Comments on: OUR WHOLE ROTTEN, SMELLY, SEWER OF A GOVERNMENT

By: machs

machs — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 19:30:53 +0000

Antiterrorists - Don’t forget to cast your curse on Omeed Popal’s mustache!

By: Martin

Martin — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:56:25 +0000

Get rid of the 17th amendment. The loss of state’s rights has led to a mega-federal gov’t.

By: aric

aric — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:53:17 +0000

Point of view from someone who grew up in MD near DC: I grew up in (St. Mary’s County) about 50 miles south of DC. Money from the federal government literally turned my little redneck county into another wealthy suburb of DC and figures prominently in local politics - every county on the western shore of MD (and Northern Virginia) fights to keep military bases open. In the case of St. Maryâ€™s, Patuxent Naval Air Station, sent millions (by way of federal contracts) to where I grew up. And honestly, do you expect the people of MD to turn that money away? DC is the center of our government just by way of proximity the surrounding area will prosper. I don’t think it is fair to blame the people of these counties or even their politicians (doing anything short of demanding as much federal $ for your county would be political suicide) All that federal tax money flowing into the suburbs of DC insured that out of college I was given a lucrative job as a with a federal defense contractor and the house my parents bought for 70k in the early 80’s is now worth nearly 300k.

By: ed

ed — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 14:03:00 +0000

Excellent post, Rick, but there are solutions. It is time to take advantage of modern communication technology and move from a Federal central location to divergent locations for different governmental functions. Put the Department of Agriculture in Nebraska (lot’s of farming there), the Department of State in Hawaii (closer to the Islamic States), the Senate in Florida (the old farts never retire anyway, so work in a retirement area), the Department of Defense in Iraq (if you support the War, more oversight; if you oppose the War, Rummie reaps what he sowed), the Supreme Court in Alaska, the White House in Lower Manhattan, NY and so forth. Would help break up the K Street lobbyist racket, limit the internecine government battles coming from too close proximity, discourage overstaying one’s welcome as an elected official, limit job hopping by federal employees with an agenda, and lastly, allow D.C. to return to the states from whence it came - residents get to vote and be represented and the excessive welfare spigot directed to the District can be shut off.
And what a great litmus test. If your Congress person opposes these changes, you know he/she doesn’t have the people’s interest at heart and you can vote them out! Are you with me, people?!!!!

A win-win for everyone!

By: Slublog

Slublog — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 05:11:19 +0000

Where to Begin?

A depressing must-read from Rick Moran….

By: Down and out in the Horse Heaven Hills « Nothing

Down and out in the Horse Heaven Hills « Nothing — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 03:12:44 +0000

[...] So, I’ll just refer you to two essays, one more of a rant by Rick Moran, and the other by the Anchoress as food-for-thought. [...]

By: Andy

Andy — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 03:01:54 +0000

I used to live in the DC area (N. VA). I loved the two hour commutes. It was either that or spend 500k for a townhouse near a metro station. There may be money there, but the cost of living is really high, and it’s probably the worst place to commute if you don’t take the metro.

I was just there recently visiting a friend who lives in Louden county actually. He’s a mortgage broker and is making a killing on the skyrocketing real-estate. He’s selling his house - it went from $600k to $900k in three years. $100k a year and all tax-free since he lived in it.

The Dulles corridor is a huge tech mecha and DC is pretty diverse, but I am dreading the day I will have to go back and live there.

By: Christopher Fotos

Christopher Fotos — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 01:02:04 +0000

Something has got to change. And the depressing thing is, I donâ€™t even know where to begin.

This is a lazy and misinformed post. I am a generic conservative 100% behind the Porkbusters project and, not that it matters, in agreement with much of what I’ve seen on this blog. But greater DC has a stunning diversity of businesses now, two thriving major airports on the Virginia side, universities coming out the gazoo, major biotech, computer- and software-related services, telecommunications, a self-reinforcing velocity-of-money cycle based on local retail, one of the country’s fastest-growing immigrant populations providing every imaginable service at wages far above what they could earn at home; in short, all the elements and critical necessary for the kind of prosperity and dynamism most people actually favor. I’m completely in favor of fighting graft and taxpayer-funded excess, but it’s lazy demagoguery to leap from that to “suburbs of sodom,” and “defilers of the temple of liberty” and by the way, we actually need to spend lots of money on defense and homeland security, partly so I won’t be nuked or attacked with a bioweapon the next time I take the Metro. Hope that’s okay with you.

By: Misha I

Misha I — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:47:20 +0000

Our Founders showed great wisdom when they placed DC in a swamp, hoping that nobody but the most idealistic of individuals would choose to live in it.

Unfortunately, they could not foresee the ingenuity of the slimy reptiles inhabiting it, their almost infinite skills in turning a G-d forsaken hellhole into a gilded fountain in which they could wallow, raping the general populace and living high on the hog while pouring their excrement all over the hardworking souls paying for their excesses.

Of all the planes that could’ve been taken over by the heroics of their passengers on 9/11, it had to be the one directed at the single most expendable sewer in the whole nation?

What a waste.

Well, hopefully G-d will deal with this Sodom as He dealt with the last one.

And there will be much rejoicing when the parasites are purged from the body of our nation.

By: Christopher Fotos

Christopher Fotos — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 00:08:00 +0000

I’ll tell you what has to change, bub, you have to change. Suburbs of Sodom? Go to hell.