Say Anything Blog

I’m not sure I buy your premise, Gene.  Our sea ports are controlled by the federal government.  Everything else you mention (with the exception of education and airport security) is private industry.

We have a vested interest in seeing our government grant management of the ports to companies who can run them the most efficiently.  We save tax dollars when that happens.  And since we’re only granting management rights for unloading/loading, etc. (not security) I really don’t see what the problem is.

Hyperbole indeed. 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I’m a little cranked and probably over the top on this.  Last year the city of Chicago sold it’s Skyway toll road to some foreign investors.  Now the news is they want to sell Midway Airport to some overseas operation.

Are we as a nation competent to run ANYTHING?  

When does it all stop.  Aren’t we eating our seed corn?

Hyperbole, I don’t know.  We’ll see. 

 And, the ports deal opens the door futher.  We are becoming a global colony.

[b]Old Tigers are more dangerous when they believe this could be their last hunt.

From , “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”
Old tigers, sensing the end,
they’re at their most fierce. 
And they go down fighting.

No, we’re joining a global economy...and that’s inevitable.

Maybe the fact that many of our domestic companies can’t stand up to their foreign competitors should tell us a thing or two about tax burdens, regulation and labor unions in this country. 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

I’m not even gonna try here.

Let the Canadians manage health care?  Are you f---ing kidding me??

As a Canadian, let me just point out that we have what is one of the most ineptly-run public health systems, especially when considering the G-8.  The joke is, Every Canadian has the right to stay on a waiting list for public health care, free of charge, until the day they die. 

See this for a pretty standard example.

Brilliant!  We’ll all be rock stars.  Division of labor rules!

Ok, I thought I could stay out of this but I can’t.

• All remaining domestic auto production in American we should sell to the Japanese.
• Any remaining heavy manufacturing, sell to the Chinese.
• Our health care system we should see to the Canadians (they do so much better).
• Our money-losing airlines (outside of Southwest)?  Sell them to the Germans.

This has been the goal of socialists the worldwide since the 1880s.  This is what the One World Government types preach. 

This is Communism at its purest.  By making ourselves dependant on others, we have no control over our future.

I know that people have disagreed with me in the past, but if you don’t concider this thinking to be Communist, than you have deeper issues.

****I hope the original post was meant to be sarcastic.****

DocDave,

There will be changes, given motions by three powerful provinces in the direction of private care, as well as a PM amenable to those things, especially in wake of the Chaoulli decision.  But it’s important to remember that Chaoulli is specific only to Quebec, not Canada.

I’m not saying it’s hopeless.  I’m saying that when our most "groundbreaking" leaders go to places like Sweden and Japan to learn how do to health care, maybe that’s the model to follow (if any) and not the Canadian model.  Don’t knock off those doing knockoffs, that kinda thing.

Free, you apparently didn’t read the whole post:

There is a limit, revealed only by hyperbole, to the whole "someone else can do it better than we can" idea. Some things need to be done here even if we do it badly.

Gene was using hyperbole to make a point.  I believe he is actually on your "side" on this issue. 

Though I’d point out that wanting a free global economy has nothing to do with wanting one government. 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Many American firms operate facilities in other countries, it’s part of having a global economy.

Canadian Health care, though, is about as good as the British National Health Service - incredibly costly, managed by everyone and therefore noone, and a model of how not to run a business. They have more administrators in the NHS than Doctors and Nurses. I was a patient in this ‘system’ for many years before coming to the US, and I can vouch for its utter uselessness.

Gene was using hyperbole to make a point.  I believe he is actually on your "side" on this issue. 

Thanks for clearing that up, I was worried.

Exactly, doc, which is why we really need to make America a business-friendly place.  We need to simplify the tax code and, whever possible, draw back regulations.

We are now competing directly with other countries. 

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.

-- Thomas Jefferson

Rob’s recently listened-to songs:

Of course this is hyperbole and sarcasm.

Particularly as it relates to Canadian Health Care.  Your comments from Canada are very revealing and should be published wider.  I hope you will post on this widely read blog and state a first person view of the mess in Canadian health care.  We in the USA still believe in the Canadian Tooth Fairy. 

My concern is: with unions, taxes, a legal system out of whack, and government regulation we have given up trying to do better.  It’s too hard.

It seems like agencies, governments from national, state and local are throwing up their hands and ceding operational management to others not from here.  We seem like the little kids who try to get Billy to do it because we don’t want to or maybe can’t.  I don’t think this bodes well. 

My hero GWB says education is the answer.  I’m not sure.  I think it’s the problem.  I am not being sarcastic about privatizing all k-12 education with vouchers.  Let’s get the next generation on an even keel with the rest of the world.  We aren’t now. 

Those who read and comment in this blog are articulate thinking people.  You are rare.  Most of the exports of our public education system are hopelessly lost. 

I feel like Ross Perot and Pat Buchanan here.  Let’s take back America but we have to have someone to give it to when we take it back.  Apparently right now they don’t exist.  That is a crime. 

I’m just the whistleblower.

[b]Old Tigers are more dangerous when they believe this could be their last hunt.

From , “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”
Old tigers, sensing the end,
they’re at their most fierce. 
And they go down fighting.

"My hero GWB says education is the answer. I’m not sure. I think it’s the problem. I am not being sarcastic about privatizing all k-12 education with vouchers. Let’s get the next generation on an even keel with the rest of the world. We aren’t now. "

Just try improving education in the US. The elitest academics, administrators, and teachers unions will have none of it - and they are in control. Our education system is not really about teaching math, English, science, and social studies, etc. anymore, it is about job security for those in control of the system and how they can wring every cent out of the tax payers and parents to go into their pockets.

Yes, there are good, even great, teachers, principals, and professors. But they are the exception, not the rule. Look at the mess that used to be Harvard; the inner city schools in LA, Phoenix, and Atlanta; look at Detroit’s declining public school system enrollment…

There are positive counter-examples out there, but they are too few and far-between and essentially meaningless in the bigger picture.

The system won’t allow students to fail due to the perception that predominately students of protected classes fail in disproportionately high rates compared to students of the non-protected classes (asians and whites). So, the entire system is dumbed down adusted in great part to accomodate the political sensibilities of those running the system and who have the say in how the system operates.