If I'm going to be inconvenienced daily and have my property values reduced, I'd much rather the cargo be non-polluting, long-term job-providing, American-made products, as opposed to oil... Wait... Did I just say American-made products? Christ... I really am sounding like a fool.

I like rail for transportation, especially when compared to alternatives. The diesel engines aren't great for the environment, but they can haul a lot more cargo with less pollution than semi trucks. For all the reasons I stated, I don't want to see trains hauling oil (and coal) to power the countries that our corporate overlords have handed virtually all our manufacturing base, through my backyard.

If any of you think manufacturing isn't critical to our economy, I think you're sorely mistaken. I firmly believe it's in our best interests to make sure energy is as expensive as possible for foreign buyers. We need to level the playing field in a hurry, or the Middle Class will disappear. Technology cannot possibly provide enough jobs to keep it going. Doing more with fewer resources, lest we forget, is among the ultimate purposes of technology. It's also a fact, despite what the "pull up your bootstraps" guys say, that not everyone can be a white collar professional. That's becoming more and more true as the price of a college education continues to skyrocket and, thanks to dominance of every retail market by large corporations, starting a small business is a much less likely avenue to financial well-being than it once was (and needs to be, if you are a true Capitalist.)

Manufacturing was what made the Middle Class strong. Without it, our standing in the world economy will crumble. History tells us this is true. On the bright side, we could become today's China a few generations down the road, but do you want your grandchildren to suffer a life of abject poverty in the meantime? If not, you'd better do everything you can to force American companies to bring their manufacturing jobs back home.

It starts with making energy cheap for Americans and expensive for our competitors. Our wages are relatively high (as they should be, and you're an elitist a$$hole if you believe otherwise), but if the cost of doing business is relatively less here than it is overseas, we can achieve the balance necessary to keep American manufacturing competitive and keep our middle class intact.