Posted on 10/29/2005 11:26:41 PM PDT by Tom87
Just who are you going to take up arms with and who are you going to shoot? Are you some frustrated terrorist?
Unless you're under 14.
"It is wrong. Reagan didn't win cold war."
Sure he did. Ever since, there's been not one decent espionage book.
I'm not going to take up arms against anyone, I simply stated what I believe to be the truth. I'm not in favor of it but the increasing stratification of American culture cannot be ignored and there seems to be no instrument to stop it.
These people are shameless...
Why would Alaska want the dough spent on a bridge, which they can't eat, which can't care for their illnesses, which won't educate them? If there must be largesse surely there are smarter things to put the largesse towards.
I thought that was when you put that wad of cotton in a bottle of pills.
I think you've gotten it in one. It's gotten to the point that the number of people who benefit from federal handouts exceed the number who pay for them. The result is that voters have an interest in maintaining the status quo when it comes to federal programs.
About 20 years ago, the "throw the bums out" mentality had national-level term limits at the forefront of many discussions. But when polling organizations dug into it, what became clear was that everybody wanted someone else's bum thrown out, as long as their own bum was bringing home the gravy.
As far as I'm concerned, if you receive government money, or you don't pay taxes, you should have no say concerning spending legislation. But that wouldn't be democratic. "The people" would have less power. Less power to steal from taxpayers, that is.
You seem to be getting close to Heinlein's propostion -- that to vote, a person must be a citizen, and to become a citizen, that person must contribute to the public good in some way that demonstrates he or she is able and willing to put public good ahead of personal gain. It seems that idea would eliminate about 90 pct of our current political representation (except McCain, but then maybe we could put in a "stupid clause").
Ted Stevens' childish tantrum on the Senate floor was an embarrassment to Republicans. The whole lot of these spendthrifts--regardless of what letter they have after their name--need to be sent packing.
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) gave one of the most galling performances of arrogance in that debate over his beloved pork that the Senate has ever seen. When he threatened to pick up his marbles and go home, the rest of the Senate caved like the wimps they are. Alaskans ought to be ashamed that this parasite represents their state.
Agreed, but you can't fight city hall (tho many have tried in Dallas:) and you definitely cant fight Congress and Senate.
WAIT what am I thinking yes we can next year 2006 ::wink::
Without infrastructure we'd be in a sorry place.
hmmmm...term limits ay?! Tried that in 1994. Got Newt Gingrich thrown to the wolves, got Bob Dole the presidential nod......
Creeping socialism. Creaping envirowackoism. It costs a few thou to build a septic field. It costs a few thou to drill a well. It cost a few pennies of juice, a day, to operate the pumps, and you don't have to pay a bill to the town...
I don't know of any towns in AK that don't have enough space...
I wonder how many years you could operate a couple of these, for just ONE Billion TAX dollars?
North Carolina has a fleet of them... the USERS pay to ride them!
WHY DEMOCRACIES FAIL
A Democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of Government. It can only exist until the voters discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that Democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy, always to be followed by a Dictatorship.(Written by Professor Alexander Fraser Tytler, nearly two centuries ago while our thirteen original states were still colonies of Great Britain. At the time he was writing of the decline and fall of the Athenian Republic over two thousand years before.
REPUBLIC VS. DEMOCRACY, U.S.ARMY ANALYSIS <- Good read!
Even riding the ferry across the Hudson from NJ to NY is quite an experience in winter.
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapse over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the worlds greatest civilization has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence:
*From bondage to spiritual faith
*from spiritual faith to great courage
*from courage to liberty
*from liberty to abundance
*from abundance to selfishness
*from selfishness to complacency
*from complacency to apathy
*from apathy to dependency
*from dependency back again to bondage."
-Alexander Fraser Tyler
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