“I think this is based on a fear of being seen and treated as poorly as they see and treat traditional minority populations.”

I’d go a step farther and say that separating a person from their politics is major bs Americans made up to satisfy our enormous desire for surface-level harmony.

Blergh. Can I just say that as someone who is white and roughly your age, I find your “I used to be left-wing, but then I grew up” attitude tiresome and annoying. Yes, supporting Nader was dumb, and the op-ed you wrote deserves some shame. But how come everyone over 30 suddenly agrees that Democrat-style liberalism…

“That’s not true, they all suck, just in different ways and clearly Al Gore would have sucked in a way that could have saved us at least some trouble you dumb asshole.”

Why is there a dog’s face in his hair in the last pic??

THIS. This is, basically, what the socialist tradition doesn’t get: economic inequality is only a root problem if you’re a straight white male. For all others, poverty is merely a side effect of the discrimination they face due to their skin color, gender etc.

The R129 is definitely a much better sports car. But if a sports car is what you want, definitely don’t get an R107. Probably don’t get an SL at all.

Oh but it IS! Won’t somebody think of all the British nobility who are now back to horse carriages as the only transportation choice not tainted by those horrible Americans and their offensive tastes.

DeMuro, get on it!

The most ridiculous outgrowth of this whole Hemi thing is the bros who think their lifted SRT Ram or Challenger on 22-inch rims is somehow special because it has a “Hemi” - yeah, it has an engine that Chrysler named Hemi to cash in on the mythos, but not only are hemispherical combustion chambers not all that special,…

Related to the Hemi question “Does it have a big block?”. And immediate loss of interest when the owner says “No”, “No, but...” or “Not technically...”.

Buell’s had his chance, more than one in fact. By all accounts, he hasn’t managed to come up with a machine that didn’t have serious flaws. It’s wholly unrealistic to expect people to continue to gamble their money on products that are most likely to be seriously flawed.

Yes, but your countrymen probably buy quattros and xDrives and 4motions and whatnot because the ads told them it’s awesome, or because they’re worried about wet weather. In the US, there are many states where not having 4-wheel-drive means you effectively cannot use your car for 5-6 months of the year.

Yup, gotta agree. There’s a reason autists were removed from their parents and relocated to institutions as late as the 70s - they are often fucking dangerous to be around. But nowadays even recognizing the danger they pose is not PC so we gotta pretend they’re just like everyone else.

See, this is a connection that is exemplary of where rail travel would make sense. If I were some billionaire looking to invest in rail transport right now, i’d try to make that connection happen. A solid, reliable regular-speed service that is usefully faster than taking the interstate - and reliably so - that…

Yes, but you do understand this hypothetical rail service was merely intended to illustrate my point about medium-speed rail in higher-density parts of the country being a more useful proposal than an American Shinkansen, yeah?

Yes, but what if we could have safe, reliable, all-around satisfactory 80-100mph trains? I really don’t see how transforming the system to deliver these qualities on a constant basis necessitates raising the top speed?

It would rule, no doubt about it. Granted, it’d still take a lot of cash to make the freight lines an offer they won’t refuse, upgrade the existing right-of-way to meet the necessary specs, and to fund the complex day-to-day operations behind reliable train service. But it’d be a whole lot cheaper than actual,…

I don’t see how you could, given my eminently reasonable position ;)

Yeah, but the more densely populated an area is, the less useful high speeds become. Japan is densely populated, but the bullet trains leave whole regions by the trackside, so to speak.