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Riders, MBTA praise Red Line driver who announced stops in French today
By adamg on Sat, 11/14/2015 - 5:28pm
Red Line riders say they appreciated the driver on their train who provided them with a unique way to remember the Paris victims today. As Anulfo Baez reports:
Really moved by this MBTA conductor welcoming people/announcing stops in French. "In honor of our friends...."
A T spokesman says:
The MBTA is very proud of Motor Person Michael Tsoukalas, who has been with the T for 20 years. A dedicated employee such as Michael represents all that is good about public service.
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Comments
We are going to be Paris
only a matter of time before that happens here
Our elected leaders need to stop acting like It's All Good and this society can absorb anything.
Consider this
While the shootings in Paris are horrifying, they are far less in magnitude than the carnage visited upon Americans by other Americans each year.
Gun terrorism is already a fact of life in the US, on a near daily basis. I guess we don't notice when it is five people here, ten people there, two people today, four people tomorrow ...
What we don't need is another decade of spending way too much on spurious wars and "defense" issues at tremendous cost to the welfare and true freedoms of our own people, just because we are scared of a statistical rarity.
What was it that Franklin said about liberty and security, again? During a time of peril for a fledgeling nation?
Thank you for eloquently stating that which
I bang my head into the wall trying to explain, over and over, to my Fox loving friends.
Meanwhile they argue over the country's debt while urging more and more defense spending and tax cutting.
We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over broken glass
In our dry cellar
Well said.
Well said sir!
While the shootings in Paris
Citation Please?
PS: Don't forget to correct for population
France 66 million
US 320 Million
5x population difference,
... when you consider the ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE difference in gun homicides.
US: 9,146 gun homicides and 320 million people (and a massacre/week)
FRANCE: 35 gun homicides and 66 million people
The US has ~5x the population and ~260x the gun murders (not even counting the accidents here). That difference in the denominator is scarcely worth mentioning. Add in the huge bump from this latest incident and the denominator still doesn't change the picture of typical gun murder risk.
SOURCE
RE: Consider this.
From CBS: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-rates-of-...
"After Massachusetts passed a tough law restricting gun use in 1998, gun ownership rates dropped sharply, but violent crimes and murders increased." The article goes on to suggest a connection to outside guns. True enough, but there's three hundred million guns in this country. Good luck finding them.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2014/november/crime-statistics-for-2013...
"There were an estimated 14,196 murders last year. [2013]"
"Firearms were used in 69 percent of the nation’s murders"
That's about 9,795 firearm murders in 2013.
http://nij.gov/topics/crime/gun-violence/Pages/welcome.aspx
"Gangs and Gun-Related Homicide
Gun-related homicide is most prevalent among gangs and during the commission of felony crimes. In 1980, the percentage of homicides caused by firearms during arguments was about the same as from gang involvement (about 70 percent), but by 1993, nearly all gang-related homicides involved guns (95 percent), whereas the percentage of gun homicides related to arguments remained relatively constant. The percentage of gang-related homicides caused by guns fell slightly to 92 percent in 2008, but the percentage of homicides caused by firearms during the commission of a felony rose from about 60 percent to about 74 percent from 1980 to 2005.[5]"
Granted, these numbers are a little stale. So how do you suggest we disarm the gangsters? Buyback programs? Those guns are gone and only turn up in a police-gangster interaction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year
32,719. That's how may Americans died in car accidents in 2013 vs 9800 by gun.
Just to put it into perspective.
The problem with gun free zones is that everyone in them honestly is a sitting duck.
This was a well organized attack by some very determined men. We know who and what they are. If they are not stopped, it will continue.
No one died in the Texas art show that wasn't there to cause murder and mayhem.
Consider this
I'd ban all guns. I'd like to leave an exception for single-fire rifles used for hunting but it would be easier to just ban them completely like Australia. Note: I'm fully aware of the constitutional problems which I'd rectify by saying that any American is free to own a musket or cannon in the style which existed in the late 1700s.
Sure, it wouldn't get the guns off the street immediately. But over 20-30 years with no legal gun sales and constant removal of weapons it would greatly reduce the number of weapons and likelihood of someone wanting use what's left.
I don't buy the argument that safely is only possible if each and every one of us is armed at all times. Perhaps that would reduce the numbers killed in mass shootings but it would greatly increase the numbers killed when some hothead pulls a gun when he gets pissed off. (See the recent example of the guy in New Mexico who shot a little girl when her father supposedly cut the shooter off on the highway.)
As for military style (Paris) shootings: Nothing is going to stop these entirely and the chances of being killed are extremely remote.
Single fire.
All civilian legal rifles are single fire. If you mean bolt-action, well, then you support the legal right to own the latest of sniper rifles.
I do NOT want people to own 1776 cannons. Hell, the Civil War was fought with that style of artillery.
France has gun regulations. I'm interested in where the terrorists got their rifles and bombs.
I never put forth the argument that we are only safe 'if each and every one of us is armed at all times." I put forth the argument that sometimes, armed civilians can stop something. Yes, hotheads are a problem and that guy deserves what he gets. As far as Paris-style attacks, not a shot was fired by the ambushed civilians, as far as I can tell.
You do know
Your "data" source and his sock puppet graduate students that never existed have been discredited, but he is still making things up and claiming it is research. Google John Lott and sock puppets for details of this guy's truthy lies for hire.
If you're referring to my post
If you're referring to my post, I cited CBS news, two government sites and I slip in a wiki for the car stats.
Sock puppets?
Matter of time?
What's the difference between some crazy ISIS guys opening fire in a concert hall and some wackjob American college kid opening fire in a Batman movie? Or some nutcase using guns his mom bought to shoot up a local elementary school? It's not a matter of time before a mass shooting happens -- it's a matter of time between the next one.
In America mass shootings are not uncommon but your chances of being killed in one is extremely slim.
My "solution" is gun control domestically and less war mongering internationally. But I'm under no impression mass shootings are preventable entirely. Day to day I'm far more concerned about getting struck by a car -- as a pedestrian that's statically far more common then being hurt in a mass shooting.
I don't think it's good. What
I don't think it's good. What he did seems silly and ineffectual at best. At worse it confused tourists needing stop info.
English
He used that to announce stops as well.
He still shouldn't have done
He still shouldn't have done it. So tired of MBTA announcers show boating. Just do your job!
How did this harm you?
He did his job. And he showed his humanity.
No, he was being an attention
No, he was being an attention whore.
Were you on his train?
Or are you just crabbing out of principle?
Do I need to have been on his
Do I need to have been on his train? He's not the first show boating MBTA announcer.
You must be a ton of fun at
You must be a ton of fun at parties.
What does one have to do with the other?
Just because I think T announcers and most other people should do their obs strictly that somehow means that with a different matter in a different setting, a party, that I'd be no fun?
Maybe we should allow the T announcers to have a few drinks on the job. Wouldn't want them to get too dour, am I right? Life should be a 24/7 party after all.
Pretty much, yeah
I'd say it's a strong indicator of an extremely rigid mindset. Humor, amusement, entertainment, all seem to require a degree of mental flexibility both to create and to enjoy, and you seem to not have that.
Look, I get where you seem to want to go with your "attention whore" comments; you're making a criticism of the sincerity and motivation of the conductor. But I don't think you're in a position to judge the sincerity of a gesture that you're only hearing about at third hand. In the absence of evidence about this guy's motivations, it's probably better if you stop belaboring the point -- you've got nothing factual to go on and you just sound like Judgy McJudgealot.
He doesn't go to parties.
He just sits devant le computer.
Well, someone is being an attention whore...
But it's not the MBTA driver.
(And yes, I just violated one of my rules and fed a troll. But this is a special occasion, and I'm sure the troll is feeling scared and lonely and his mama isn't around to hug him, so I thought I'd just throw something his way.)
He drove the train and announced the stops
He did his job. Adding some French is not confusing.
Actually
Given the number of French speakers in Boston (mostly Africans and students) having the announcements in French might be handy.
Canadians would feel right at home...
I was at King's Chapel
the other day. I could have used someone to help me with the Frenchman (some type of commodore to the King of France's brother) buried there. His plaque is in French.
A Roman Catholic buried right at the doorstep of the Anglican king's chapel.
i forget his name
He was sent over as a French envoy, but almost immediately killed in a tavern brawl on king street. Bostonians quickly apologized profusely, and promised to erect a monument to him, as soon as the war ended, but forgot to do so. Some decades later a French dignitary was coming to visit and wanted to visit the grave/monument, so the city hastily poured the concrete, and it was still wet when the dignitary arrived.
Her's the scoop
http://allthingsliberty.com/2014/10/why-did-a-boston-mob-kill-a-french-o...
Not a nice picture of Boston "patriots"....
showboating announcers?
this is a common gripe of yours? mkay.
anyway, consider how many french tourists, students and residents might be in the city right now. it might have been good for them, not just for utilitarian purposes, but like an unexpected linguistic hug.
Any audio/video ?...
Any audio/video ?...
Bravo à Michael Tsoukalas!
Moi, je pense ce qu'il a fait un cadeau prévenant à nos amis français. Après un tel événement épouvantable, c'est important que nous prêtons notre appui aux Parisiens. Surtout, en tant que Bostoniens, n'oubliez que nous vivions il y a deux ans une tragédie pareille. Merci pour un geste de bon volonté!