Comments on: Government Regulation and Human Nature

By: Andy

Andy — Mon, 16 May 2005 00:34:12 +0000

Anom, I’m curious when you say:
“The worldâ€™s supply of petroleum was created over tens or hundreds of millions of years. In under 200 years, humanity will have used most of it up…”

Surely as a student of exinct fish, you’re not suggesting that our petroleum age depends on fossil fuels, are you?

Seems to me that Russian scientist have proven beyond a shadow of doubt over 20 years ago that petroleum crude does not come from compressed, decomposing T-Rexes. Something to do with inert materials…

One or the other can’t be right, likewise, both can be wrong. Is this because we simply don’t know, or are we being bamboozled by the neo-naturalists?

Let me see if I got the eco-freaks’ logic untwisted: ‘life is finte, dinosaurs were finite, ∴ the byproduct of dino biomass is finite. Why, on MotherNature’s green earth, can’t we get along with GAIA?

Does the fact that Earth itself is the source of petroleum somehow upset the left’s reality-based orthodoxy? Talk about the plight of Gallieo!!!

By: Evon Bachaus

Evon Bachaus — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:56:51 +0000

La Shawn,

“Government has gotten bigger and greedier. Thanks, George Bush.”

I’m not quite sure how this applies to your main topic on land use. Is it just an excuse to take a drive-by shot at W?

The truth about democracy is that, in addition to the need for people to vote, we need people willing to run for elected office. Since, theologically, I believe that we all are fallen, there is no other possibility than having fallen people running for office. The problem for Republicans is that now that they seem to be in the ascendancy, there will be many people running for office as Republicans as a matter of expediency. The problem can only get worse.

Disputes on land use versus the rights of property owners has a long history. Here in the West you can throw in water rights. There is a book called “The Minutemen” that discusses the problem of a people beginning to learn how to deal with competing self-interests.

I’m not sure about the point, you’re trying to make in this post.

I, personally, am happy that zoning codes forbid a near neighbor from selling to someone who will open up a motorcycle repair shop.

By: Glamchild

Glamchild — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:52:48 +0000

The USA was founded on the principles of property rights and home ownership.

When you go to East Germany and parts of Russia, you see those large-scale tenements and high rise public housing everywhere.

I’ll take a tacky tract home any day, rather than live like that.

By: Chris Roberts

Chris Roberts — Wed, 11 May 2005 00:09:42 +0000

Scuzzy-
That’s the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.

By: SCSIwuzzy

SCSIwuzzy — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:51:30 +0000

Mark,
Things like distributed computing and communications are part of the solution. Companies are starting to see that not everyone needs to be in the same building to work together. More and more companies have either smaller offices spread out, or have remote workers with no office at all. I think this trend will continue. And I see this as another incentive for people to get educated and get modern work skills. They won’t ensure you get a good job, but their lack will ensure you won’t get one.

By: Mark Slater

Mark Slater — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:34:30 +0000

I have no idea why that posted twice. Sorry, Webmistress.

Prepare for your punishment… – Admin

By: Mark Slater

Mark Slater — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:32:46 +0000

Anomalocaris: WRONG! That is WRONG!

Firstly, Immigration has played a major part in the decisions of where people live. Plus, apartments and office space command such exorbitant prices in these places is bacause futher development is all but prohibited, artificially driving up the price of existing housing and commercial spaces. There are those who wish to live stacked on top of one another. I do not.

Still, there is a small facet of truth in what you say. There is a over-dependence of the automobile. The solution is to move away from the situation we have today: that of a colossal mist of atomized individuals commuting hither and thither and a return to real, self-sustaining communites. We need less greater Los Angeleses and more Mayberry.

A move to a Chestertonian distributist society? Well, maybe. When a family owns their own land, they are more inclined to maintain it, including the wildlife. As usual, these “smart-growth” governmental plans only exascerbates that which we hate.

By: SCSIwuzzy

SCSIwuzzy — Tue, 10 May 2005 23:19:32 +0000

ivory-billed woodpecker finds food only in standing dead trees
Send them to DC. There’s plenty of deadwood hanging around the Senate and the House.

By: Jenney

Jenney — Tue, 10 May 2005 20:33:59 +0000

We like Loudoun but we’re weary of the growth, the traffic, the big ugly pretentious houses that are just ordinary tract houses made with fake brick facades. I don’t have an answer but I liked the zoning rules because the sprawl here makes the county feel like San Jose.

And I, for one, liked living near immigrants in CA. It was enriching for my children to be around other cultures and besides, the tacos here suck.

By: Outside The Beltway

Outside The Beltway — Tue, 10 May 2005 20:22:33 +0000

Beltway Traffic Jam

The daily linkfest:

Stephen Green is going to become one of the Pod people.
Terry Oglesby calls for a showdown between Georgias.
Dean Esmay proposes to change the dictionary to conform to his spelling.
LaShawn Barber tackles government regul…

By: Anomalocaris

Anomalocaris — Tue, 10 May 2005 19:30:24 +0000

The recent discovery of living ivory-billed woodpeckers in Arkansas reminds us of the preciousness of all of God’s creation and the importance of preserving wild places forever. The ivory-billed woodpecker finds food only in standing dead trees, and survives only in large wild stands of such trees. We have received a rare second chance to preserve one of God’s great creatures. We won’t get a third chance.

By: Buck

Buck — Tue, 10 May 2005 17:51:57 +0000

Any commute in the Washington DC area would prove that we don’t have a land shortage; merely a people surplus. Sure the land is there, but we do not have the roads and infrastructure for more people in my opinion.

By: actus

actus — Tue, 10 May 2005 17:44:33 +0000

LaShawn: “The shimmering glow of the horizon caught my attention, and I grabbed the camera. ”

Did that shimmering glow make you think of government regulation?

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Tue, 10 May 2005 17:15:39 +0000

“stinkin open space” sorry

By: Dave Jenkins

Dave Jenkins — Tue, 10 May 2005 17:13:17 +0000

Tract housing for everybody….!! 1 house on every three acres or less in Loudoun…we dont need no stikin open space…when my septic system starts to contaminate my neighbors well…well.. we will both sue the County Govt.
LaShawn the pendulum swings wide in my beloved Loudoun. So far there has been no politician elected that is able to lessen the swing in order to reach a reasonable compromise on the land use issues.