Below are questions I have asked myself throughout the past week. Instead of writing what my answers to them would be I am interested in any answers you may have, or additional questions you have asked yourself.

For the week starting Saturday December 5, 2009 here are some questions I have had:

Now that we have enough for every month, will there be a Tiger’s Girls Calendar?

What is the population of the United States?

Why is President Obama so slow to inflict pain on foreign terrorists but so quick to want to inflict it on businesses and taxpayers?

Role models or lessons in morals and ethics?

(For SoCals) Have you noticed how many days a years we can see the mountains over the past several years, even in the summer?

Senate Health Care Plan is guaranteed to increase California State expenses by several billion dollars due to pushing more people into MediCal coverage, think the students and faculty protesting cuts to UC and CSU budgets know, care or understand the linkage?

Egg nog or spiced hot cider?

Why don’t the elitists meeting in Copenhagen who are going to chastise me and all of America and demand we use squiggly light bulbs that are extreme hazardous, not buy plasma televisions, drive French made Deux Chevaux, smoke Gallois, and carpool, why don’t they plane-pool and limo-pool for the conference?

Best sandwich in Long Beach area?

Newpapers and the AP report that Democrats are trying to “stall” or “block” health care reform despite having a filibuster proof majority in the Senate and overwhelming majority in the House, is there any wonder their subscribers are dropping like Obama’s favorables?

If you were given the opportunity to name an SUV what would you name it?

Didn’t global temperatures have to rise to end the first Ice Age?

What intellectually stimulating game(s) do you like to play?

What would happen if our state and federal legislatures had to operate under the regulations they put on businesses?

Hard yolk or soft?

What is your biggest computer frustration?

Is there a bigger ass in American politics than Harry Reid?

How do they know what the exact temperatures were during the Paleolithic Age?

Do you think federal money should be used to fund abortions?

Do you play an instrument?

What was the cost to the city to change email addresses from firstname_lastname@longbeach.gov to firstname.lastname@longbeach.gov? What is the cost to everyone else who has to take the time and resources to make the change from an underscore to a dot?

Does this have a Soviet or Stalinesque ring to it: “"Proposals to Accelerate Job Growth and Lay the Foundation for Robust Economic Growth." ?

How long can a country be labeled “Developing” before it should be labeled “Failing”?

Cocoa or hot chocolate?

Is the gathering in Copenhagen Global Warmists or Socialists?

Who knew the nerdy science guys are conformists aggressively pursuing income and glory at the expense of independent research and exploration?

Did you see that Congress passed a spending bill that includes a $1.6 Billion subsidy to Amtrack?

Why do dry cleaners put men’s and women’s clothes in the same plastic bag?

Who will win the Heisman Trophy?

Cookies or Pie?

So those are the questions, what are your answers? Click on the comments button below and let us know what you think.

Choo-Choo? Boo-Boo!

I am not a train hater. From elementary school through high school I spent a lot of time on trains. For many years when we lived in Philadelphia and New York our Dad was a train commuter. We would take the train to see the Phillies or to Manhattan for the day. When we moved to Europe the summer vacation for high school kids was a backpack and a Eurail pass giving us the freedom to ride the rails throughout Europe. It is somewhat genetic as my grandmother, Sis as she was known throughout Sacramento, was always telling us stories of the West and the railroads. I might have been the first kid at Hillside Elementary in Berwyn, Pa. who knew what the Golden Spike was because of Sis. Her passion for the West and railroads culminated in her activism to get the California Railroad Museum built in Old Town Sacramento; in fact she died at a meeting for the committee building the museum. Trains are in our DNA.

That said our region, our state and our federal government have wasted billions and billions of dollars on trying to encourage Los Angelenos, Californians and Americans to ride the rails. One of the biggest government handouts nationwide goes to public transportation and the Oliver's of Rail are at the stew pot hands and bowls extended saying, "Please sir, I want some more."

Amtrack is the quasi-public private partnership that controls most of the passenger lines in the United States. It is a public private entity because the government owns the controlling preferred stock and is the sugar daddy that keeps the operation afloat. In 2008 Amtrack had approximately 28.7 passengers on its various rail routes. The bulk of these riders in the Northeast using Amtrack to commute as my Dad did in the 1970's. Also in 2008 Amtrack received $2.8 billion from Congress, which it will continue to receive for the next couple of years. It used to get a subsidy about about $1.5 billion but that was not enough as the cost of 19,000 employees and 21,000 miles of track were not supported by the train fares charged the passengers. So Amtrack operates at a loss of $90 per passenger that is made up by the taxpayers.

In California the voters in 2008 passed Proposition 1A which allowed the state to sell $9.95 Billion in bonds to partially fund a high speed train in California. The amount is woefully short of what is expected to be needed. Estimates of the cost for the high speed rail system in the state are up to $85 Billion....today. Using history as our guide for the future we can expect if and when this high speed rail is built to exceed $100 billion. As part of the high speed rail program the state is looking for "matching funds" to this effect our Governor Schwarzenegger this week asked the Federal Government for an donation to the high speed rail of $4.95 Billion.

For those keeping score that is $14.9 Billion of taxpayer funds for a high speed rail system that will connect the major cities. For what? Why does our state need a rail system that will get train travellers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in, according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority (we have authority!) in 2:38.

I can fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco in 1:00 and it costs $100 or less any day, with numerous flight options. Other than someone who has a major fear of flying or an intense love of the rails would ride a train for two and a half times what it takes to fly from point A to point B, especially if the cost is the same.

What will be the fare? The only comparison we can use is the Acela Express which is Amtrak's version of high speed rail in the Northeast, hitting 115 mph for a 35 mile stretch. It is a comparable distance from Boston to Washington D.C., there are stops in New York and Philadelphia, but the ride takes over 6 hours. The cost? About $200 per ticket. For "high-speed" rail. Still cheaper than the one hour flight (about $30o) but you save five hours.

"But Europe has such a great train system." That is an argument of many who favor continued and higher government subsidies of public transportation and rail projects. And it is true, Europe does have a great train system. The reason is because Europe grew around its rail system. Towns and cities placed the rail station in the middle of town and built from there. Major cities such as Paris and Brussels have multiple train stations serving passengers north, east, south and west. America has grown around its highway system. We are an auto-centric culture. Drive around the country and look where new towns and communities have been built--near major transportation corridors, transportation meaning highways.

Those pushing high-speed rail in California are creating huge amounts of public debt for future generations, not just the debt to build the system but the future debt to support and subsidize a system that must operate at a loss to have any passengers. They are operating on a belief that Californians will want to ride the rails instead of the roads or skies, a belief based on fantasy or romance of the clickety-clack.

Unless....the government forces ridership of the public railways and buses of public transportation. One reason public transportation is so prevalent in Europe is not only that cities were designed with public transportation in mind, but also because those who use their cars are taxed tremendously. Registration fees are very high and the taxes on gas and oil push the price per gallon in Europe to over $5. This is a model that has support in the United States to force Americans to use transportation, impose higher taxes on gasoline, auto registration, turn freeways into toll roads, and increase the taxes on air travel. If you make the alternatives expensive enough then the cost of rail travel in terms of fares and time begins to drop relative to driving our own cars or flying commercial air.

It is time for Californians to take a realistic look at the huge cost of high-speed rail. It does not make any sense to spend billions and billions of dollars to create a rail system that will be uncompetitive with other means of transportation and cost billions more in annual subsidies to keep afloat.

Build a better choo-choo? I say, "Boo."

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