Back in the USA
After a nice Geneva-JFK flight, I was supposed to transfer to a flight to DC but they all got canceled on account of the rain. And by the time I got around to it, there were no slots left on the SUPERTRAIN. Fortunately, Chris Hayes was sufficiently un-jetlagged to safely pilot a rental car to DC. And so now I’m back! And tired. But mostly back. And back on to your regularly scheduled blogging.
Meanwhile, many thanks to everyone at the American Swiss Foundation for making my recent trip possible. It was both an extremely enjoyable junket, and also massively informative. And, yes, for readers of the blog this does mean you ought to be scrutinizing every post for a sign of “dual loyalties” or that my policy views are mere cover for the nefarious Swiss agenda. What if, for example, my belief that it would be smart to increase tax rates on richer Americans in order to finance more generous social services is really just part of a plot to increase demand for tax shelters?
35 Responses to “Back in the USA”
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November 15th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Aspen, Switzerland: why don’t you ever get to go anywhere cool on junkets, like Lubbock?
November 15th, 2008 at 11:33 pm
Well, this certainly was a gem from the ASF website:
“Nazi Gold: The Swiss Side of the Story”
November 16th, 2008 at 12:05 am
Sifu Tweety:
Actually, Lubbock is going to have its 15 minutes of fame if Texas Tech can beat Oklahoma(and then win the Big 12) next weekend.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:20 am
And by the time I got around to it, there were no slots left on the SUPERTRAIN. Fortunately, Chris Hayes was sufficiently un-jetlagged to safely pilot a rental car to DC.
Cars and roads to the rescue again. If there were two of you, I expect the rental car was cheaper than the SUPERTRAIN would have been. Probably faster, too, given the time you would have had to spend getting from JFK to Penn Station and from Union Station to your home.
Funny how the SUPERTRAIN only ever seems to make sense under contrived conditions that rarely reflect real-world travel situations, isn’t it?
November 16th, 2008 at 12:28 am
I’m only partly surprised that NY-DC trains actually sold out, if the flights were being cancelled; there’s not much spare capacity in the NY-Philadelphia segment (the trains are much emptier south of Philly). But next time you’re in that crunch, check out BoltBus, the low-cost, middle bracket bus service on the East Coast; it will get you from NY to DC, Philadelphia, or Boston (or back) in relative comfort and, more importantly, with free Wi-Fi, which will keep *us* fixed for blog posts.
(That said, had I been in that situation, I would have taken a commuter train to Trenton or Philadelphia to get around the sold out segment. But that’s because I know the train system.)
November 16th, 2008 at 12:36 am
yes, bolt bus is fantastic. i just took it into nyc from dc and it’s got plenty of legroom and outlets as well as wi-fi. and it costs barely anything if you get tix in advance.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:37 am
The Acela is a SUPERTRAIN in the way that Mixner is smart, well-informed and attuned to irony.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:44 am
pseudo shows up right on cue to take his customary festering dump. Hey, I’m game:
The Acela is a train in the way pseudonymous in nc is ignorant, foolish and in a permanent state of uncontrollable rage.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:46 am
I’m miffed because Matthew blew the PERFECT CHANCE to ask the Gnomes of Zurich what they thought about the Bill Obama submitted in Congress last year — i.e., the bill to squeeze the Swiss banks by the nuts until they cough up the list of American tax evaders.
After all, the Swiss have already been forced to disgorge that Jewish treasure that they tried to keep after the original depositors failed to show up to collect it, for some reason.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Actually, it would be kinda hilarious if Matthew’s new Swiss buddies were forced to rat Matthew out to the IRS –regarding certain scumbag Trustfund deposits — because President Obama twisted their tail.
The Republicans might even get a new ..er.. zealot.
November 16th, 2008 at 12:57 am
I also think Matthew should post a Midi here of him doing his new Swiss Yodel. Does anyone else agree?
November 16th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Oh, poor thing. The Acela is a SUPERTRAIN in the way that Virgin Mixie No-Friends is pleasant, socially well-adjusted and at peace with the world
(’Rage’, silly boy? Watching you repeatedly shit yourself in public while pretending you don’t stink is base comedy.)
November 16th, 2008 at 2:45 am
“Hello, my name is pseudonymous in nc and I am so angry all the time that every day I have a massive stroke.”
November 16th, 2008 at 6:52 am
Mixner – You can’t drive a car and do work on a laptop at the same time. You have to factor in the opportunity costs of losing productive time driving as well as the transportation costs.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:03 am
The Swiss, I believe, do not have universal healthcare. It is an individual responsibility to find insurance (a friend of mine there who is uninsurable due to past melanomas has to go back to her native Israel to be treated for health problems).
November 16th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Re: If there were two of you, I expect the rental car was cheaper than the SUPERTRAIN would have been.
I have no idea what Supertrain costs, but I do know that a one-way car rental tends to be very pricey.
Re: Funny how the SUPERTRAIN only ever seems to make sense under contrived conditions that rarely reflect real-world travel situations, isn’t it?
Actually it’s the preferred method of business travel for people in my company between Baltimore (where our office is) and New York (where the main office is). The route makes sense given the relatively short distance, faster than driving (given traffic congestion along I-95) and more or less comparable to flying, given the down-time one must put in at the airport.
Re: The Swiss, I believe, do not have universal healthcare.
They don’t have single payor certainly (most of Europe does not) but they do havea tightly regulated insurance system (community ratings and no cherry picking) with an individual mandate and subsidies as needed– more or less the Massachusetts/California plan.
November 16th, 2008 at 8:35 am
First, I’d like to thank my white brothers and sisters for their intelligent comments on this website. (What is race but extended family?)
Second, I’d just like to note that the Swiss are good people.
————
SIGNATURE:
The white patriot’s Coat of Arms: gens alba conservanda est (the white race must be saved)
—-
T.S. Eliot: “White Trash” is a white person who fornicates with a non-white.
—-
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST EUROPEAN AMERICANS.
Obama has supported:
(A) Reparations. Redistributing money from European Americans (Whites) to blacks, mestizos, and Asians.
(B) Criminalizing white parents who refuse to let their children practice miscegenation.
(C) Using “hate crime” laws to silence any criticism from European Americans.
(D) Using Third World immigration to overwhelm European American majorities.
(E) Maintaining anti-white affirmative action programs
(F) Creating a mandatory “America Serves” community-service program to indoctrinate and deracinate young European Americans
—-
From evolutionary philosophy email list: “Children of mixed, white-black, marriages identify 99% of the time as black and detest European Americans (whites). Why? They almost always look black (eye color, hair texture, nose shape, skin color, etc.). Obama wrote: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s white race.”"
November 16th, 2008 at 9:45 am
The Swiss are not a fount of all that is good in social policy, particularly when it comes to non-natives. There are regulations to ensure Swiss-born citizens can get healthcare despite pre-existing conditions, but those regulations don’t apply to non-natives. In fact, non-natives generically get a raw deal from the whole Swiss social contract. The issue even made it into Paulo Coelho books…
November 16th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I don’t like the fact that our pundit class all hang out together every weekend and attend each other’s barbeques but I don’t have a non-reactionary reason. Maybe if they all didn’t live in the same city for no particular reason really.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:05 am
First, I’d like to thank my white brothers and sisters for their intelligent comments on this website. (What is race but extended family?)
Second,I’d like to note:
The Swiss have more sensible immigration policies than we do in the USA. And the recent right-wing victories in Switzerland give some hope.
The Swiss are my white brothers and sisters. And I wish them the best.
————
SIGNATURE:
The white patriot’s Coat of Arms: gens alba conservanda est (the white race must be saved)
—-
T.S. Eliot: “White Trash” is a white person who fornicates with a non-white.
—-
BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA’S DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST EUROPEAN AMERICANS.
Obama has supported:
(A) Reparations. Redistributing money from European Americans (Whites) to blacks, mestizos, and Asians.
(B) Criminalizing white parents who refuse to let their children practice miscegenation.
(C) Using “hate crime” laws to silence any criticism from European Americans.
(D) Using Third World immigration to overwhelm European American majorities.
(E) Maintaining anti-white affirmative action programs
(F) Creating a mandatory “America Serves” community-service program to indoctrinate and deracinate young European Americans
—-
From evolutionary philosophy email list: “Children of mixed, white-black, marriages identify 99% of the time as black and detest European Americans (whites). Why? They almost always look black (eye color, hair texture, nose shape, skin color, etc.). Obama wrote: “I found a solace in nursing a pervasive sense of grievance and animosity against my mother’s white race.”"
November 16th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Re Nigel
I see that the blog has picked up a fascist cocking troll calling himself Nigel. What Mr. Nigel needs is a stretch in the slammer getting his asshole reamed out once a day by those dark complected fellows that he doesn’t seem to like very much.
November 16th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
JonF,
I have no idea what Supertrain costs, but I do know that a one-way car rental tends to be very pricey.
I just priced it. One-way rental up to 24 hours, JFK to DC-Union Station, pick-up later today, midsize car, from Budget via Expedia — $133. Two one-way Acela tickets, NYC-Penn Station to DC-Union Station for later today — between $354 and $442 depending on departure time.
For the car rental, you’d also have the cost of gas, of course. Google maps says the distance is about 230 miles. Assuming about 25 mpg and about $2.50/gallon, that’s about $22 for gas. So the car option total would be around $155.
For the Acela, you’d also have the cost of getting from JFK to Penn Station. A taxi from JFK to anywhere in midtown is, I believe, $45 + tip. The Airtrain, or whatever it’s called now, would I think work out to about $10 per person. Let’s suppose they use the cheaper option. So the Acela option total would be between $374 and $462.
Google maps says the drive time is 4 hours. The Acela takes 3 hours. But of course you’d also have to add the time needed to get from JFK to Penn Station, and wait for the next Acela departure. For the car rental, you’d have to add the time to get to the rental car facility, but that’s likely to be much shorter than getting to Penn Station and waiting for the train.
Bottom line is that the Acela would cost 2 to 3 times as much as the rental car, and would likely be slower.
November 16th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
JonF,
Actually it’s the preferred method of business travel for people in my company between Baltimore (where our office is) and New York (where the main office is).
Only because they’re not paying for the ticket. And your company probably wouldn’t pay it either if Acela tickets were priced at anything like their true cost, rather than being massively subsidized by taxpayers. The Acela is basically a huge form of corporate welfare. It’s too expensive for most non-business travellers, but subsidized enough to make it a relatively attractive alternative to flying for business travel.
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