I don't blogger anymore

I tumbl.

Idle MBTA Plans

Everyone who has the slightest interest in planning has thought, "I would do this instead." Whether we are railfans, commuters, tourists who liked the trains they rode on holiday, trolley maniacs (sparkers), or professional planners we all have ideas, many of which are not bound by budgets of physics. Today's Boston Globe (17 May 13) has a front page about how the Fairmont Line isn't good enough. Of course it isn't finished, and a few months ago people in the same neighborhoods (the ass end of Dorchester) were grousing about how bad the buses are. So I looked up the background of the project, and decided I wouldn't have done anything different, considering the limitations the T has to work within.

 Then I thought, what would I do, money no object? Blue Hill Avenue subway- north from Mattapan, split at Warren St, Grove Hall, one line to Dudley and Roxbury Crossing, one to Andrew (Red Line). 
But why branch? Why not just go to Dudley and join the Future Urban Ring?

 Here is my rough Urban Ring route- starting under South Boston proper (maybe City Point) to Andrew, Dudley, Roxbury Crossing, somewhere in the Longwood Medical Area (not D branch Longwood), probably Kenmore (transfer to B, C, and D Green Line- don't see a better option), north to Central, Union Sq Somerville, Sullivan/Assembly/Wellington (can't decide), an Everett station, Chelsea,and Airport. The Silver Line South Sta. to Logan is good enough for now, which is why I wouldn't continue back to Southie.

 I see the long stretch of MIT, Longwood, and Dudley as growing or future employment centers. Union and Chelsea are ripe for development. Logan might get more passengers, but not many more jobs, and at some point it will have to close at high tide, making a new airport (cue Hanscom) inevitable.

 And I would extend the Blue Line to Lynn, as promised since the 1940s, probably by running next to the former Eastern RR main. And west- to a Charles/MGH under, an MIT station on Mass Ave, N. Harvard @ Western for Allston and the Harvard facilities, Arsenal near the mall, Watertown Sq, downtown Waltham, and since we love to extend subways out to 128, a relocated Brandeis/Roberts station with requisite massive parking garage tied into a rebuilt Route 20/Post Rd exit. A large, nearly empty tract of land exists there. I have no idea why, it could be a solid granite hill, conservation land, or Brandeis might own it for expansion.

 While I'm at it, tie Needham into the Green Line, run the Orange down through West Roxbury (not sure how to tie into 128), and I'd like to see Medford Sq get rails. No street running 'cars, better buses as in longer/more standing room, and trolleybuses on the busiest routes.

Good Guys, Bad Guys; White Hats, Black Hats

All the NRA had to do was keep quiet in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre. Just blank all the noise about gun control because something new will come along to fill our screens. Like snow. Instead they (and "they" are without doubt a committee laden with consultants) decided to muddy the waters with the heavily armed Good Guys protecting schools from the Bad Guys scheme. After some outrage and careful explanation of how this scheme will not work (see below), and a few fleeting photo ops (Photoshops?) of volunteer gunmen in front of a school, the world for 99.99% of us will be the same as before Adam Lanza ever picked up a gun.
But I figured out where the NRA got their idea.

New NRA School Patrol

All those old Western movies where the good guy wears a white hat and the bad guy wears a black hat- it's all so obvious.

The bad guys buy the land under the school and want to put up a tannery. Or something. Gene Autry, or Red Ryder, or anyone in a white hat battle away until they get the deed that shows Old Widow Crocker donated the land to the county. Or similar. The good guy always wins despite overwhelming odds because we're not supposed to notice the bad guys telegraphing every punch. Good, bad, simple- it's the American Way! What, do you hate America?
I live near an elementary school and I will demonstrate how the super school patrol can fail. Where will the new guard be? Standing out front? Maybe for a day or two in fair weather. Then he will settle into a routine of dozing by the front door, checking out the MILFs when they come in, gently resting in a pile of powdered sugar as nothing happens for days, years on end.

Future NRA School Patrol

All future Adam Lanza has to do is-

1. 1- Drive an unremarkable white van (delivery, trades?) around back (two- no- three ways in) and shoot through the windows.
2. 2- Park on an adjacent street and walk in.
3. 3- he could wait until school gets out and take his chances from an adjoining driveway.

It doesn't take a genius to see the NRA scheme is doomed to failure- it didn't work in Sandy Hook. But I had fun looking for the illustrations.
Hi Ho Excelsior- away!

Spare a Thought for the Atheists

The subject of God came up in connection with the massacre at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, CT. God, gods, spirits, angels- anything supernatural is the construct of the human mind. Did you see the ghost of a deceased loved one? So have I. Only later I realized I was asleep- a dream- a fancy of brain chemistry.

 You may think you are selfless and giving when you pray for someone. In reality you are just patting yourself on the back for… nothing. Words and good will are meaningless, to say you are praying for me is the ultimate insult. Nothing would send me to an early grave as soon as waking in a hospital bed to see a priest (the Church I left). Do me and millions (billions?) more a favor and keep your prayers to yourself.

How Can I Have Skipped Candlepin Bowling?

Below is a video of the late great Stasia Czernicki. Whatever her accomplishment on the lanes, she lives on in our family because she was Polish and from central Mass. Central Massachusetts is that flyover country between 495 and Northampton. You went to the Worcester Centrum once and got lost both ways. Anyway, notice how you hold the ball in your hand in a manner obvious to any human from the Rift of Africa forward. No holes for fingers and twisted wrist movements. I worked in a garment factory where one day we were cutting red webbing for suspenders from rolls with thick cardboard cores in the middle. I decided they looked liked candlepins, so three of us taped rolls into taller pins, used the webbing as bumpers, with rubber band balls (made earlier) about the right size, and spent a few hours bowling in a back corner. Worked great! No holes, simple pins. Apparently hitting just the 2 and 8 is a "half Worcester."

Neo Liberals, the "Tea Party", and Libertarians

Out of the blue a truth about Neo Liberals came to me- they're losers, total failures.  At the top are a few  greedy tax dodgers like the Koch Brothers funding their movement.   Then the arguers, apologists, and debate club pains-in-the-asses who are the "intellectuals".   And there are a handful of true color Libertarians, as much as 1% of the electorate.   The vast majority of knuckledraggers, almost to a man an "independent contractor", have failed so horribly in the world of paid employment that they had to become the sainted small businessman yeomanry because they totally failed at working with others.   Don't give me any laid off bullshit- you got the sack solely because you are an asshole.

Why do they blame the gubmint for every evil?  Because they won't take responsibility for their own failures.    They know, although few have read Ayn Rand (Ayn Rand, Ein Reich, Ein Volk), that they would be just miserable in a Randian/Libertarian/Neo Liberal fantasy land.    Why do they hate people like me, even worse off than they are?   The pecking order.

Someone above them pecks their head and instead of taking it and moving on, they peck the next man down.    They want nothing less than the return of slavery.   They want someone to grovel at their feet for every crumb so they can feel power in a world in which they can't function.   Pathetic.

There are 300 million of us.   Government is the way we manage competing interests.   The magic of the market is just that- sleight of hands, mirrors, and pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.    One fine day in 2008 nobody bought or sold bonds. NO ONE.    Market failure- who bailed out the market?    Did The Market bail out the market?    You did, asshole.  Grow up.

1812 and All That (If Only)

I get a kick out of this old patriotic, loyalist stuff. Make the heart swell and that. Never felt the same about America. We almost made it out, too. In 1814 the Royal Navy extended its blockade of the United States to include New England. Nantucket lasted a few weeks and gave in- they made a separate peace with the British. This unleashed a cascade of similar deals up and down the coast. Massachusetts told London they'd come back when this whole Life, Liberty, Purfuit malarkey fell apart. I don't know about Connecticut or Vermont, but the rest of us would have seceded if the British government hadn't decided what with Napoleon vanquished there wasn't much point continuing. A bit late for the Battle of New Orleans, but there you go.
Just think- a head of state far away instead of glad handing and podium pounding every few years; ideals of peace, order, and good government, instead of how can I strut my stuff and make all my neighbors miserable; not being hated for something some blowhard in Tennessee says; a dollar worth a dollar. So close! This will never appear in any Rockets Red Glare history textbook. Who won the War of 1812? Canada- ask any Canadian.