Man, stuck on 280 FWY for 2 hours this morning. "Why", you ask? Well, the obvious answer is because dumbass people keep hitting each other in front of me. But there is a better answer that goes back to the 1950s. GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil (herein known as the corporate assholes) banded together to form a pact that went city by city and bought up the key systems (metro rail systems). They hit Oakland (my town) in 1958. The lameass city governments let them buy the key systems, which they immediately destroyed. So, what does this have to do with my traffic this morning? Keep reading oh ye of short attention. What would make them destroy a perfectly good system? That is easy. They sold the city GM busses that used Firestone tires and Standard Oil products. So once again, the almighty dollar destroyed something good just to make a buck. The city governments made short term money and the pact made big bucks. And what about the Americans? We get to sit in traffic for 2 hours at a time since none of the cities are linked and none of the rail systems are worth a shit. Does rail really work? If you have to ask that, you've never been to Europe (or even backass India). Hell yes it works. But dumb Americans are hooked on their cars, burning gas and wasting time. The freedom of the open road! That is just what I was thinking as I was sitting there on the FWY, dead stopped. Pity as my Oakland Key System even had a private rail on the Bay Bridge all the way into SF.
