I don’t believe in public libraries. Go ahead, close them.
BUT… don’t make believe that substitutes for cutting real government fat.
As I’ve traveled of late, I’ve had numerous different cities and region newspapers placed at my hotel doorstep. Most front pages have had articles about “draconian”, or “huge”, or “dramatic” cuts local and state governments face and how hard “critical” services have to be hit.
What has been missing from ALL of these articles was any documentation as to the budgets of these governments. That would have been useful so we, the reader, and potentially we the CITIZEN, could determine just how much bullshit the politicians were feeding us in this thinly disguised press release cum “news” article. We would likely learn that there was lots of fat to cut before hitting police, fire, and libraries. Just ask Bell, California….
Our “press” has really let us down in recent years. Decades of turning out uninterested compliant liberals has made the newspaper a tool of, rather than a defense against, the state.
We will, we already do, regret the loss.
August 15th, 2010 at 3:18 pm
You want a healthy and independent press while you withdraw from subscribing? If the citizenry doesn’t support independent media, the news will be brought to you by private commercial interests, Who pays the printer writes the news – just what a private sector government seeks.
August 16th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
We have lots of things that some people don’t like. They remain because some people like them and demand that their elected representatives protect them. Until we have an omniscient and omnipotent God (not just priests claiming to speak for a god) who tells us what we can and cannot do, we will continue to choose our government actions by representative politics with all its flaws. We don’t know any better way to do it.
For whatever you want to happen, you have to round up enough fellow voters to press the elected representatives to act your way. Good luck in the intense competition for voters’ ears.
August 18th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
I get my news, now from places I trust, mostly. And they make money from me, as it should be. I’ve seen your newspaper stack… you might as well throw Pravda in to improve the quality.
I find your blather about our political system tiring. It clearly isn’t working. I don’t see why you defend it.
We had a better way to do it, sans 16th amendment. We should return to that, and we probably will, but from caves.