05/19/2012 6:57:52 am
Mervel, I don't really worry about Chinese cars all that much-- at least they're going to be tiny and fuel efficient. I want to see the extinction of the Great American Gas-Guzzling "Sport" Utility Vehicle. What an abomination! It's one thing to use fossil fuels. It's quite another to waste it with abandon.
05/18/2012 10:04:54 pm
I accept climate change. The guilt is going to be telling people in poor countries you have to remain poor because we have a climate problem that we created. Tell those hundreds of millions of Chinese peasants that know they can actually have a car someday like we ALL do, that they can't because they have to sacrifice to save the planet. It is not going to happen. This is no longer our issue or in our control. ...
05/18/2012 9:24:10 pm
Well the bottom line is, there is only one future in the North Country, higher property taxes for schools forever, it has never gone done and it never will. As people leave and as schools shrink and get more expensive the cycle can't stop. Just ask the 20 some people that got the boot from Canton this last year and you can ask those who get the boot next year. This is even realizing that we in the North Country...
05/18/2012 7:50:24 pm
Reading this long discussion through, two quotes come to mind:
Stephen Colbert: "Reality has a well-known liberal bias."
Walt Kelly: "We have met the enemy and he is us."
Anthropogenic climate change hits all of us reading this blog right where we live. I don't think that it takes more than a minute or two of thought to realize that reducing emissions of greenhouse gases requires big changes to the very...
05/18/2012 7:16:12 pm
Kathy writes: "I believe God has figured replenishment into the equation; perhaps a safety net..."
Kathy, how do you know that global warming isn't a test: if we fail to take good care of God's creation, we'll get swept away in a kind of thermal deluge.
05/18/2012 6:58:00 pm
How is immigration from Latin America a different story? It is the number one source of immigrants to the US.
Peter is right we have some big problems but our problems when it comes to absorbing new people and yes welcoming new people as true Americans is nothing compared to the xenophobia that is still rampant in Europe. Even if they "accept" North African immigrants will a North African ever really be...
05/18/2012 6:52:41 pm
Frankly, children *are* subject to taxation without representation. They pay sales tax. They pay the same income tax as adults making the same level of income (ex: a kid inheriting $100,000 would have to pay the same tax as an adult inheriting $100,000). And they are subjected to decisions of the school boards and venal legislators without having a say... most boards don't even grant students a non-voting seat! It's...
05/18/2012 6:49:19 pm
"If you really wanted to be fair on school elections you would only allow those who are paying school taxes to vote..."
How do you define this? I do not pay school taxes directly, but I guarantee you my landlord factors this into what he charges me in rent. Would I be disenfranchised in your system?
Why not expand it further? Make all voting subject to the paying of tax. (In reality, this would expand eligible...
05/18/2012 6:47:03 pm
Mervel: I believe we should abolish property taxes as a means to fund schools... or at least limit it to fund optional programs (sports, activites, AP courses) and make the state/feds fund mandated programs at 100%. As such, the mandated programs would be funded via the general fund, which is (state anyways) contributed to by the sales tax.
05/18/2012 6:26:50 pm
We are probably the best country in the world in terms of absorbing immigrants and other minorities. Not that we are so wonderful, but everyone else is terrible.
05/18/2012 5:06:44 pm
"compare that to the US" yes, I think that 2% is pretty comparable to the US if you look. Hispanic immigration is a different story. One thing about that is that you will have to shut it all off before you could ever hope to be successful with a Scandinavian system of universal healthcare. You would also want to do what they do with educations and decide early who will get what kind of education and where.
05/18/2012 4:23:48 pm
Thanks, compare that to the US, and immigration here from just Latin America. I mean they are freaking out over those numbers? 2.03% is nothing.
05/18/2012 4:18:58 pm
Larry I am not USA bashing.
But we need to realize that we are no longer the wealthiest country on earth. Given that fact why are we the world's police force? We need to dismantle our empire and start becoming the right size. The most inefficient and largest government agency is the US military, we need to start cutting there.
I think it is actually unfair to compare us to individual European nations. Sure I mean...
05/18/2012 4:18:05 pm
Mervel,
If you look at Oslo for example this is relatively speaking pretty significant:
Year Muslims Percent
1980 1,006 0.02%
1990 19,189 0.45%
2000 56,458 1.30%
2010 98,953 2.03%
Back when I was last in Oslo then there were not too many.
05/18/2012 4:12:55 pm
Peter, I stand corrected. There has been a lot of immigration of Muslims into those countries over the last decade. I was going with my personal experience there which is not how it is now after looking at some numbers. The hostility does not surprise me. The way they talk about the Germans is bad enough!
05/18/2012 4:08:49 pm
The bizarre thing is even with the recent immigrants the numbers are miniscule compared for example to the numbers of new people that we absorb every year.
05/18/2012 3:51:30 pm
Paul - the scandinavian countries took in many Muslim refugees, and I think there is considerable hostility. That Norwegian psychopath who killed all those liberal children was defending his country from Muslims, among other things.
05/18/2012 3:47:31 pm
OVN, there are basically no Muslims in the Scandinavian countries. There is also a hostility toward other nationalities because they do not want those foreigners coming in an mooching off their system. Once they are sucking on that teat they defend it with vigor. When I lived in France for two years in the early 90s the hostility toward African immigrants was sickening.
05/18/2012 3:13:17 pm
I say again, Larry, glad to hear the debt is no problem and one of YOUR apparent main concerns is that people might have to pay into a health care system that either already is or someday will include them. Sound like a terrible unfair thing to do to people. My God making them pay for something they are going to use. Like it or not!
05/18/2012 3:05:24 pm
Peter is correct. I've seen it endlessly pointed out, and not just in the liberal media-sphere, that Spain (SPAIN IS NOT GREECE!) was running balanced budgets, but was totaled by the real estate bubble. On the ultra-reliable ON POINT this morning it was pointed out that Greece is not in trouble because it had big government programs, but because everybody there wants benefits, and nobody pays taxes.
I haven't...
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