Until the U.S. public starts seeing clean, convenient, fast public transit as a public good deserving of public money--not a quasi-private service that's supposed to "pay for itself"--we'll never get away from car-centric culture, and we'll be tied forever to the vagaries of oil and gas prices, putting the working class most at risk.

The referenced USA Today article has some useful stuff too:

Part of the squeeze stems from the failure of federal funding to keep pace with the relative explosion in the number of transit systems under construction. Even as more cities build or expand their systems and ridership hits a 50-year high, the amount of federal funding has remained constant.

One does not like to use "LOL" too often, its value being so inflated; but really, JW's paragraph on "The Birds" is terrific.

Being a fan of crows, I rather especially liked that bit about the crows on the monkey bars, playing the game of "Chasing Screaming Children Down the Hill."  He might have added: "Pecking Their Teacher's Eyes Out in Her Bed."

But what this has to do with DR -- who is not known for his great love of birds, or for his hatred of them either -- is a secret locked in the heart of James Wolcott.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.