
Why does Romney have to justify his faith?
Dear Editor,
I find it abhorrent that Romney feels the need to justify his faith to anyone.
The majority of people in this country professes a belief in a supreme deity. They also profess an innate knowledge of the workings of the mind of that deity – they know how to make him wag his tail as well as get him pissed off.
Of these people, a rift of sorts has developed, usually derived from the fact that each of the Gods worshiped has tried his hand at publishing and each of the books, periodicals and essays are infallible and a guide to life everlasting. It seems that even when the book, periodical or essay is agreed upon by a number of group members, the interpretation of said works leads to further rifts on the path to life everlasting.
Given the above as fact, I ask you, why should a person who believes in a certain deity, but who’s book, periodical or essay states that horses roamed the Americas before the Spanish brought them, be forced to defend his belief to a person whose deity has a book, periodical or essay that states a talking snake tricked a rib woman into eating from a magical tree.
We are at war, people are starving, the economy is forcing people out of their homes, diseases we thought were things of the past are now back to haunt us. We must not quibble over whose book, periodical or essay will bring the wrath of Santa. I mean God upon us, we need leaders, not storytellers.
Gary Mueller, Hollister
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