challenger3980 selector Paul, sorry to be so long in getting back to this. It was a darnedif I do, and accusing, pointing-fingers-if-I-don't for that thread. I really hated to throw water on it because it was such a very nice fire. In Vancouver, where my brother and his family live, an activist female jogger was murdered just blocks away in their community. Vancouver really has, as a group/community, to get serious about drug money. Drugs and guns...they are a bad combination and never far from one another. And I'll say this about my own people...be they mild and meek over litigation, they sure like their marijuana and other recreational dissociative hedonistic resources. Maybe someone with some credibility, someone with charisma, will point out to all those consumers that they can't have it both ways. Safe streets for your children or funny smelling carpets.... figure it out. Finally, I really had not taken the time to read the article about the suit, nor the commentary that followed, so it was just my new cynicism, and imagination, at play when I posted that tongue-in-cheek reply. -Crandell Crandell, I have to disagree with this statement. While it is true that those involved with drugs quite often misuse guns, the other way around is not so. There are many, many Responsible Gun Owners that do not have any involvement with drugs. Doug
selector Paul, sorry to be so long in getting back to this. It was a darnedif I do, and accusing, pointing-fingers-if-I-don't for that thread. I really hated to throw water on it because it was such a very nice fire. In Vancouver, where my brother and his family live, an activist female jogger was murdered just blocks away in their community. Vancouver really has, as a group/community, to get serious about drug money. Drugs and guns...they are a bad combination and never far from one another. And I'll say this about my own people...be they mild and meek over litigation, they sure like their marijuana and other recreational dissociative hedonistic resources. Maybe someone with some credibility, someone with charisma, will point out to all those consumers that they can't have it both ways. Safe streets for your children or funny smelling carpets.... figure it out. Finally, I really had not taken the time to read the article about the suit, nor the commentary that followed, so it was just my new cynicism, and imagination, at play when I posted that tongue-in-cheek reply. -Crandell
Paul, sorry to be so long in getting back to this.
It was a darnedif I do, and accusing, pointing-fingers-if-I-don't for that thread. I really hated to throw water on it because it was such a very nice fire.
In Vancouver, where my brother and his family live, an activist female jogger was murdered just blocks away in their community. Vancouver really has, as a group/community, to get serious about drug money. Drugs and guns...they are a bad combination and never far from one another. And I'll say this about my own people...be they mild and meek over litigation, they sure like their marijuana and other recreational dissociative hedonistic resources. Maybe someone with some credibility, someone with charisma, will point out to all those consumers that they can't have it both ways. Safe streets for your children or funny smelling carpets.... figure it out.
Finally, I really had not taken the time to read the article about the suit, nor the commentary that followed, so it was just my new cynicism, and imagination, at play when I posted that tongue-in-cheek reply.
-Crandell
Crandell,
I have to disagree with this statement. While it is true that those involved with drugs quite often misuse guns, the other way around is not so. There are many, many Responsible Gun Owners that do not have any involvement with drugs.
Doug
And on the flip-side of the argument, there are many Responsible Drug Users who want nothing to do with guns.
One of the best reasons to legalize drugs is to take away the income of the drug cartels (including your local gangs) who are responsible for the deaths of many innocent people.
Apparently this country learned nothing from Prohibition.
selector Paul, sorry to be so long in getting back to this. It was a darned if I do, and accusing, pointing-fingers-if-I-don't for that thread. I really hated to throw water on it because it was such a very nice fire. In Vancouver, where my brother and his family live, an activist female jogger was murdered just blocks away in their community. Vancouver really has, as a group/community, to get serious about drug money. Drugs and guns...they are a bad combination and never far from one another. And I'll say this about my own people...be they mild and meek over litigation, they sure like their marijuana and other recreational dissociative hedonistic resources. Maybe someone with some credibility, someone with charisma, will point out to all those consumers that they can't have it both ways. Safe streets for your children or funny smelling carpets.... figure it out. Finally, I really had not taken the time to read the article about the suit, nor the commentary that followed, so it was just my new cynicism, and imagination, at play when I posted that tongue-in-cheek reply. -Crandell
It was a darned if I do, and accusing, pointing-fingers-if-I-don't for that thread. I really hated to throw water on it because it was such a very nice fire.
May your flanges always stay BETWEEN the rails
Crandell -
Well, that was pretty good - darn plausible, if you ask me - except coming from B.C. it seemed a bit too litigious for the normally stolid citizens of the "Great White North". Plus, since it appears that only 1 homeowner was involved, I wasn't seeing how the "mob mentality" - "We'll sue the b*st*rds !" - typical of such cases would have had an opportunity to kick in.
That said, though, if you read through the 9 comments to the original article, you'll see more than a few mentioned the vibration from the trains as being a factor in the cause of the landslide . . . .
- Paul North.
P.S. - On "Locking" the Amtrak & guns thread (since I can't post this to it anymore, I'll comment here instead): I was wondering why it was taking so long for that to occur. I didn't object to the thread at all, despite it having wandered far from rail-oriented topics - I thought that it was a good opportunity for the community at large to be able to "vent" over recent tragic events in a pretty thoughtful forum. I too thought it was an exceptionally civilized discussion of a usually inflammatory topic, and figured that's why it earned and was receiving the benefit of more tolerance of its off-topic nature than is usually the case - but I also expected that the axe would fall sooner or later. So be it - but the participants deserve credit for doing so well with keeping the discussion orderly and well-mannered. - PDN.
Paul and others, no, I was just being facetious. My mind is trained to look at alternatives to what is first evident, and, having read similar threads over time, I knew that someone else was going to beat me to the punch if I didn't get it in first. Call me cynical, as many of us are, but wouldn't it be likely that the land owner(s) will try to up the ante with a gambit of that nature? O tempora, o mores..!
Boyd Where is this happening? I haven't been able to read the original story.
Where is this happening? I haven't been able to read the original story.
White Rock, British Columbia. Here's the link to the report, headlined:
By Tracy Holmes - Peace Arch NewsPublished: March 27, 2009 11:00 AM Updated: March 31, 2009 3:10 PM
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/news/41983957.html
From my quick reading of the article and the following 9 comments, it appears that all of the 33 trees were removed from the same property, and that there have been recurring problems with leaking drain pipes and septic systems, etc. Most of the comments were neutral towards the railroad - the commenters really dislike that developer/ homeowner, though !
The small photo accompanying the article is labeled as "BNSF crews clear mudslide debris from the train tracks", etc., but the apparently on-track equipment seems to be more of a tie plate pick-up machine or perhaps a spiker than a front-end loader or backhoe that would normally be used for such a task. (The photo was taken from well below track level, so only the top of the equipment is visible and hence it's hard to say what it is with much certainty.) Since the photo that is referenced below for the "On Track" article was taken the day before this article, that reinforces my conclusion that the equipment is mistakenly labeled for the slide debris clean-up, but is really rail replacement related instead.
There was also a prior article that seems to have pretty much predicted this - more than 2 months ago ! See "Activist lauds BNSF" By Tracy Holmes - Peace Arch News, Published: January 13, 2009 1:00 PM, Updated: January 13, 2009 1:22 PM, at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/news/37516289.html
In particular: "Regarding slides, Pitcairn said he’d like to see bluff residents who ignore the well-known impact that cutting hillside trees has on slope stability held accountable for damage that results from work done." (Pitcairn is Don Pitcairn, a member of the "Surrey United Naturists" group).
There's also a brief article headlined "On Track" (Published: March 26, 2009 4:00 PM, Updated: March 26, 2009 4:12 PM) with another small photo of the lead elements of a BNSF rail gang crew at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/news/41944327.html
Finally - I didn't see anything pertaining to selector's mention of a counter-suit by the landowners. Are you serious, or just pulling our leg ?
EDIT: See also "Seaside rail upgrades get ready to roll", MArch 05, 2009, at:
http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/peacearchnews/news/40801818.html
Lets see here IIRC the Landowners REMOVED trees that were blocking THEIR view on Property that BELONGED to the BNSF. Now they get hit with a Lawsuit for the Damages and they want to scream that it was an accident waiting to happen SORRY if you had not removed the trees the trees would have kept the hillside stable. You are the ones that tresspassed and did something ILLEGAL. Besides which was their first YOU MCMANSION or the RR. I am betting the RR. Since this Homeowners goup sounds like a bunch of NIMBYS and BANANAS that would have screamed if the RR wanted to build there. Kinda like when the RR wanted to reopen Stampede Pass and those NIMBYS found out that those nice quist tracks were going to be SCREAMING with TRAINS again.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Counter suit: "Land owners sue BNSF for theft of property, claiming the vibrations of passing trains has threatend their land contiguous to the right of way for some time. It was an accident waiting to happen."
On the trains newswire. ( I have a Trains magazine subscription, I wish it was much less complicated to signup to the newswire that I am supposed to get for free) the headline is BNSF to bill landowners in slide. I would love to hear the rest of the story.
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