Comments on: Not in Your Backyard?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Aug 2004 03:01:44 +0000

Oh please! “Free market” = money in the pockets of the top 1%! The Republicans talk about how many of the recipients of the tax credit are “small business people”. A television anchor making $250,000 a year who gives speeches for $5,000 each is considered a small business person by the Republican administration. The middle class really is shrinking and they are chipping away at our personal liberties with lightning speed. We get 0%, 1% and 2% raises at work, even though our company is doing great, while upper management gets huge bonuses. I'm glad to see Chris supporting a candidate who believes in our personal liberty! I'm sending every penny I can afford to the Democratic party this year.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 18 Aug 2004 17:17:01 +0000

I know this is more of a tech blog – and not a political ranting post – but I was confused by your message.Isn't this quote, whoever it is attributed to, a dismissal of your man Kerry's beliefs? The quote can be applied beyond the supposed intended meaning of government's role in issues of privacy and free speech. Kerry and liberal Democrats, as a general rule, favor larger government handling more of our affairs. One of his positions is to reinstate taxes that Bush cut so that the government can spend more on social programs. There is a reason that the term Tax-And-Spend Liberals exists: because there is precedent.Conversely, Bush and Republicans push for less taxes to reduce the funding and growth of central government – and privatize more of government's functions. Because they know that when governments let its constituents keep more of their money and make more decisions for themselves – they do it better than a large bureaucracy. And that $ circulates and benefits within the economy. Health Savings Accounts is a good example. Or what Bush wants to do to overhaul S.S. “Hey government, give me the liberty and freedom to manage my future. I will do it better than you will.”
To draw a geek analogy: Democrats and Kerry = Big Biz Publisher that wants complete control of how and where its info is distributed. Rebublican and Bush = w/ RSS let the free market of developers and publishers and consumers of info determine how info is to be distributed.

By: Tim Jarrett

Tim Jarrett — Sat, 14 Aug 2004 23:29:54 +0000

Are you sure that's a Jefferson quote? The only thing I've found that attempts to source it notes that there are no good matches to this quotation among Jefferon's works:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7842/archives/quote031.htm
I've also found the quote attributed to Gerald Ford and Barry Goldwater, both of whom I would believe capable of uttering the phrase “government big enough” long before I would believe Jefferson would. Certainly he wasn't in favor of big government per se, but he never articulated this anywhere else in his writings.
I wonder who first attributed this quotation to him, and why?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 14 Aug 2004 07:01:57 +0000

Jeez. Did you just seen Penn + Teller: BS! ?