Isn't there a name for this?

[Hal]

Then you seem to have little knowledge of how the system works.

No sir, I believe it's you that has little knowledge of how the system doesn't work...
I'm well acquainted with the nose of the camel, the slow boil of the frog, the slippery slope, etc, etc, etc.

Being a smoker for over 40 years, I've had the dubious distinction of living through each progressively more restrictive,,, and expensive stage,,,thank you very much.

As uncomfortable as it's been - it was different than this last piece of work.

This fiasco (the Ohio no smoking law) is/was totally different.

Money ceased to be an issue. It's all about power - something money can't buy. Wake up. It's not always about money.
@ some point the desire for $$ stops and the overwhelming human desire to dominate kicks in.

Going back to the original opening post:

"the mayor could declare "public safety act zones," which would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks, and halt traffic during two-week intervals."

I fail to see where that could possibly enhance revenue. Even the "stop and frisk" isn't a revenue generator. In order to "stop and frisk" someone,,,someboday has to be paid to be the "firsker".
In case you haven't checked,,,that sort of activity doesn't generate a positive cash flow.
(Even heavy fines for DUI don't generate revenue. Heavy fines for "reckless operation" in lieu of a DUI sure do though - but that's different subject for a different day)

Martial law is not *good business*. It's expensive.
The initial post - neighborhood lockdown - has zilch to do with $$.
It's simply an arrogant bastard's idea of what's *good* being carried to the extreme of ignoring the rights of those governed.

Thing here is - this is a silly difference of perception we're having here.
We're like two guys standing on the deck of the Titanic.
You're complaining to me about the cost of your dinner, and I'm complaining to you about the service I had from the waiter at dinner.

all the while the water keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper ---

and neither of us is thinking or talking about what a stuipd SOB the captain was for getting us into this mess....

 

[Big Don]

badbob, I think you'll find this most recent post by J.D. Pendry of interest, as he speaks about (among other things) to what you said re: the politicians all getting on to the same "bus."
Don

J. D. Pendry
Politician Americans

Posted: 19 May 2007 07:34 PM CDT

J. D. Pendry

Political labels are meaningless. Republican, Democrat, Conservative, Liberal, Moderate. I don’t know what any of them mean or represent anymore, except that most of us fool ourselves into supporting the one who best plays the role of our choice. Personally, I think one collective name for the entire Washington establishment might work. Sick Bastards come to mind, but this is a family friendly letter so Dumb, Dumber and Dumbest seem more apropos… I keep getting an image of John McCain and Ted Kennedy butt slapping as if they just came out of a football huddle. They’re all politicians and their particular brand matters not.

Politician-Americans. A class of humankind living in their own unique eco, or better said egosystem. They wander around in there, much as they do in Hollywood, believing they’re perfectly normal and that the rest of America thinks acts and lives as they do. They are power sick and small minded people many of which have never held a job. They believe they’re better equipped to plan and manage my life and yours than we are. Instead of using vast amounts of information, and their atrophied brains to make smart decisions for our country, they rely on polls taken from a woefully uninformed constituency. A constituency with its information and thoughts provided by media that’s lost its way, if you’re gullible enough to believe it ever had a way. Media that long ago decided that taking one side or the other is better than providing truthful, factual information.

Politicians who live by polls are not leaders, they’re vote whores. I want to vote for leaders, don’t you? I want someone in Washington that will make smart, informed choices on my behalf. Can you imagine any corporation surviving if it was operated the way Congress seems to not function these days. If you were a corporate executive officer, would you want all of your high paid managers to poll the assembly line workers before making leadership decisions that will have broad and long term consequences for the corporation? Me neither. Those assembly line workers are important people, but probably lack the information needed to make corporate level decisions. That is what is happening in Washington. Every time a pin headed politician cites a poll, he or she is avoiding leadership and allowing the assembly line worker, whose corporate knowledge ends at put tab A into slot B, to make decisions that have long term implications for our country. Why? Simple. It’s not about what’s best for the country; it’s about what’s best to get votes. Our country is run in never ending election cycles. Our long term vision consists of empty poll based promises that recycle every two years for Congressional elections. If you observe closely, you can see America swirling much like what you see when you push the flusher on your toilet. Politicians are leading us down into their dysfunctional cesspool. I don’t think I want to go there with them. Do you?

We started losing America when we started hyphenating ourselves. We went much farther down the road to our demise when we decided that somehow we had the right to not be offended by what someone else says. For years, politicians have been so fearful of being Imused by Al Sharpton and the media that they communicate to us in platitudes. The ones having courage to speak plainly and from their hearts are immediately labeled as a phobic of some sort and marginalized by those “intellectuals” who comprise the scum on the surface of Media Pond.

I’m looking for leaders that will not have a problem calling BS on stupidity.

The leaders I’m willing to support will understand that security is our most important issue and that our country is not secure until our borders and ports of entry are totally controlled and we know who is here now. I love hard working people who come here looking to support their families, but the hard fact is that 50 percent of the New Jersey gang walked across the US southern border at Brownsville, Texas and entered the country illegally. Our solution to that problem, it appears, is to give them amnesty for doing it. How many more Islamo-Nazis have crossed our open borders and are there any leaders in Washington with the courage to publicly consider that or who even give a rat’s hind end? Leaders understand that there are dangerous people in the world who want nothing more than the destruction of our country and that you don’t negotiate with them, you do unto them as they would you, but you do it first. You also don’t leave the door open for them to come in and kill you. If Rosie and Paris were elected to Congress, America wouldn’t notice a difference.

I’m not a politician, so I can’t preface what I say by presuming to speak for most Americans, but I think it’s time for all of us who claim Americanship to send a loud and clear message to Washington. It’s time knock off the crap and secure our country while we still have one. It’s time for you to lead, follow or get the hell out of the way.

Copyright © 2007 J.D. Pendry

 

[Slideman]

The phrase "Elected Leaders" is the problem.

Abnormal people sacrifice honesty and honor for money and the thrill of looking down upon a sea of blank, upturned faces. 60% of the population stay home on election day while 25% elect themselves a Leader. Thoughtless folks are then happy to follow their leader and do whatever the little voices in their televisions tell them to do. Meanwhile, thinking people are stuck avoiding, or working to prevent, damage and evil done by elected representatives who don't represent them, their interests or their views.

In a republic, which the USA was until 1860, who was elected to legislative, executive or judicial positions didn't matter as much because they were limited by the laws of the Constitution. People in a republic can choose to follow anybody or nobody. Free men can follow one person in work, another in play a third in religion and go their own way whenever it suits them. For free people, leaders are situational and representatives are controlled.

Unfortunately our republic has become a democracy, television has replaced thinking and our representatives have become leaders. Recovering liberty will not be pretty.

 

[jimpeel]

You brought up the issue of smoking HERE where you touted it as "about the .gov gaining more and more and more and more control under the guise of **safety**."

I refuted the "guise of safety" aspect as a "guise of revenue enhancement" issue HERE wherein I stated that these laws are nothing more than an effort to keep you paying taxes for a longer period of time by virtue of life extension.

I never stated that the law, as you very clearly stated it HERE, had anything to do with current revenue enhancement via the law. I only spoke of future revenue enhancement through life extension and thus the continued contribution to the government coffers.

For your edification I will repeat what I wrote then: "Live taxpayers pay taxes every year; while dead taxpayers pay only once."

You then refuted my contention by stating HERE that the law is "100% about "workplace safety"." but then followed up with this gem:

The state of Ohio assumed since they pay out for medical costs, they have the authority to dictate workplace practices.

So the "enhancement" portion of the law, IN THE ABSENCE OF GLEANING FUNDS THROUGH ENACTMENT OF THE LAW, is the cost savings of not having to spend money on sick smokers. Those funds may now be supplanted to other, more useful, projects; like the latest pet project of those who write such laws. I even stated so HERE but you apparently didn't get my meaning. I repeat:

Keeping you "safe" means you will live longer. If you live longer you will pay taxes longer. If you pay taxes longer they glean more money from you. If they glean more money from you they have more to spend on their pet projects and socialist agenda. If they have more to spend they have more to work with to pass further legislation to eliminate more bad habits to make you live longer.

 

[badbob]

If I am made any "safer" I don't think I can stand it. What has happend to America, to Americans, that this is allowed to happen?

badbob

 

[jimpeel]

What has happend to America, to Americans, that this is allowed to happen?

Feelings ... nothing more than feeeeelings ...