Lord knows we need Kent Fulp's bioremediation facility, but the Lord knows better: We don't need "spot zoning" on Big Creek and on Frye Road ("Stokes vote on rezoning is tabled," June 6).
The topography of this area in a watershed for the Roanoke River Basin with substandard roads resembling a roller coaster make this endeavor a disaster waiting to happen. And road maintenance on the roads to be used will be a tax monkey on all our backs.
Lord knows we don't need urban sprawl at all.
JOHN NEELEY
Westfield
The real world
Thanks to Gina Funk for the letter telling it like it really is in regard to standardized testing ("A new dialogue," June 11). The nurture and encouragement of individuals' minds could become lost
by continuing "standardizing" and not allowing students to set their own standards based on what they have been taught.
The real world is like that.
LOUIS JONES
Winston-Salem
Finish the Thought
Saturday, we asked readers to complete the sentence:
"Republican Gov. Scott Walker's win in the Wisconsin recall elections is a sign of ..."
"... good things to come, we hope."
WILLIAM SAMS
"... bad karma for the Democrats and democracy. Money speaks louder than anything else. The Republicans outspent and outmaneuvered their opponents and framed the issues without basing them on facts. Money has undermined democracy.
"On the other hand, with hope the defeat might serve as a wake-up call for the Democrats to be more astute in the coming elections. This might open the eyes of the general voters to the overwhelming power of money in politics."
BOON T. LEE
"… Americans are sick and tired of left-wing bullying tactics and left-wing media propaganda. Gov. Walker won the recall by a far greater margin than the original election. That says a lot."
WES PATTERSON
"… 'Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up.' "
WAYNE MOOSE
"… liberalism's loss. Combined with the Supreme Court's decision on Citizens United, the effect is obvious; it favors Republicans at all political levels. This could certainly be a preview of what we may see in November in the presidential election.
"The Wisconsin result will also embolden Republican governors elsewhere who are contemplating similar assaults on public-employee unions. Sadly, as the labor movement falls, inequality will rise."
KAM BENFIELD
"… Walker's survival of a recall will definitely become campaign fodder on both sides of the aisle. I believe it means that people are becoming cognizant of what they are paying for. I believe that most people had no idea how much better their 'public servants' were compensated as compared to how the taxpayers are.
"People need to have a fair wage and benefit package, but it can't be so far superior because most government jobs are no more critical to our existence than a private-sector job."
KEN HOGLUND
"… the tail is less likely to wag the dog as much in the future."
LOWELL T. WILLIAMS
"… voters' desire for incremental government. The issues caused by Walker's 2011 budget bill led to recall elections in 2011 and 2012. In the 2011 recall elections, two Wisconsin Republican senators were replaced by Democrats. In the 2012 recall elections, one Democrat got more votes than his Republican opponent. The 2012 election may be put to recount, but if the initial outcome holds, it puts the Senate Democrats in the majority. For anything to get passed then, both parties will have to give some to get some.
"Step by step, Walker may get his agenda achieved. Step by step is digestible. One fell swoop causes recall elections."
DOROTHY MATHEWS
"… the obscene number of 'corporate votes.' Citizens United, if not repealed, will hasten the demise of democracy. Scott Walker was clearly bought and paid for by corporations, not individual voters. Spending 7 to 1 might be considered a corporate grand slam."
ANNE GRIFFIS WILSON
Walker won in 2010 by a margin of 5.77. He won in 2012 by a margin of 6.8. Maybe a difference of 1.03% counts as "far greater" for Wes, but it doesn't for me.
ReplyDeleteI remember he also predicted emphatically that Newt Gingrich would be the GOP nominee...I think he's better at hyperbole than political analysis.
Gov. Walker (R) will be long remembered as the tough Wisconsin leader that took on the union hooligans, and won.
DeleteWell, Arthur, Wes is just like our own fool, Buck boy...he has no interest in what is really going on.
DeleteHe just loves to throw around numbers, the more meaningless, the better. And if he can't find any numbers online, he'll just make some up.
I will give him credit for one thing...his mind does not seem to be in the gutter to the same extent as Bucky Gay Wannabe.
You have to remember you're talking about someone who thinks evolution is "just a theory". Methinks math and science are not his strong points.
DeleteQuite frankly, human beings have been known to be wrong on a number of fronts. Evolution is a 'theory' based on certain facts. I'm not aware that 'evolution' is absolute.
DeleteJust because of a bunch of liberals, that live in a finite world, say 'Wes' is wrong on a particularly topic. I wouldn't be too quick to jump on their bandwagon.
Liberals are the worst at drawing unfounded and illogical conclusions!
Oh, and by the way Rush, I didn't tell Sandusky to have anal sex with that 11 year old boy. Those are the facts as written in the media. It's front page NEWS all over the country!
DeleteYes, and Buck boy is gobbling it all up as fast as he can...too bad the trial's not live on TV...I'm sure it would be even more satisfying for the leading connoisseur of filth and slime to be able to watch these poor boys twist and turn in the wind.
DeleteSandusky's behavior was horrid. Only a liberal would even have the nerve to suggest that someone is deriving some type of pleasure from these crimes.
DeleteYou really are a despicable human, Rush!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uswzriFIf_k&feature=topics
DeleteWayne Moose must be a Democrat.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMike McQueary testified that he saw what appeared to be Sandusky having anal sex with the boy.
ReplyDeleteHe said he had informed university officials, though didn't use the words "anal sex" because he "didn't feel comfortable."
___________
Another aspect of this case is the fact that Sandusky was a coach with university access to particularly sensitive areas. He was employed as a athletics coach, as such, he had access to locker rooms, bathrooms, and showers routinely used by young men. Don't tell me he wasn't getting sexual gratification by 'leering' at these naked young men.
Another disturbing part of the case is the fact that Sandusky tried to have long-term homosexual relationships with these young boys. He didn't just attack these boys in isolated events. He used gifts and threats, among other things, to maintain control over these young children.
This case is truly disturbing. And sadly, it's not an isolated case in America.
Mr. McQueary-nobody feels comfortable about what has happened either.
Bad news for Obama. Not liked by independents.
ReplyDeleteIndependents have a 54% 'unfavorable' view of Obama's economic plans. ABCNews Poll
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/a-chilly-reception-from-independents-on-obamas-plans-for-the-economy/
The Looney Tunes set has been hammering away for years at fears that the current President of the USA was born in Kenya or is a Muslim.
ReplyDeleteNow we discover that it is much worse. He is an effing Republican.
Kissing corporate ass
Reminiscent of Cheney's ultra secret negotiations on energy policy over a decade ago, which gave away the farm to big oil.
Lest you think "OK, that does it, I'm voting for Romney", check out this piece that reveals the abject ignorance of the boy who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has spent his adult life making millions by raping companies through LBOs:
Mitt's absurd claim
I'm thinking about starting a write-in campaign for Bill Friday. Even on his death bed, he can do better.
Romney is 'slamming' Obama's record in the news today. Of course, that's not hard to do.
DeleteWe've had a bunch of 'spending' of taxpayer money by Obama, that we don't have, with few results.
Four more years of economic turmoil? I sure hope not. Time to boot Obama!
Good afternoon folks!
ReplyDeleteLTE 1: The bioremediation center does sound rather cool. If Mr. Neeley's description of the topography is accurate, it sounds like the tabling of the rezoning vote was a good idea.
LTE 2: No Child Left Behind was a good idea poorly executed. I don't think I've heard any teacher, student or principal who approves of the end of year testing.
Finish the thought: ...WI voters not thinking too highly of the recall. There were quite a few who said a recall should be reserved for criminal misdeeds and not for unpopular policies. That Barrett got 46% of the vote after being out spent so heavily and with so many thinking the recall shouldn't have taken place is rather remarkable. "I believe that most people had no idea how much better their 'public servants' were compensated as compared to how the taxpayers are." - that may be true at the federal level, but that comes as big news to those at the state and local level. Just ask any teacher how "much better" they are compensated than those in the private sector with a similar education.
Gov. Cuomo (D) is doing a good job in N.Y. Cutting spending in N.Y. for the first time in over ten years.
ReplyDeleteNot Obama though. He loves spending money we don't have.
Wes and Buck boy are both eager to reveal as much ignorance as they can in public…they should wear signs saying “Hey, look at me…I’m dumber than a rock”
ReplyDelete“I'm not aware that 'evolution' is absolute.”
I wonder what that means…it’s a bit outside usual scientific terminology. Here’s a mini lesson for Buck boy’s edification…oops…used a big word…for Buck boy’s benefit, “edification” means “instruction or enlightenment”. As to his “not aware” bit, we already knew that.
Science is not as simple as the simple-minded think.
Observation: Scientists "observe" what is happening. Evolution has been observed in thousands of experiments, so we know that evolution occurs.
Hypothesis: From observation, scientists develop a hypothesis in an attempt to explain how or why something occurs. Hypotheses are tested by experimentation. Many of those experiments lead to dead ends. Others lead to more testing.
Theory: When enough experiments have confirmed a hypothesis, it becomes a theory. We know that evolution occurs in all living things. As it turns out, Darwin's theories are among the best supported by evidence of any theory in existence.
Science, unlike religion, is not a static thing. And it rarely produces an "absolute" answer. Science itself is an evolution of knowledge.
The "Left Behind" movement has always amused me, because as science expands with new knowledge, it is the Left Behinders who are being left behind.
Quantum Mechanics and Relativity are "just theories" but are probably the most rigorously tested of all theories. They have passed every test. They are facts, just as is Evolution.
DeleteInterestingly, Relativity and QM are incompatible in certain extreme circumstances. Scientists are working on a unified theory, currently called Quantum Gravity, but have a ways to go.
Yes, and it is interesting to note that the anti-science bunch, which of course knows nothing about either, has seized upon this "incompatibility" to "prove" that science doesn't work.
DeleteOf course, the incompatibility is just the opposite...proof that science does work...because an answer will be found, and it won't require or permit an ounce of theological tongue twisting.
A good reason to live longer if you had no other would be to see how this Quantum Gravity business shakes out.
There is quite a bit of reality to define before the elusive QG is a firm theory. How many spatial dimensions there are, and the nature of the ones we can't see is one element, and the nature of time, and whether there is a second time dimension. The latter would answer some questions that QM raises, such as the ability of an object to be in two places at once, which is demonstrated as a fact in experiments.
DeleteWhat more can we ask? Two places at once? We know that it can happen, except that that is intuitively not possible.
DeleteRay Bradbury died this week. I was so lucky to be at the right age to experience his major writing as it was happening in the 1950s...The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated Man, Dandelion Wine, Something Wicked This Way Comes
Many think that he was a science fiction writer, but they would be wrong. He was a science fact writer combined with a life, death, heaven, hell, consequences of life philosopher.
He released so many of us 12 and 13 year olds from the tyranny of our parents and teachers and ministers, enabling us to think for ourselves for the first time in our lives.
Much of his work anticipated such problems as two or more things being in different places at the same time.
Mayer, Planck and Einstein were not the only geniuses. Bradbury gave us permission to be our own geniuses.
"We've had a bunch of 'spending' of taxpayer money by Obama, that we don't have, with few results."
ReplyDeleteWe hear this kind of bullshit from Buck boy every day. And this time he's not alone. That and a bunch more bullshit about the "liberal media".
Well here's an excerpt from a certifiable right wing source, none other than the Wall Street Journal's "Market Watch", May 22, 2012:
'Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.
But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.
Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.
Here are the facts, according to the official government statistics:
• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion.
• In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.
• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.
• Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion. Read the CBO’s latest budget outlook.
Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.
There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear.'
That "inferno" early in the piece is a quote from LBO Romney, the fool who didn't know that the federal government spends billions of dollars annually on schools, police and fire protection.
Sex, lies and...I guess video tape is next...something obscene anyway.
And that doesn't even count the cutbacks that have been going on at the state and local level.
DeleteI would ask those folks to take a look at Europe to see how austerity is working there...but that assumes they'd be dissuaded by actual evidence. Besides, like I said, if Romney wins, watch them turn around on the deficit in a heartbeat.
One thing the Democrats, like the despicable Rush, always leave out of their budget quotes, is the fiasco healthcare plan called Obamacare. It adds billions, and some say over $1 trillion of new spending in the coming 10 years.
DeleteIt also adds a new entitlement to our already going bankrupt entitlements when we can least afford it..
So, blow your hogwash up some liberal's foolish butt if you want, but mine knows when a Jerry Sandusky Democrat is standing nearby. So don't expect me to grab my ankles and take it.
I say no! to Obama's policies and presidency, and no! to your hogwash!
Bucky, how about grabbing a cold one instead of your ankles. Maybe that would mellow your mood. We are all very appalled about the Sandusky child abuse charges, and share your disdain for his criminal actions.
Delete"Jerry Sandusky Democrat"?
DeleteFuck you Tim. You are a pathetic human being.
Excellent suggestion, Wordly.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of cold ones, many years ago, in the "good old days", my friends and I discovered a cheap alternative to Heineken...Mickey's Malt Liquor. It tasted pretty much the same as Heineken and also had the advantage of a 5.7% alcohol content, well above the average.
Had not seen Mickey's in years and assumed it had gone the way of Ballantine Ale, but just a couple of days ago walked into City Beverage and found a big pile of Mickey's near the door.
So am enjoying one right now for nostalgia's sake. Not bad, but having since become a craft brew snob, it doesn't measure up to such mighty brews as Dale's Pale Ale or Two Hearted IPA.
Dale's, along with the superb Deviant Dale's IPA and Chub Scottish ale, is made by the Oscar Blue Brewing Company of Colorado. In December they will begin pumping out their products at their brand new east coast facility in Brevard, adding to the Asheville area's luster as the top brewing center in America...over 10 breweries and counting...with at least 2 more coming soon.
#$%^&*!@*&^%$#...Ballantine has not gone the way of all flesh.
DeleteI was trying to cite a brand no longer available. My friend at the library, who is an authority on the history of so many things, says I should have used Ruppert Knickerbocker, made in Manhattan and available at several places, including the Rathskeller, in Chapel Hill in 16 ounce bottles in the 1960s. Had a great old fashioned pre-Bud/mass produced flavor.
Discontinued in the early 1970s, reissued later by Pabst and permanently discontinued in 1997. Too bad.
Ballantine Ale is still sold in NY, NJ, PA, OH and throughout New England. My friend says that at some point someone tinkered with the formula, so it probably does not have the great taste we experienced in the '60s...dumbed down for the lite beer generations.
My "budget quotes" came from the ultra conservative Wall Street Journal via the conservative Forbes magazine and ultimately from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
ReplyDeleteAnd they include all government spending. The CBO projects that the deficit will continue to fall slowly through 2022, but there is a fly in the ointment.
1. The Bush tax cuts for the rich would have to be allowed to expire as scheduled.
2. The limit on reimbursement of doctors under Medicare/Medicaid would have to remain in place.
Since Congress is now controlled by a lunatic private citizen, Grover Norquist and his lunatic disciples known as the Tea Party, who kiss the ass of the rich and famous, including all doctors, neither of the above is likely.
So if you want to blame somebody for increasing deficits, the White House is the wrong direction to be looking.
Just in case somebody doesn't get it, here is the statistical record for percentage increase in federal spending beginning with Reagan's first budget and continuing through President Obama's latest.
DeleteThese are not the kind of made up bullshit that we confront daily in this forum and the wider web, but actual numbers from the CBO by administration, as republished by the Wall Street Journal and Forbes:
Reagan '82-85 8.7%
Bush II '06-09 8.1%
Bush II '02-05 7.3%
Bush I ''90-93 5.4%
Reagan '86-89 4.9%
Clinton '98-01 3.9%
Clinton '94-97 3.2%
Obama '10-13 1.4%
Tax and spend Democrats? Only a fool would believe that. In a way, I hope that Romney wins in November, because we will see the spend and spend Republicans at the forefront again.
Stupid is as stupid does. I wonder if Sally Fields had any idea how many times she would be quoted in her role as half-wit Forest Gump's mother in the movie. The quote is derived from an old southern one "Beauty is as beauty does", meaning that superficiality overcomes intelligence, because men will kiss a beautiful woman's ass no matter what she says.
Interestingly enough, when the movie was released, that line drew many laughs in southern theaters, but was met with puzzlement up north where the southern saying was unknown.
Hey Jerry! Go to bed! I'm still not buying into your hogwash, okay?
DeleteSome people think that if they keep bloviating (I learned that word from FoxNews), people will believe them. Geez!
As Arthur said earlier "I would ask those folks to take a look at Europe to see how austerity is working there...but that assumes they'd be dissuaded by actual evidence."
ReplyDeleteAssuming that Buck boy even knows what evidence is is stretching the imagination to the limit. His knowledge is limited to his pathetic obsession with sex, which we must doubt he has ever experienced any kind of, except perhaps autoerotic.
And "bloviate" is a perfect word for Buck boy's entire life, as it refers to pomposity and emptiness...mouthings from ignorance of any and all things. You've got to feel sorry for such a total loser.
To paraphrase Arthur's earlier comment:
"Eff you Tim. You are a pathetic creature somewhere at or below baboon level."