"Just the facts M'am, Just the facts." -- Sgt. Joe Friday
Recent reports from smart-growth groups have shown that their goals are not limited to reshaping American urban areas. They also want to impose their high-density, mixed-use visions on small towns while they freeze development in rural areas. [Read more…]
By Randal O’Toole, The Antiplanner [excerpts]
. . .Utopianism and hubris would not be problems if planners and their architect gurus merely said to people, “Here are some ideas that will improve your life. Why don’t you try them out?” According to Peter Hall’s history of modern urban planning, Cities of Tomorrow [excerpt], most “of the early visions of the planning movement stemmed from the anarchist movement.”
. . .Sadly, most planners ended up following the authoritarian model. As Hall observes, “in half a century or more of bureaucratic practice, planning had degenerated into a negative regulatory machine, designed to stifle all initiative, all creativity.”
Yet I would argue that such authoritarianism is an inevitable result of the planning process. After all, if you have a vision of how people ought to live, and if you really believe that vision will significantly improve the world, then you don’t dare risk letting that vision be corrupted by the vagueries of the free market. So you turn to government to impose that vision on the world.
In sum, planners have historically believed that they could use urban design as a form of social engineering to perfect the world and the people in it. They acted on this belief by using the power of government to impose their designs through zoning and other regulations. The planning profession today continues to be shaped by these ideas.
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Are one-lane bridges in eastern Elbert County with minimal traffic a priority here? If 1B passes, that’s not where the money will be spent. Nor should it be, however, those images which represent a small fraction of road conditions in Elbert County are a much better sell.
So who paid for the 11″ x 17″ glossy flyer sent out by the Elbert County Transportation Initiative? And how come no one’s home at www.saveyourroad.com?
Before you buy the “public safety” argument in favor of 1B, you should see; 1) evidence of harm caused by poor roads, 2) the value of that harm, 3) evidence that similar harm will probably occur in the future if the road isn’t fixed, 4) evidence that the road can be fixed to prevent future harm, and 5) a commitment to allocate tax funds to that specific problem.
Tax 1B contains none of this information. It’s a blank check.
“The Western mind-set—that if we respect them, they’re going to respect us, that if we indulge and appease and condone and so on, the problem will go away—is delusional. The problem is not going to go away. Confront it [Islam], or it’s only going to get bigger.”
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Switching party affiliations –after an election– to the majority side says more about Stafford than it does about Republicans. It says when the going gets tough, Debbie hits the road. It says her many years in a party she fundamentally disagreed with were disingenuous and a fraud. It says her loyalty takes a back seat to opportunism. None of these conclusions seem to warrant the euphoria on Democrat blogs, web sites and newspapers over this news.
The Election Notice recently mailed to “All Registered Voters” in Elbert County doesn’t add up.
Here’s the relevant section:
Consider:
Over the last 4 years spending grew by 92% from 2003. If you extrapolate the historical rate of growth on a straight line to 5 years, (4 x rate = 5 x .92; rate = 1.15), you get estimated 2008 spending without the sales tax, of $29,380,195. After adding in the sales tax impact, the new total is actually $31,349,745.
This comes to a 19% total budget increase in one year! (Not subject to Elbert County’s fiscal year spending limits of course.)
If we assume that county revenues continue to grow at the average rate of yearly increase, the county will see an increase in 2008 close to the amount they seek under the new sales tax. So, why can’t the county allocate increased revenues from the general fund to road and bridge instead of going to the voters for more tax money?
RE: TRW 10/11/07 a TRW 10/11/07 b
After you get through the repetition from the wisdom of former commissioner Dunn and the TRW=judge&jury legal conclusions about alleged open meetings violations, you get to this moral point, “[T]he public trust — your trust — must always be considered as the paramount responsibility of elected officials.” And, “Trust of the people should trump the convenience of the commissioners.”
In principle these are good ideas, however, in the context of the TRW’s weekly ECN attacks on the BOCC, treating them as whipping boys and girls for their leftist agenda, and considering the virtual certainty that no matter what the BOCC did, the beatings would continue (because the BOCC are not leftists and never will be,) these moral arguments ring as hollow as the pumpkins on my front porch.
You never have to look long to find the 800 lb. gorilla in the TRW’s living room.
I Was Thinking… by Frank J.
Who profits if there’s a war with Iran? I think that’s pretty obvious. It’s people who make protest signs, effigies of Bush, giant puppets, and anti-war bumper stickers. It’s hard to get people out to protest these days with such high employment, so the protest industry needs wars to sell their wares. I bet if you look who’s behind the push for war, it’s Big Protest.
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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[.]
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.
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…]
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.
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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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.”
