Don't look to Canada to set a good example.

Politics and Social Issues
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Looks like the new Liberal government under Justin Trudeau is already heading down the same dark road of secrecy the last government made its signature.

Trudeau, in fact, makes a meal of moral dictation, preaching openness and inclusiveness and consultation, and the need for a "social license" in devising public policy. Then, blithely, he turns around and stamps out opposition efforts to publicly scrutinize Canadian arms sales to foreign regimes — a matter important enough to be embedded in Canadian export laws. Sounding for all the world like a Harper minister himself, the Liberal point man on the issue, Commons foreign affairs committee chairman Bob Nault, accused the opposition parties of "playing politics." (Perhaps one of the silliest catch-alls in parliamentary discourse; isn't playing politics the duty of politicians?)
The really idiotic thing about doing this is it throws away a very real opportunity to rebuild the democratic system in Canada, something Trudeau and the party he basically inherited from his dad claimed was their central goal. It's back to partisan politics and really cynical games to see which party can screw the people of Canada out of any real representation the best. Keep in mind it was a decade of the last Liberal government that laid the groundwork for the Harper government. Another one of those and we really won't have any real freedom here.
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Not being open and transparent, yes it’s not good. But on the list of things that are wrong, that’s way behind on the US list: crumbling roads, lack of healthcare, education as a profit-center, attempts to push Christian Sharia law,voter suppression, and on and on.

3
Not being open and transparent, yes it's not good. But on the list of things that are wrong, that's way behind on the US list: crumbling roads, lack of healthcare, education as a profit-center, attempts to push Christian Sharia law,voter suppression, and on and on.
Sigh...so much for the land of the free and home of the brave. Not that there aren't millions of Americans that embody that spirit, they just get shut out of the picture by the lunatic fringe with huge amounts of money. Like these; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brendan-demelle/study-confirms-tea-party-_b_2663125.html
A new academic study confirms that front groups with longstanding ties to the tobacco industry and the billionaire Koch brothers planned the formation of the Tea Party movement more than a decade before it exploded onto the U.S. political scene. Far from a genuine grassroots uprising, this astroturf effort was curated by wealthy industrialists years in advance. Many of the anti-science operatives who defended cigarettes are currently deploying their tobacco-inspired playbook internationally to evade accountability for the fossil fuel industry’s role in driving climate disruption.
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CuthbertJ - that’s way behind on the US list: crumbling roads, lack of healthcare, education as a profit-center, attempts to push Christian Sharia law,voter suppression, and on and on.
Wow, I had no idea things were so bad here in the USA, I mean, I have cris-crossed this country over tens of thousands of miles of every kind of highway and road and I have never driven on one that is "crumbling". Ok, that is not entirely correct, sometimes when I drive deep into the backcountry, the gravel can get a bit rough. Free public schools are absolutely a profit center...riggggght. And those damn Christians, stoning homosexuals, marrying multiple wives, shooting people for criticizing Jesus, and the modest clothes American women are forced to wear on pain of public beatings by Christians is just abhorrent!!! Thank you ever so much for informing me of the miserable conditions here in the USA, I had no clue!!!
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CuthbertJ - that’s way behind on the US list: crumbling roads, lack of healthcare, education as a profit-center, attempts to push Christian Sharia law,voter suppression, and on and on.
Wow, I had no idea things were so bad here in the USA, I mean, I have cris-crossed this country over tens of thousands of miles of every kind of highway and road and I have never driven on one that is "crumbling". Ok, that is not entirely correct, sometimes when I drive deep into the backcountry, the gravel can get a bit rough. Free public schools are absolutely a profit center...riggggght. And those damn Christians, stoning homosexuals, marrying multiple wives, shooting people for criticizing Jesus, and the modest clothes American women are forced to wear on pain of public beatings by Christians is just abhorrent!!! Thank you ever so much for informing me of the miserable conditions here in the USA, I had no clue!!!
Actually he is informing us of real conditions in the US, I have no idea what country you're referring to. http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jul/27/america-infrastructure-roadways-highways-funding
Is there anything more American than the call of the open road? When I got my hands on a burnt-orange 2015 Corvette Stingray last month, my first thought was of a road trip from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. In a country crisscrossed from sea to shining sea by some of the world’s longest and most famous roads, what could be more simple? Just point the car and go. The reality, however, is that the condition of many of America’s highways makes any such trip at the very least slow – and at worst, dangerous. The US’s once gleaming interstate highway system is in crisis. The federal program that funds maintenance and improvements – the Highway Trust Fund – is set to expire on 31 July. Congress passed a five-week funding “patch" to extend the deadline, one of 34 it has passed in the last nine years. But if lawmakers don’t settle upon a more permanent solution, the US Department of Transportation says the fund will become insolvent before year’s end. The consequences of this underinvestment are already being felt. Shortly after my trip a section of Interstate 10, close to my own route, collapsed into a dry riverbed between Palm Springs, California, and Phoenix, Arizona.
And it's going to cost trillions of dollars to fix the crisis. http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/ http://www.wired.com/2015/01/time-fix-americas-infrastructure-heres-start/
The American Society of Civil Engineers says the US needs massive investments in all essential infrastructure, from bridges and airports to dams and railways. According to the society’s most recent infrastructure report card, the US earns a D+ for its infrastructure. It is, in a word, a mess. This is about much more than potholes. This is about keeping the economy, literally and figuratively, moving. Much of the economic boom the United States has experienced over the last 50 years is because the network of highways makes it easy to ship goods. If it continues into a state of disrepair, the long-term hit to our economy could be catastrophic. “The grades in 2013 ranged from a high of B- for solid waste to a low of D- for inland waterways and levees," the society wrote in the 2013 report, which is issued every four years. Things got a bit better, but not by much. “Solid waste, drinking water, wastewater, roads, and bridges all saw incremental improvements, and rail jumped from a C- to a C+. No categories saw a decline in grade this year." Bringing it all up to current standards will be a massive, and massively expensive, undertaking akin to the construction of the interstate highway system. At the bottom line, the US would have to invest $3.6 trillion to bring it all up to snuff by 2020.
As for the rest.... How about Christians attacking the "gay agenda" which they seem to think is behind anti-bullying events at school. I'm guessing that most of them missed the central message of their own faith which believe it or not is not "do onto others then split". http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/26/religious-fundamentalism-toxic-partisanship-us-politics
The idea is that on one day of the school year, kids are invited to have lunch with the kind of kids they don't usually hang out with: the jocks mix with the nerds, lunch tables are racially integrated, et cetera. Sponsored by the Southern Poverty Law Center as part of their Teaching Tolerance division, it arose out of a broad effort to tackle the problems of bullying in the schools and bigotry in society – and it appears to have been effective in breaking down stereotypes and reducing prejudice. Over 2,000 schools nationwide now participate in the program, which is set to take place this year on 30 October. You can argue about how permanent its effects are, or whether other approaches might be better, but the idea of making new friends in the lunchroom seems utterly benign. Right? Wrong, as it turns out – at least, according to the American Family Association, a radical rightwing evangelical policy group. Mix It Up at Lunch Day is, in fact, part of "a nationwide push to promote the homosexual lifestyle in public schools", according to the AFA literature. The program "is an entry-level 'diversity' program designed specifically by SPCL (sic) to establish the acceptance of homosexuality into public schools, including elementary and junior high schools," warns the AFA website. "See if your child's school is on the list."
Or how about some of the religious based fascist crap from Cruz... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yasmina-blackburn/where-was-ted-cruz-radicalized_b_9604930.html
When GOP presidential candidate, Ted Cruz stated, “We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized," I chuckled. I mean it’s no laughing matter to stigmatize and ostracize an entire community based on their religious affiliation — but I find it funny. The Muslim community has already been monitored for years. It’s something we joke about inside the mosque. We joke that those watching us will decide to convert to Islam or that they are simply bored watching us. But not only that — it’s the hypocrisy. If Muslim Americans are “radical" then what is Ted Cruz? The fuzzy Easter Bunny?
Ted Cruz is a scary guy — even scarier than Donald Trump. He hails from the Evangelical Dominion sect that preaches taking control of the nation and taking the wealth from the “wicked." His father, Rafael Cruz, can be seen in videos online preaching about Christian Kings that are anointed to take control. Ted Cruz believes that America is a “Christian" nation and that this must be restored.
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(Guardian alarmist hyperbole hack piece citation)
Yes, from time to time a bridge falls down. There are lots of potential reasons for that. Things people build sometimes collapse. So what? I have been listening to this nonsense about our crumbling roads for a half a century. I have driven on every sort of road in most of the states. None of them were crumbling. Not one. Ok, there were a couple far back country access roads that are not scheduled for maintenance, oh how horrid. Yes, we have to spend billions to maintain the roads. They wear out. Weather and traffic cause them to deteriorate, of course. He not busy being born is busy dying. Boo hoo for our dying roads. Of course they develop cracks and need to be patched and eventually resurfaced, what did you think, they would last forever? I have recently driven in California, Arkansas, Arizona, and Colorado. Interstate, city, 2 lane blacktop, hills, towns, parks, canyons...they are all in great shape, hardly ever more than a tiny little bump here or there. Hysteria about our crumbling roads is nonsense that sells publication ad space.
Or how about some of the religious based fascist crap from Cruz…
How about it? There is no such thing as "Christian Sharia" how absurd. A lot of Christians say a lot of dumb things, and that is their right. Sometimes they manage to have some influence on some policy or other. Uhm, Roe V. Wade...Dover...Gay marriage, see a pattern here?
Ted Cruz believes that America is a “Christian" nation and that this must be restored.
Yeah, nothing new there, and that will get him some votes from his base but he is going to have a problem with a little thing called the First Amendment.
7
(Guardian alarmist hyperbole hack piece citation)
Yes, from time to time a bridge falls down. There are lots of potential reasons for that. Things people build sometimes collapse. So what? I have been listening to this nonsense about our crumbling roads for a half a century. I have driven on every sort of road in most of the states. None of them were crumbling. Not one. Ok, there were a couple far back country access roads that are not scheduled for maintenance, oh how horrid. Yes, we have to spend billions to maintain the roads. They wear out. Weather and traffic cause them to deteriorate, of course. He not busy being born is busy dying. Boo hoo for our dying roads. Of course they develop cracks and need to be patched and eventually resurfaced, what did you think, they would last forever? I have recently driven in California, Arkansas, Arizona, and Colorado. Interstate, city, 2 lane blacktop, hills, towns, parks, canyons...they are all in great shape, hardly ever more than a tiny little bump here or there. Hysteria about our crumbling roads is nonsense that sells publication ad space.
Why let facts get in the way of things...I guess they might make it hard to stay a Republican. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/falling-apart-america-neglected-infrastructure/
There are a lot of people in the United States right now who think the country is falling apart, and at least in one respect they're correct. Our roads and bridges are crumbling, our airports are out of date and the vast majority of our seaports are in danger of becoming obsolete. All the result of decades of neglect. None of this is really in dispute. Business leaders, labor unions, governors, mayors, congressmen and presidents have complained about a lack of funding for years, but aside from a one time cash infusion from the stimulus program, nothing much has changed. There is still no consensus on how to solve the problem or where to get the massive amounts of money needed to fix it, just another example of political paralysis in Washington.
http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/02/americas-infrastructure-crisis-is-really-a-maintenance-crisis/385452/
It's long been time to focus more on maintaining America's existing roads and less on building new ones. The National Highway System already connects virtually all of the areas worth connecting. Driving peaked circa 2004—and even earlier in some states. Traffic remains bad in many metros, but by itself expanding road networks can only temporarily alleviate the problem, and over time might even increase it. And yet we build. We build without seeming to appreciate that every mile of fresh new road will one day become a mile of crumbling old road that needs additional attention. We build even though our pot of road funding requires increasingly creative (and arguably illegal) solutions to stay anything other than empty. The numbers tell the story best. From 2004 to 2008, states dedicated just 43 percent of their road budgets to maintain existing roads despite the fact that they made up nearly 99 percent of the road system. The other 1 percent—new construction—got more than half the money. From 2009 to 2011 states did only marginally better, spending 55 percent of their road money ($20.4 billion) on expansion and just 45 percent on maintenance ($16.5 billion):
http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/infrastructure-government/u-s-highways-bridges-transit-2013
While the United States has its share of new highway projects, state-of-the-art airports and starchitect-designed transit hubs, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave the country’s infrastructure a D+ grade in its annual report card. The 2014 Department of Transportation report finds that to maintain the condition of U.S. highways and bridges at 2010 levels through the year 2030, between $65.3 billion and $86.3 billion per year would be required. If all “cost-beneficial investments" were made, between $123.7 billion and $145.9 billion per year would be required. (The independent variable in the equation is the number of vehicle miles traveled, or VMT; more on that below.) For transit, the DOT calculates that $18.5 billion per year is required to maintain a good state of repair through 2030, and $22 billion to $24.5 billion to expand the current system. - See more at: http://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/infrastructure-government/u-s-highways-bridges-transit-2013#sthash.ABMRnK1p.dpuf
Or how about some of the religious based fascist crap from Cruz…
How about it? There is no such thing as "Christian Sharia" how absurd. A lot of Christians say a lot of dumb things, and that is their right. Sometimes they manage to have some influence on some policy or other.
You cant' get anywhere in the Republican Party without kissing the ring of the Christian far right in the country, in case you missed it Christian fundamentalism can be just as vicious, oppressive and irrational as any religious fundamentalism. Christians fundamentalists still do far more than say things, they help drive policies that are very destructive, remember that little war going on in the Middle East started by the born again Bush who thought god was talking to him. Cruz is even more unstable than George W.
Uhm, Roe V. Wade...Dover...Gay marriage, see a pattern here?
No kidding there's a pattern, it's the Christian far right constantly trying to send the US centuries back into the past, do you really think those times were peaceful, free and happy for anybody who dissented. The last execution by Christians under the Inquisition was less than 200 years ago, now entire states are being used to advance the Christian agenda, including evangelicals aggressively recruiting in the US military, imposing strict conditions for any candidate trying to run for the GOP, and even going so far as sending missionaries with the US troops to Iraq after the occupation. Might have had something to do with why they're now so pissed off over there.
Ted Cruz believes that America is a “Christian" nation and that this must be restored.
Yeah, nothing new there, and that will get him some votes from his base but he is going to have a problem with a little thing called the First Amendment.
Right and Bush called the Constitution "quaint" and his administration pretty much used it as toilet paper for 8 years. I think it's incredibly naive to think that someone who has made the statements that Ted Cruz has and has the background is going to respect anything but their very limited and irrational agenda. Like it's been said by many, many people, Cruz is probably more dangerous than Trump in the end. How about WW III just to make it clear that America is a Christian nation and it's time to bring the big guy back to save the faithful.
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I have recently driven in California, Arkansas, Arizona, and Colorado. Interstate, city, 2 lane blacktop, hills, towns, parks, canyons...they are all in great shape, hardly ever more than a tiny little bump here or there. Hysteria about our crumbling roads is nonsense that sells publication ad space.
The failing bridges aren't imaginary, if you'd been on I-10 in California in July of last year you might have ended up in a river when a bridge failed...which is becoming all too often in the US now. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/news/a16532/america-crumbling-infrastructure-interstate-10-bridge-collapse/
What does it look like when America fails to maintain its basic infrastructure? It looks like this scene in Desert City, California, on Sunday, when the Tex Wash bridge collapsed after a weekend of heavy rains, injuring one driver and snarling traffic for miles. The bridge is a vital part of Interstate 10, which connects Southern California to Phoenix. "Interstate 10 is closed completely and indefinitely," said Terri Kasinga, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation, speaking to Associated Press. With I-10 shut down, drivers going between California and Phoenix will be forced to either divert to Interstate 8 to the south, or Interstate 40 to the north. Both detours add hundreds of miles to the trip.
America's is no stranger to bridge collapse. The Hopple Street Overpass over I-75 Southbound in Cincinatti, Ohio, collapsed in January of this year when a demolition project went bad, killing one construction foreman. In Mount Vernon, Washington, three were injured in 2013 after the I-5 Skagit River Bridge, which had been rated "functionally obsolete," collapsed after an overloaded semi truck clipped a girder on the trestle bridge. (To be fair, terms like "functionally obsolete" means something different to a bridge engineer than a layman—you can brush up on your bridge terminology here.) And in August of 2007, the Minneapolis I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River had a total failure, killing 13 and injuring 145. A review by the National Transit and Safety Board found that severe design flaws led to the collapse. Several safety reviews in the years before had noted flaws in the bridge, and it was rated "structurally deficient,"—an ignominious term shared by 75,000 other bridges in American in 2007. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, one in nine of the bridges in America was rated "structurally deficient" in 2013. In the ASCE's 2013 annual report card, bridges scored a C+. Which, relative to other parts of the American infrastructure, is relatively good. Dams and roads were given a D, while levees were given a D-. Said the ASCE at the time, "our infrastructure systems are failing to keep pace with the current and expanding needs, and investment in infrastructure is faltering." There are signs of hope; the ASCE's report card gave a slightly improved grade to America's overall infrastructure compared to its previous report card in 2009. But disasters like the Tex Wash bridge collapse, which will impact millions of people for months, if not years, prove a hard-to-argue fact: the U.S. seems incapable of actually maintaining its built infrastructure, and there is virtually no political willpower to change that.
Like I said, why let facts determine policy when you have deeply held political ideology combined with religious fundamentalism on the far right driving the Republican Party especially the Tea Party which did everything it could to prevent government from actually working for Americans. Cruz is going to make this even worse if he ever gets into office, any Republican will now, the entire party has become deeply sociopathic and seems dominated by a minority of Americans who actively hate the rest of the people in the country. Whether they're liberals, Muslims, immigrants, live alternative lifestyles, want living wages and more. Why fix America when the far right in the country seems bent on destroying it out of hubris, much of it religiously driven.
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CuthbertJ - that’s way behind on the US list: crumbling roads, lack of healthcare, education as a profit-center, attempts to push Christian Sharia law,voter suppression, and on and on.
Wow, I had no idea things were so bad here in the USA, I mean, I have cris-crossed this country over tens of thousands of miles of every kind of highway and road and I have never driven on one that is "crumbling". Ok, that is not entirely correct, sometimes when I drive deep into the backcountry, the gravel can get a bit rough. Free public schools are absolutely a profit center...riggggght. And those damn Christians, stoning homosexuals, marrying multiple wives, shooting people for criticizing Jesus, and the modest clothes American women are forced to wear on pain of public beatings by Christians is just abhorrent!!! Thank you ever so much for informing me of the miserable conditions here in the USA, I had no clue!!!
I can't improve upon DougC's post, they're spot on. But I'll add one little smidge...you obviously haven't driven through Indiana. The interstate, especially 65, is literally dangerous to drive on. And I was talking about colleges being a profit center. You evidently don't have kids in college. Everything about them resembles a profit driven business versus a place to get an education. And you comments about Christians, my goodness you must live in a cave. Of course they don't stone homosexuals literally but they try their damnedest on a daily basis to do so metaphorically by trying to prevent gay marriage, etc. And as far as shooting non-believers, I'm sure if someone tried they could find more than one news story about such a thing.
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DougC - Why let facts get in the way of things…I guess they might make it hard to stay a Republican.
Indeed, the fact is that alarmism is profitable for news outlets, very traditional.
Our roads and bridges are crumbling
Yes, roads are crumbling, my car is wearing out, my socks are getting holes, and I am dying. Negative Nancy much? Roads wear out due to weather and traffic, did you think they would last forever? There are road repair and resurfacing projects going on all the time all over the country, which is why you rarely hit more than a little bump while you are driving almost anywhere in the USA.
The last execution by Christians under the Inquisition was less than 200 years ago
The Inquisition. That's funny. Sure, therefore Christian Sharia in America. Please try to keep your citations a bit more up to date, OK?
CuthbertJ - you obviously haven’t driven through Indiana. The interstate, especially 65, is literally dangerous to drive on
Actually, I have, many times. I was just in Indy about a year ago. Downtown, airport, East side. The roads were fine, just like the rest of the USA. Your biggest danger in driving in the USA is other drivers under the influence, speeding, inattentive, failing to stop, and driving too fast for conditions. What, there are open potholes out on the 65 that simply go unfilled and every time you drive past them you have to swerve or risk a blowout? Give me a break. Snowbelt roads take a beating, it's true. Water runs into the cracks and freezes, cracking the pavement further as the water expands. Trucks sometimes break out patches of weakened pavement. Yes, once in a while a new patch of pavement gets broken out and it takes a bit of time to be reported and patched, is that what you are on about?
And as far as shooting non-believers, I’m sure if someone tried they could find more than one news story about such a thing.
No, I have never heard of a person who read the words of Jesus and shot somebody thereby. Happens all the time with Muhammad, not with Jesus. That's because Muhammad was a conquering warlord who robbed, raped, extorted, murdered, enslaved, and exhorted his followers to murder critics. Jesus was a radical pacifist who said turn the other cheek, don't throw stones, pay your taxes, and to pray for those who persecute you. You can't get "shooting non-bellevers" out of the instructions from Jesus in the gospels.
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Indeed, the fact is that alarmism is profitable for news outlets, very traditional.
No, people being killed by crumbling infrastructure really is something to be alarmed about. Muslims, Mexicans, Gays, Liberals, etc in America not so much. Considering how Republicans have been hysterical about them for years including Trump and Cruz now then who's the real alarmists in the country. But it's probably a waste of time mentioning that to someone who seems completely committed to that mindset....
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No, people being killed by crumbling infrastructure really is something to be alarmed about. Muslims, Mexicans, Gays, Liberals, etc in America not so much.
People are getting killed by Muslims. People are getting killed by Mexicans. People are getting killed by gays. People are getting killed by liberals. People are getting killed by infrastructure defects. People are getting killed by lots of things. But how many here and abroad? What is the trend up or down or flat? Is there a risk of a catastrophic event? How preventable are future deaths and at what cost? Very complicated questions and the truth is that we taxpayers invest in a very broad based and multi-departmental approach to addressing all the major risks. The idea that our roads are "crumbling" is nonsense. When is the last time you drove on a "crumbling" road? How many potholes do you hit per year? I typically go for multiple years between hitting one, and even then I have never gotten a blowout because of one. I've been rear ended, cut off, and turned into so many times I literally cannot remember them all unless I really think long and hard. Not a single time was the collision due to "crumbling roads" On the meter of proportionality of likelihood of of cause of road death or injury or damage, improperly maintained roads are barely a twitch of the needle
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People are getting killed by Muslims. People are getting killed by Mexicans. People are getting killed by gays. People are getting killed by liberals. People are getting killed by infrastructure defects. People are getting killed by lots of things.
False equivalency, none of those groups are exclusively responsible for the deaths of other people but you have an entire political movement - on the far right - that is largely committed to removing them from society. Infrastructure is created for the benefit of everyone in society, when it's not maintained properly then that benefit becomes an increasing risk which is what is happening now in the US according to transportation experts, engineers and other experts. It's just not a big deal for politicians who have other priorities...like getting rid of all those Americans they disprove of.
But how many here and abroad? What is the trend up or down or flat? Is there a risk of a catastrophic event? How preventable are future deaths and at what cost? Very complicated questions and the truth is that we taxpayers invest in a very broad based and multi-departmental approach to addressing all the major risks. The idea that our roads are "crumbling" is nonsense. When is the last time you drove on a "crumbling" road? How many potholes do you hit per year? I typically go for multiple years between hitting one, and even then I have never gotten a blowout because of one. I've been rear ended, cut off, and turned into so many times I literally cannot remember them all unless I really think long and hard. Not a single time was the collision due to "crumbling roads" On the meter of proportionality of likelihood of of cause of road death or injury or damage, improperly maintained roads are barely a twitch of the needle
It's not a complex issue, the less resources going into maintaining the existing 99% percent of the transportation network while spending the bulk of the money allocated for infrastructure on building new roads is leading to a crumbling infrastructure. Your personal anecdotes don't trump the facts.
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It’s not a complex issue, the less resources going into maintaining the existing 99% percent of the transportation network while spending the bulk of the money allocated for infrastructure on building new roads is leading to a crumbling infrastructure. Your personal anecdotes don’t trump the facts.
Do you live in the USA? Do you drive in the USA? When is the last time you drove on a "crumbling" road? Nobody I know complains about crumbling roads. Alarmism sells. You have bought it, I don't. Ok, suppose we have some general problem with "crumbling" roads. After hundreds of thousands of miles of driving what do you suppose the odds are that I missed all these roads coast to coast and just happened to drive only on the good ones thereby giving me false "anecdotal" evidence? Preposterous.
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Preposterous.
hmmm, https://www.transportation.gov/policy-initiatives/grow-america/road-and-bridge-data-state Doesn't look that great to me. Have you ever taken a boat up the Chicago River and checked out the underside of their many draw bridges? I haven't seen this with my own eyes, but I trust the pics. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/crumbling-infrastructure-memorial-bridge_n_7488770.html Here's an eye opener: List of bridge failures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures Check out the trend since the turn of the century. Just saying, it ain't as rosy as you imply.
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Preposterous.
hmmm, https://www.transportation.gov/policy-initiatives/grow-america/road-and-bridge-data-state Doesn't look that great to me. Have you ever taken a boat up the Chicago River and checked out the underside of their many draw bridges? I haven't seen this with my own eyes, but I trust the pics. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/crumbling-infrastructure-memorial-bridge_n_7488770.html Here's an eye opener: List of bridge failures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures Check out the trend since the turn of the century. Just saying, it ain't as rosy as you imply. It's hard to tell where CC ends and the internet begins. How much time do you spend on the internet CC? How heavy has your marijuana usage been through the years?
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The idea that our roads are “crumbling" is nonsense. When is the last time you drove on a “crumbling" road? How many potholes do you hit per year? I typically go for multiple years between hitting one, and even then I have never gotten a blowout because of one. I’ve been rear ended, cut off, and turned into so many times I literally cannot remember them all unless I really think long and hard. Not a single time was the collision due to “crumbling roads" On the meter of proportionality of likelihood of of cause of road death or injury or damage, improperly maintained roads are barely a twitch of the needle
So you live in Oz right? No potholes in the yellow brick road! I hit potholes daily, even when I try to miss them. Just across the river the State of West Virginia's DOT continuously works on their ever crumbling roads, same here and the same in Kentucky, just down the road. Our bridges are in a constant state of disrepair. In fact one was found unsafe and has been closed. So I would say, from personal experience (popped a tire in one and nearly hit another car swerving to miss the pothole) that it's more than a twitch. Of course it doesn't stack up to the number of fatal accidents caused by texting but it is an ongoing problem, not to mention giant boulders crashing down from unstable Cliff faces. Cap't Jack
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CC - hmmm, https://www.transportation.gov/policy-initiatives/grow-america/road-and-bridge-data-state Doesn’t look that great to me.
What a pathetic attempt at justifying their jobs. Even the DOT is in on the alarmism business. Percentage of Roads in Poor / Mediocre Condition** CALIFORNIA 68% ARIZONA 52% NEW MEXICO 44% Have you ever driven through the Southwest? The roads are practically pristine. These statistics are beyond idiotic, they are outright lies.
I haven’t seen this with my own eyes, but I trust the pics. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/02/crumbling-infrastructure-memorial-bridge_n_7488770.html
Oh, boo hoo, inspectors are detecting the natural deterioration of a bridge and they are spending millions to fix it. So what? Did you expect the bridges in one of our oldest cities to last forever?
Here’s an eye opener: List of bridge failures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures Check out the trend since the turn of the century.
Yes, the trend is a relative miniscule risk of death or injury in the USA by bridge failure. If bridges were actively seeking nuclear weapons and if bridges could possibly obtain WMD and if bridges posed a threat to the sudden annihilation of millions of citizens of the USA then I would be very concerned about bridges.
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Thevillageatheist - So you live in Oz right? No potholes in the yellow brick road! I hit potholes daily,
How far back up in the hills of Kentucky do you live? Wait, you have Rand Paul as a senator...he's a small government libertarian kind of Republican, right? Well, get off your backside and go out there and fix those potholes yourself!!! Don't be waiting around for some government handout!!! Show us your individual American spirit that made this country great. Next time you hit one a dem dang potholes juss git out an fill it up yerself!!!
Just across the river the State of West Virginia’s DOT continuously works on their ever crumbling roads
What, did you think they would last forever without being worked on? You think I live in OZ? It seems you live in a dream world where roads don't wear out out the fact the DOT continuously works on them is somehow a bad thing.
In fact one was found unsafe and has been closed.
OMG the sky is indeed falling! Inspectors monitoring the situation observed that the inevitable deterioration of a man made construction exposed to years of weathering had reached a point that it was no longer serviceable and it had to be taken out of service to avoid any harm to human beings. How utterly unacceptable!!!
Of course it doesn’t stack up to the number of fatal accidents caused by texting
Ok, giving credit where it is due, you got at least this much correct.
but it is an ongoing problem,
Yeah, so? My body is also an ongoing problem. One day it is going to fail so miserably that I will die. Reality. Deal with it and stop whining about it.
not to mention giant boulders crashing down from unstable Cliff faces.
Do you lay awake until 3 every night just making up shit to worry about?
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Do you live in the USA? Do you drive in the USA? When is the last time you drove on a "crumbling" road? Nobody I know complains about crumbling roads. Alarmism sells. You have bought it, I don't. Ok, suppose we have some general problem with "crumbling" roads. After hundreds of thousands of miles of driving what do you suppose the odds are that I missed all these roads coast to coast and just happened to drive only on the good ones thereby giving me false "anecdotal" evidence? Preposterous.
Even Chatty Cathy dolls can repeat the same thing over and over again....it's really not a skill.