nathan3e’s Recent Comments

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Jabailo's Obama Forecast

  Wow Jabailo, what a powerfully persuasive argument you make, without the slightest dependence on hyperbole. With your sharp analytical skills I am astonished that you are not a highly paid public speaker.  How people would flock to hear your every resonant word!

  Apparently Obama has risen to the position he is in, against stupefying odds, without having accomplished A SINGLE SIGNIFICANT THING REGARDING ANY ISSUE AT ALL.  He will now be one of the most powerful human beings on the planet and in this position he will do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. I guess he'll just be kicking back, playing Monopoly with the Secret Service.  

  Thanks for setting everyone straight Jabailo.  Really, where would grist be without your singular brilliance?              On Kerry and Clinton note action on climate change as key diplomatic concern posted 10 months ago 4 Responses

• Click here to view comment in original post

  Apparently we will never ever run out of oil

  John -

  You certainly do seem convinced that you are right and everyone else posting here is wrong. You are nearly obsessed with commute time as opposed to long term sustainability. Regardless, your comments are a good read.  It reminds me of listening to my father when he has too much Rush Limbaugh is his system. I especially liked the part where you gushed about how you and your wife have commutes that are under 35 minutes.  What a coincidence!  My commute is under 35 minutes as well!  Unless it rains.  Or snows.  Or construction projects muck up any route I can take.  Oh, yes, there are those traffic accidents that can turn the highway into a parking lot.  I am sure none of these things ever befall you or your wife.  And this does not even address the fact that our "35 minute" commutes are wholly dependent on wholly unreliable oil.  Even if you reject peak oil as a concept, it is rather more difficult to reject the fact that big oil producing countries tend to be a wee bit hostile towards the US of A.  If your car ever ceases to be a viable option, how are you going to get from Outer Suburbia to where you need to be?        

  Living in the Twin Cities it is really hard not to chuckle when seeing someone claim that sprawl is a solution to anything.  The traffic here has not been helped even incrementally by our incredible sprawl.  As real estate has gone south and gas prices have gone up, the property values in outer ring suburbs have started to collapse.  I live with my wife and children in densely populated inner ring suburb Edina, MN.  Unfortunately my highly specific job is located in densely populated St. Paul, MN.  Here in ostensibly progressive Minnesota I can easily get to work via public transit right?  If I could I would sell one of our two cars today.  Light rail here takes you to the Mall of America, downtown Minneapolis, the airport and approximately 2 other places.  The buses are full and often have weirdly circuitous routes.  It would take 1 ½ to 2 hours for me to go 20 miles to work.  I have no choice but to drive here, whereas all of the times I have been in NYC I have never once driven a car.                

  When you ask "Why do you think we've built more roads than transit lines?  Could it be that's what people want?", it really is touchingly naïve.  Or defiantly obtuse.  Or both.  Are you honestly suggesting that "people" have been given a choice?  Here in the Twin Cities, we watched a major bridge collapse recently.  Outside my office window is another bridge that has been classified as perilous.  It might get fixed next year.  Maybe. On my commute in I go through a science fiction scale highway expansion that will be filled to capacity the moment it is completed and will solve precisely nothing.  All of this is incomprehensibly expensive and largely self-defeating.  Light rail was voted in here, yet the State Legislature continues to pour endless amounts of tax dollars into the black hole labeled "Roads". I am having some trouble seeing the silver lining.  
  On A comprehensive solution to end congestion posted 1 year, 7 months ago 33 Responses