Replies

Do you dispute the Census Bureau (see below)? Or do you think the American Public Transportation Association is an unbiased group?

I don't dispute the data from either source, nor do I think the data is contradictory.
My belief is that you have difficulty understanding the data.
It is true that BOTH mass-transportation AND private vehicle usage has increased.
That is because the nation's population itself has increased over the time period mentioned.
Furthermore, the article that you posted states that "car pooling" is the mode of transportation that declined in usage. This decline is what contributes to the increased use of BOTH mass-transportation and individual vehicles.

Construction of mass-transit systems has not kept pace with population growth.
And as population density increases in various regions and urban centers of our nation, it becomes a more cost-effective alternative.

Do you believe that Columbia is being fought over oil rather than communism, cocaine, and terrorism?

Do you think that oil supply from this region isn't jeopardized by communist insurgency and drug-related terrorist activity?

The point being made was that military involvement was becoming increasingly necessary to secure foreign supply of oil.
That point has been proven.

"military involvement was becoming increasingly necessary"

B.S. Show me the historic pattern. You've got one disputable data point only: Kuwait.

I'll show you a history of "Military Involvement":

Afghanistan: No oil.
Somalia: No oil.
Balkans: No oil.
Haiti: No oil.
Panama: No oil.
Grenada: No oil.
Viet Nam: No oil.
Korea: No oil.
Europe II: No oil.
Japan: No oil.
Europe I: No oil.
Spanish American War: No oil.
Mexican American War: Guess what: No oil back then. Texas did turn out to have oil, but who knew?

You remain uqualifiedly full of it.

"Do you think that oil supply from this region isn't jeopardized by communist insurgency and drug-related terrorist activity?"

Yes, and so is FREEDOM. We tend to fight for freedom, and occassionally it involves places with oil, at other times it involves places with vineyards, factories, or bi-lingual puple people.

The fact that a bunch of commie totalitarian drug runners may end up with the oil is no reason to consign the Columbian people the fate of North Korea. Which, I suppose is your objection. "If there's oil there, let the flipping commies take over and ride the bus." I get you loud and clear.

Plus which, I await your intellectual betters to defeat the idea that the free market is the best allocator of resources. When you have read and can prove wrong the Nobel Prize Winning Economists Hayek (Road to Serfdom) and Friedman (Free to Choose), then I'll listen to your statist demands that we all get on the bus.

"Construction of mass-transit systems has not kept pace with population growth."

And thank goodness for that. The light rail in Seattle is going to cost over $45,000 per rider. We could buy them Lexi instead, or pay them to stay home. It would be cheaper.

I was assaulted on a bus, and pardon me if I don't want to ride with the strung out riff raff.