<\/a>Every once in a while, we get a clear view of a major disconnect in the Republican Brain.This certainly is true with the responses of many GOP office-holders to the recent tragic crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n In terms of what happened, the train was going 106 mph in a 50 mph zone with a tight curve, as it headed north to New York.The train derailed,\u00a0 leading cars to fall apart and tumble down inclines. Of the 238 passengers and 5 crew on board, 8 were killed and over 200 injured, 11 critically.<\/p>\n It has still not been determined if the cause of the crash was human error by the engineer, mechanical failure of existing equipment, or even the remote possibility that a projectile hit the engine window and disoriented the engineer.<\/p>\n Officials of the National Transportation Safety Board<\/a> said that the crash might have been prevented by a computerized, speed-limiting system called Positive Train Control<\/a> (PTC) that was operational elsewhere on the Northeast corridor.<\/p>\n When it comes to understanding why the PTC system was not in place on this stretch of track, we have a classic example of how Republican thinking tends to be illogical. Shortly after the crash, House Speaker John Boehner was asked if the crash was in part due to Amtrak not being well-funded. Boehner jumped on the question and said<\/a>, \u201cAre you really going to ask such a stupid question?\u201d He went on to say:<\/p>\n \u201cListen, you know, they started this yesterday, it\u2019s all about funding; it\u2019s all about funding. Well, obviously it\u2019s not about funding. The train was going twice the speed limit. Adequate funds are there, no money\u2019s been cut from rail safety, and the House passed a bill earlier this spring to reauthorize Amtrak, and authorize a lot of these programs. And it\u2019s hard for me to imagine that people take the bait on some of the nonsense that gets spewed around here.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n