Travel services: Amtrak along the Hudson!

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2011

Always sit on the left going north: Amtrak runs a very nice route from New York City up to Albany, skirting the Hudson along its "right bank."

Today, we’ll be on that train. Why not stop by our private car and chat for a while with the analysts?

We may be posting over the weekend. One rarely knows, of course.
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11 comments:

  1. D.September 23, 2011 at 10:24 AM

    Seconded!

    (I'm on the wrong coast, or I'd join you.)

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  2. hardindrSeptember 23, 2011 at 12:51 PM

    If you are ever in Syracuse, NY, let me know.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2011 at 1:31 PM

    If you are not sitting in a "quiet car," please tell your analysts that the new blog is a major hit in sunny San Mateo.

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  4. stuart_zechmanSeptember 23, 2011 at 2:20 PM

    Bob Somerby:

    I'm sure you're not at a loss for material, but if you'd like to have your analysts take a crack at this spectacular bit of buffoonery from MSNBC's Prof Melissa Harris-Perry --brought to us by the fine folks at The Nation-- it might be very, very useful in the way of helping us movement liberals understand our desperate need to denounce and reject this sort of divisive, corrosive, pseudo-left dreck.

    "...electoral racism cannot be reduced solely to its most egregious, explicit form. It has proved more enduring and baffling than these results can capture. The 2012 election may be a test of another form of electoral racism: the tendency of white liberals to hold African-American leaders to a higher standard than their white counterparts. If old-fashioned electoral racism is the absolute unwillingness to vote for a black candidate, then liberal electoral racism is the willingness to abandon a black candidate when he is just as competent as his white predecessors."

    Go ahead, and examine the "logic" of subsequent paragraphs in ostensible support of this TV-playing "liberal"'s claim: since the policies of Third Way centrists Obama and Clinton are "comparable," this means elections are not tests of how candidates' previous performances are received, but instead are tests of white liberals' propensity for subtle racism. You just can't make real-life examples of this type of pseudo-liberal intellectual degeneracy up, Bob Somerby.

    http://www.thenation.com/article/163544/black-president-double-standard-why-white-liberals-are-abandoning-obama

    For the latest example of how elite, establishment liberals are helping to drive our beloved nation into the ditch, go ahead and read Prof Harris-Perry's latest "Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals Are Abandoning Obama," but do take some comfort in the commentariat's overwhelming denunciation and rejection of her effrontery and silliness. At least these ordinary movement liberals seem to have the sense that MSNBC guest hosts obviously lack.

    Enjoy your ride to Albany, I wish I could join you on that train for an entertaining conversation, Bob Somerby.

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  5. Matt in the CrownSeptember 23, 2011 at 4:09 PM

    Good god! That's some gruesome stuff.

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  6. gyrfalconSeptember 23, 2011 at 5:20 PM

    Watch out for the return trip on that train, Bob. It's usually quite late, sometimes 2 to 3 to 4 hours late, because of security hold-ups at the Canada/U.S. border.

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  7. urban legendSeptember 23, 2011 at 7:25 PM

    Good for you for taking the train, but how sad is 11 hours -- with no delays -- to go 381 miles?

    We already are a third world country in some ways. It should be about 3.5 hours even with just a decently fast train -- about 2.5 with genuine high speed rail -- and between NYC and and a major city like Montreal, you would expect there to be at least 10 trains a day each way.

    Of course, that's really slow (under 35 MPH) even by Amtrak's standards (which are not the fault of Amtrak). Still, the more common 55-60 MPH is still incredibly low by world standards.

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  8. sticklerSeptember 23, 2011 at 7:49 PM

    If you were French, that would be the "left bank." Remember, the river rules.

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  9. Scott LemieuxSeptember 23, 2011 at 11:35 PM

    Enjoy your trip to the lovely capital region!

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  10. AnonymousSeptember 23, 2011 at 11:55 PM

    Just got back from Syracuse and actually got to drive to Cooperstown during the exact weekend of the induction of Bert Blyleven, but what a drive!! Who knew upstate New York is all farms, big farms!!

    Syracuse was interesting, college town with a huge homeless problem. I was really struck by that, I live in Vegas and we have our own homeless problems, but Vegas is a helluvu lot bigger than Syracuse and Syracuse seemed worse.

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  11. hardindrSeptember 25, 2011 at 5:55 PM

    Syracuse was interesting, college town with a huge homeless problem. I was really struck by that, I live in Vegas and we have our own homeless problems, but Vegas is a helluvu lot bigger than Syracuse and Syracuse seemed worse.

    I have lived in a suburb of Syracuse all my life. Yes, outside of the larger cities, Upstate is mostly empty space and farmland. I'm not sure how bad a homeless population Syracuse has, the winters are such that if you are exposed to the elements overnight, you will get hypothermia.

    Some helpful article?

    http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/fewer_homeless_are_living_on_s.html

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