Day: May 1, 2006

Dear Editor Hudzinski, Ocean County Observer,

May I call your attention to a few facts of life about speed limits?

(1) Let’s examine the motivations.

Let’s discuss speed limits. We had the 55 limit in the Carter years and it was a joke. You noted that doing the speed limit on the Garden State Parkway is a good way to get run over. The road is probably engineered for 100. Laws by government don’t change behavior. At best, they are suggestions; at worst, they are just taxes in disguise. So what could be Governor Corzine’s motivation? Increased revenue can’t be ruled out. But, perhaps more likely, the conceit that he knows what is best for all the sheep people.

(2) Let people be free!

People “know” that slower speeds save gas. But, time is money as well. People have a complex calculation that factor in the cost of gasoline, the value of their time, and a slew of other factors. Everyone’s values are differently. The results of those individual calculations are “perfect” decisions for them. When the government comes in and imposes its values and its solutions, it upsets those “ecology” that has served them over time. It takes awhile but they will find their own level again.

(3) Laws don’t do anything!

Since the current set of laws aren’t obeyed, what makes one think that a new set will be complied with better?

(4) If it’s about saving gas … …

How about making it a law that we will have random road stops to test tire pressure? That will save more gas then a speed limit. Most cars tires are under inflated.

(5) If it’s about saving gas … …

How about the state’s own cars? I see them speeding all the time.
And, what happens when the marketplace “fixes” the high price of gas, will those speed limits be raised? Right!

How about a counter proposal?

Let’s eliminate ALL taxes on gas and oil products!

My rationale is not only does it make gas more affordable, BUT, it also takes it out of every product or service that we buy. The bottom line is that the State will have to go on a severe fiscal diet. Governor Corzine’s Wall Street experience will serve us well if he reduces State Government in half.

They say that the State provides needed services. I’d say that it provides those services at the end of a gun. It the services are so needed, then people will voluntarily pay for them. If they don’t get voluntary support, then I guess they are NOT so needed.

It’s also said that democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner by majority vote. State services paid for by theft by taxes is the same thing. The voters deciding what services that the taxpayers will fund.

Liberty works better than government!

F. Reinke
A bennie in
Seaside Heights NJ

http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/COLUMNISTS13/604300317/1062/NEWS01

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Orderly racks of highly polished, formidable-looking guns are everywhere; guns made by various manufacturers (all the familiar names), guns of various calibers, guns of various vintages.

"To me, they represent the history of a country that emerged from nothing to what we are today," says Viden, whose two sons, Bob and Wayne, are partners in the business. His daughter, Wendy Copenhaver, is the company's bookkeeper.

"We're not a world power because of guns, but because of the freedom of having guns," Viden adds.

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The virtue of self-reliance is lost. Have a problem run to Mommy Government. Someone hurts your feelings ask Father State to pass a law. Caught in a natural disaster; don't worry, stick it to your fellow taxpayers.

We need to resurect the American spirit, the American energy, and the American values and ideals.

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=12071

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He cites taped evidence showing that flight attendants from Flight 11 were in communication with American Airlines ground control "minutes after the hijacking began," and notes that American's management was more concerned with "keeping things secret" than with alerting other airlines, or even their own pilots, to possible further dangers. Had they done so, Ridgeway says, "There is a real likelihood people at least could have evacuated the second tower."

Meanwhile, he continues, Flight 93, which was at that time still "sitting on the Newark airport tarmac," might well have avoided its subsequent hijacking. The 9/11 Commission report found "no evidence…that American Airlines ever sent any cockpit warnings to its aircraft on 9/11," while only the relative "mutiny" of a United Airlines dispatcher, acting against the order to maintain silence, gave Flight 93's pilot a too-late warning about his own plane's possible jeopardy. – ST

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Interesting question. You would think that with the FAA "in control" someone would have passed along the information. At the very least, a smart pilot could have kept control,of his aircraft.

It also begs the question. Why are there doors to the cockpit? You'd think that that would be sealed off.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/edmonds/property-salvation.html

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In a free society with all property being privately owned, the problems would have been reduced or entirely prevented.

I'll begin with Katrina: No one can stop a hurricane, nor affect its strength. Remember, though, that the hurricane did ordinary catastrophic damage to Louisiana and Mississippi. It was the existence of "public property" that resulted in subsequent flooding and bungled relief efforts that harmed the greatest number of people the most. If property were private, there wouldn't have been government levees to fail. Either that section of New Orleans wouldn't have been settled, or private levees would have been in place and been maintained far better than the government ones.

A likely scenario for private ownership of the levees would have seen their ownership in the hands of investors, and their upkeep paid for by insurers. Insurers would then charge homeowners in the levee-protected areas enough to cover the cost of maintenance. As it was, since government money paid for maintenance, it was possible for that money to be diverted — as it was, in this case, by the Bush administration, toward the war on Iraq. Then, in the aftermath, government employees turned away private trucks loaded with relief aid. The State continues to squander money earmarked for relief efforts, such as with the non-flood-zone approved house trailers rotting in the mud in Texas and Arkansas. Private insurance companies, who have to compete with each other to retain customers, do better than this.

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There is no doubt that the private free market leads to peace and well-being. Only the gummamint with it's use of force, its unique ability to force "services" upon us, and its inherent unappologetic inability to deliver on its promises is given a free pass on criticism.

Its police ride around in cars that say "protect and serve" but the courts say there is no such obligation.

Its theft is legitimized by "informal ammendments" to the restrictive Constitution.

It just ingores the rules it itself promulgates.

Any other entity that had such a track record would be delt with swiftly and severely. Yet we think gummamint is different.