[topcat]

WTF!

And why just the engineer? Now if they had gone onboard and robbed everyone, that would have made SOME sense.

[Newsseeker]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('topcat', 'W')TF! And why just the engineer? Now if they had gone onboard and robbed everyone, that would have made SOME sense.

[Zardoz]

I'm wondering why the engineer stopped, and really wondering why he got down out of the cab.
I would've slowly eased through the goons with the horn shrieking, and proceeded to the station. The engineer had to know he was asking for it when he got out. Seems odd...

[smallpoxgirl]

My guess was a bunch of drunks stumbling around on the tracks. Engineer gets out to castigate them. They get offended. Mayhem ensues.

In any case, it's clear that federal legislation is needed to curb the availability of rocks and bottles to such thugs.

[gg3]

But it sure does make a usable "open source warfare template" for use by others. Robbers, terrorists, whatever. Time for railroad engineers to start carrying firearms on the trains. And yeah I agree, shreik the horns at the goons and slowly move on ahead. And if one of them gets under the train, oh well. And if one of 'em tries to board, that's where the firearms come in.

Chaparral has the operative phrase there: cull the friggin herd. And as for hanging 'em high, nah, LWOP will do the trick for now. For the ones who aren't KIA by the engineer. As for the actual crime, define it as a form of piracy or terrorism regardless of intent. Make it a Federal crime as well as State level, so it can be prosecuted in whichever venue seems most likely to get a conviction and a stiff sentence.

BTW this is a classic case of the paradigm of civilization vs. barbarians. The rail engineer is a civilized person, engaged in a peaceful activity that contributes to sustainability. The goons are barbarians whose goal was only to destroy whatever piece of civilization they could get their hands on. This is why civilization depends on its warriors as much as on its builders & teachers. Because you have to protect what you build and what you teach, protect it from the willful entropy of barbarian attacks. I would love to see a follow up to this posting once the police capture the foul scum who did this attack.

[gg3]

Follow up:

Caught him!

Police arrested a 17-year-old boy for the assault itself, and are still seeking 4 - 6 or so additional people for being part of the mob that stopped the train.

Motive is not yet clear.

Exact charges are not yet clear either. I'd say let's start with assault with a deadly weapon (rocks & bottles) with intent to commit murder (head injuries), and whatever piracy or hijacking statutes can be applied. Maybe there's even an old old law on the books about train robberies that carries 20 - life or a death penalty. Hey there also ought to be a conspiracy charge since after all there would have had to be an agreement among all of them to block the train at very minimum. That by itself should be worth 20 years.

Here's hoping the police scoop up the rest of them ASAP and the prosecutor throws the book at the whole lot.

[Falconoffury]

They could have just as easily attacked someone with rocks and bottles who was walking down the street. I wonder what could cause them to do this to a train engineer.

[mercurygirl]

Now that is disturbing.

Once again, it reinforces to me that there are a lot of young sociopaths out there, just looking for someone to hurt or kill. We are in a world of crap.

This caught my eye because we're taking a train trip this summer. I don't suppose you're allowed to pack a pistol.

[I_Like_Plants]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mercurygirl', 'N')ow that is disturbing. Once again, it reinforces to me that there are a lot of young sociopaths out there, just looking for someone to hurt or kill. We are in a world of crap. This caught my eye because we're taking a train trip this summer. I don't suppose you're allowed to pack a pistol.

[max_power29]

I think smallpoxgirl's scenario of the engineer castigating them is most likely. And yes, we definitely now need a 1 million soccer mom march on washington for federal legislation on rock and bottle control. Power to the people!

If the perps are 17 they will get nothing more than a slap on the wrist no matter what they get charged with.

[Peepers]

On Saturday (July 26) Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) objected to Senate Majority Reid’s request for unanimous consent to name conferees to Senate bill 294. As a result, conferees were not named, putting the bill in serious jeopardy. It was threatened to be vetoed by President Bush, but the bills were approved by veto-proof majorities in Congress.

This bill would have provided anywhere from $11 billion to $15 billion to Amtrak over the next five years for more modern and efficient train equipment, expanded rail services and rebuilt infrastructure to allow for faster trains.

Now, thanks to the actions of this one senator, it is looking like the bill will not see any action until after the recess, if at all. The 34 states represented by the States for Passenger Rail Coalition, plus many others, are absolutely outraged at Senator Coburn. Anyone know anything about Senator Coburn? Why would he do this?

[Peepers]

Nice. He has the "Golden Driller" statue in Tulsa on his home page (at http://coburn.senate.gov/public/). I also see he is big on domestic drilling and all about the supply side of the oil equation.

Sounds like the guy is a shill for the oil lobby.

[ROCKMAN]

Peepers,

In one way I support killing the bill. It's much too little money to make a difference. Amtrak, in its current form, is an absolute failure. The GAO proved it would be cheaper for Amtrak to fly folks first class from New Orleans to L.A. and shut down that particular route. We need a rail bill that would probably measure trillions of dollars over the next 30 to 50 years. I'm not a rail expert but from what I've read it would be more efficient to scrap Amtrak (except for the NE commuters, of course) as it is and design a new system. This would also go hand in hand with an effort to expand rail freight movement, a much more efficient system then diesel fueled long haul truckers.

I know of the Passenger Rail Coalition and it's just one more pork barrel system used to buy votes. and I'm not defending Coburn's motives...they may well be as described.

[Cochise]

We are in the hands of CRIMINALS.

[neocone]

I agree with killing the bill. Sad to say but when car usage was expanded it was seen as a fist in the face of the ruthless rail lobby at the time.

Rail companies back in the 19th and early 20th century were charging by the Gazoo for crappy service and were an order of magnitude more ruthless than any lobby today. Pretty much all the politicians were catering to them and were on their bribery payroll.

GM/Ford/Firestone and Pennoil were seen as the bright new kids on the block who gave freedom of mobility to the masses and brought down an evil monopolistic conglomerate.

Kinda like what Google is to Microsoft

So... imagine the brave new world that awaits us once the rail monopoly is back. Seen those trains in Bombay? Imagine it ten time worst and here...

[mos6507]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('neocone', 'S')o... imagine the brave new world that awaits us once the rail monopoly is back. Seen those trains in Bombay? Imagine it ten time worst and here...

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('neocone', '
')So... imagine the brave new world that awaits us once the rail monopoly is back. Seen those trains in Bombay? Imagine it ten time worst and here...

[neocone]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mos6507', '
')So what are our options, then? There is a lot of negativity towards proposals like this but not a lot of ideas beyond those centered around killing as many people as possible to hasten a population reduction.

[the48thronin]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', 'F')urthermore, the rail monopolies you speak of never had passenger rail as a primary concern, because the business of moving people around, without government subsidy, is always a money pit. Highways and airlines are no exception.

[NeoPeasant]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('the48thronin', 'e')xactly why do we the tax payers want passenger service again?