Taxed2death is proof that we have to increase enforcement on our borders and not our nation's borders our own State's borders and not the Southern one...just the Northern one. If you want to end the kind of mindset that Taxed2death expressed, you have to support legislation to prevent anyone from a major city north of the Mason Dixon line from coming into the state of North Carolina. This is not a local issue...drive out to Blowing Rock or Asheville and you'll hear the same complaint. The citizens out there (from all points on the map) who have bought into the local life-style are lucky since the hell-bent Yankees who haven't, fly off those mountain roads at 60 MPH and kill themselves; so it's just a matter of time before equilibrium returns. Unfortunately, there are no mountain roads here to cull the herd that is descending upon us. The real irony is that these people fall in love with who we are, move down and immediately want to turn us into what they were...no thanks.
Is it me or does anybody under 50 also think that most of this "discussion" is just old retired people who have nothing to do but complain and, having lost the power and prestige they used to have when they were working, are trying to regain it with their "I'm so intelligent and you're not" harangues? Don't any of you Geezers, I'm sorry, Captains of Industry, remember your history? The Italians, the Jews, the Irish, the blacks, the American Indians, the Greeks and many other groups encountered this same illogical discrimination in the past 300 years. What is going on here?
I feel like I'm in Jules Verne's time machine and it's stuck on "Reliving the Past". Didn't most of you swear when you were much younger that you'd never turn out to be your parents? Guess not.
I just read all these posts and I can't help but mourn the passing of real political discussion in this country. Almost every post is a rehash of the "facts" presented by Fox News or MSNBC or NPR. What's worse is that just like the "News" programs on Fox or MSNBC, etc., each side is entrenched and against any compromise. Your posts are thick with testosterone whether posted by a man or a woman. Can't you all see that the Cable News programs' formats have turned you into tiny versions of themselves where you yell back and forth at each other and never listen. Meanwhile some of you make sweeping generalizations like the post that "liberals can't reason" which is so unreasonable it's comical. And who are the real victors in all this? Truth? Honesty? Humanity? Real solutions? Are you kidding? The winners are the networks, or papers like The Pilot. Their ratings soar and, as the advertising money flows in, they continue to treat you like a puppet. They whipped up this Muslim Mosque B.S. to whip you up and, as they pull the strings, you flap up and down and even though your mouth is moving, nothing is really coming out.
Please, reread what I wrote. I did not say that I didn't think Italians should be classified as white. I said that, while growing up in the city of Boston during the 1950s when it was extremely racist, Italians and people from other Mediterranian areas were not considered white by a majority of the bigots who lived there. I considered that then and now a bigoted, sweeping generalization much like the sweeping generalization you made when you wrote, "...only white people use tanning beds".
"Only white people use tanning salons..."
I grew up in the very racist city of Boston during the 50's and, believe me, anyone not from Northern Europe and the Scandanavian countries wasn't white. Portugese, Italian and most immigrants from the Mediterranian area were routinely labled with the "N" word immediately after their ethnicity. For Dogboy to believe that only white people use tanning salons is a staggering show of ignorance and, perhaps, a little bigotism.
As for charging taxes on fat people or smokers so the thin people who don't smoke don't have to pay for their healthcare, I'm all for that. And since I've never had children, can I get a rebate on all those school taxes(mostly based on the value of my property) that I have paid over the past 50 years? Hello? Are you still out there? I didn't think so because skinny people who don't smoke always seem to have lots of kids who need people like me to offset the cost of their little brats' education. Hey, I just made a stupid generalization like Dogboy did.
The one thing that will stop illegal immigration is the imprisonment of employers who hire them. Whether it's the illegal Irish in Boston taking carpentry jobs for less than minimum wage which allow contractors to underbid on projects or illegal Mexicans working for landscapers and golf courses in our area, the bottom line is that without the employers committing a crime, the illegals wouldn't come here. Just the threat of the Arizona immigration law going into effect has driven thousands of illegals out of the state into the welcome arms of meat packers, landscapers, roofers...the list goes on and on. Prosecute the people who hire illegals, put them in jail and the problem will go a long way towards being solved. Everyone knows this, so why isn't the current law being enforced? Because as they said during Watergate: "Money talks and B.S. walks." The truth is most of the politicians in Washington (Donkeys and Elephants) do not want this problem solved...they would rather see hard working Americans replaced by hard working illegals who will take a lot less per hour but make lots more profit for their bosses which results in more contributions to the politicians which results in....
And, Please, don't tell me that illegals do the jobs American won't do. That is also B.S. I looked for a job for a year after my 35 year old business failed. I finally found a minimum wage job doing the work most Americans won't do and I'm thrilled to have it. What's more, I'm working my tail off. My boss verified my citizenship and there are no illegals working with me, just other Americans who are very thankful that they also have a job. Is my Boss at a disadvantage to competitors whose payroll is lower because they hire illegals? Probably...but I thank God everyday that my Boss has the courage to do the right thing and give the jobs to those who are here legally. Put the others in jail...if no one will hire you, there's only one place to go...home.
I hate the press...after a week a bludgeoning politicians who lied on their resumes and then couldn't admit to it, they completely miss one of the greatest teachable moments in sports and in life, if sports is truly a metaphor for life. First of all was that incredible smile that Galarraga flashed the moment he realized the ump had called the runner safe. He didn't explode, he didn't rant or rage or do any of those things that the media really wanted him to do so they could hype the video.
Some of us knew immediately that this young man was special. And when the ump apologized immediately after reviewing the replay, some of us knew we were on to something very special...not necessarily the yelling and screaming that the media wanted. In fact they chose not to highlight the gratuitousness of both parties but focused over and over on the injustice of it all. It was like the press trying to get Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky into a fight during a hockey game...it ain't gonna happen.
Bottom line Galarraga got a new Corvette and the ump got an ovation the following night from the same fans he had robbed of a perfect game. They knew he was a stand up guy who, if he ever runs for congress, won't lie on his resume.
I can only imagine a city or town run on Rand Paul's and many of his Tea Party supporters' philosophy. Although he and they are strongly against any kind of racism or discrimination (he said that...it must be true), they think true freedom should allow private businesses to pick the people they want to be their customers or clients. So you’re on holiday with the family and you pull into Paulville for some dinner. (We are only taking one facet of this brave new world...restaurants. It could be car dealers or hospitals or plumbers, etc.) Everyone in the car has decided on Italian so you pull over at the first one you see....Paulo's Italian Cucina. On the window, however, there's a poster that says, "We serve the finest food but only the following people: Light skinned Catholics (after all we're Italian), light skinned Italians, except those from the Northern area since they're mostly Germans anyway, and light skinned Pro-Life Supporters (after all we're light skinned Catholics)." You're in a quandary since your wife is Presbyterian and your children were adopted in Malawi. "Screw Paulo's Italian Covina", you say and head across the street to the Mexicali Biergarten, a unique Mexican Bavarian restaurant with the world's only Mariachi Oompah Band. The poster on their window was a bit more blunt:
"No Jews, Muslims or Rastafarians, No descendants of anyone who fought at the Alamo, No government workers with no stinkin' badges, No citizens of Arizona." You remember you had dated a nice Jewish girl back in college so you hesitate and head around the corner to Miss Maple's Sandwich shop. At last the family is going to eat because the poster states in large letters; "WE SERVE EVERYBODY". You hustle through the door but the first thing you see is the poster by the register: "EXCEPT THE FOLLOWING..."
I guess alot of people missed my point in my letter about the "Miracle on the Hudson". I became aware of this misunderstanding recently at a party of friends, many of whom never agree with me. They told me to check the responses to my letter and I did. First of all, I was trained as a combat air controller in the Air Force and although I didn't join the FAA when my service was up, I have still maintained a love of aviation and an appreciation for the mental skill and professionalism of air traffic controllers. I'm sure the people denigrating my appreciation would have been the first to say "the government has failed" if Sully had crashed and the investigation blamed it on controller error. Bottom line is, I was only trying to say that many parts of our Federal Government work and work well. Like a good waiter that you aren't aware is taking care of your every need, most people aren't even aware of the programs of our governement that are serving them well. In my letter to the editor I was only asking, in the light of this recent barrage of antagonism against the Federal government, to consider that some government programs were working but, there are those who will never accept that and need you to think that you'd be much better off with little or no government. It's your choice.
What seems to be lost in this anti-government, anti-healthcare debate is that we belong to the UNITED States of America. As I remember it, the basic concept of insurance used to be "shared risk". I have paid for health insurance since I took my first adult job in 1966. Knock on wood, I have had no need of it since then. My premiums used to be based on an average of everyone in the insurance pool, young and old. When I was a twenty year old, I paid a little more than I probably had to but the concept was that when I was a sixty year old, I'd pay a little less than I had to. Today it's different. Insurance companies can group you with other people the same age and charge you accordingly. That nullifies the concept of shared risk. Why should any citizen pay higher premiums to cover an uninsured twenty-something jerk who thinks he's invincible and ends up paralyzed and brain dead after a motorcycle accident?
As for the idea that the government has no right to make seemingly healthy young people pay for insurance, what planet are you people from? Americans are forced to carry car insurance no matter how many accidents they have had, forced to pay federal and state taxes no matter what they thought of the Vietnam or Iraq wars or what their state is doing their money, and forced to pay taxes even if they think it is being used to fund health clinics that offer abortions. I'm 66 and have no children, yet I have paid school takes since 1966. Should we exempt childless couples or unmarrieds from paying school taxes? Of course not, these are shared risks and shared responsibilities that were once an understood obligation and are, suddenly, passe. Whatever happened to the Christian ethic of helping your neighbor?
And don't talk to me about the Patriot Act or states rights as if it's something new...G.W. Bush passed the Patriot Act based on faulty justifications then went on to violated it and not a word from you people. You weren't just the silent majority in those days, you were cheerleaders for your President. Where were you "States Rights" champions when Bush signed his No Child Left Behind Act that inflicted an immense unfunded mandate on the states? And did I hear your outcry when he signed that awful Pharma friendly Medicare Prescription Act that had no money to pay for it?
You can't suck-up to all this for years and, suddenly, say you're against it just because your party is no longer in power. A few people with tea bags hanging off their Easter bonnets back when George Bush was sending pallets of hundred dollar bills to L. Paul Bremer in Iraq that have never been accounted for, but have yet to be paid for, would have been very welcome to a lot of us. Of course, that would require "unity" and I don't see any of that in the near future.
peterprints 2 years, 8 months ago
Man Riding Bike Struck by Car
Taxed2death is proof that we have to increase enforcement on our borders and not our nation's borders our own State's borders and not the Southern one...just the Northern one. If you want to end the kind of mindset that Taxed2death expressed, you have to support legislation to prevent anyone from a major city north of the Mason Dixon line from coming into the state of North Carolina. This is not a local issue...drive out to Blowing Rock or Asheville and you'll hear the same complaint. The citizens out there (from all points on the map) who have bought into the local life-style are lucky since the hell-bent Yankees who haven't, fly off those mountain roads at 60 MPH and kill themselves; so it's just a matter of time before equilibrium returns. Unfortunately, there are no mountain roads here to cull the herd that is descending upon us. The real irony is that these people fall in love with who we are, move down and immediately want to turn us into what they were...no thanks.
peterprints 2 years, 9 months ago
Building Mosque Is a Slap in the Face
Is it me or does anybody under 50 also think that most of this "discussion" is just old retired people who have nothing to do but complain and, having lost the power and prestige they used to have when they were working, are trying to regain it with their "I'm so intelligent and you're not" harangues? Don't any of you Geezers, I'm sorry, Captains of Industry, remember your history? The Italians, the Jews, the Irish, the blacks, the American Indians, the Greeks and many other groups encountered this same illogical discrimination in the past 300 years. What is going on here? I feel like I'm in Jules Verne's time machine and it's stuck on "Reliving the Past". Didn't most of you swear when you were much younger that you'd never turn out to be your parents? Guess not.
peterprints 2 years, 9 months ago
Building Mosque Is a Slap in the Face
I just read all these posts and I can't help but mourn the passing of real political discussion in this country. Almost every post is a rehash of the "facts" presented by Fox News or MSNBC or NPR. What's worse is that just like the "News" programs on Fox or MSNBC, etc., each side is entrenched and against any compromise. Your posts are thick with testosterone whether posted by a man or a woman. Can't you all see that the Cable News programs' formats have turned you into tiny versions of themselves where you yell back and forth at each other and never listen. Meanwhile some of you make sweeping generalizations like the post that "liberals can't reason" which is so unreasonable it's comical. And who are the real victors in all this? Truth? Honesty? Humanity? Real solutions? Are you kidding? The winners are the networks, or papers like The Pilot. Their ratings soar and, as the advertising money flows in, they continue to treat you like a puppet. They whipped up this Muslim Mosque B.S. to whip you up and, as they pull the strings, you flap up and down and even though your mouth is moving, nothing is really coming out.
peterprints 2 years, 10 months ago
New Tax Hits Tanning Salons
Dogboy,
Please, reread what I wrote. I did not say that I didn't think Italians should be classified as white. I said that, while growing up in the city of Boston during the 1950s when it was extremely racist, Italians and people from other Mediterranian areas were not considered white by a majority of the bigots who lived there. I considered that then and now a bigoted, sweeping generalization much like the sweeping generalization you made when you wrote, "...only white people use tanning beds".
peterprints 2 years, 10 months ago
New Tax Hits Tanning Salons
"Only white people use tanning salons..." I grew up in the very racist city of Boston during the 50's and, believe me, anyone not from Northern Europe and the Scandanavian countries wasn't white. Portugese, Italian and most immigrants from the Mediterranian area were routinely labled with the "N" word immediately after their ethnicity. For Dogboy to believe that only white people use tanning salons is a staggering show of ignorance and, perhaps, a little bigotism.
As for charging taxes on fat people or smokers so the thin people who don't smoke don't have to pay for their healthcare, I'm all for that. And since I've never had children, can I get a rebate on all those school taxes(mostly based on the value of my property) that I have paid over the past 50 years? Hello? Are you still out there? I didn't think so because skinny people who don't smoke always seem to have lots of kids who need people like me to offset the cost of their little brats' education. Hey, I just made a stupid generalization like Dogboy did.
peterprints 2 years, 10 months ago
Open Letter to Obama
The one thing that will stop illegal immigration is the imprisonment of employers who hire them. Whether it's the illegal Irish in Boston taking carpentry jobs for less than minimum wage which allow contractors to underbid on projects or illegal Mexicans working for landscapers and golf courses in our area, the bottom line is that without the employers committing a crime, the illegals wouldn't come here. Just the threat of the Arizona immigration law going into effect has driven thousands of illegals out of the state into the welcome arms of meat packers, landscapers, roofers...the list goes on and on. Prosecute the people who hire illegals, put them in jail and the problem will go a long way towards being solved. Everyone knows this, so why isn't the current law being enforced? Because as they said during Watergate: "Money talks and B.S. walks." The truth is most of the politicians in Washington (Donkeys and Elephants) do not want this problem solved...they would rather see hard working Americans replaced by hard working illegals who will take a lot less per hour but make lots more profit for their bosses which results in more contributions to the politicians which results in.... And, Please, don't tell me that illegals do the jobs American won't do. That is also B.S. I looked for a job for a year after my 35 year old business failed. I finally found a minimum wage job doing the work most Americans won't do and I'm thrilled to have it. What's more, I'm working my tail off. My boss verified my citizenship and there are no illegals working with me, just other Americans who are very thankful that they also have a job. Is my Boss at a disadvantage to competitors whose payroll is lower because they hire illegals? Probably...but I thank God everyday that my Boss has the courage to do the right thing and give the jobs to those who are here legally. Put the others in jail...if no one will hire you, there's only one place to go...home.
peterprints 2 years, 11 months ago
What a Miscarriage of Sports Justice
I hate the press...after a week a bludgeoning politicians who lied on their resumes and then couldn't admit to it, they completely miss one of the greatest teachable moments in sports and in life, if sports is truly a metaphor for life. First of all was that incredible smile that Galarraga flashed the moment he realized the ump had called the runner safe. He didn't explode, he didn't rant or rage or do any of those things that the media really wanted him to do so they could hype the video. Some of us knew immediately that this young man was special. And when the ump apologized immediately after reviewing the replay, some of us knew we were on to something very special...not necessarily the yelling and screaming that the media wanted. In fact they chose not to highlight the gratuitousness of both parties but focused over and over on the injustice of it all. It was like the press trying to get Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky into a fight during a hockey game...it ain't gonna happen.
Bottom line Galarraga got a new Corvette and the ump got an ovation the following night from the same fans he had robbed of a perfect game. They knew he was a stand up guy who, if he ever runs for congress, won't lie on his resume.
peterprints 2 years, 11 months ago
Rand Paul's Foot-in-Mouth Disease
I can only imagine a city or town run on Rand Paul's and many of his Tea Party supporters' philosophy. Although he and they are strongly against any kind of racism or discrimination (he said that...it must be true), they think true freedom should allow private businesses to pick the people they want to be their customers or clients. So you’re on holiday with the family and you pull into Paulville for some dinner. (We are only taking one facet of this brave new world...restaurants. It could be car dealers or hospitals or plumbers, etc.) Everyone in the car has decided on Italian so you pull over at the first one you see....Paulo's Italian Cucina. On the window, however, there's a poster that says, "We serve the finest food but only the following people: Light skinned Catholics (after all we're Italian), light skinned Italians, except those from the Northern area since they're mostly Germans anyway, and light skinned Pro-Life Supporters (after all we're light skinned Catholics)." You're in a quandary since your wife is Presbyterian and your children were adopted in Malawi. "Screw Paulo's Italian Covina", you say and head across the street to the Mexicali Biergarten, a unique Mexican Bavarian restaurant with the world's only Mariachi Oompah Band. The poster on their window was a bit more blunt: "No Jews, Muslims or Rastafarians, No descendants of anyone who fought at the Alamo, No government workers with no stinkin' badges, No citizens of Arizona." You remember you had dated a nice Jewish girl back in college so you hesitate and head around the corner to Miss Maple's Sandwich shop. At last the family is going to eat because the poster states in large letters; "WE SERVE EVERYBODY". You hustle through the door but the first thing you see is the poster by the register: "EXCEPT THE FOLLOWING..."
peterprints 3 years, 1 month ago
A Joke Says It All
I guess alot of people missed my point in my letter about the "Miracle on the Hudson". I became aware of this misunderstanding recently at a party of friends, many of whom never agree with me. They told me to check the responses to my letter and I did. First of all, I was trained as a combat air controller in the Air Force and although I didn't join the FAA when my service was up, I have still maintained a love of aviation and an appreciation for the mental skill and professionalism of air traffic controllers. I'm sure the people denigrating my appreciation would have been the first to say "the government has failed" if Sully had crashed and the investigation blamed it on controller error. Bottom line is, I was only trying to say that many parts of our Federal Government work and work well. Like a good waiter that you aren't aware is taking care of your every need, most people aren't even aware of the programs of our governement that are serving them well. In my letter to the editor I was only asking, in the light of this recent barrage of antagonism against the Federal government, to consider that some government programs were working but, there are those who will never accept that and need you to think that you'd be much better off with little or no government. It's your choice.
peterprints 3 years, 1 month ago
Do We Really Want Less Government?
What seems to be lost in this anti-government, anti-healthcare debate is that we belong to the UNITED States of America. As I remember it, the basic concept of insurance used to be "shared risk". I have paid for health insurance since I took my first adult job in 1966. Knock on wood, I have had no need of it since then. My premiums used to be based on an average of everyone in the insurance pool, young and old. When I was a twenty year old, I paid a little more than I probably had to but the concept was that when I was a sixty year old, I'd pay a little less than I had to. Today it's different. Insurance companies can group you with other people the same age and charge you accordingly. That nullifies the concept of shared risk. Why should any citizen pay higher premiums to cover an uninsured twenty-something jerk who thinks he's invincible and ends up paralyzed and brain dead after a motorcycle accident? As for the idea that the government has no right to make seemingly healthy young people pay for insurance, what planet are you people from? Americans are forced to carry car insurance no matter how many accidents they have had, forced to pay federal and state taxes no matter what they thought of the Vietnam or Iraq wars or what their state is doing their money, and forced to pay taxes even if they think it is being used to fund health clinics that offer abortions. I'm 66 and have no children, yet I have paid school takes since 1966. Should we exempt childless couples or unmarrieds from paying school taxes? Of course not, these are shared risks and shared responsibilities that were once an understood obligation and are, suddenly, passe. Whatever happened to the Christian ethic of helping your neighbor? And don't talk to me about the Patriot Act or states rights as if it's something new...G.W. Bush passed the Patriot Act based on faulty justifications then went on to violated it and not a word from you people. You weren't just the silent majority in those days, you were cheerleaders for your President. Where were you "States Rights" champions when Bush signed his No Child Left Behind Act that inflicted an immense unfunded mandate on the states? And did I hear your outcry when he signed that awful Pharma friendly Medicare Prescription Act that had no money to pay for it? You can't suck-up to all this for years and, suddenly, say you're against it just because your party is no longer in power. A few people with tea bags hanging off their Easter bonnets back when George Bush was sending pallets of hundred dollar bills to L. Paul Bremer in Iraq that have never been accounted for, but have yet to be paid for, would have been very welcome to a lot of us. Of course, that would require "unity" and I don't see any of that in the near future.