Originally published at Notes from the bunker…. You can comment here or there.

Here’s why we’re doomed:

Im walking outta the post office and theres a chick with a clipboard. “Do you have 60 seconds to bring back Amtrak to Montana”. Okay, game on. “Where is it now?”, I ask? She tells me Amtrak hasn’t run in our part of Montana since the late 1970’s. I ask why they stopped. It wasn’t profitable, she tells me. Will Amtrak be able to pay for itself on this Montana route, I ask. Well, we hope it will, she says. Amtrak hasn’t made a profit since..well…ever..how is this route going to get paid for, I ask. Stimulus money from president Obama’s economic package.

Of course.

So what she is saying is that ‘public transportation’ needs trump good fiscal sense. The railroad won’t be profitable, it’ll need government money to run, but by Crom there will be something for tourists to ride.

This is why we’re doomed. Let me rewrite the scenario:

Hi do you have 60 seconds to help me open up an organic ostrich farm? There hasn’t been a successful ostrich farm in Montana in..well, forever…but we think its in Montana’s interest to have an ostrich farm anyway. It might make money someday but history says that it probably wont. We’ll keep throwing money from your taxes at it though. Whaddya say, wanna sign up?

And this bubblehead standing there with her clipboard sees nothing wrong with asking people to have government create yet another money hole because it has the magic words ‘public transportation’ written on it. Its for ‘the public’…you know, the people. The working class. Whatever.

Its these 20-something know-nothings who don’t see anything wrong with spending tax money on nonsense like this that are making things worse. I’m halfway surprised her nipples didn’t poke through her top when she mentioned Obama’s name.

I feel like I should make a sandwichboard with a graph showing Amtrak’s dismal record and stand next to this chick.

Unemployment is around 10%, the economy is stumbling like Ted Kennedy at an embassy dinner, personal savings are at an all time low, people can’t keep their homes so lets take their money in the form of taxes and instead of spending it on bare essentials lets throw it into the wind by subsidizing a railroad that has never been able to pay for itself.

This is why we’re doomed, folks. To throw out even more metaphors, while you and I would be heading for the lifeboats this chick would be re-arranging the deck chairs. And yet her vote counts. Whats worse, she’s oblivious to her being part of the problem.

The avatar of fail, I have met her.