Archive for 7/31/2002

Die Amtrak, Die!

Jul 31st

Posted by David Veksler in General

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Like many bureacracies, Amtrak just refuses to die. New evidence of incompetency causing the latest accident as wel as an incident where man suffering a heart attack on a rush-hour commuter train was forced to wait while the train made scheduled stops to pick up passengers before reaching paramedics in Boston don’t seem to deter Amtrak bureacrats from asking for more $, leading to a “a $64.7 billion transportation bill that would provide $1.2 billion for Amtrak.” Bush has proposed a more typically “conservative” $521 million, as an “emergency measure”. Meanwhile, if you look up Amtrak’s “
Legislative Grant Request” (a document begging for more federal money) they claim to attain profitability by Dec 2002 “just around the corner”, just as they have been claiming for the last dozen years. It’s unclear how this is possible considering that they have a huge and growing deficit and a large % of their cars is down for repairs without the funds to do any. Meanwhile their high speed train initiative has stalled, while Japan has had low cost commuter trains going over 170mph for years.
Socialism anyone?

David’s $500 Psychic Challenge!

Jul 31st

Posted by David Veksler in Mysticism

1 comment

To contribute to $1 Million Psychic Challenge, I hereby declare a prize of $500, out of my own funds, to anyone that can demonstrate to me any sort of psychic, hypnotic, levitational, or any* other paranormal ability in a valid, repeatable scientific experiment.

Hello, Miss Cleo? John Edwards? Uri Geller? Santa? Pope John Paul ? — I’m waiting.

Feel free to spread the word…but I’m not expecting too many inquiries…

Arbitration denied

Jul 31st

Posted by David Veksler in General

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I have been following the status of the legal legitimacy of arbitration for several years and I don’t like this ruling one bit. The implications are clear, as both Thomas and Dieteman mention, and I have a feeling this is only the beginning. I have been dreading just this ruling for a long time, and I think the consequences are going to be much more serious than even Justice Thomas realizes. This case is about whether America is ruled by laws or by bureaucratic whims, and I think the trend is pretty clear.