phd economics

Is this absolutely Nuckin Futs or what?
http://financialsurvivalnetwork.com...oregon-for-collecting-rain-water-in-his-pond/ This is a prime example of bureaucracy gone MAD...

 

masalai,

do not jump to conclusions so quickly. it is likely not a matter of catching rainwater, no law against that, but he likely took a bulldozer and highly altered the terrain to create the "ponds", which highly altered the natural drainage patterns of his neighborhood, and likely created a big hazard with an unpermitted earthen dam.

I do not know the details of this particular case, but in my own state similar claims have been made and it turns out the person was simply a scoff law, ignored the regulations and created a hazard on his property. Most of the laws regarding this kind of activity is directly related to safety and environmental protection. I am often involved with permitting this kind of activity, and all of the laws have good reasons for being in place. It is extremely rare they ever jail anyone for code violations, most all jurisdictions work toward correction of any hazard rather than punishment. they will put someone in jail who ignores the law, and ignores the code enforcement officer, and they created for themselves a bigger problem by ignoring the summons.

Many of the regulations are very budensome and many do not apply to each particular circomstance, but the way the law works is you have to dmeonstrate by anaysis, reports and engineered design that you will not create a hazard nor harm any local critical habitat. ONce that is done than you can alter the terrain on your property all you want, including storing water in your own man-made pond. Again I do not know the details in this case, but I have see this kind thing before vastly misrepresented by ignorant media types.

So if you had your house and property down stream of this guy, and he built an earthen dam from old stumps, turf, top soil, rocks, dirt and left over concrete rubble, and it was holding back 50,000 gallons of water, would you feel perfectly safe?

There was one such family that all drown in their own house, husband, wife and both children, when someone up stream had done improper grading during a particular wet winter locally here on Vasion island a number of years back. their whole house was buried in mud in the middle of the night. they never even had a fighting chance.

Many regulations are stupid and pointless, but there are reasons that most of them are in place. What that particular guy did may or may not have been okay, but because of the potential hazard it is required to obtain permits BEFORE you build it. You ignore the local building department at your peril.

 

Hi Petros,
No assertion or suggestion of same were suggested or could be assumed from the video presentation... The case seemed to be read out, and the bystanders aware of the detail of the presentation before the magistrate and applauded many points mentioned... On the face of it if he had bulldozed a dam it would have been mentioned in the case or a different charge would have been read... It seemed to me that the "Authorities" had sold the water rights willy-nilly and were covering their own asses because of litigation and failure to deliver to the purchaser downstream... I feel confident that a case over an illegally bulldozed dam would have attracted a jury trial and more significant recourse like filling in the dam to start... not a mere 30 days in a low security jail...

What can you dig up from local sources in the town where the court case was held? - I am still curious and interested in something more on the background...

 

who cares?

You're always complaining about a lack of money-how about educating yourself to make more instead of worrying about some guy with a pond on the other side of the world.

Foolishness

 

So why read it, and even deign continue to waste your time to comment?

 

There's a huge difference between your concern about someone's pond,and my trying to help others have a better life.
It's not so much about you,but the thousands of anonymous lurkers.

Anyways,have a nice weekend researching that pond,I am off with 2 young women on my boat.

 

This is what I get when I poke the pond story link...

Hmmm. I wonder if that will be a jinx on my search for a couple young women to go boating with.
.

 

a quick search found this from a local news source:

"Harrington, who lives in Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for the right to collect rain water since 2002. Now a decade later, he has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1,500 for the man-made ponds he has built on his 170 acres of land. For filling “three illegal reservoirs” on his property with runoff water, Harrington has been convicted on nine misdemeanor charges in Circuit Court.
According to authorities, Harrington broke the law by collecting natural rain water and snow runoff, that landed on his property. Harrington said he stores the water mainly for fire protection.
According to officials with the Medford Water Commission, the water on Harrington's property, whether it came from the sky or not, is considered a tributary of the nearby Crowfoot Creek. Thus it is subject to a 1925 law, giving Medford Water Commission full ownership and rights to the water.
Due to this, prosecutors were able to argue in court that the three man-made boating and fishing ponds on Harrington's property have violated the law."

Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/article/329723#ixzz23Bs61uby


So it appears he did not get permits for his "ponds" (reservoirs), and the law has been in place since 1925. So there is nothing new here, just another case of unpermitted drainage alternations and grading. Had he got permits first, or even after he was tagged, this would not have happened at all.

Altering drainage patterns in a place that gets a lot of rain can create a very big hazard for everyone down stream. That is why permits are required, it is routine to have to get a permit to create a pond on your property because of the potentical hazard. In my own state there is even a state agency that will assist you with the design and permitting process since it is generally seen as beneficial to habitat and property owners to have more water storage. So building storage ponds are generally encouraged, but they have to be done properly so they are safe.

That guy is a public nuisance and deserves to go to jail for being a scoff-law. It would have been far easier for him, and likely much less costly, if he just got the permits ahead of time. I have no sympathy.

 

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan". All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
It could not be any simpler than that.

These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

 

Snowman good post,but to go more:

-the other half still does work,just that it ends up going into trusts and offshore,or into the underground economy. Simple as that.

 

best thing I ever seen you post Frosty.

I always point out that for Socialism to a accepted you have to institutionalize envy, and that it results in all the worst possible behavior in a population; rewards laziness, punishes achievement, builds on envy and selfishness, turns the government into a thief and a snoop since there will be no privacy from the government.

Essentially it depends on taking money from those that earned it honestly and legally, and giving it to those that do not. It is theft under the color of authority.

 

Well, you ought to get out more. Copy the first line and google it and you can see the same word for word ******** story on 17,900 other sites.

Here's another cut and paste...

Bush and his neocons are nibbing away at our freedoms like pirahna in slow motion. We don't even notice as the flesh is being stripped off the bones of our constitutional rights because it doesn't affect us immediately or directly, but nonetheless the Bush administration has embarked on a relentless crawl towards fascism right under our noses. Consider the 14 signs carefully.

1. Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism. From the prominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regime itself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism. It was usually coupled with a suspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia.

2. Disdain for the importance of human rights. The regimes themselves viewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing the objectives of the ruling elite. Through clever use of propaganda, the population was brought to accept these human rights abuses by marginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted. When abuse was egregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation.

3. Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause. The most significant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice—relentless propaganda and disinformation—were usually effective. Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” acts against the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and “terrorists.” Active opponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists and dealt with accordingly.

4. The supremacy of the military/avid militarism. Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructure that supported it. A disproportionate share of national resources was allocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute. The military was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite.

5. Rampant sexism. Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens. They were adamantly anti-abortion and also homophobic. These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses.

6. A controlled mass media. Under some of the regimes, the mass media were under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line. Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy. Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite. The result was usually success in keeping the general public unaware of the regimes’ excesses.

7. Obsession with national security. Inevitably, a national security apparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite. It was usually an instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond any constraints. Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting “national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed as unpatriotic or even treasonous.
-=Urot=-
8. Religion and ruling elite tied together. Unlike communist regimes, the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents. In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves as militant defenders of that religion. The fact that the ruling elite’s behavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug. Propaganda kept up the illusion that the ruling elites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.” A perception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion.

9. Power of corporations protected. Although the personal life of ordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of large corporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised. The ruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensure military production (in developed states), but also as an additional means of social control. Members of the economic elite were often pampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality of interests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens.

10. Power of labor suppressed or eliminated. Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushed or made powerless. The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice.

11. Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes. Intellectual and academic freedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal. Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliable faculty harassed or eliminated. Unorthodox ideas or expressions of dissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed. To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had no right to exist.

12. Obsession with crime and punishment. Most of these regimes maintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prison populations. The police were often glorified and had almost unchecked power, leading to rampant abuse. “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used against political opponents of the regime. Fear, and hatred, of criminals or “traitors” was often promoted among the population as an excuse for more police power.

13. Rampant cronyism and corruption. Those in business circles and close to the power elite often used their position to enrich themselves. This corruption worked both ways; the power elite would receive financial gifts and property from the economic elite, who in turn would gain the benefit of government favoritism. Members of the power elite were in a position to obtain vast wealth from other sources as well: for example, by stealing national resources. With the national security apparatus under control and the media muzzled, this corruption was largely unconstrained and not well understood by the general population.

14. Fraudulent elections. Elections in the form of plebiscites or public opinion polls were usually bogus. When actual elections with candidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result. Common methods included maintaining control of the election machinery, intimidating and disenfranchising opposition voters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a last resort, turning to a judiciary beholden to the power eli

 

That's a lot of free publicity for a Thai college!

 

Well SamSam, if you beleive that list of propagada you posted, there is no point in further discussion since you must live in a alternate reality.

the Bush administration is long gone, get over it.

 

Cheney and bush might have left the room, but the odor lingers.

I'm not sure there's much to discuss when the best thing you've seen is an almost 20 year old urban legend periodically dredged up with a change of names to suit the poster's politics.

Maybe you could tell us more about the "Obama's Plan" and "Obama's socialism" referenced in this version of the email chain letter?