On Friday 02 June 2006 15:53, Steve Lamb wrote: > Paul Johnson wrote: > > That's fair. OTOH, we don't want people moving here, just spend money > > and remember to go home when your done visiting. > > How about I just gas up on the Cali line and spend all the exhaust in > your craphole on the way to Washington where I'll gas up on the other side > of that line. :P Good luck. It's about 330 miles from the first gas station in Washington to the first gas station in California on I-5, the shortest way to make the trip. It's 307 miles from the Washington line to the Oregon line on I-5. Our problem isn't with people who just pass through, it's the ones who forget to leave. > > Usually not without help. Last time I saw a gas station spill here, the > > guy ahead of me drove off with the hose. > > Wow, last time I saw a spill was... uhm... wait... oh right, never. Every time I go out of state into Washington, Idaho, Nevada or up to Alberta or BC, I have about equal odds of the station absolutely reeking of gasoline because of a nice, big spill on the concrete. > Even LA, the "evil one" you were never more than an hour from countryside. Maybe if you live near the edge of the sprawl, sure. But it takes well more than an hour to get out of town from Orange County. The fastest I ever made it from SD to LA is two hours...at 3 in the morning on a Sunday. > Now, my fine ignorant friend. Know how much contryside that is? Well, > from one ocean to the other takes 5 days in an 18-wheeler. I know, I've > done it often enough. And most of that time is not spent in urban centers > or even in urban periphery. It's spent in the countryside. Maybe if you > spent a little more time traveling and a little less time trying to tell > other people how to live you'd grasp that. I understand how much countryside that is. However, the prime countryside tends to be near cities, and tend to get stomped first. There's a finite amount of farmable land in the world, and cities tend to be near that for a reason. > Where airlines compete with ground transportation without tax > dollars.... oh, except for trains... which are on the ground... and use tax > dollars. It's not impossible to compete with a national railroad. There's competition for passenger service in Canada and England off the top of my head, and they both have national passenger rail services. Amtrak was created because there is demand to get around by train, but the commercial railroads consolidated and focused on freight. > Want to know my other favorite one of yours? The constant whining > about California's power and yet you're a self proclaimed socialist. Gee, > if they need it shouldn't you provide it? Isn't that one of the baselines > of socialism. Oh, right "Except when it's a state I hate." The US is a federation of 50 individual states that really don't owe each other much of anything. California forgets this most often. -- Paul Johnson Email and IM (XMPP & Google Talk): baloo@ursine.ca Jabber: Because it's time to move forward http://ursine.ca/Ursine:Jabber
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