SOTU pap: railroads, green jobs and higher education

  Having had time to reflect (and reflect and reflect) on the SOTU speech, one has to howl in derision and split one's sides in wracking despair that we are going over and over and over the same topics again and again, as if answers to our current financial mess are to be found in any of these old ideas.
  Appearing wearing a new Reagan persona of faux glowing cheerfulness about the future of employment in this country, our Dear Leader decided that we need to get our economic house in order. (We'll move together or not at all...American Family....we're founded for the sake of an idea blah blah blah)
  Obviously we knew that Dear Leader has been extremely concerned about flagrant spending of American dollars but who knew that he has also been chastising the leader of Egypt to get his house in order, etc., for nearly two years?
  So how about these marvelous examples of how to get our country back on track financially? And how about the obsequious sycophantic MSM coverage of said marvelous examples?
  Why, of course, Dear Leader proposes that the way to prosperity is through reinventing ourselves through "clean energy breakthroughs"!!
  And what are those fabulous new breakthroughs, 21st century, cutting edge methods?
  Why, railroads and windmills, of course!
  Notorious around the country, except perhaps for the East Coast, for their lack of efficiency and their cost, some argue that railroads are the responsibility of the federal government financially. Railroads should not be expected to make a profit, just as other government entities are not expected to make a profit:

* First, "profitability" is no more achievable for passengers trains than it is for airliners and private autos (are private cars "profitable" to their owners when they carry an average of 1.2 passengers per trip and spend about 20 out of each 24 hours sitting idle in a garage or parking lot?) The question of "profit" in for-hire passenger carriage is dangerously misleading and irrelevant. The economic value generated by passenger transportation historically is captured by the businesses served by the transportation network, not by the carriers.

  Ohio's Governor Kasich has already declined the billions of federal money for Ohio; when asked if Ohio could keep the money to reinforce infrastructure, LaHood said no. 
  Apparently roads aren't a priority; RAILROADS are because the truth is that railroads are about restructuring society and weaning citizens off personal vehicles and onto government vehicles. (The same is true of the individual home; government entities, at least the ones in power now, would prefer all of us living in (mandated?) collective housing, sharing food and responsibilities and social justice. I mean, have you seen what passive housing looks like?)

  It's about control and redistribution of wealth, all of it.

  Barone has an opinion about railroads:

Moreover, to achieve the speed of French and Japanese high-speed rail, you need dedicated track so you don't have to slow down for freight trains. To get dedicated track, you need a central government that is willing and able to ignore environmental protests and not-in-my-backyard activists. Japan and France have such governments. We don't. 

So we are spending billions on high-speed rail that isn't really high-speed, that will serve largely affluent business travelers and that will need taxpayer subsidies forever. This should be a no-brainer for a Congress bent on cutting spending.

  Now, as far as the windmills go, this horse has been beaten to death. So-called green jobs are very expensive and have to be underwritten by the feds...that is, the taxpayers.Over at Canada Free Press, Currie has the facts:

Spain, Italy, Germany, Denmarkand other countries experimenting with green jobs are experiencing skyrocketing electricity prices and overall decreases in job creation. The reason is simple—taxpayers have to pay higher taxes to subsidize these renewables, andpay higher electricity prices as renewable energies drive up costs. 

The facts are catching on, and Ohio Governor-elect John Kasich is even looking at repealing his state’s alternative energy mandates. But in Pennsylvania, legislators are going to face pressure from special interests groups to increase handouts for solar energy

  Our Dear Leader also addressed the issue of getting ahead in education and the fact that more people need to go to college. 
  Unfortunately some have speculated that the higher education bubble is about to burst, with so many students spending so much time partying, learning nothing, accumulating mountains of debt with little hope of ever paying it off.
  It would seem it might be smarter to funnel students into trades and jobs that actually have a future, rather than meaningless 4 year (or more) degrees which are not much more than indoctrination into the leftwing arena.
  And is it true that A students turn into academics (producing nothing) and C students turn into billionaires?
  After all, government is so much better at turning a profit and managing money, aren't they.
  And another thing.
  Did it strike anyone as incongruous that all those hooting jackals stood up during that speech and laughed giddily when The One joked about not having to endure a patdown to get on a train? 
  First of all, do any of those people seriously think there won't be any security on the rails? Big Sis has already decreed there will. 
  Second, how dare those pompous jaybirds cheer and laugh at the raunchy details of OUR lives that THEY put us through; considering that legislators themselves have managed to exempt themselves from all the rules the common man has to endure, you'd think they'd be more sympathetic.