Thursday, November 8, 2007

ON THE SOAPBOX

* Well we didn’t exactly vote the bastards out, but from what I have heard the G.R.I.P. (Get Rid of Incumbent Politicians) “movement” here in New Jersey (see my post on “Get a G.R.I.P") did make some progress. Apparently the opposition candidates in many races received more votes than expected based on past experience.

And, for the first time in 17 years, we voted down two Public Questions!

I do not feel that the defeat of the Stem Cell question was a vote against stem cell research per se, although it was probably a small factor. I certainly support such research. It was instead a vote against unnecessary state borrowing. I do believe that part of the money raised would be used to unnecessarily build a state research facility, which would increase the opportunity for government corruption and graft that always accompanies state-sponsored construction in New Jersey.

To be more effective in future elections the GRIP movement needs to be formally organized so that it can aggressively campaign to vote out the bastards.

* While everyone enjoys getting a check from the government, the Homestead Rebate program is not the way to deal with ever-increasing property taxes. The money to fund the rebate must come from somewhere – and the only place it can come from is NJ taxpayers.
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To give you a check for, say, $1,500 to put in one pocket the State increases the sales tax by 1% and adds a multitude of nickel and dime taxes and fees to take $1,500 out of the other pocket. And your property taxes continue to rise.

* Why must the answer to balancing the budget, or subsidizing tax reform and targeted tax breaks, always be raising taxes and fees and never reducing unnecessary government spending?

NJ, for example, still faces a budget crisis. But I can assure you that of all the various options that the Governor and the legislature will be considering, cutting expenses will not be on the list. Because the DFBs (clean version is Damned Fool Bureaucrats) in Trenton, and probably Washington as well, don’t want to give up any pork.

All the more reason to support a GRIP movement and vote the bastards out.

*Pardon my rant, but can anyone please explain to me the entertainment value, education value, or any kind of “socially redeeming” value of any kind there is to watching a pompous Brit verbally abuse and humiliate restaurant owners and employees?

Why would anyone with the slightest level of intelligence watch this excrement?

And why would any restaurant owner in his right mind allow this piece of crap to be filmed in his/her establishment?

I am speaking about the Fox television show known as “Kitchen Nightmares”. I have, obviously, never watched this garbage, but I have been subjected to ads for the show and have seen clips on E!’s “The Soup”.

As H.L. Mencken so correctly observed, “Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public."

TTFN

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