And so we know and rely on the LOVE God has for us. God is LOVE. Whoever lives in LOVE lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:16
In the Peoples Republic of Portland the commies really love their Choo Choos. They have wasted tens of Billions of other people's money so a few thousand riders can ride Light Rail. This is not about transportation or even the corruption we have in Tri-Met mass transit, this is goes to the darkest depths of the liberal mindset. For the most hardcore liberal who worships the earth these trains are idols which they can prove to Mother Gaia they are good caring people. The fact that others have to pay for their worship makes the decision extremely easy since they can be good people with other people's hard earned dollars.
Anybody who doesn't realize this is as much a spiritual war as it is political just isn't really paying attention. The central planners are using their liberal earth cultists for their support of Light Rail by telling them it makes a difference to the earth when it is actually just the opposite. They also believe that they are punishing car drivers who have been the enemy of liberals for forty years by forcing them off the roads. In addition these trains are electric so to a lib that means it doesn't use fossil fuel while they are in the process of closing down Portland's primary source of cheap electric power, the coal plant in Eastern Oregon. This is why these trains are the perfect symbol for their liberal religion. The rest of us have to pay the tithes.
All of their beliefs are completely false and without merit. They want to copy places like Europe, New York and Chicago where trains can actually function semi-effectively due to the density of the populations. Oregon is not any of those places since it is far more spread out thanks to the efficiency of the automobile. Now most commies would prefer we have a centralized planning commission like METRO which would force the communities to be more like New York, DC, Berlin or Moscow, but Oregonians would rather be more spread out like, well Oregon. Thanks to the combustion engine we have a transporter that is simple to run, fast and efficient. The most precious commodities we have is time and the car is by far the most efficient machine we have built to conserve it. There is nowhere in Portland where one of these 19th century dinosaurs can transport from point A to Point B within thirty minutes of a car and usually much more time.
For most people who don't ride a train you measure your trip by the length of time it takes to get there, whether you have to hazard the weather, your safety and what it costs to go there. Most people budget a tank a week so that cost is already factored in, the train loses on all other counts and only because it is subsidized by every person in the area does it compete with the car on cost. You take the train and you will walk at least a half hour in the rain making that ride at least 45 mins longer than your car where you will pull right up to your destination most the time. Why would anybody ever consider taking a fixed track train except the rare situation they work next to the station unless they enjoy getting mugged then arriving at their appointment late, soaking wet?
Light Fail here in the City of Bridges is going to cost somewhere between $300-500 Million per mile for the fifteen mile run to nowhere which means it may cost over $7 Billion that could be used for widening and maintaining roads. If you widen the roads then those people who are saving 45 mins per trip would then be saving even more time and driving more efficiently. This is how most Oregonians travel so why shouldn't we spend the money where Oregonians live? For that kind of money they could not only widen I-5 but could build a new bridge across the Columbia to help the people and commerce at the same time.
Light Fail people will tell you this will help stop Global Warming so we need to build these monoliths to the earth. Since Global Warming is a fraud originated by consensus junk science they are simply relying on faith for this reason. They are part of the Global Warming cult who believe the earth will die if we don't replace cars with antiquated technology like LR. Some of us would prefer High Speed Stagecoach travel, but it isn't really feasible either. We would be money ahead to take that 7 Billion and invest it in the Keystone Pipeline and a couple new refineries which would lower gas prices and giving the lower income people an opportunity to buy gas for their own cars. The economic stimulus would come from the $80K+ oil company jobs bringing an immediate jolt to job creation eliminating the need for this inferior transportation system.
None of these reasons matter to the central planners who promote LR. They see it as a great way for them to launder taxpayer dollars to their favorite political group who will in turn send them campaign funds to get them reelected and complete the cycle of corruption. There is only one person not represented in this unholy trinity and that is the taxpayer. He pays the fare but it isn't on a nice air conditioned train, he is thrown on the tracks and driven over again and again and again until he is a piece of shredded slave meat. They will hold up the poor as victims needing this transportation when in reality the only person who needs it is the corrupt politician and his equally corrupt union bosses and related businesses.
They sell these boondoggles as earth friendly Green technologies to suck in the tree huggers and make them feel good about themselves. This gives them a mental high that no matter how personally immoral their lives they are still socially moral. Being socially moral trumps their personal immorality and allows them to be really good liberals. They are certainly better people than those socially immoral non believers who want to hurt the earth by driving their pollution belching cars. What they don't understand is these earth worshipers are being used and manipulated by corrupt politicians and companies who use their religious weakness as a lever to take money from them and control their lives.
The cult worshipers are also being used to force those who don't believe this religious drivel yet have no say since the politicians have sold this cult so well they are voted in over and over to continue the cycle. Until the cultists wake up and face the truth we are going to be stuck with Billions being wasted for antique transportation while modern automobiles are pushed into the ditch. In the end the only thing green about Light Rail are the dollars blowing out its smokestack.
Pray for Oregon
Gary Bray