Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 1:42 PM

And therein lies the rub. We probably agree on 95% of things. But that last 5% can get a little testy, can't it? :-)

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 2:08 PM

And I'd never want it any other way. For Pete's sake, I WANT to get to a point where we're arguing over fences and lampposts instead of health care and education. To me, we should always be looking for ways to remove government reach and replacing it with private enterprise. Sometimes that won't work. Many times it will.

Stupid humans!

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 2:33 PM

Reminds me of a discussion I had w/ my brother a while back. I pointed out that I thought the gov't was going about this 'war on drugs' all wrong... they should legalize marijuana (and other drugs) and tax them, because as we've seen time and time again, the gov't can run ANY once-thriving business into the ground. I was only half-kidding.
Where was it I recently saw that after the gov't seized the Mustang Ranch (bordello) in NV, for non-payment of taxes, it started operating AT A LOSS...Washington can't even run a whorehouse right !!
Although I suppose one could argue that the entire DC area is now our nation's biggest and most profitable whorehouse...heh.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 2:42 PM

The best way I could see to put the permitting problem into the hands of private industry is to pass it to the Insurance companies, because they have a significant financial interest in making sure that a home has work done properly.

Get work done, call your Insurance agent, get the work inspected, and your agent then files the paperwork with the city, who maintains a paper trail on the house.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 2:45 PM

MRS, that's the same thing I say about doctors. Your insurance company is going to do a better job of vetting the doctor than any state agency. It's their money on the line, you bet your sweet bippers they're going to make sure they're not wasting it.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 6:23 PM

We've already established from the get-go that we don't want the Government doing Religion - not that I'm against Religion, I'm not - but we need is to make sure that ALL religions are covered equally by that indifference, including Environmentalism and Atheism and all the weirdo Bonzo-Religiofoolery that pretends to be *Policy* rather than the religion it really is - and that includes Acadaemeology which worships at the alter of Education, and probably the Supreme Court which is it's own Legalisticalia religion.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 7:35 PM

AMEN DirtCrashr!


Government doesn't belong in 95% of what it's in, but I can't see anything fixing that besides the RESET button and a whole lot of hell.

In defense of government, it's not all their fault, a lot of it is people not carrying their fair share...then the government steps in when there's too much of that and people are too tapped out to help anymore.

To put it better, when responsibility and charity fail, government steps in.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 7:43 PM

Just remember though, and this is an unfortunately valid point, nearly every aspect of our government has been voted into place by the citizenry. The reset button only works when the few in government ignore the will of the people.

This is why I say that the fight is between you and your neighbors more than a tyrannical government.

Rolled Out On: 6/5/2008 11:05 PM

The problem comes when our representatives stop representing us, and start grasping power to themselves. What do we do with them then?

Rolled Out On: 6/9/2008 12:22 PM

Like smoking bans. Just because I like places that don't allow smoking doesn't mean that I think the government should be able to ban smoking on private property.