Dennis Miller has a new radio show that just started this week.  I think it's very good.  And it's available as a podcast so you can download the thing easily.  (Maybe that's how radio will work in the 21st century.)

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Dennis Miller.

And here's the classic Family Guy take:

"I don't wanna go on a rant here, but America's foreign policy makes about as much sense as Beowulf having sex with Robert Fulton at the First Battle of Antietam, I mean when a Neo-Conservative defenestrates, it's like Raskolnikov filibustered deoxymonohydroxinate."

(That cracks me up every time.)

The US has developed a bad reputation because pretty much everybody burns gasoline driving their cars and nobody goes anywhere by rail.  As opposed to, say, civilized Europe, where rail is used so much more.

Well, it turns out that's only the case for transporting people, and the opposite is true for freight.  In the US about 38% of freight shipments go by rail with about 27% going by truck, while in Europe only about 8% of freight goes by rail and about 44% goes by truck.

That's right, the fraction of freight transported by rail in the US is 4.5 times that of Europe.  (!!!)

Many more details, research, references, and a fascinating analysis can be found in:

"Nature or Nurture: Why Do Railroads Carry Greater Freight Share in The United States Than in Europe",
by Jose Manuel Vassalla and Mark Fagan,
published by the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Don says, check it out.