(Note to AndrewRyan: This is not the piece on James Kunstler I was referring to; I had another one in mind. It'll be up this week.)
Old man Kunstler woke up yesterday to howl at the world about the appendix-bursting pain that's stabbing his heart: he took a swipe at Obama's proposed high-speed rail system! This is what he had to say:
One very plain and straightforward example at hand is the announcement last week of a plan to build a high speed rail network. To be blunt about it, this is perfectly f*****g stupid. It will require a whole new track network, because high speed trains can't run on the old rights of way with their less forgiving curve ratios and grades. We would be so much better off simply fixing up and reactivating the normal-speed track system that is sitting out there rusting in the rain -- and save our more grandiose visions for a later time.
Nevermind rebuilding a passenger-rail system has long been a center-piece to Kunstler's 19th century utopia; nevermind that, last year, he bombastically praised a loyal reader's comment on building a high-speed rail network...
A reader from Ohio reminds us of a very important point: "$700 billion could completely rebuild the US passenger system! All the way to complete electrification and to the same standards the French enjoy with their TGVs."Its enough money to bring service to every town of 5000 and up."
Oh Mr. Clusterfuck, your problem is you're a miserable old man who's faced disappointment throughout your life: aside from the '90s, when you wrote several decent books criticizing suburban living, you we're a so-so novelist in the '80s, you banked your credibility with Y2K, and you practically banked the farm betting on oil's peak. You've had nothing but a "lost decade;" you've attempted, fatuously, to prop up this "Frankenstein peak" as if you we're a Fed worker trying - in rhapsodic fashion - to plug the holes in AIG. If you haven't found happiness throughout your life, it's doubtful you'll find it in your utopian 19th century lifestyle.
See you for the Memorial Day weekend blowout, James (more on this later).
- Brewskie
"Memorial Day weekend blowout"...lol, that's a good name for it. After all, Kunstler claims everything under the "North American sun" will liquidate by then. It takes a special kind of arrogance to make such huge financial calls when you have a liberal arts major in theatre from some random college in upstate New York.
ReplyDeleteKunstler is still harping on the ol' oil = fertilizer = food ordeal, while ignoring extreme oil glut that we have right now. It's kind of comedic, watching him hang on to peak oil by a thread. Such a bitter, bitter, old man.
JD has some stuff on the fertilizer topic.
ReplyDeleteYeah... I'm lookin' forward to Memorial Day weekend... can't wait to buy a new Prius for fire sale price, a trip to Brazil for a few Zimbabwe dollars (inflation’s so bad there, they print billion dollar bills).
Better not let me down, James.