I commute daily (on S.E. Pennsylvania's SEPTA, not Amtrak) and I find three items in my pack to be invaluable to my sanity:

1. Bose headphones (the full over-the-ear kind)
2. My iPod
3. Earplugs

Put in the earplugs, set iPod to play "Rain on a Tin Roof" (the 'white noise' version - http://www.amazon.com/Rain-On-a-Tin-Roof/dp/B0012A0KH0 , not the Julie Roberts song of the same name). Plug headphones into iPod, turn volume to max. You can just hear the rain through the earplugs.

Yesterday I looked up from my book and saw the woman next to me yakking into a cell phone. I couldn't hear a thing she was saying.

The NJ commuter train was my daily sojourn into/out of Manhattan for a couple years. When I could find a seat, I usually read one of my numerous hunting/gun magazines while listening to music on my non-IPOD mp3 player. Sometimes I would just sit and meditate, sometimes I would sleep, sometimes I would talk to the wife, who was still living in Denver at the time. Can't say as I miss that 2 hour a day commute.

Sue,

Duct-taping the kids is a start...

But if you've got your kit with you, how about some leg trap snares, deadfalls, spring traps, neck snares, etc?

I'd point out the victims to my children and say "That's what happens when you don't listen to your Mommy and Daddy..."

Teach a lesson and bleach the gene-pool at the same time...

You must have gotten some good looks reading gun magazines on your way into Manhattan. I walked down the stret in NYC recently in an NRA hat and felt like I was looked at as if I were an elephant man.

Is there ANYTHING that is operated or heavily subsidized by the U.S. government that is properly run? Name even ONE.

"If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there'd be a shortage of sand." --Milton Friedman

Sue

Can't wait for government's control of our healthcare and the coersion/ loss of freedom/ rationing that goes with it.

My usual comment is that "Government does not do anything really well, so I like it to do as little as possible."

My view is that the two essential parts of government, the governing per se, is making the laws and rules by which we are to live and enforcing them. The fewer and simpler the better.