Dec 23, 2007

1313 Mockingbird Lane


Eminent Domain or, Evident Disdain?


   For those in caves Eminent Domain refers to the power possessed by the state over all property within the state, specifically its power to appropriate property for a public use. Some may have noticed the increase in the use of eminent domain by the profiterrorists. In recent years some governments appear inclined to exercise eminent domain for the benefit of developers or commercial interests, on the basis that anything that increases the value of a given tract of land is a sufficient public use.

In most cases it goes something like this;

   Joe Gotbuck$, (your average profiterrori$t/land developer), decide$ that the beautiful water front property that you and 50 of your clo$e$t neighbor$ re$ide on, (the one with the $pectacular view), i$ ju$t being wa$ted on the like$ of you and your neighbor$.

   $uch $plendor can only truly be appreciated by $omeone of more refined ta$te, and $ocial grace, $omeone who could really appreciate the value of thi$ prime location. $o Joey goe$ to the di$trict judge and file$ the appropriate paperwork, ($ome of which may or, may not be green).
  Joey $tate$ that the property in que$tion would look ever $o much better if all tho$e hou$e$ were gone and 2 or maybe even 3, million dollar man$ion/condo$ took their place, maybe even a park acro$$ the $treet for the kiddie$, (who will no longer be living there), to u$e. Hell there might be enough land left over for a golf cour$e that everyone, (with a $mall initiation fee, $ay $10000), can join.

   “The Little Judge Who Can” agree$ and rezone$ the area $o that any hou$e/home not having 6 bathroom$, a gue$t hou$e, and a large marble fountain out front, i$ con$idered “blighted”. The$e $tructure$ will ju$t have to go, (in the intere$t of the common good, of cour$e), $o when the realty market reache$ it’$ next low the profiterrori$t $eize$ your property (at “fair market value”). You now have no choice but to $ell, (at “fair market value), you can now peddle your a$$ down the road and buy a hou$e/home on the other $ide of town, (over the river and through the wood$ to the other $ide of the track$). Chance$ are that the$e hou$e$/home$ are already built and Joey Gotbuck$ wa$ having trouble $elling them, (at “fair market value), but you can now purcha$e them at $lightly more than you got for your “Blighted Re$idence”, (they are new after all). Everyone walk$ away knowing that they did what wa$ be$t for the community a$ a whole.    
   Hell, you might even get a $tarbuck$ built in your town in honor of the new re$ident$, on the hill, by the lake, where you u$ed to live, you know, acro$$ from the park, next to the golf cour$e.

   If you think this is far fetched, then you truly are living in a cave, this is happening all over the country. If you think it only affects those living in those really nice areas on the lake, or river, or ocean, ( the ones you’ve always envied for having those great vistas).
 Wake Up! Pay Attention! Vote!

http://www.emdo.blogspot.com/
http://www.reason.org/eminentdomain/index.shtml
http://eminentdomain.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/index.html
http://www.florida-eminent-domain.com/
http://www.planning.org/legislation/eminentdomain/
http://www.srcitizensagainsteminentdomain.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0lQtkWJDzg&eurl
http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/category/eminent_domain/
And then some…

   Eminent Domain has been used throughout history from the days of the Robber Barons to the present. In some cases you could even say it was justified, some social necessity was actually behind the annexation of property. Unfortunately, today, it seems that the only requirement for the use of Eminent Domain is the need for profit by the profiterrorists.
( I just love that word,“profiterrorist”, don’t you?, sort of rolls off the tongue, granted the after taste sucks, but hey, the good with the bad).

Talks

Rides



(I'm so glad we had this little chat, aren't you? Until next time….…..)

Dec 17, 2007

$ 11

PROFITERRORISM OR, THE BUCK STOPS WHERE?


   There are plenty of conspiracy theories on the internet these days, ranging from Alien Invasions to who killed Roger Rabbit, some stretch credibility to the breaking point; some are exceptional excursions into the comedic, while some are very prophetic in nature. We tend to lump them all together unfortunately, and thereby limit our awareness of the events occurring in our environment. I say unfortunate because to collectively lump together anything we don’t want to hear or believe as crazy, without at least a cursory examination is, “CRAZY”.

   The links listed below, (there are many, many more), are an example of the large number of sites, (some which may indeed be crazy), trying to point out that something is wrong, something that might not be in best interests of the American People or any people for that matter. Most will ignore, deny, and ridicule, whatever it takes to maintain their illusory existence, but a cursory examination is all I ask of you. Anything that seems doubtful or unclear can be clarified easily with a little research, (just pretend you’re looking up sports stats, or pornography, or whatever it is you do on the “INFORMATION HIGHWAY”)

http://getinvolved.pointofview316.com/
http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/WarOnTerror/FearProfits.asp
http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/47/18339
http://www.thedebate.org/thedebate/iraq.asp
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/kept_promises.html
http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/
http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com
AND THEN SOME…..

   The sheer number is nearly overwhelming and if only 10% are factual, it should make any intelligent person step back and question the actions of our “leaders”, both political and industrial. That is, after all, our duty as American Citizens, to be constantly vigilant and question the motives behind the political process. Defending America against all enemies, foreign and domestic. If you think it doesn’t really affect you, YOU’RE WRONG, and even in the unlikely event it doesn’t affect you, IT WILL affect your children.
   
   When cold hard cash is involved it becomes pretty much a primitive game all over again, and unfortunately those with the weakest moral fiber tend to win.
   
   The accumulation of wealth, and thereby power is a pretty strong temptation. Absolute power does and, common sense isn’t, so if we don’t pay attention we will reap what is sown.
   We tend to forget that ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ are the government, and, the elected officials are our emissaries, we got lazy and let the emissaries have control because we were too busy chasing after the American Dream. “Chasing after dreams that weren’t really meant for me”, (line from an old song I wrote years ago). The majority of these dreams we chase, (e.g. flashy cars, designer clothes, designer jewelry, cool tech toys, etc), are not our dreams, they belong to the ‘Madison Avenue Advertising Clique’, whose sole purpose is to tell us what it is we want, when we want it, and convince us of our inability to live without it. (“It” being the latest fad)
  
   They are so good at their jobs that the average American is so deeply in debt and so deeply preoccupied with this diversion, that our right hand truly has no idea what the left is up to. There is no form of entertainment, from newspapers and magazines, to movies, radio and TV, that is not there for the sole purpose of selling product.
   Even the concerned activists in society today all have their personal pet peeves, (and there are hundreds, maybe thousands of these little “pets” running rampant). They march in protest to correct these social injustices; they march in a myriad of different directions and accomplish little more than further dividing the social consciousness.
   Until we join together and fight the real battle, (the battle over who really controls America), we will never accomplish anything, and soon, we will loose the right to march our own personal pet peeves around the soap box. Divide and Conquer is the perfect strategy.

   The profiterrorists know this strategy well and keep us chasing our tails, while they slowly sap our willpower and wealth.



Pay attention and vote, let me reiterate, PAY ATTENTION AND VOTE




(More??? Undoubtedly)






Dec 6, 2007

ITEM 10



3.16227766016838² or “Wrong Way, Goldfarb”!


   I was recently amused by the big debate over whether Pluto should be listed as a planet or an asteroid.

   “There are fervent proponents of changing Pluto's status as our 9th planet, suggesting instead that it is part of a new class of objects that are smaller than planets but still large enough to be spherical due to self gravity. There is also a strong outcry for Pluto’s inclusion in the exclusive list of planets.” http://www.planetary.org/about/press/releases



   I was thinking that since planets orbit the sun and asteroids orbit the sun all planets should be classified as asteroids, and the habitable planets should now be listed as "hemorrhoids", thereby clearing up once and for all our place in the universe. Just a thought;


Any opinions?
Hello is this thing on?
Hello.
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me.
Is there anyone at home?

   It seems that today we are much more concerned with the appearance of propriety than the actual chore of being proprietous. Political correctness took the place of correct politics, healthy appearance took the place of health, laws took the place of justice, what we want took the place of what we need, lust took the place of love, etc, etc. Nothing is too trivial for us to make a mountain out of mole-hill.
   Nobody seems to know where we took the wrong turn, or indeed if there ever was a turn to begin with. I on the other hand have an opinion on the subject, (never been shy about voicing opinions even when the facts are scarce). I think we made our wrong turn in the early ‘60s when the survival of the family depended on two incomes. I also think we were steered that way for a purpose that has been guiding us along since the '40s.
   The main idea behind the “Industrial Revolution” was that everyone would be able to work fewer hours for more pay, thus leaving time for the important stuff, “Family”. Soon the industrialists realized that there was no need to share the fruits of someone else’s labor and kept the lion’s share for themselves. Let them eat cake, so to speak. This practice really came into its peak in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s, with the need for two incomes to support the family structure. The center, or nucleus of the family was the Matriarch, (Mom for those deficient in adequate vocabularic articulateness), who now became a member of the work farce, thereby leaving her position open for TV, Video Games, Rock & Roll and, (insert imaginary being here) help us, MR. MOM.
   The family unity is now broken, probably beyond repair. The evening Dinner and Family Hour went up in a puff of smoke, (literally, Mr. Mom, took Shop, not Home EC). Family members met only in passing while going to and from work or school. Family values changed as children learned to raise themselves, and mom went screaming for the shelter of her little yellow helper.


   As with all shortcomings in society things went from bad to worse, industries kept more, workers got less, the cost of living rose, quality of living declined, taxes went up, services went down. Today two incomes are not enough to live on. (Taxes are another story in itself, seeing as how there is no law anywhere stating that you
must pay them, or that the govt. has the right to collect them)
"A private person’s wages earned from a private company are protected by Article 1 from a (un-apportioned) direct tax, such as the individual federal income tax". http://www.article1-taxation.com/about.html

   The only way to survive today is to have three jobs each, or form “micro communes” of two or more couples in one apartment, (kinda like sharing a cave, just like the good ogg days). Remember the oggs? This is a story about oggs. And their devolution (de-evolution).
   As our family unity declined the moral fiber that made us great deteriorated, poverty rose, crime fostered by poverty, and the "Madison Ave. must have now at all cost attitude" rose off the charts, and even though more, and more police hit the streets every day, the legal system 
is not up to the task either through incompetency, or design.
   America, arguably the richest country in the world has one of the poorest educational systems 
in the world, again, either through incompetency, or design. A poorly educated and finacially burdened
society is not likely to notice, or even question the day to day activities that our elected officials perform in our name.

But Seriously;

   The interesting point about all this is that no-one seems to give a damn, no-one seems to care about what’s happening all around them, we just act like it’s the cost of doing life on this planet. We have lost site of the fact that ‘We The People’ are the government, not the bozos in Washington. We don’t even bat an eye when our elected officials blatantly and obviously lie to us, we don’t raise an eyebrow when our sacred system of voting is compromised by a ‘Black Box’ system with no means of verifying the actual election results, we don’t want to be bothered with the fact that our constitutional rights are withering away under the guise of national security.


"Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither"
Benjamin Franklin

   Instead we worry about abortion, spotted owls, whales, the important issues surrounding Pluto, and a myriad of other causes, which only serve to divide us and keep us mis-directed while the "Magicians" go about the business of slowly tightening the noose around our freedom.
   The average attention span of the average American is barely 3 months, or until the next
sound bite, whichever comes first. Now might be a good time to wake up!
   Not every conspiracy "nut" is a nut. In fact the majority of those talking on the subject are exceptionally intelligent and exceptionally well educated individuals. The main difference between them and the "Average American" is that they pay attention, and are not so easily distracted by the slight of hand of the "Magicians" (or "they" if you prefer).
   The information is out there on the internet, all you have to do is look, and then form your own opinion, (not the one given to you by the daily news over coffee in the morning) . So maybe next time between youtube, myspace, these stupid blogs, and the daily porn, a little interest in the "real" current events might be an erstwhile activity.
   I'm not saying you should believe everything you read, but keep an open mind, and at least question some of the things your told by those who may not have your best interests at heart.

(probably more to come. like it or not!)

Dec 2, 2007

Space Filler

The Nightmare We're Weaving Is made Of The Rags That Were Once The American Dream.
Excerpt From Song "America Dreams" © 1998 P.rosko

 
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