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Aug. 16th, 2011
Obama actually defends the role of government:
You’ll hear a lot of folks, by the way, say that government is broken. Well, government and politics are two different things. Government is our troops who are fighting on our behalf in Afghanistan and Iraq. That’s government. Government are also those FEMA folks when there’s a flood or a drought or some emergency who come out and are helping people out. That’s government. Government is Social Security. Government are teachers in the classroom. Government are our firefighters and our police officers, and the folks who keep our water clean and our air clean to breathe, and our agricultural workers. And when you go to a national park, and those folks in the hats — that’s government.Yes, I know, he very well may not follow through -- but damn, he said it, and he said it clearly and showed that it's a good thing for the people to do things collectively what they cannot easily do themselves.
So don’t be confused — as frustrated as you are about politics, don’t buy into this notion that somehow government is what’s holding us back…. [D]on’t buy into this whole notion that somehow government doesn’t do us any good; government is what protects us. The government is what built the Interstate Highway System. Government is what sent a man to the Moon. It’s what invested in the research and development that created innovations all across this country.
A Three-Hour Tour
Aug. 16th, 2011 04:17 pmEvery now and again, I mention my ultimate Lottery dream: buying an island somewhere, building up some infrastructure, and moving my family and a whole bunch -- three to five hundred -- of my friends there with me. Just getting us the hell away from everything.
It would never work, of course. There are too many technical problems, potential legal difficulties, and supply problems to overcome. Not to mention the existence of pirates, various naval forces with weapons tests, and the occasional tsunami.
Besides, Cthulhu's alarm clock might be about to go off.
This does not mean that I'm the only person to think like this. And now some ultra-rich doof is trying it. They're supposed to be little libertarian petri dishes, where a man can truly be free.
Good luck with that.
I figure that, in a few years, these little Time-Share 2020s will have been picked clean and abandoned, and maybe then we can go out there and rehab 'em.
Meantime, I'm saving up toward a missile silo.
What's your ultimate personal fortress? How detached from civilization do you wish to be? In my case, not much at all, thank you -- but I do want a nice, tornado-and-nuke-proof haven. (Seanan, don't you even think about all the ways you could mess me up with virii. I don't get enough sleep as it is.)
It would never work, of course. There are too many technical problems, potential legal difficulties, and supply problems to overcome. Not to mention the existence of pirates, various naval forces with weapons tests, and the occasional tsunami.
Besides, Cthulhu's alarm clock might be about to go off.
This does not mean that I'm the only person to think like this. And now some ultra-rich doof is trying it. They're supposed to be little libertarian petri dishes, where a man can truly be free.
Good luck with that.
I figure that, in a few years, these little Time-Share 2020s will have been picked clean and abandoned, and maybe then we can go out there and rehab 'em.
Meantime, I'm saving up toward a missile silo.
What's your ultimate personal fortress? How detached from civilization do you wish to be? In my case, not much at all, thank you -- but I do want a nice, tornado-and-nuke-proof haven. (Seanan, don't you even think about all the ways you could mess me up with virii. I don't get enough sleep as it is.)