i regret my earlier post's inaccuracy but wish it were so

How do you unwind that one ? There are two ways I know of. A vote of the members or a bankruptcy to bust it. 

Other than an amendment to the constitution ( that would be sweet !), I can't imagine getting rid of this problem .

Joan, 

After breakfast, you thought about waking the Instugator and the little gators ? 
realizing that you do live in gator country, I have to ask an indelicate question . are you talking about the kids or do you think that those cajun types really keep gators as pets ? in that case, i recommend a stronger naugahyde covering for pretty much everything. that and a docjay .45 acp to create some new wallets for the haters here.

 so haters , as a late arrival to the longest thread in domestic history, I am wondering whether or not there is anyone here who would consider sponsoring me in the intiation phase of what is obviously a multi-level marketing scam by 10 cents, his niece Penny, and maybe Clipper.

second question, how much will it cost (a) in self-esteem and (b) joan continuing to be my friend and (3) miata/abercrombie discounts

There haven't been any reports of fatalities, and that might presage a miracle.  An F4 tornado just went through Moore, lingering for up to 45 minutes. 

That's like having a nuclear bomb food processor   sit on top of your community for an eternity. 

Remember Xenia, Edmond,Okla. ,Galveston. These people had a 16 minute warning that hell was headed their way. Whoever invented the warning deserves our praise, whoever was in the way deserves our prayers.

Sounds like Reagan was the miracle . That we were lucky enough to have him as president is miraculous, or the press has so relentlessly slammed our country and our leaders for so long that most of them look bad.

Other than Reagan, what do the Ricochetti think about who was the last great American president ?

Was it Truman ? Harding ? Pierce ?

Thanks for the post, though long, it was illuminating.

Are you setting up a strawman for you argument or finding the problem in your own argument as in the above ?

A monopoly paid for taxpayers, which will inevitably unionize and make itself permanent with no accountability, is somehow preferable ?

Sandy Springs gave their first contract to a big company and then broke things up in the next contract period. They did retain certain services due to Georgia Constitution, so police and fire have assured their futures at a very base level.  

Can you imagine Blackwater doing the local policing ? That would be cool. And the PC stuff would be covered by their insurance company rather than the taxpayer and the resulting tiptoe around everything that mutes us all.

He doesn't have the resume for POTUS, alarmingly thin in accomplishment. Then, how does this community organizer, infrequent politician, and invisible student get to the apogee of power ? He is thrust there by forces unseen . How do we divine these forces ? Or is the better question : dare we divine this ?

So California has it's Sacramento, New York it's Albany and NYC, and Illinois runs Springfield for fun and the country for a living ?

Personalities aren't the question here, civic pathologies are.

I gave True the Vote money, I'm being audited .

It's either that or joining Ricochet in 2010 !!

PPP is a great thing, public private partnerships run entire cities. Sandy Springs,  Georgia is a good example. Oliver Porter had alot to do with it and has written about the project.

An overwhelming problem is the growth and maintenance of public employee unions. FDR warned against them and now we are held in their thrall, evidenced by the many recent articles about the union that IRS agents belong to in the light of the IRS scandal.

California is  crippled by them, the teaching profession altered beyond recognition, and the quality of services continues to depreciate.

With the widespread use of fire and smoke detectors in homes, house fires have declined by half in the past forty years. Has the number of firefighters reflected that decline ? 

Imagine a city with a public works department that has 200 workers , 50 vehicles and additional millions in hard assets ? Now consider contracting out all that work to private industry, the cost of the assets is gone, but the purchase of those assets continues in the community, only now the tax base is expanding, approximately the same amount of people are working, except the market now competes for competency and rewards it.

Six months....I am impressed. 

I tried to enter the same hermetic therapy on Nov 7. Lasted about six days. Two books by Evelyn Waugh and I was back at it.  The problem is the computer in front of me, when the subject isn't work it's only a click or two  over to Rico or Powerline . 

Are you sure there's a time limit to your sabbatical or has the intensity of recent news drawn you back ?

You know what ? The average citizen doesn't vote to impeach, the average congressman does .

Do you really think that the American People would have voted to do to Nixon and Clinton what might happen here ? 

That is the great fallacy that the media uses to their advantage.  Us regular joes have nothing to do with it . But the institutional memory has been shaped to reflect those incidents as national movements, when there were only 535 reps doing the dirty work.

was that a double negative larry ?

You're Gonna Miss Me by Thirteenth Floor Elevators. Constantly, it's driven me insane.

Follow the money. Who paid these butchers and with what funds ? Who subsidized them and with what funds ? From the city level to federal level, from Planned Parenthood to HHS, there are trails everywhere. Turn them up and track them down, expose them .

Follow the money.

Now that is terse.

Hey !

 I resemble that remark.