Wednesday, June 30, 2004

The City of Lost Their Minds

The city of Grand Rapids has just approved a “wayfinding” system, at the cost of $1,000,000.00, to assist visitors, to the city’s downtown, find their way around.  The million dollars will cover the cost of 193 signs, that’s five thousand, one hundred eighty-one dollars and thirty-five cents per sign.  Tell me why, again, exactly, why individuals support taxation and vote for dunderheads.

“All signs will point to GR.”

Oh, they also budgeted $100,000.00 per year, for maintenance.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 01:09 PM
(3) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Iraqi Humor

I’m not certain who stated that the ability to laugh at yourself is a good sign, but, if the following is an indication, this could be a good sign for the Iraqis.

“It’s funny, isn’t it?” said Mustapha al-Kadamy, a young father as he browsed through a toy store in the wealthy Mansoor district and prepared to buy one of the dancing Saddams.

“Tomorrow Saddam will go before an Iraqi judge and so today is a good day to make fun of him—we need to be able to smile after all the horrible things he’s done to us.”

“Hip-Swaying Dancing Doll Ridicules Saddam.”

An up and coming collector’s item.

Via Yahoo News.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 09:28 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

At First Glance…

At first glance, when I read the headline, below, I thought maybe the FDA was endorsing Hillary, and her “common good” comments.

“FDA: OK to market bloodsuckers.”

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 06:03 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Burning a Hole in Your Pocket

When I was younger, and had managed to finagle a few bucks into my pocket by selling quarts of wild raspberrys I had picked myself, or by shoveling peoples walks and driveways in the winter, my Dad would ask me, when I wanted to spend that money, if it was burning a hole in my pocket.  Of course, the money was never burning a hole in my pocket, but the money was mine, I had earned it myself, and no one was taking it away from me for the “common good.”

godless, at Gene Expression, has read Matthew Iglesias’s comments regarding Sullivan and Healy’s responses to Hillary’s confession and call for government organized stealing.  The post ends this way.

“The question is this: would you rather give $100 to the government to (hopefully) spend on your behalf…or would you rather spend it *yourself*?

But even this frame is too generous, because it makes the act of giving $100 out to be a sacrifice. The empirical fact, though, is that liberals don’t really believe in sacrifice. They believe in robbery. If liberals REALLY believed in sacrifice, they’d have staged a unilateral repeal of the Bush tax cut. There’s a box on the federal income tax form that you can check to send the money back to the government. [1]

Did you check that box, Matt?

(crickets…)

Right. Didn’t think so. What passes for altruism is really the desire to spend *other people’s money* in the way you see fit. In order to appeal to people’s worst sentiments, you call those other people “the rich” and imply that they don’t deserve their money and/or they’ve looted it from “the poor” (= favored leftist group). Bottom line: class warfare is 50% envy, 50% avarice…and 0% altruism.”

The post is titled “The leftist mask slips… “

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 04:54 AM
(2) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink

Murdered by Numbers

One of the arguments for the state, is, the state provides the basis for large numbers of individuals to prosper in safety, with the state acting as a protective bouncer, on steroids, which the state procures from the pockets of the individuals it is supposedly protecting.  Unfortunately, protective bouncers on steroids tend to get unruly.

”...nearly 174,000,000 people probably have been murdered by governments in the 20th Century, 1900-1999. This absolutely incredible human slaughter is over four-times those killed in combat in all international and domestic wars during the same years. If all these dead were to populate a nation, out of 190 nations in the world it would be the sixth largest. Moreover, if you were to sit in a chair in a room and the spirits of these dead were to walk in one door, float before you and exit through another door, for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, it would take about six years for all to pass.”

The above was gleaned from this site, which I was directed to by this post at the Mises Economics Blog.

Posted by John Venlet on 06/30 at 04:28 AM
(0) Comments • (0) Trackbacks • Permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages