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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 9, 2016 15:18:35 GMT -5
My Next Read. Ordered on Amazon. Can wait to get it. nypost.com/2016/10/09/how-dumb-does-washington-think-we-all-are/www.amazon.com/What-Washington-Gets-Wrong-Misconceptions/dp/1633882497?tag=nypost-20What Washington Gets Wrong: The Unelected Officials Who Actually Run the Government and Their Misconceptions about the American People Summary from Amazon: Each year unelected federal administrators write thousands of regulations possessing the force of law. What do these civil servants know about the American people whom they ostensibly serve? Not much, according to this enlightening and disturbing study. The authors surveyed federal agency officials, congressional and White House staffers, and employees of various policy-making organizations about their attitudes toward and knowledge of the public. They found a significant chasm between what official Washington assumes they know about average Americans and the actual opinions and attitudes of American citizens. Even in such basic areas as life circumstances (e.g., income levels, employment, racial makeup) the surveys revealed surprising inaccuracies. And when it comes to policy issues--on such crucial issues as defense, crime, social security, welfare, public education, and the environment--officials' perceptions of the public's knowledge and positions are often wide of the mark. Compounding this ignorance is a pervasive attitude of smug dismissiveness toward the citizenry and little sense of accountability. As a result, bureaucrats tend to follow their own preferences without much reference to the opinions of the public. The authors conclude with recommendations to narrow the gap between official perceptions of the American public and the actual facts. These include shorter terms, rotation from the Washington beltway to local offices, compulsory training in the responsibilities of public office, and better civic education for ordinary citizens in the realities of government and politics
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,463
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Post by Sabre52 on Oct 9, 2016 17:53:47 GMT -5
The simple conclusion is, so called public servants, especially at the federal level, serve no one's interests other than their own. Their entire lives revolve around guaranteeing themselves power, freedom from oversight, influence to promote their own agendas, permanent job security, high pay, health insurance better than any we have access to, and as much or our taxpayer money as they can get into their individual units coffers They want this money even when they know they waste much of it cause, the more they get, the more successful they deem their unit of government. Success is not based on performance or service but rather on how much they can get for themselves....Mel
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 17:56:39 GMT -5
And the self interest they seek to fulfill is POWER. The more POWER they grab, the better the item looks in their resume.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 19:13:48 GMT -5
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 19:57:33 GMT -5
2 types of folks become so called "public servants". My theory, my observation. There may be more I have yet to identify.
#1) power hungry SOB's that seek control over as many as they can. The more power the happier they are.
#2) miserable pukes that have the job dueto karma coming due, perhaps for committing suicide in a prior life.
Any analysis and recommendations are just that. Often those reports are there as cover. "See here this report, we are trying to identify and remedy problems..."
ETA:
I feel the only way to rectify the situation is thru a new revolution. Revolt, rewrite a new constitution that similar to the first. Reword 2A. Leave out the boits about slavery. Leave in the bits about sufferage, discard all prohibition related language...
Thusly tossing all court "precedent" and have another 150 years of personal freedoms.
I dont think this will happen, but feel it necessary.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 9, 2016 21:29:16 GMT -5
"What country ever existed a century and a half without a rebellion? And what country can preserve it's liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, Paris, 13 Nov. 1787
You've been reading TJ, haven't you, @shotgunner...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 21:31:36 GMT -5
paulshiromaNope. Just did the maths. 1776 -----> FDR = ~150 years. FDR was the beginning of the end.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 9, 2016 22:23:16 GMT -5
LOL
He signed Executive order 9066 so yeah, I'm with you on that one.
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Don
Cave Dweller
He wants you too, Malachi.
Member since December 2009
Posts: 2,616
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Post by Don on Oct 9, 2016 23:15:15 GMT -5
Individuals are smart. People though...people are fvsking stupid and the bureaucrats know it.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2016 23:35:02 GMT -5
LOL He signed Executive order 9066 so yeah, I'm with you on that one. That is one particularly egregious one for sure. And I hope nobody you love was affected. But the social security act, or whatever it was called, normalized government theft of a workers money for redistribution to non workers. That particular baby step was well calculated to be the first. Who could say no to taking care of seniors? Look what that got us.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Oct 10, 2016 2:57:13 GMT -5
A declining economy fuels the government too. The people are too busy struggling to make ends meet. Less time to concern themselves with government activity. There are a good many people that are retired or have learned to have time to pay attention and educate themselves of government activities participating in this political category of the RTH. Some country's governments would censor such discussions. Thankfully we have freedom of speech and can be cavalier about criticizing and analyzing government behavior. The government still manages it criminal activity very wisely in light of freedom of speech. Making them a force to be reckoned with as they increase in power and monetary resources. Leaning toward socialism = higher taxes = more power, more resources, more intelligence, more undeserved control over the people.
Shocked at new communities in a fast growing area. Government spending on the finest of everything. Who writes their budget ? Tell me they are not pursuing tax money in every imaginable tax category. They hire and purchase the finest. Not a lot of government workers defending themselves on this forum LOL. Where are you guys ? May they live under a blanket of insecurity and disrespect if they are acting inappropriately.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 10, 2016 8:02:19 GMT -5
"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilisations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage." Attribution unknown although variously attributed to Alexander Tytler or Alexis de Tocqueville. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Fraser_Tytler,_Lord_Woodhouselee And yes, @shotgunner, I totally agree about the social security program. Unfortunate And this is a great comment, jamesp, "... Not a lot of government workers defending themselves on this forum LOL. Where are you guys ? May they live under a blanket of insecurity and disrespect if they are acting inappropriately. "
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,155
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Post by jamesp on Oct 10, 2016 8:10:54 GMT -5
I am a Tytler man Paul. Simples my life. Describes this county's destination. Past and present too. Works for democratic republic. Look at Britain. They are a decade or two ahead of us.
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Deleted
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Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2016 10:32:23 GMT -5
"WISHING WON'T MAKE IT SO"
Ayn Rand’s philosophy, Objectivism, begins by embracing the basic fact that existence exists. Reality is, and in the quest to live we must discover reality’s nature and learn to act successfully in it.
To exist is to be something, to possess a specific identity. This is the Law of Identity: A is A. Facts are facts, independent of any consciousness. No amount of passionate wishing, desperate longing or hopeful pleading can alter the facts. Nor will ignoring or evading the facts erase them: the facts remain, immutable.
In Rand’s philosophy, reality is not to be rewritten or escaped, but, solemnly and proudly, faced. One of her favorite sayings is Francis Bacon’s: “Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.”
Reality — that which exists — has no alternatives, no competitors, nothing “transcending” it. To embrace existence is to reject all notions of the supernatural and the mystical, including God.
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Post by mohs on Oct 10, 2016 17:44:04 GMT -5
The first chapter of Ludwig Wittgenstein
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
It’s a very short chapter
Proposition 1
1 The world is all that is the case. 1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things. 1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts. 1.12 For the totality of facts determines what is the case, and also whatever is not the case. 1.13 The facts in logical space are the world. 1.2 The world divides into facts. 1.21 Each item can be the case or not the case while everything else remains the same.
Hope this clears up any previous confusion
m`
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megalotis
starting to spend too much on rocks
Member since April 2009
Posts: 226
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Post by megalotis on Oct 10, 2016 19:35:21 GMT -5
I agreed right down the line with what you had going there, Scott, until you said: "To embrace existence is to reject all notions of the supernatural and the mystical, including God." Sounds like utter nonsense to me. God is neither supernatural nor mystical. He is the creator of all that we see, touch, feel, and experience. Logically speaking, the universe cannot be explained away as a matter of happenstance. The odds against the earth existing as it does, are monumentally (impossibly) huge. Besides which, any contemplation of life having any meaning whatsoever without God's existence is irrational. God is vastly greater in knowledge and understanding than we. Just as ignorant savages proclaim great mystical powers to those using a higher technology to their own, we humans strive to understand a universe through the lens of ignorance...and come up wanting.
That said, bravo for the sentence you shared: "Reality - that which exists - has no alternatives, no competitors, nothing "transcending" it." Indeed. God is the greatest single component of that reality.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 10, 2016 19:58:16 GMT -5
The first chapter of Ludwig Wittgenstein Tractatus Logico-PhilosophicusIt’s a very short chapter Proposition 11 The world is all that is the case. 1.1 The world is the totality of facts, not of things. 1.11 The world is determined by the facts, and by their being all the facts. 1.12 For the totality of facts determines what is the case, and also whatever is not the case. 1.13 The facts in logical space are the world. 1.2 The world divides into facts. 1.21 Each item can be the case or not the case while everything else remains the same. Hope this clears up any previous confusion m` it clears things up COMPLETELY. LOL I love it.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 10, 2016 19:58:37 GMT -5
I agreed right down the line with what you had going there, Scott, until you said: "To embrace existence is to reject all notions of the supernatural and the mystical, including God." Sounds like utter nonsense to me. God is neither supernatural nor mystical. He is the creator of all that we see, touch, feel, and experience. Logically speaking, the universe cannot be explained away as a matter of happenstance. The odds against the earth existing as it does, are monumentally (impossibly) huge. Besides which, any contemplation of life having any meaning whatsoever without God's existence is irrational. God is vastly greater in knowledge and understanding than we. Just as ignorant savages proclaim great mystical powers to those using a higher technology to their own, we humans strive to understand a universe through the lens of ignorance...and come up wanting. That said, bravo for the sentence you shared: "Reality - that which exists - has no alternatives, no competitors, nothing "transcending" it." Indeed. God is the greatest single component of that reality. Well said, megalotis.
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Post by paulshiroma on Oct 10, 2016 20:05:25 GMT -5
A declining economy fuels the government too. The people are too busy struggling to make ends meet. Less time to concern themselves with government activity. There are a good many people that are retired or have learned to have time to pay attention and educate themselves of government activities participating in this political category of the RTH. Some country's governments would censor such discussions. Thankfully we have freedom of speech and can be cavalier about criticizing and analyzing government behavior. The government still manages it criminal activity very wisely in light of freedom of speech. Making them a force to be reckoned with as they increase in power and monetary resources. Leaning toward socialism = higher taxes = more power, more resources, more intelligence, more undeserved control over the people. Shocked at new communities in a fast growing area. Government spending on the finest of everything. Who writes their budget ? Tell me they are not pursuing tax money in every imaginable tax category. They hire and purchase the finest. Not a lot of government workers defending themselves on this forum LOL. Where are you guys ? May they live under a blanket of insecurity and disrespect if they are acting inappropriately. Okay, jamesp. You asked where the government workers are/were on this forum. I'll come of the of the closet and tell the gang that back in the middle 1980's I was a civil servant working for a small city in Southern California. It was my first crack at what I hoped would be a career helping citizens and communities improve their city. As part of that idealism, I picked up a bachelor's and a master's degree in Public Administration. After four years of doing 65 hour work weeks, my doctor informed me that I'm might be developing an ulcer and that I had developed TMJ. He recommended a career change, which I did and never looked back. My time with the city government, though taught me a lot about what works well and what doesn't with local governments. It also gives me a much more rounded opinion on what I see as both right and wrong with our bureaucracy. Bureaucracy isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's the bureaucracy that allows the US Military its incredible power-projection capabilities. However, it's also the bureaucracy that makes rules without oversight from elected officials or citizens so there is a good and bad side to this. While I'll never go back to public service, I am glad I did serve. I'm cooking dinner right now so I have to end this. More later!
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 10, 2016 20:50:16 GMT -5
I agreed right down the line with what you had going there, Scott, until you said: "To embrace existence is to reject all notions of the supernatural and the mystical, including God." Sounds like utter nonsense to me. God is neither supernatural nor mystical. He is the creator of all that we see, touch, feel, and experience. Logically speaking, the universe cannot be explained away as a matter of happenstance. The odds against the earth existing as it does, are monumentally (impossibly) huge. Besides which, any contemplation of life having any meaning whatsoever without God's existence is irrational. God is vastly greater in knowledge and understanding than we. Just as ignorant savages proclaim great mystical powers to those using a higher technology to their own, we humans strive to understand a universe through the lens of ignorance...and come up wanting. That said, bravo for the sentence you shared: "Reality - that which exists - has no alternatives, no competitors, nothing "transcending" it." Indeed. God is the greatest single component of that reality. There are objectivist of faith. We can disagree on that point. Matters not to me. As long as we accept responsibility for ours and our loved ones, life is good. In this respect, church's do much good. Better church's than government using money taken by force from productive society and give it to those that haven't earned it.
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