Reply #99: Welcome! [View All]

Sounds like a version of one of my favorite sayings: "Much blessed? Much obligated."

We have to start reworking and rephrasing the whole concept of "socialized" this-and-that. "Socialized" is a dirty word, as the bad guys have worked so hard to do to the word "liberal" also. The point made earlier here about how - well - roads are socialized. Food inspections are socialized. Garbage collection is socialized. What's it to ya? It's undertaken by the government for the common good, just the same as are the FEMA and Homeland Security operations in which the feds step in when local or state government is overwhelmed (like the California fires and the Minneapolis bridge collapse) or the crisis crosses state lines (like Katrina). You want out? Fine. Then load up your Escalade and take your own trash to the landfill every week.

Speaking of the California fires, the San Diego area - Rancho Bernardo, Rancho Santa Margarita, et al, are very affluent areas. Tending to vote republi-CON. Their congresspeople, brian bilbray, duncan hunter, darrel issa, showed their smug-ass, phony, manipulative, shortsighted mugs around the fire area. I wonder how many of those among the affluent who lost their homes will now scream for federal aid programs to help bail them out? They'll think it's just fine then.

But that's what the federal government is for - to handle the things the little guy, the local institutions, and local/regional government can't. We HAVE to start pointing to specifics.