Posted on 05/13/2015 10:26:10 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A consequence of America growing more secularist, by which I mean more materialistic, is clear in public reactions by secular sophisticates after the crash of Amtrak 188 in Philadelphia.
The dead had yet to be confirmed, the injured were still trapped in smashed train cars, but partisans steering the news narrative griped about “infrastructure” and lectured about “funding.” They blamed Tuesday night's calamity on Republicans, though investigators said speeding into a curve at 106 m.p.h. likely caused the crash. (Maybe the engineer is a Republican.)
Two hours after the crash, as aerial shots of the tangled disaster scrolled on social media, the Atlantic — mental mecca for materialistic eggheads — posted an article via the National Journal, titled “Where Did Amtrak Go Wrong?” The long-winded piece posed a question: “Why can't America have great trains?”
Against wrenching scenes of bloodied and dazed passengers, high-minded readers of the Atlantic engaged in bloodless, academic argument about “lack of infrastructure investments,” blaming “capitalism … selfishness … greed …" and expressed disgust about America's lack of “high-speed rail.”
It didn't matter that somewhere within the train wreckage lay the body of Jim Gaines, 47, of the Associated Press news service, who leaves behind a son, 16, and a daughter, 11. Also killed was Justin Zemser, 20, a Navy midshipman, who was riding the New York-bound train home to see his family.
Some of us non-secularists saw the twisted metal and overturned cars and were saddened and heartsick at the certain suffering of the families of those killed. Others saw what we saw, but seized it as an opportunity to mount their favorite political hobby horse — America’s “crumbling infrastructure.”
Philadelphia magazine, after briefly acknowledging that people had died, quickly got to the meat of its post: “Still, (Tuesday) night’s crash has ignited a debate on social media and elsewhere about America’s crumbling infrastructure.”
The Washington Post weighed in: “Although the cause of Tuesday’s derailment was still undetermined, the answer has a lot to do with the United States’ crumbling transportation infrastructure … ”
The New York Times: “The Northeast Corridor, which runs between Boston and Washington, is one of the railroad’s busiest and most profitable lines. But officials have long complained that the agency needs more subsidies from Congress to improve the railroad’s deteriorating infrastructure and replace aging equipment.”
A headline at the progressive social media web site ThinkProgress: “Why You Can’t talk About the Amtrak Derailment Without Talking About Our Infrastructure Crisis.”
Politico, helmed by policy geniuses in D.C.: “The fatal accident is likely to heavily influence an ongoing safety and funding debate in Washington that has been influenced by two major factors — a recent flurry of major passenger rail accidents and a push by fiscal conservatives to further trim spending.”
That U.S. rail accidents have been declining since 2006 as safety has improved doesn't seem to matter.
What matters is policy and regulation. When disasters strike, we Americans must seek answers in the technocratic and the administrative. “Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” is the creed of the materialistic. Train wrecks, tornadoes, hurricanes, "super storms," plane crashes — in every crisis, our first instinct should be to appeal to the state for help.
Tuesday night, amid the hand-wringing over inadequate government funding for Amtrak and breathy denunciations of Republicans, one Tweet from the crash site stood out. It came from former Democratic Bucks County Congressman Patrick Murphy, who was aboard the train when it wrecked.
After tweeting several nightmarish pics from inside the smashed and slanting café car, he tapped out, “Pray for the injured.”
Discussions of hapless government policy can wait.
The engineer fled the crash. The train was going 106 mph into a 50 mph curve. What was he doing at the time? The fact that he is gay shouldn’t mean anything: conservatives need to leave that aside.
I would ask where Amtrak’s hiring practices went wrong. Why couldn’t they hire someone who knew that going 106 miles an hour was dangerous?
We’ll leave that aside and ask what was his mental state? What was his level of training? Were there more qualified, mature, and responsible people who could have been hired?
Money (public) to infrastructure goes directly to union contractors, where the unions launder it and send the dem politicians their cut.
What if it turns out that it did have something to do with it? I’m not saying it did, since we know next to nothing yet.
Wow I wasn’t aware he fled the crash. I agree it is not whether he is gay or not, but what was he doing at that precise moment or planning to do. I pray he was not attempting suicide.
It should be addressed at the inquiry into what caused the accident (although it probably won't be). The state-of-mind of a principal involved in a transportation accident is always relevant to the investigation.
NEVER let a crisis go to waste.
“The fact that he is gay shouldn’t mean anything: conservatives need to leave that aside.”
Yes, it does come as a factor. He was a homo activist which is far worse than a regular fag. No man leaves an accident.
Something is being covered up it seems.
he pushed the train up to kill everyone on board.
Has this been up on FR? http://conservativerefocus.com/blogs/blog5.php/2015/05/13/fbi-bulletin-of-five-days
“...The fact that he is gay shouldn’t mean anything: conservatives need to leave that aside....
Was he an affirmative action hire? Why should mentally ill people be put in such responsible positions. He should not have been hired in this highly sought-after dream job when there is a sea of more qualified people.
‘Crumbling infrastructure’?????
Where the hell did all the BILLIONS go that was taxed from us for Obama’s 2009 “Community Reinvestment Act”?????? Those BILLIONS were supposed to go ‘fix’ stuff they now claim we need more funds to fix.
The meme is that anyone who disagrees with government spending and refuses to be taxed more and have their wealth redistributed is an ‘enemy’ of the people.
Totalitarian regimes and genocides are borne from everything we now see going on around us in this country.
The engineer probably was subjected to “New” math in school.
Leftists have no hearts. Just a pump to drive their insatiable desire to be tyrants.
They did the same thing in MN when a bridge collapsed. This is SOP for scum like them.
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