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WHICH SHOULD BE THE VIEW OF ALL RIGHT-THINKING AMERICANS BEING TRICKED, DUPED OR OTHERWISE MANIPULATED INTO SUPPORTING THE TERRIBLE-TEMPERED MR. BANG, otherwise known as John McCain, for Indecision 2008.
Especially so considering where the Mainstream Media is little more than outright lackeys to McCain's propaganda machine, and can be expected to manipulate their line to McCain's deluded notion of a Greater Collective Will as Will Save America From Herself.
Not to mention a belief that the free-market and self-regulated capitalism with American characteristics is and will forever be the Great White Father of especially the Lower Classes heretofore "enslaved" by State welfare into "embracing Socialistic or otherwise un-American beliefs and feelings" all the more discreetly. That said free market will actually lead the Lower Classes all the more towards a New Golden Age of Empowerment based on Industry, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life thanks to wider selection ... greater choices ... and lower prices "as will greatly help the Lower Classes help themselves."
Which, unfortunately, winds up only keeping the Lower Classes all the more in poverty, fecundity and stupidity, the same to be excused as one with True Patriot Love in All Thy Sons Command.
Let alone epitomising as an ideal worthy of study and emulation an idealised small-town and rural Arcadian vision of Traditional Moral and Familial Values--the kind which, on closer inspection, is really nothing short of Peyton Place; IIBC, studies have shown that "moral turpitude" is all the more likely to be pronounced in rural and small-town America, notwithstanding a tendency to keep such in the closet out of a misguided belief that "neighbour trusts neighbour" and same all the more aggravated by a lack of worthwhile socioeconomic opportunities based on the very free-market paradigms and models which McCain and his droogs still insist on seeing as a Shining Beacon and Guide for the Lower Classes in Particular.
This while risking the further moral as much as socioeconomic bankruptcy of America thanks to weird and unwholesome associations and connexions which McCain is likely to cultivate while officially proclaiming himself to be a superdivine Saviour and Redeemer of America as will Reclaim Her from Herself--howbeit in his mind, not to mention delusions which may issue forth therefrom without provocation or warning that could risk our soverignty being further compromised to the point of potentially dangerous elements exploiting what McCain will likely have wrought via his psychoemotional demons.
And how will McCain likely respond?
As President, "he is above mortal error and weakness."
MEMO TO READERS: Because "truth is mighty, and shall prevail," those of you who especially value "letting America be America again," to paraphrase Langston Hughes, by their opposition to the McCain Presidential campaign, and its articles of faith, would do well to please share this blog item to their e-mail circles all the more.
Especially when it happens to include John McCain sympathisers, Zealots and True Believers; whether this will change their minds is anybody's guess, in all honesty.
And yet do so responsibly; besides, "spam" only hurts the effectiveness of a campaign, and can risk backfiring upon its creator.
"Money is the root of all evil." Why not put yours in United States Savings Bonds?
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White South Africa: Paying the price for their legacy known as apartheid, perhaps?
DURING THE 46 YEARS THAT APARTHEID HELD SWAY IN SOUTH AFRICA (1948-1994), WHITE SOUTH AFRICANS WERE FOREVER EXPECTED to regard themselves "by Divine Right" as "privileged" and "morally superior" over all others.
Exected to believe that "privileged" whites could not expect to live in the appalling, yet deliberate, conditions of poverty and stupidity which the regime's Great Within, influenced largely by Nazi Germany, forced blacks and "coloureds" (as the apartheid regime referred to such of mixed race) to live through solely because of their "superior racial position" and Divine Will.
But, as it turned out, the end of apartheid and its replacement by multi-racial, multi-cultural government revealed just how absurd the notion was that the "superior" white peoples of South Africa could never live in conditions of poverty and squalor, let alone homelessness, solely because of an ideal about "racial superiority."
In other words, the notion of white South Africans living in poverty and squalor became one of those subjects not worth discussing in the Rainbow Nation, especially among whites of a certain class (as in too race-conscious of themselves and yet to face post-apartheid realities).
Or could it?
Especially considering remarks by African National Congress (ANC) leader Jacob Zuma the other day after he found white residents of the Bethlehem township, outside Pretoria, living in utter squalor and without electricity or running water (as quoted by the BBC):
I am shocked and surprised by what I have seen here.
The vast number of black poverty does not mean that we must ignore white poverty, which is increasingly becoming an embarrassment to talk about.
[***]
This is not about politics, it's about people who are poor, who are in need and want to be helped by government....
(Almost concurrent with Mr. Zuma's remarks was the release of a report by the charity Helping Hand, whose mission is to help poor white communities across South Africa, which found where some 130,000 white South Africans were homeless--an increase of 58% since 2002.)
Now, maybe it was time to imagine how racists and white supremacists seeking to raise funds for "evacuation and resettlement" of especially poor Afrikaner families from South Africa would react to this news--with more strident and emotionally pathetic appeals to "racial honour" crossing into "emergency," perhaps? (And still, we want to know how the funds so raised will actually be deployed.)
*************
WITH CERTAIN ELMER GANTRYESQUE ELEMENTS MAKING ALL MANNER OF CLAIMS ABOUT SEVERE WEATHER BEING SOME CLASS OF DIVINE WRATH AND JUDGEMENT UPON AMERICA for "abandoning His Divine Will and Prophecy" about America supposedly having an "antient and pecuilar" status among the nations (cf. Imperial China in its death throes, especially so under the Empress Dowager Cixi) ... perhaps it was time Your Correspondent suggested that "two can play @ that game!"
In this instance, perhaps it was time to ponder the likelihood of a major heatwave across central Oklahoma prompting Heat Advisories being issued being Divine Judgement for The Sooner State still subscribing to a hard-wired, latent brand of Divinely-Ordained (or so they think) homophobic sentiment--like this example, courtesy of Right Wing Watch:
From the state that brought us Sally Kern comes yet another elected official who believes gays are conspiring against him. Embattled Oklahoma County Commissioner Brent Rinehart is facing felony campaign finance charges, but his re-election campaign is in full swing, distributing a crudely drawn comic book explaining to voters how he stood up to "the homosexuals, the good ol' boy politicians, and liberals"--not to mention a cartoon Satan:
Still, though, Your Correspondent has to wonder if many of the more blatant specimens of "patriotic" or otherwise "healthy" homophobia are themselves emotionally disturbed, or otherwise have past histories of psychoemotional abuse they refuse to acknowledge or otherwise accept.
And try to hide it by way of Al Cohol.
*************
TELL ME IF THIS IS ONE FOR RIPLEY:
On the same day that Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Barak Obama spake to a crowd of some 200,000 @ Berlin's Victory Memorial, his GOP counterpart, for the sake of appealing to the Great Silent Majority of the American Heartland, made a campaign stop @ a German restaurant somewhere in Ohio.
Said Great Silent Majority essentially hardwired in accepting Fox Prolefeed as their one credible source for so-called "news and information" as is, if truth be known, closer to prolefeed--and not to question or challenge the remarks so made under fear of Divine Judgement, or so they believe.
Said Great Silent Majority essentially little more than "white trash" @ its worst--poor, undereducated or homeschooled, easily open to dangerous or questionable suggestion, their minds still weighted with racially arrogant hubris about a Luddite socioeconomic model and paradigm being the once and future socioeconomic foundation of America.
Said Great Silent Majority unlikely to accept Reality except that of a kind which Fox Prolefeed accepts to be Reality--an existentialist sort in the Ayn Rand stylee.
=============
STAYING WITH FOX FOR THE NONCE, YOU HAVE TO WONDER IF THE RECENT CIRCUIT COURT RULING STRIKING DOWN THE FCC'S PENALTY AGAINST CBS for that distraction otherwise known as Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" could be cited by Fox as a defence against FCC demands for substantial forfeitures in response to a peepshowesque scene in Married by America a few years back as attracted complaints based, methinks, on Religiopolitical Right-manufactured hysteria.
Especially considering the defence Fox invoketh, in the vein of this classic bit of roadside verse:
THE ONE-HOSS SHAY HAS HAD ITS DAY SO HAS THE BRUSH AND LATHER WAY USE BRUSHLESS BURMA-SHAVE
(Otherwise known as suggesting that the prevailing FCC regulations against broadcast of "obscene or indecent material" are somehow "outdated" and "irrelevant" when Fox knows all alone that they sought to "rewrite the rules" on FreeVee so as to better appeal to the likes of Kankerdom and what passes for their purchasing power.)
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24.7.08
The price of having a name like "Talula Does the Hula from Hawai'i"
YOUR CORRESPONDENT UNDERSTANDS THAT A FAMILY COURT JUDGE IN NEW ZEALAND HAS ORDERED THE PARENTS OF A NINE-YEAR-OLD GIRL whom they named "Talula Does the Hula from Hawai'i" to turn same over to child-welfare agencies there until such time as a new (and more "approriate") name could be found therefor.
How would she look with a name like that on, say, MySpace, Facebook or similar?
=============
PERHAPS THIS WAS AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY TO ANNOUNCE WHERE THOSE AMONG YOU AS ARE FANS OF WISCONSIN DELLS now have their very own online social-networking community they can call their own.
Created by none other than Your Correspondent, who calls this venture "DellsSpace" by name and stylee--and invites all with any sort of connexion whatsoever to the Waterpark Capital to make their presence known in the Information Stuporban's very own take on MySpace.
Complete with opportunities for sharing photos, music, even setting up their own weblog, if so preferred.
And it's FREE.
So feel free to see what DellsSpace is like for yourself. And if you like it, make your place in DellsSpace.
*************
HOW ISLAMOPHOBES--ESPECIALLY THOSE INVOKING THE BANNER OF TRUE PATRIOT LOVE IN ALL THY SONS COMMAND TO EXCUSE SAME--would react to the following is anybody's guess.
Especially when you consider where the same:
was issued by the Advertising Standards Authority in Great Britain, as it was seen between Land's End and John O'Groats on the satellite network GEO TV; and
both the broadcaster (GEO TV) and the advertiser (As-Salaam Halal Foods) are based in what certain scions of England's Green and Pleasant Land still call "the colonies," otherwise known as the United States):
Ad A young girl presented an As-Salaam food ad on GEO TV that stated "Hi kids, what a nutritious and healthy news. As-Salaam now launches very delicious and 100% halal snacks: try our chicken nuggets, chicken strips, chicken patties, beef burger patties, chicken and beef hot dogs, smoked turkey slices, beef patties, beef bologna, beef salami, turkey breakfast slices and beef breakfast slices. Now we can really enjoy our healthy snacks with 100% satisfaction. Thank you Al Salam." The ad ended with several young children eating the products.
Issue Monitoring staff challenged whether:
1. the ad misleadingly implied that the As-Salaam products were healthy and nutritious; and
2. the ad was targeted directly at primary school children.
Response 1. GEO TV did not comment but submitted the nutritional information for each product.
2. GEO TV maintained that, because the As-Salaam products were not available in the UK, the rules did not apply.
Assessment 1. Upheld The ASA considered that the ad presented the As-Salaam products as healthy and nutritious snacks. We understood that most of their products contained very high levels of sodium. We noted that GEO TV had not substantiated the claim that the As-Salaam products were nutritious and healthy. We considered that the ad had given a misleading impression of the health benefits of the As-Salaam products.
The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 8.3.1 (a) Accuracy in food advertising.
2. Upheld We noted GEO TV held an Ofcom licence and was required under the conditions of that licence to comply with the CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code. We considered that the unavailability of the product in the UK did not mean the rules did not apply. Although GEO TV did not confirm that they were, we understood that most of the products were high in fat,salt or sugar (HFSS). We considered that the young presenter coupled with the introductory statement "Hi kids, what a nutritious and healthy news ... try our ... beef salami ... Now we can really enjoy our healthy snacks with 100% satisfaction" directly targeted primary school children with an ad for HFSS products.
The ad breached CAP (Broadcast) TV Advertising Standards Code rule 8.3.1 (c) Accuracy in food advertising.
Action We concluded that the ad must not be shown again in its present form and that the products should not be advertised without adequate substantiation for the claims made.
Which, in its turn, begs the question of how high-sodium foods can be considered not only "nutritious and healthy," but also halal--the Muslim equivalent of the Jewish kosher, in case you ask (meaning, in any case, "fit, acceptable").
(In any case, you should have no trouble finding As-Salaam products in your local halal supermarket--which may require some effort trying to locate outside major metropolitan areas with substantial Muslim populations, notably New York, Chicago, Detroit, the Twin Cities and Los Angeles. And if any of you readers manage to come across any of the As-Salaam products in question with an eye towards trying same, let me know what you think of them in the Comments section.)
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Why impeachment of His Fraudulency now matters all the more
IF THERE IS ONE OVEERRIDING REASON ABOVE ALL ELSE WHICH MATTERS IN CALLING FOR THE COMPLETE AND FINAL IMPEACHMENT AND TRIAL, AND REMOVAL FROM OFFICE, of no less a person of power and authority than His Fraudulency, it would have to be this:
The clear and present danger that His Fraudulency could cross the line into an act of misguided "national safety" which only risks undermining our traditional, antient and pecuilar soverignty and soverign identity even more than what "patriot" groups contend the so-called "New World Order" is secretly "conspiring" towards.
One as could be on the same level as the Nazi regime's display of fanatical paranoia code-named "Operation Valkyrie," unleashed all the more in the wake of the unsuccessful July 20, 1944 plot against Hitler @ the Wolf's Lair compound in what was then East Prussia (and, after World War II, was awarded to Poland), descending all the more into madness as the "Thousand-Year Reich" which Hitler's Nazis hoped would carry Germany into a New Golden Age was collapsing all around by way of not only Anglo-American bombing raids on German cities, but also "scorched earth" moves by the Nazi regime itself and the Soviets marching on Berlin from the east.
That, and the Propaganda Ministry ordering the diversion of some 220,000 Wehrmacht troops from the front lines to appear as battle-scene extras in the last-ditch cinematic epic Kolberg; Herr Goebbels' hope was that the reenactment of the Germans' defence of the Baltic port against vastly larger numbers of Napoleon's troops in retreat from Moscow would inspire a weakened German people in the hour of desperation (or so the official line went) Germany was facing. (In the end, it would be too late; the final prints were ready just days before Germany surrendered, and soon afterwards, the Allied Occupation Authorities banned its release out of fear that such might arouse sympathies for the Nazi regime among audiences.)
In any event, even direct blood relatives of the ringleaders as had no direct involvement in the plot whatsoever would wind up being prosecuted and sentenced, for the most part, to death by hanging from piano wire strung from abattoirs' hooks in sham trials as were laced with obscenities and generally poor taste.
Clearly not the hallmarks of a sane man, true.
In any case, the only way America can be spared the clear and present danger of Operation Valkyrie being repeated by a madman of a President, acting solely out of his own paranoid delusions rather than clear and compelling factual intelligence, is for Congress to exercise its Constitutional duty to impeach President Bush all the sooner--especially before the "New World Order" seeks to exploit chaos and disorder whose blame will fall squarely upon His Fraudulency's hands.
One way to go about it: Sign this petition to pray beseech Congress to open immediate proceedings for impeachment and trial, and removal from office, of His Fraudulency.
In any case, may we be reminded of the immortal words of George Santayana: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
Or, as they'd say in Bloemfontein, "Daardie wie nie onthou die verlede is veroordeel om te herhaal dit."
Think of it, in effect, as a "preemptive impeachment."
*************
IT SEEMS RATHER IRONIC THAT, AS FORD MOTOR COMPANY MARKS THE 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ICONIC MODEL T, which made automobiles all the more accessible to the millions, it announced substantial second-quarter losses put down to declining sales of pickup trucks and larger, fuel-inefficent automobiles in response to growing public interest in smaller, fuel-efficent vehicles for which Ford is now retooling itself.
But then again, you have to wonder if there are those @ Ford headquaters on The American Road in Dearborn who are in league with such specimens of Zealotry and True Belief vis-a-vis energy self-sufficency seeing in Abundant American Coal a cheap and cheerful ersatz gasoline, South African stylee.
*************
A NEW BLACK MARK AGAINST MR. "FAIR AND BALANCED" JOURNALISM HIMSELF, BY NAME OF KEITH RUPERT MURDOCH, FROM ENGLAND'S GREEN AND PLEASANT LAND, courtesy of the "elitist" BBC:
World motorsport boss Max Mosley has won a legal action against a Sunday newspaper over claims an orgy he took part in had Nazi overtones.
The High Court ruled the News of the World did breach Mr Mosley's privacy, awarding him £60,000 (about US$120,000) in damages.
Mr Justice Eady said he could expect privacy for consensual "sexual activities (albeit unconventional)".
Mr Mosley admitted a sado-masochistic sex session with five prostitutes, but denied that it had a Nazi theme.
His father was the 1930s fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
The paper's story was based on a secret video from one of the women who took part in the sex session at a London flat in March.
At the High Court, Mr Justice Eady said there was "no evidence that the gathering on 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact.
"I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust."
The "bondage, beating and domination" that did take place was "typical of S&M behaviour", he said.
"But there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, for the publication of the resulting information and still photographs, or for the placing of the video extracts on the News of the World website - all of this on a massive scale."
However, the judge did not make the unprecedented award of punitive - rather than compensatory - damages that had been sought by Mr Mosley.
He said: "It is perhaps worth adding that there is nothing 'landmark' about this decision.
"It is simply the application to rather unusual facts of recently developed but established principles."
The newspaper also faces a bill of around £850,000 (about US$1.7 millon) for legal costs.
'No-one's business'
Outside the High Court, Mr Mosley said he was "delighted with that judgement, which is devastating for the News of the World".
"It demonstrates that their Nazi lie was completely invented and had no justification," he said.
Colin Myler says the freedom of the press is damaged. "It also shows that that they had no right to go into private premises and take pictures and film of adults engaged in activities which are no-one's business but those of the people concerned."
The 68-year-old says his life has been devastated by the News of the World story and the posting of the video footage on its website.
He told the court that the publicity had been "totally devastating" for his wife of 48 years, and he could think of "nothing more undignified or humiliating" for his two sons to experience.
News of the World editor Colin Myler said the paper was pleased at the lack of punitive damages, but added that "our press is less free today after another judgement based on privacy laws emanating from Europe".
As the head of the richest sport in the world, with almost 125 million members, Mr Mosley "had an obligation to honour the standards which its vast membership had every right to expect of him", Mr Myler said.
"Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not, in our opinion, constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position."
Mr Myler maintained that the paper believed its reports were "legitimate and lawful and, moreover, that publication was justified by the public interest in exposing Mr Mosley's serious impropriety".
Legal analyst Joshua Rozenberg said the court ruling was a "warning" to journalists.
Cf. what ConWebBlog has to say about WorldNetDaily's supposed mindset towards "investigative journalism" serving the Greater Conservative Agenda ultimately backfiring on them:
On the 2000 page of its "Scoops" section, WorldNetDaily claims the following:
In fact, WND settled a libel and defamation lawsuit by one person named in those stories, Clark Jones, by admitting that "no witness verifies the truth of what the witnesses are reported by authors to have stated" about Jones and that "the sources named in the publications have stated under oath that statements attributed to them in the articles were either not made by them, were misquoted by the authors, were misconstrued, or the statements were taken out of context." WND, it can be presumed, also paid a cash award to Jones to settle the matter (the settlement terms have not been made public).
If claims about just one person named in the articles can be so egregiously wrong, it's not unreasonable to assume that other sections, if not the entirety, of these articles--written by Tony Hays and Charles Thompson II--also contain falsehoods. WND has made no statement either standing by the remainder of the claims in the Hays and Thompson's articles or indicating that it would check the veracity of those claims.
As it stands, the entire series is discredited, and WND discredited itself by printing them out of political animosity without bothering to do even rudimentary verification of what Hays and Thompson had written (as we detailed). WND discredits itself further by continuing to list these articles as "scoops" when they have little apparent basis in fact.
So much for conservatives' claims of their being entitled the sole and exclusive right--not to mention Government-Protected Monopoly--to "responsible journalism." Remember the South African apartheid regime's using public funds to subsidise the pro-regime Daily Citizen in the mid-1970's in the name of "journalistic fairness and balance" with what was seen as a "dangerous" liberal-leaning Establishment Media?
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23.7.08
So will Minnesota likely become a passenger-rail leader--or a follower?
THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKING THE OBVIOUS: HIGH GAS PRICES, NOTWITHSTANDING RECENT DECLINES, ARE MORE LIKELY TO BE THE RULE THAN THE EXCEPTION now and henceforth.
Obviously dictating the importance of sound and practical transportation policy as deemphasises the automobile in favour of alternatives such as rail and bus service to the extent feasable.
The which is the subject of a study which MnDOT (as in the Minnesota Department of Transportation) will be expected to formulate thanks to legislation taking effect from Friday, 1 August--which turns out being part of the same law which bans text messaging while driving and sets further operational restrictions on holders of probationary driver's licences.
No doubt a worthwhile first step for Minnesota's perhaps joining the ranks of states like Illinois, California and North Carolina as are taking proactive steps when it comes to passenger rail thanks to partnerships with Amtrak and Section 403(b) funding (as in the provision of the National Passenger Rail Act 1970 allowing states to fund passenger rail services) ... but then again, the unique characteristics of Minnesota need to be taken into account.
Already, first tenative steps are being taken with the Northstar Commuter Rail line between Minneapolis and Big Lake, with possible later extension to St. Cloud; first services are expected to commence sometime next year.
Other commuter-rail corridors as are under further study are:
the Red Rock Line (Minneapolis-Hastings-Red Wing);
the Rush Line (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Forest Lake-Rush City);
the Dan Patch Line (Minneapolis-Savage-Prior Lake-Northfield); and
self-named lines to Bethel and Norwood-Young America.
As well, there's been talk of a long-distance commuter line as would operate between the Twin Cities and the Twin Ports, restoring passenger rail links as ended in 1981.
Also worthy of study, IMHO, would have to be:
extending the Dan Patch Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line as would continue past Northfield to Faribault, Owatonna and Austin;
extending the Red Rock Line to its becoming, in effect, a long-distance commuter rail line continuing past Red Wing to Lake City, Wabasha and Winona;
regional commuter rail (as it were) that would connect Winona, Rochester, Dodge Center, Owatonna (connecting to the expanded-on Dan Patch Corridor to the Twin Cities and Austin), Waseca and Mankato;
studying the possibility of reclaiming the Douglas State Trail (itself a former Chicago Great Western railway line) and other former CGW lines between Rochester and Red Wing for a passenger-rail link between the Twin Cities and Rochester (if a bit on the awkward side);
looking into long-distance commuter-rail potential between the Twin Cities and Willmar, with passenger-rail potential past Willmar to Marshall and Sioux Falls;
partnering with Wisconsin and Illinois on the possibilities of pooling funds to extend @ least two of Amtrak's Hiawatha Service trains between Chicago and Milwaukee onward to the Twin Cities, not to mention pooling funds for adequate trainsets and track upgrades to permit fast running;
again in partnership with Wisconsin and Illinois, studying the potential of an overnight train between Chicago, Milwaukee and the Twin Cities as an alternative to auto travel and "cookie-cutter" chain-motel predictability (think the likes of European night-train networks as EuroNight, CityNightLine and TrenHotel); and
studying the possibilities of reintroducing an international passenger rail link between the Twin Cities and Winnipeg, via St. Cloud, Fargo/Moorhead and Grand Forks (as well as another daily passenger train between the Twin Cities and Fargo).
Done carefully enough, Minnesota could certainly be a shining example for the Midwest to become as much a leader and innovator in passenger-rail development as California, Illinois and North Carolina are already beyond the Northeast Corridor.
Otherwise, what stands in the way?
In any event, MnDOT should exercise its legislative mandate to study passenger-rail possibilities with an eye towards many of the solutions just illustrated. Especially considering where high gas prices bound to get higher may leave us with little or no other options to break automotive dependency.
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