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I used to earn pocket money shoveling snow in Grosse Pointe, Michigan . . . and again in Chicago both clearing snow with an attached 'shovel' to my jeep and pulling cars out of their parking tombs.
Quite ridiculous, really.
I wonder, does this also apply to moving lawns or painting fences???
Probably.Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRocker
The US has almost caught up with OZ in terms of 'Nanny State' - ness.
You are a lemming in his world. A tool.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boon Mee
If not surpassed some tome ago.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boon MeeProbably.Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRocker
The US has almost caught up with OZ in terms of 'Nanny State' - ness.
Call it what you wish......Nanny State, Police State, etc.
Come full circle - control, suppression, conditioning, dependency.
Highly vacant of individual or collective independence, self-sufficiency, nor connections.
The U.S. might be considered a definitive model.
Let's take a short side trip off the precise subject of the Nanny State to illustrate a further point regarding immature thought processes:
How to Teach Kids about Socialism
It used to be that if you wanted to teach kids about capitalism, you’d tell them to open a lemonade stand. By producing a product, marketing it, and selling it, they would get a small taste of what it is like to run a business.
But now telling your kids to open a lemonade stand is the best way of teaching them about socialism, not capitalism. First, tell your kids to open a lemonade stand. Watch as they make lemonade, paint a sign, and move a table and chairs and a pitcher and cups to your front lawn.
Then let them sell for a few minutes unimpeded. Then come along and tell them you're from the Department of Agriculture, and want to see where the calorie count for their products are posted. If there is no calorie count, take 25% of what they have earned as a fine.
Then leave them alone for a few minutes and come back and ask if they are aware that they are violating child labor laws. When they tell you they are unaware, take 25% of what they have remaining as a fine.
Then come back a few minutes later and ask for the environmental impact statement for their lemonade stand. When they ask what that is, explain that before stand can be allowed to open, you have to study whether the ants under their feet or the squirrels in the trees above them are discomfited by the lemonade stand. If you notice any ice cubes melting on the ground to form a little puddle, say that is wetlands and can be regulated by the EPA as well. Assess a 25% fine of what they have left.
Then come back a little while later and ask if they have been investing in healthcare for their employees, and withholding money for social security and Medicare. If they haven't, assess a 25% penalty.
Then come back a little while later and ask why there are no girls working there. Or if there are girls, ask why there are no blacks. Or if there are blacks, ask why no Hispanics. If there are Hispanics, ask why no gays. If there are gay kids, ask why no transgendered. Say that the absence of one group is evidence of discrimination, and assess a 25% fine.
Then leave them alone for a few minutes and set up a competing lemonade stand right next to them, with the sign "Luis Gutierrez Lemonade, 5 cents". When the kids ask what you are doing tell them you are an illegal alien come to this country to compete for their jobs. If they start crying tell them that crying about it is racist and they could be fined.
At the end of the day count how much they have earned remaining after all your fines and take 50% of it. When they ask why, say it is for federal, state, and sales taxes. Explain that it was not they who sold the lemonade, but the government, who made the roads and sidewalks by which people came to buy it, and that they, the small business owner, are the "rich", and need to pay their fair share.
After all this is said and done, ask your kids if they identify more with the producers of lemonade, or the government inspectors. Then you will have explained socialism to them.
How to Teach Kids about Socialism
Actually, the kids will be so totally confused they'll simply throw up their hands, go back indoors and become wards of the state since it's too difficult in a Socialist world to start a business. :chitown:
'american thinker blog'?
Now there's a contradiction in terms
Boon Mee, that's not about capitalism, but free enterprise.
Capitalism, you outsource your lemonade production to the 3rd world, use child labor.
Then you buy politicians to pass laws to protect your business, so you can limit competition.
You have the money and you buy and control the market, never having to produce or sell yourself.
Free enterprise is good, works in communist countries, capitalism is just replacing Lords, they control and you pay their percentage to operate.
Think the NY taxi system best shows it.
Years ago an immigrant would get a job as a taxi driver, work hard, save and buy his own taxi.
Now a taxi badge costs over 1 mill US, no chance a driver can save enough to buy a badge.
Big companies control the industry, that's not free enterprise, that's capitalism buying it's manors control.
Uber will soon see to that, eh? :DQuote:
Originally Posted by jamescollister
Remember the free range Baltimore kids? Apparently their parents have been convicted of “unsubstantiated neglect” for allowing them to walk home from the park alone.
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2015/03/433.jpg
"Free range" parents found guilty of unsubstantiated neglect - Baltimore Sun
How can you hold someone responsible for anything that’s “unsubstantiated?” Where, other than big gubmint bureaucracies, would that NOT be an oxymoron?
^ I'm curious what you think "big gubment" bureaucracies are, Boon Mee.
Those parents were convicted by Montgomery County, not the US government nor even the state of Maryland. This was a very local case, tried by a jury of their peers. People on the jury must have thought it was dangerous for those kids to be left on their own in that area.
I fail to see how you and your "big gubment" detractors target this for your ire. You seem to want the federal government to leave the states and local governments alone to make their own value judgments, yet cry when they do.
This is just another in a long line of examples where government - whether it's local or Federal are sticking their nose into the daily lives of the People.Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Have you seen where some localities have banned sledding now? Too dangerous!
^ So how far off the lives of the people do you think local authorities should be?
According to you, if the parents decided it was ok to let those kids live out on the front lawn in a box through the winter, it would be "big gubment" to intervene.
The thing is, I don't see anything wrong with "free ranging" kids, but there is something more to this case. That area must be dangerous and the locals know it, not those of us on the outside.
After all, this was in Baltimore.
Here it is...
According to Maryland law, a child under eight years old needs to be supervised by someone 13 or older.
The kids were 6 and 10.
Mom and Pop broke the state law.
Quote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Maryland is too small to have big gummint
Yet again, clueless dribble made up of soundbites . . . big gummint
Look to your own self then. :chitown:Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRockerQuote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Maryland is too small to have big gummint
Yet again, clueless dribble made up of soundbites . . . big gummint
I am big enough to have big gummint . . . and you're still my favourite neo-con! :)
Neo-Con might be too radical for Booners taste.Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRocker
Perhaps A Barry Goldwater Moderate Libertarian might fit his philosophical leanings.
Quote:
Originally Posted by thaimemeNeo-Con might be too radical for Booners taste.Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRocker
Perhaps A Barry Goldwater Moderate Libertarian might fit his philosophical leanings.
Booners won't be happy until you have to serve to earn the right to vote and all his goods and services are supplied by a division of Omni Corp.
Makes life easier as he only has to write on cheque each month.
Has anyone told America that the rest of the world stopped using cheques several decades ago??
The longer I spend away from Australia the more I realize how utterly ridiculous the Nanny state is.
The laws are utterly over the top for trivial things yet the more serious the crime the lighter the sentence handed out.
The system is completely fuked.
I much prefer Thailand's way were everyone is responsible for there own shit.
Nailed it! :DQuote:
Originally Posted by thaimemeNeo-Con might be too radical for Booners taste.Quote:
Originally Posted by OckerRocker
Perhaps A Barry Goldwater Moderate Libertarian might fit his philosophical leanings.
These 'progressives' just won't give up attempting to control every aspect of your life. The EPA releases a $15,000 grant creating device to “modify” guests behavior
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wants hotels to monitor how much time its guests spend in the shower.
The agency is spending $15,000 to create a wireless system that will track how much water a hotel guest uses to get them to “modify their behavior.”
“Hotels consume a significant amount of water in the U.S. and around the world,” an EPA grant to the University of Tulsa reads. “Most hotels do not monitor individual guest water usage and as a result, millions of gallons of potable water are wasted every year by hotel guests.”
EPA Wants to Monitor How Long Hotel Guests Spend in the Shower | Washington Free Beacon
Get that? Modify your behavior. Nice, eh? :kma:
^EPA progressives. Sheesh.
I'm wishing Thailand had a functioning EPA right now. I wouldn't be closed up in my house hiding from noxious pollution.
BoonMee, do you remember the days before the EPA when pollution was just as bad on an average day in American cities as it is here in Chiang Mai now? Maybe worse.
So the EPA gives a grant to a school to come up with a way to monitor water usage in hotels in order to get people to take shorter showers. Whoop-de-do. Must have been a slow news day for Free Beacon.
^^ By the way, the Thai gubment is monitoring your water and electricity usage. Check it out. There is a meter in front of your house. A big bill is the way they get you to "modify your behavior." Get it?
Negative. I have two H2O meters and they are both within the wall and my Arbatur is so dim, he can barely compute the usage each month! LOLQuote:
Originally Posted by misskit
Do feel your pain w/regard to the smoke up there. Each year it seems to get worse for y'all. I grew up in Orange Co., CA and recall there was never a blue sky but catalytic converters came along and bans on backyard trash fires and now, it's pretty clear south of LA.
The EPA is of some use although in recent years, they've become more of a hindrance than a help.
Get a few paper masks from your local hardware store, Misskit. All you can do this time of the year is tough it out or head down to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia which I'm thinking of doing. :)
All is now clear. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Boon Mee