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"Just the facts M'am, Just the facts." -- Sgt. Joe Friday
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” I think that the prophet was wrong to have placed himself and his ideas above critical thought. I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have subordinated women to men. I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have decreed that gays be murdered. I think that the prophet Muhammad was wrong to have said that apostates must be killed. He was wrong in saying that adulterers should be flogged and stoned, and the hands of thieves should be cut off. He was wrong in saying that those who die in the cause of Allah will be rewarded with paradise. He was wrong in claiming that a proper society could be built only on his ideas. “
[T]he Islamic faith [i]s one of the great religions of the world[.]
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Subdivide and Conquer – Australian style
Smart Growth is an urban planning and transportation theory that concentrates growth in the center of a city to avoid urban sprawl; and advocates compact, transit-oriented, walkable, bicycle-friendly land use, including mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.
By Brooks
Convention Lecture | April, 2004 | Haim Harari
HAIM HARARI, a theoretical physicist, is the Chair, Davidson Institute of
Science Education, and Former President, from 1988 to 2001, of the Weizmann
Institute of Science.
During his years as President of the Institute, it entered numerous new
scientific fields and projects, built 47 new buildings, raised one Billion
Dollars in philanthropic money, hired more than half of its current tenured
Professors and became one of the highest royalty-earning academic
organizations in the world.
Throughout all his adult life, he has made major contributions to three
different fields: Particle Physics Research on the international scene,
Science Education in the Israeli school system and Science Administration
and Policy Making.
“As you know, I usually provide the scientific and technological
“entertainment” in our meetings, but, on this occasion, our Chairman
suggested that I present my own personal view on events in the part of the
world from which I come. I have never been and I will never be a Government
official and I have no privileged information. My perspective is entirely
based on what I see, on what I read and on the fact that my family has lived
in this region for almost 200 years. You may regard my views as those of the
proverbial taxi driver, which you are supposed to question, when you visit a
country. [Read more…]
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It seems that the case for continuing existing illegal drug policies needs to overcome the reasonable arguments contained in this essay: Drug legalization case
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From Liberating The Supply Side by John Goodman
Ask yourself this question: If Blue Cross were paying all the drug bills, would Rx.com even exist today? Would Wal-Mart be offering $4-a-month prescriptions? Would Publix be giving away antibiotics for free?
The fact that there is the most price competition in the market for drug therapies and the least for hospital therapies is an illustration of Goodman’s Law, which says that innovation and entrepreneurship are inversely proportional to the degree of third-party payment.
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From www.danielpipes.org |
by Daniel Pipes
FrontPageMagazine.com
October 3, 2007
“Everything” did not change on 9/11, as some expected, but one thing certainly did: the U.S. government’s willingness to preempt enemies before they act. This new policy has outraged so many, it may be discontinued. [Read more…]
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(click to enlarge)
In reviewing many BOCC agendas, it appears the same disclaimer given in the 9/12/07 agenda is routinely given, and it also seems that the subject matter under “County Attorney” sections is never disclosed ahead of time. This begs the question of why Abe21 suddenly chose to take offense over a standard protocol. Also, why did they not approach the BOCC to change the agenda protocol? That would have been the constructive thing to do if they were really interested in contributing to “a better Elbert.”
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(click to enlarge)
Estimated 1st Yr Sales Tax Revenue = $1,969,550
*2006 Road & Bridge Budget = $5,974,190
*2006 Total Budget = $23,690,529
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1% sales tax = 33% increase in Road & Bridge budget.
1% sales tax = 8% increase in Total budget.
*See ELBERT COUNTY COMMISSIONER MEETING DECEMBER 13, 2006
Also: Don’t forget the Earmarked Money Illusion
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By Brooks
Summary Notes of Elbert County Transportation Master Plan Public Meeting of September 17th, 2007
Richard Miller, Elbert County Planning Director introduced members of his staff who were in
attendance as well as Commissioner John Metli. Elbert County staffers who attended were:
Carolyn Parkinson- Elbert County Planning Dept.
Rick Manyik- Elbert County Road and Bridge Superintendent
Denny Van Why-Elbert County Office of Emergency Management
Richard introduced the team from Carter & Burgess:
Karen Stuart- Municipal and County Services Specialist
Scott Jones- Transportation Planner
Misty McCoy- Environmental Planner
This meeting was held in the Elizabeth Middle School. There were about 40 people in attendance. [Read more…]
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By INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Monday, September 24, 2007 4:20 PM PT
The World Stage: Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denies the Holocaust, sponsors terrorism and colludes in the murder of American troops. So why is he given the honor of addressing the United Nations on U.S. soil? To us, the answer is clear. The U.N. is as corrupt, brutal and morally compromised as Ahmadinejad himself. In its many affronts to civilization and decency, the U.N. has long since outlived its usefulness and reason for being. Time to shut it down. [Read more…]
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By Brooks
Going protectionist over a fantasy highway
Xenophobes see a threat to U.S. sovereignty in a Texas freeway project that would ease trade with Mexico.
By Shikha Dalmia and Leonard Gilroy September 20, 2007
With respect to conservatives, each one of the following ad hominem abusive adjectives was used in the above linked story:
paranoid, isolationist, jihad, sinister, xenophobes, apoplectic, paranoid rantings, protectionist fringe, hysterical, atavistic, ideologues of fear
This article is about Ports to Plains, a subject in which the TRW claim expertise.
Necessity makes for strange bedfellows though. The above authors are affiliated with the Reason Foundation, a group of Libertarians that a couple of TRW Democrats would probably find disagreeable.
As for Dalmia and Gilroy of the Reason Foundation, their opinions might be more persuasive without the ad hominems, and with a lot more “reason.”
By Brooks
By Brooks
The group who attend each planning commission meeting to lobby against development and growth, yet who never manage to persuade the planning commission or the BOCC to see things their way, should consider why they are ineffective in stopping growth. There are only two reasonable explanations. Either they are, in themselves, poor representatives, or they in fact, do not represent a majority of citizens.
These periodic laments in the local fishwrap reinforcing a self-image of heroic victims of the money-grubbing enviro-stomping capitalist development nightmare, may comfort some people, but this position leads to only one conclusion –total obstruction. Cobbles of “smart” to growth, “health and well being” to environment, “unique” to Elbert County, and “commitment” to the future, all make nice sound bites, but from a bunch of folks with self-proclaimed vision, I would expect a little more discussable content. Slogans are just not persuasive.
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“The almost general mediocrity of fortune that prevails in America obliging its people to follow some business for subsistence, those vices, that arise usually from idleness, are in a great measure prevented. Industry and constant employment are great preservatives of the morals and virtue of a nation. Hence bad examples to youth are more rare in America, which must be a comfortable consideration to parents. To this may be truly added, that serious religion, under its various denominations, is not only tolerated, but respected and practised. Atheism is unknown there; infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country, without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an atheist or an infidel. And the Divine Being seems to have manifested his approbation of the mutual forbearance and kindness with which the different sects treat each other, by the remarkable property with which He has been pleased to favor the whole country.”
From: Information To Those Who Would Remove To America, Benjamin Franklin, 1794
Note the date –1794, well after the 1st Am “Establishment Clause” was argued and ratified by the States along with the Constitution. Jefferson’s notion of a “Wall of Separation” between church and state came about almost a decade later, yet it is that expression to which revisionists refer to make the erroneous point that the Constitution contemplated the protection of beliefs repugnant to Christianity. The “different sects” Franklin refers to were all Christian, and that’s the context in which the Establishment Clause was ratified. The modern context of tolerance toward atheism and “infidel” non-Christian religions would have offended the Founding Fathers. Under an originalist constitutional interpretation, the Establishment Clause would not protect, for example, the practice of Islam. Protections the Court has found over the years in the cascade of constitutional interpretation, can, with the stroke of a pen, be taken away. In effect, what some claim as a fundamental right, is little more than a revocable license.
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By Brooks
“In all of social science – whether economics, politics, sociology, history, etc. – there is only one model that (a) is internally consistent and (b) can explain and predict. That is the model developed by economists. All the rest is gobbledygook. And more often than not, it is highly opinionated, value-laden gobbledygook.”
Economic theory predicts that in any system in which all the actors find it in their self-interest to overuse resources, fail to improve quality and impede access to care, there will be system-wide problems of cost, quality and access. And this prediction holds not just for the United States, it holds for the health care systems of Britain, Canada and other countries as well.
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By Brooks
From: Forbes Commentary By: Regina Herzlinger
09.04.07, 6:00 PM ET
We have turned over $2.2 trillion of our money to those who manage our health care, without holding them accountable. Not surprisingly, these folks–hospitals, insurers, governments–used the money to benefit themselves.
Insurers, hospitals and governments have gotten fat–our bloated health care costs kill the competitiveness of U.S. firms and more than 40 million people are uninsured, mostly because they cannot afford it–while 300,000 people die every few years from medical errors. Arrogant insurance bureaucrats deny people the services they paid for, while many insured find their coverage inadequate for serious illnesses. The uninsured who are charged the very highest prices by our nonprofit, ostensibly “charitable” hospitals are all too often driven to bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, doctors leave the profession in droves because of insurer, hospital and government micromanagement of their activities. Most of the doctors enrolled in my Harvard Business School M.B.A. courses explain, “I can no longer practice medicine.” The powerful grip of the status quo also scares off the entrepreneurs who represent the best hope of transforming this whale.
Only two stakeholders can fix this–you and I. We must take back our money and we must decide how to spend it. We should be buying health insurance for ourselves, using the foregone salaries and mammoth taxes we once turned over to this self-serving crew. Switzerland’s consumer-driven health care system points the way: The Swiss have universal coverage, spend 40% less and enjoy an excellent, private health care system.
We are in a war for control of $2.2 trillion. If we do not win it, our health and economy will go up in flames.
Regina Herzlinger is the first woman to be awarded tenure at the Harvard Business School as the Nancy R. McPherson Professor of Business Administration. Her new book, Who Killed Health Care? (McGraw-Hill), details the consumer-driven battle plan that can revive our doctors, economy and good health.
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"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." Thomas Jefferson