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Recent Comments
- ClayPidgeon on Scam Calls from the American Police Association
- Michael Davis on Life In Chico and Other Places Infected by Bums
- Patricia Lieder on Scam Calls from the American Police Association
- Dawn on Thaddeus Kerns Boy Aviator
- scott sproat on Scam Calls from the American Police Association
Recent NorCal Blogs Posts
On a completely unrelated subject, if this piece does not make you weep openly, you are probably a progressive.
Islam = Sharia = Islam = CAIR = Muslim Brotherhood = Sharia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOIbgd5qcrg
This is another thing I just do not get about the media when they report this. President Obama was pointing out that no business would be able to make it without things provided to Americans by the government: roads, educated workers/customers, power grid, clean water, etc. The point is that busiesses suceed because America is great and America is great because of things that our governments provide us.
Aother one of my beefs with Romney is his ramping up this fight, and then taking it to places where the business owners have received large government loans. Again, I can’t believe those business owners do not acknowledge that they received government loans to start them on their road to prosperity.
I just wish the Republican party would fight as hard for infrastructure improvements that benefit Americans as they do for defense contractors and bridges and roads in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Europe has an amazing train system, but the US has the interstates. I have spent a lot of time on I5 this summer going all the way to Canada and to San Diego. It is truly one of the most amazing infrastructure improvements and a benefit to all citizens. What an amazing accomplishment that has allowed communities and businesses to prosper. And it was brought to America by a Republican president.
OMG Princess, you really can’t be that nave, can you? Just where do you think the government got its money? From you, me and every business that ever existed. Wake up please! Without the taxes we all pay (for those of us who pay taxes) the government would not have the funds to operate. It couldnt exist without US!
We need the government to protect us, thats it. And for that alone Im willing to pay. The rest we can do without government help.
Romney talked today about an honor student who rode the bus to school is the one who earned his/her grades, not their bus driver. The same applies to businesses. The owner did the work and took all the risk, not the toll both worker at the bridge he drove over. Got it?!
God, I want our country back. November can not come soon enough.
First of all the owner did not take all the risk if he or she got a government loan to start their business like most of Mitt Romney’s examples did.
Second of all, I think we have all travelled to places that werent as nice as the US. For instance, in Italy (especially Rome) there is very little handicap accessibility. Does the US take it to extremes? Absolutely when it costs hundreds of thousands to build a stupid wheel chair ramp. But when you are travelling with a grandmother who has bad knees, it sucks in Rome that the only way down to the subway is on stairs because there aren’t escalators.
Yes, all of these things are paid for with taxes. My point is that instead of talking about how bad Obama is which most of us already know, I would rather hear Mitt Romney tell me more about how great he is and some more specifics of his plans instead of hearing how he is going to cut taxes, not cut defense spending and the specific cuts he will make will be revealed after he is elected.
I personally have no problem paying taxes for things like roads, bridges, education, clean water, clean air, and public transportation. I love public transportation.
I have a HUGE problem paying taxes for bloated education that pays way too many administrators and has seen testing expenses explode thanks to George Bush’s No Child Left Behind which was a huge giveaway of tax money to testing companies. I have a HUGE problem paying for welfare for every idiot who decides they need to have a kid before they are 20 along with their 5 tattoos (I do not oppose Obama’s birth control provision in the ACA, I think it should be mandatory). I have a HUGE problem paying for public employees to retire at 50 at 90% pay. I have a HUGE problem paying taxes to subsidize California’s colleges only to have California students not get accepted but every United Arab Emirates student who applies is accepted because they pay full tuition. I have a HUGE problem paying to send more water from Northern California to Southern California so they can have swimming pools and lawns in the desert. I also have a HUGE problem with defense contractors who make millions of tax dollars to outsource our jobs to other countries.
I think most taxpayers are happy to pay for things that make our state/county/city/country better for EVERYONE. We are sick of paying for a few people to bleed us dry.
I can guarantee if a large hand (Gods hand) came down and removed the roads and the bridges We still have people who would manage to make their business work and others who would figure out new business to fill in the gaps. We the people did it once before and we the people will do it again! Henry Ford did not wait for some political hack to build a road before he built the model T. He built the cars and then other people had an idea about tires and then shock absorbers. The one common component is they did it without Obama and big government.
Did the two dreamers from Dayton wait for an airport to be built before they built their airplane? A plane they built in their bicycle shop!
I think I have hit on why liberals hate real people. Real people are proof positive that big government is a hindrance, a stumbling block in the path to success. Oh and my definition of a real person is pretty much anyone who reads this and say’s “That is the Country I want to live in!”
So Princess and Libby and Chris have a big steaming cup of STFU! Please send a cup to our soon to be ex-president Barack Hussein Obama mm, mm, mm! (or however you spell his jacked up name!)
“We need the government to protect us, thats it. And for that alone Im willing to pay. The rest we can do without government help.”
Peggy, are you saying that we should only spend taxpayer money on the military and nothing else?
No roads, no bridges? No food inspections? No public health? No airport traffic control? How about eliminating small business loans? How about research for health care, such as cancer research?
How about clean drinking water and clean air?
Also that honor student that Romney talked about, road on a city bus, to a city school. Do you want to eliminate that too?
Peggy: “OMG Princess, you really can’t be that nave, can you? Just where do you think the government got its money? From you, me and every business that ever existed. Wake up please! Without the taxes we all pay (for those of us who pay taxes) the government would not have the funds to operate. It couldnt exist without US!”
But Peggy, that’s exactly what Obama was saying. We all help each other out. He isn’t claiming that the government is some kind of magical sky god; he’s saying that it’s paid for by all of us.
“We need the government to protect us, thats it. And for that alone Im willing to pay. The rest we can do without government help.”
That is an extremist position that most Americans would undeniably reject. Also, didn’t you used to work at a city college? Your paycheck came from the taxpayers, no?
And certainly you encountered many students who wouldn’t have been able to attend college were it not for government grants?
Do you think only those who can afford higher education should get it? What kind of populace do you imagine we will have if government financial aid is completely eliminated, and the amount of students able to get a college education drops by half (at least)? Have you thought through the real world implications of your extreme philosophy at all?
“Romney talked today about an honor student who rode the bus to school is the one who earned his/her grades, not their bus driver. The same applies to businesses. The owner did the work and took all the risk, not the toll both worker at the bridge he drove over. Got it?!”
Well, that’s…really dumb. No one is saying the bus driver should get the credit for students’ work. What Obama was saying is that we all rely on others for help in order to succeed, and a lot of that help comes from the government, which is paid for by our taxes. Without buses and bus drivers (paid for by our taxes), many kids who have the will to succeed would still not have the ability to get to school, and thus would not be able to develop their skills. I can’t think of a more counterproductive analogy for Romney to use; it totally proves the president’s point.
No I’m not Jim. I’m saying the role of our government should be to first protect us from harm from foreign invasions, but also from harm from within our boarders. That includes clean air, water, police, firefighters etc. But, I want limitations on those regulations that puts the quality of peoples lives over protecting a bunch of smelt in the water supply that grows the food to feed us.
I believe states should also have the rights to their own land over the federal government coming in and taking it like Clinton did to millions of acres during his last days in office. Why do the feds control so much of the land west of the Mississippi and so little east of it? Just look at a map to see the difference.
Princess, wheelchair ramps are a safety issue and Im all for them since my son was hit by a car in his electric wheelchair back in the 80s when he was forced to use a driveway to cross a street and the oncoming truck didnt see him. He wasnt badly hurt, but his chair was damaged enough that it took weeks to have it repaired.
Also, when I started my business, which was a calibration lab, back in the 70s I didnt need a loan, because there was a small equipment outlay to calibrate torque wrenches. But when I decided to expand it in the 80s and tried to take out a small business loan I was turned down by the government because I didnt meet their criteria. I couldnt walk into a donut house or 7-11 owed by someone who spoke very little English, but even as a woman my own government wouldnt give me a 3% interest loan. Instead I ended up with a 23% interest rate by taking a second out on my house. Remember the high interest rates back when Carter was pres.? Thats what I got caught in. Even being in business for over 10 years didnt help because I hadnt made a lot of money during those ten years. So, please dont try and tell me what the government can do, because if you dont meet their requirements they are not there to help.
My business did very well for about 8 years. My husband even left his family business and worked for me. But, the bottom fell out when government subsidized Lockheed Martin opened up their internal calibration lab to take in work from the outside/private sector. They undercut our prices and slowly took our big customers like PSA, Air Cal, Todd shipyard, and assorted electronic and industrial companies. Once again the government not only refused to help me get my company started it began its end. We had moved from the garage to a leased building, hired another guy and even took on supplying and resurfacing granite surface plates, which was a huge expense. My husband died of a heart attack at 40 years old helping a friend build a gazebo to earn some Christmas money. (Just like Paul Ryan there is a long family history of heart problem we didnt know about then.)
The point Im making is the private sector will always do better with limited government involvement. Im not in favor of government health care, but am for taking care of those who can NOT take care of themselves. Children, the disabled, and the elderly all need our help. But, able bodied individuals who believe they are entitled to live for free off the work of others can go pump gas or pick fruit. No free rides for those able to care for themselves.
Did Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have government help when they started their businesses? If they did Ive never heard of it. They started in a garage just like I did. So many others have done the same and weve all benefited from their time, money and hard work. Anyone who thinks the rich got rich over night has never owned a company that required working 7 days a week, 18 hour days when necessary and even held down another full-time job to guarantee the mortgage was paid and health coverage was provided.
Jim, From the Chicago Tribune, which is not a conservative source. When I saw Romney speak he just said, bus.
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-08-07/news/chi-romney-pledges-to-end-culture-of-dependency-20120807_1_romney-pledges-lis-smith-mitt-romney
While Obama has noted he was referring to various governmental assistance, including teachers, Romney likened it to a school student who decides to make the honor roll and succeeds.
I realize that he got to school on a bus and the bus driver got him there, but I dont give the bus driver credit for the honor roll, Romney said. I give the kid credit for the honor roll.
I knew we were in trouble in terms of what educators and parents are teaching about our national heritage and values. I had no idea is was this bad. When otherwise intelligent sounding people don’t know where government gets its money (power) we have failed to educate…BIG TIME!
America is unique in the world because we were founded on principles of freedom with recognized inalienable rights. That charter set in motion a dramatic sense of creative exuberance such as the world had never seen. People could actually work and build their own fortune, whether large or small. Previously they had only lived as serfs and slaves with no opportunity to build personal wealth. Freedom and property rights are the underpinnings that made Americans prosperous and their prosperity made it possible to build roads and bridges. Until the federal government was empowered to exercise more control private funding was used for innovation and research.
Why do we not know that individual efforts built this nation and made possible all of the things that have been accomplished, including massive government projects? Because progressive education has made “the collective” loom large in the minds of citizens. Yet it is the one system that has failed to produce a positive result all across the world.
Our federal government was set up to serve the various states under a very narrow mandate. Cato looks at that narrow mandate in the Constitution and what has happened in education (As well as what should happen):
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa518.pdf
There isn’t any reason to believe that human beings in Washington DC can handle problems better than human beings at a more local level. We have given them power in DC to take over problems and projects that we could have accomplished ourselves or that states could accomplish in cooperation with each other. In our ignorance and apathy we have arranged for a very expensive, inefficient bureaucracy. We have set up perfect conditions for opportunistic corporatists, special interests, and politicians to make unsavory deals. We are losers in this arrangement for a variety of reasons. Poor educational performance is just one of them.
Chris, I sorry you are unable to grasp what life would be like with a limited government that is controlled by the people instead of what you have been raised in where the government provides for everything.
Yes, I started working part-time at the community college in 1973 doing short-term work like registration before the semesters began and during the semester for a week or so doing enrollment verification reports for the state funding allocations.
In 1980 when my husband left working for his familys business and came to work for my small business I got my first permanent job with the college working from 5-10pm in the admissions office. This job did provide health insurance which included my disabled son with his pre-existing condition. And it allowed me to be at home with my sons and keep my business going.
When my husband died in 1988 I sold off my business assets to pay off the second loan and started working full-time at the college in an 8-5pm position leaving my younger son to care for his disabled older brother. They were both teenagers at that time, so I only worried about how much trouble they could get into together.
I loved my jobs at the college and working with students to help them achieve their academic goals. At one point my duties included working with at-risk students who were on probation or had been disqualified for grades and/or progress progression. (They failed to complete more than 50% of their units attempted.) I had mentors from the community who volunteered to be roll models for my vocational students and various individuals at San Jose State who could motivate my transfer students.
Im not against public education, because it does have its place. But, I am 100% against the loss of local and state education controls to federal regulations in DC. Local school boards and state regulators should be accountable to the people who elected them, not some appointed advisor sitting in an office on the other side of the country. One of those advisors in DC now used to be my boss, so I know what Im saying. She was a great person, but an extreme liberal/progressive.
Private schools on the other hand are doing a better job of educating the children resulting in higher outcome scores with less money, less regulations and less government involvement. Scholarships are available too and with more private sector involvement I hope more students will be able to benefit from this superior educational system.
If the government wont or cant put the education of our children as their top priority instead of paying top administrators more than the president of the US is paid, because of regulations and union demands I hope more and more parents pull their kids out of the public schools and enroll them in private schools. If public schools enrollment drops theyll get less from the state forcing them to deal with the inflated salaries.
Yes, Chris Im one of those PERS (Public Employee Retirement System) employees, but I guarantee you my little pension from being a clerical clerk and at risk specialist doesnt come close to affording me a life of luxury. You see I also got my real estate license when it was just me and my boys. When I sold my house I not only saved by not paying another realtor to sell my home I even got a check for 1.5% of the selling price. Sweet deal, and I could help my sons with their bachelor degrees without them getting government grants or taking out student loans to pay back.
I wish you Chris and others of your generation could understand the rewards of knowing you earned what you worked for without the handout of others. You all really are the lost generation with no hopes and dreams that your new government doesnt provide you with.
Toby: Oh and my definition of a real person is pretty much anyone who reads this and say’s “That is the Country I want to live in!”
Are you saying if we don’t want to live in a country without roads or bridges or automobiles or airplanes then we aren’s “real” people?
Yes, pioneers made their way out here without government help (except for the free land they got to build their homes)
I have visited countries without good infrastructure and bad roads, dirty water, and rotten food as a way of life sucks. Totally. The idea that a “real” conservative only believes in using tax money for the department of defense is ridiculous.
Princess I would bet that those countries that you visited live under dictators or socialists with heavy government control.
American ingenuity built this country, including the roads and bridges, most of which were built by the states. The Golden Gate bridge is a good example:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picture_of_the_Golden_Gate_Bridge
This country was a wilderness. Americans built it into the most prosperous nation in the world with more opportunity than any other country. Federal government takeover and growth since 1965 (but starting as far back as the progressive Wilson) has greatly diminished that prosperity by eliminating competition, helping to dumb down the populace and encourage dependency, and by discouraging personal responsibility, including personal charity. It’s why our college tuition is so high. It’s why so many able bodied persons are on the dole instead of working to improve their lives.
FREEDOM is what makes this country great…that’s what people seek when they come here with nothing and magically manage to become small business owners and contributors.
How in the world have we allowed so many of our people, particularly young people, to not have the experience of their own great heritage and their own personal abilities to succeed beyond their wildest dreams because they live free?
I started one business and purchased another without government help. People do it every day. Most have the same experience as Peggy…they don’t qualify for small business loans.
“Just where do you think the government got its money? From you, me and every business that ever existed. Wake up please! Without the taxes we all pay (for those of us who pay taxes) the government would not have the funds to operate. It couldnt exist without US!”
And you could not function without it. It’s called symbiosis. I’ll be damned if I comprehend what it is about this that rankles you (and Toby) to the point to totally irrational denial.
Libby: “And you could not function without it. It’s called symbiosis:
Hmmm….
We don’t need the big government bureaucracy to accomplish the building of roads and bridges or to educate our kids. We are perfectly capable of raising funds, making plans, creating legal agreements, contracting for the work, arranging for financing and setting up payment schedules without government interference and involvement. We did it quite well up until the last 100 years or so.
Not only that but the waste, fraud, abuse, greed, graft, corporatism, favoritism, and irresponsible spending that leads to massive debt and tax increases is not beneficial. It is a wasteful and corrupting influence backed by power to avoid detection and justice.
Nope…I don’t agree this is a “mutually beneficial” relationship at all…in fact the bigger government gets the more it seems like a slave and master relationship.
“We are perfectly capable of raising funds, making plans, creating legal agreements, contracting for the work, arranging for financing and setting up payment schedules without government interference and involvement.”
Tina, this paragraph describes the operation of a government. It does. I’m telling you, there is this thing working in your head that I just don’t understand at all.
Are you thinking local government only? But what about locals who cannot raise, or even persuade the bank to lend them, monies for sewage treatment? There were communities in this country in this perdicament right up into the 90s.
Sorry, Tina, we’re just not having it. Kick and scream all you like. You are, for the moment, and praise be to the Goddess, still in the minority.