Feather

[jac]

Ah… I see what you ment now Geoff:D.. yes Ireland is West of here.. Its funny but I was talking to a friend of mine and he reminded me of your Declaration of Independance and how you have the right to say what you want ???. I try and stay out of politics but they dont half make me mad sometimes.. What is RH ?…
John

[jwayne972]

Rural Heritage, I think.

[jac]

Rural Heritage managed to upset Uncle Sam !?!?! Wow … now im impressed :cool:……
John

[Scott G]

@near horse 19615 wrote:

Careful about stirring things up – Uncle Joe over on RH closed down a thread regarding conservative “commentator” Glenn Beck …. you can imagine where it went!

Hey Geoff,

I was contemplating jumping in on that one but didn’t have enough facts/background to back up my statements other than my own personal opinion. The reason I don’t have the background is due to the fact I can’t stand listening to the guy, or most of them for that matter. When pundits start to rant all well reasoned discussion goes out the window.

I think you handled yourself extremely well and did an outstanding job of researching your responses. Frankly, I would have lost patience (and probably composure) way before that…

I believe Joe was patient and was right to shut it down when he did; not long ago he would have shut it down immediately.

What worries me is how extremely polarized this nation is right now. We could really use (IMO) some well reasoned middle ground right now. Not sure of the solution for that one…

I think severely restricting for-profit corporate lobbying would be a great start. A good dose of reality & education for the masses wouldn’t hurt as well…

BTW, I’m unaffiliated (independent) and have completely become disenchanted with both major parties. I vote every major election and the candidate(s) I vote for are the ones IMO, and after a bit of research, that are the best ones for the job, and have the greatest potential to keep their party at bay. If anything, I lean slightly Libertarian with the major exception that my belief for a severely limited government is that the focus and funding should be for social issues and infrastructure. Taking for-profit major corporate influence down about 100 notches wouldn’t be a bad thing either…

I am a firm believer in the process and that everyone should vote. Unfortunately ignorant ranting (often by those who don’t vote) and corporate influence have almost completely hijacked the whole system…

[Joshua Kingsley]

I personally find it interesting that we have not had an Agriculturally tied president since Jimmy Carter. It was in the Constitution that the president was supposed to own their own business and be a FARMER lets see if that ever happens again.

Joshua

[OldKat]

@jac 19610 wrote:

Hey Scott… Apparantly the saying “go west” became popular in WW1. The Western front generaly ran North/South with the allies facing East. Injured troops went West.. Earlier uses were refering to the hangmans jibot at Tyburn which in the 1700s was west of London.. so a prisoner was “going West” to his death.. The “heading South” that you guys use is becomming popular over here too.. I can only imagine it may have started when the war between the states was on and the northerners perhaps used it to imply that “South” was a less than nice place ??? or mabey its simply because South to us is down.. who knows… I dont want to start an international incident here:D…
John

I always wondered about “things going south”, too, and happened to see this question answered on The History Channel recently. It DID start in the US Civil War. When the war started a large percentage of the military happened to be soldiers and officers from southern states; Virginia and the Carolinas in particular. Initially it was assumed that these people would remain in the union army, but as the conflict amped up more and more of them elected to resign and join the confederate army instead. Some did remain in the union army, but this fact is seldom brought up. Of those that left the term used was so and so “went South” i.e. they had joined the confederate forces. That alone was probably viewed as an undesirable thing in the union controlled areas of the country, probably more so after the war and the south had been defeated. Those that “went South” had been proven to have made a poor choice. Funny thing is you hear people in the south use that term, too.

An interesting note was that Robert E. Lee happened to be stationed on the Texas border with Mexico just before this time period. Upon his return to Washington D.C. he was offered command of the union forces, not sure if it was ALL of the union forces or not. However, shortly after that Virginia seceeded from the union and he went with Virginia; he went South. Strange twist of fate.

[near horse]

@Scott G 19630 wrote:

Hey Geoff,

I was contemplating jumping in on that one but didn’t have enough facts/background to back up my statements other than my own personal opinion. The reason I don’t have the background is due to the fact I can’t stand listening to the guy, or most of them for that matter. When pundits start to rant all well reasoned discussion goes out the window.

I think you handled yourself extremely well and did an outstanding job of researching your responses. Frankly, I would have lost patience (and probably composure) way before that…

I believe Joe was patient and was right to shut it down when he did; not long ago he would have shut it down immediately.

What worries me is how extremely polarized this nation is right now. We could really use (IMO) some well reasoned middle ground right now. Not sure of the solution for that one…

I think severely restricting for-profit corporate lobbying would be a great start. A good dose of reality & education for the masses wouldn’t hurt as well…

BTW, I’m unaffiliated (independent) and have completely become disenchanted with both major parties. I vote every major election and the candidate(s) I vote for are the ones IMO, and after a bit of research, that are the best ones for the job, and have the greatest potential to keep their party at bay. If anything, I lean slightly Libertarian with the major exception that my belief for a severely limited government is that the focus and funding should be for social issues and infrastructure. Taking for-profit major corporate influence down about 100 notches wouldn’t be a bad thing either…

I am a firm believer in the process and that everyone should vote. Unfortunately ignorant ranting (often by those who don’t vote) and corporate influence have almost completely hijacked the whole system…

Thanks for your comment, Scott! While I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, I felt like a pretty small voice on RH in that debate.

The corporate power in our gov is out of control and was made even stronger when the supreme court ruled that corporations are afforded the right of “free speech” under the Constitution – they are considered individuals. Wow.

To bring it closer to home, I’m heading down to deliver some petitions to the Idaho Transportation Department regarding permitting giant loads of oil processing equipment to travel a scenic byway along a world-class fishery …. The best part – ITD used federal stimulus money to make upgrades to the highway to accommodate ExxonMobil Canada’s overlegal loads. If you want to see these things, check out http://www.fightinggoliath.org
And you, as a US citizen (US hwy 12), can comment to ITD at their website. http://www.itd.gov (I think) (closes tomorrow). Gotta run!!

[OldKat]

@near horse 19698 wrote:

Thanks for your comment, Scott! While I don’t expect everyone to agree with me, I felt like a pretty small voice on RH in that debate.

The corporate power in our gov is out of control and was made even stronger when the supreme court ruled that corporations are afforded the right of “free speech” under the Constitution – they are considered individuals. Wow.

To bring it closer to home, I’m heading down to deliver some petitions to the Idaho Transportation Department regarding permitting giant loads of oil processing equipment to travel a scenic byway along a world-class fishery …. The best part – ITD used federal stimulus money to make upgrades to the highway to accommodate ExxonMobil Canada’s overlegal loads. If you want to see these things, check out http://www.fightinggoliath.org
And you, as a US citizen (US hwy 12), can comment to ITD at their website. http://www.itd.gov (I think) (closes tomorrow). Gotta run!!

Hey Geoff. I agree with you; corporate interests do have too much say in our government. Just curious what your take is on union involvement in the political process; specifically the AFL-CIO and the SEIU?

[near horse]

@OldKat 19705 wrote:

Hey Geoff. I agree with you; corporate interests do have too much say in our government. Just curious what your take is on union involvement in the political process; specifically the AFL-CIO and the SEIU?

I’d like to see paid/hired lobbyists banned – regardless of who they represent. Wipe the slate clean and start over. It’s like the lobbying cold war – who’s gonna blink first?! They both need to cease and desist. The union(s) did serve a needed purpose but morphed into these monsters with high paid leaderships and political aims. Too bad. They did some goood stuff for the poor working stiffs back in the day. I worked for a non-union shop that paid profit-sharing to keep the union out – when they thought the shareholders weren’t making enough $$$, closed the plant (I was gone by then) and everyone was laid off. Even my neighbor who started with this company (Steelcase) when they were a fledgling compny with a handful of employees – cold. No recourse for anyone. Who is SEIU? That was thrown up on RH and I don’t recognize that acronym.

[OldKat]

@near horse 19708 wrote:

I’d like to see paid/hired lobbyists banned – regardless of who they represent. Wipe the slate clean and start over. It’s like the lobbying cold war – who’s gonna blink first?! They both need to cease and desist. The union(s) did serve a needed purpose but morphed into these monsters with high paid leaderships and political aims. Too bad. They did some goood stuff for the poor working stiffs back in the day. I worked for a non-union shop that paid profit-sharing to keep the union out – when they thought the shareholders weren’t making enough $$$, closed the plant (I was gone by then) and everyone was laid off. Even my neighbor who started with this company (Steelcase) when they were a fledgling compny with a handful of employees – cold. No recourse for anyone. Who is SEIU? That was thrown up on RH and I don’t recognize that acronym.

I’m with you again. Big money over rides everything else regardless of whether it is right or wrong. SEIU stands for Service Employees International Union; an openly socialist organization. Strong former and current ties to the current administration. Very strong. Most people that have a visceral reaction to corporate lobbying don’t seem to have a problem at all with unions doing the exact same thing. That is amazing to me.

[Author]

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