tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post1814083016530528787..comments2024-01-05T02:53:03.358-06:00Comments on American Zombie: A Brave Newhouse Squirrel...Jason Brad Berryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18421813599753848735noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-21771769699315097602013-04-08T15:19:03.727-05:002013-04-08T15:19:03.727-05:00"those dollars middle class people are fussin...<i>"those dollars middle class people are fussing about might otherwise go to frivolous things like fluffy coffee or an extra drink at the bar on a Friday."</i><br /><br />ah, thanks for making yourself the psychic and judge on how i should spend or save my money. 'preciate 'cha.<br /><br />get real. you dont know how we spend our money and it's none of your business whether we spend it on a coffee, a beer, or a diaper.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-23894127482453282852013-04-01T10:36:37.834-05:002013-04-01T10:36:37.834-05:00AZ, I'm with you on the Euro and banking crise...AZ, I'm with you on the Euro and banking crises, but I have learned to my dismay that a lot more people get a lot more worked up about stunts like the CCC lights than about the systematic, gargantuan-scale ongoing plunder of the Fed and Treasury. I can't really understand that, but it's clearly the case. <br /><br />FWIW, I do think that making regulatory capture-enabled megatheft a partisan issue is part of the game plan from both parties for keeping the discussion superficial. This is not a Republican or Democrat thing; it's a campaign finance / corruption thing. Both parties are happily feeding at that trough and will continue to do so at taxpayer expense until the taxpayers start asking some meaningful questions. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-22382147433076762292013-03-27T10:36:17.200-05:002013-03-27T10:36:17.200-05:00Last week I noticed that former T-P Wingnut carto...Last week I noticed that former T-P Wingnut cartoonist Steve Kelley's lake shore house was vacant and then had a For Sale sign on it. Don't these things normally happen in three-s?Ricardonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30412896.post-61476509869233968832013-03-27T08:20:25.732-05:002013-03-27T08:20:25.732-05:00I may be grossly misinformed about the lights goin...I may be grossly misinformed about the lights going out. <br /><br />First, I'd like to say that as far as lights themselves go, enough light for safety, and no more than that, is in my opinion the best option. <br /><br />Light pollution stops you from being able to see the stars, and it can make life harder for nocturnal animals. We already impose on the natural world a lot. <br /><br />Illuminating the night for our safety and pleasure deprives us all of the night time as an ecological and psychological space that has intrinsic value. <br /><br />But the other issue with the lights is about money. If the cost of the lights that went off was about $60 000 a year, and millions of tolls have been collected, shutting off the lights as a cost cutting measure was a trick to create a sense of disaster, so that someone could keep their cash cow mooing. <br /><br />Where is that money going, who's got a piece, and why is a theatrical stunt about the lights being deployed right now? <br /><br />On the bridge and ferry issues, I'm open to hearing other people's positions. But my own is that a diversity of transit options is always worth supporting. <br /><br />A certain amount of redundancy in a system is useful, so that the temporary failure of one option for whatever reason (flood, bomb scare, etc.) does not require expensive and disorganized emergency fixes.<br /><br />If the bridge tolls are supporting the ferry, I'm cool with that, but a clear picture of how that is working might be helpful, and if the ratio of the cost of the bridge vs. the cost of the ferry has gotten seriously out of balance, some adjustment in the split of who is paying and who is not paying may be in order. <br /><br />I'd also like to hear from people about why the way things are now has developed, so that the most vulnerable users of the system don't end up SOL and unable to get to their jobs or back to pick up their kids from school.<br /><br />I would not want to destroy the most struggling people's fragile lives for the sake of a dollar here, a dollar there, when those dollars middle class people are fussing about might otherwise go to frivolous things like fluffy coffee or an extra drink at the bar on a Friday. <br /><br />Low income people subsidize us all in many ways, because they are often working their asses off at unwaged work that we all rely on to keep families and communities healthy. I'd rather "pay" them with a low cost transit option so they can keep their jobs than have their old folks die in their homes or their kids out rambling the streets. <br /> <br /><br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com