Comments on: Spitzer and the army of born-again Leninists

By: Michael Lonie

Michael Lonie — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:49:37 +0000

How can we solve the problem of bureaucrats meddling in our lives? Demand that the government, especially the Federal Government, do much less. If the government wasn’t meddling in places it has no business meddling, like housing, it would not need those petty bureaucrats to do the work of meddling. This reduction of governmental functions would also considerably reduce the amount of corruption in our government.

By: Cristina

Cristina — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:20:28 +0000

Just finished watching the John McLaughlin Show in D.C. the first segment of which was the Spitzer affair. Couldn’t help my glee at seeing the old pompous bulldog’s (no offense to b-dogs!)libidinous/libidinal side come out while discussing whores and legalizing prostitution with 2 women sitting on the panel. Never seen him more engaged.

By: tonto

tonto — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:04:10 +0000

“Term limits. Nobody is allowed to be a bureaucrat (or work for the government at all, save for the military and perhaps the post office) for more than ten years. After that, they have to go out into the real world and do a job that actually produces something.”

I agree with term limits, but I would prefer that they get their real world experience before they are put into office. I slao believe that is how our founding fathers prefered it.

By: William

William — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 15:44:46 +0000

thanks for the invitation mike. If that will further the cause of independence i will come.

By: PersonFromPorlock

PersonFromPorlock — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 14:41:13 +0000

I’ve been saying for decades that Liberalism is Puritanism; different details, but the basic idea that government’s job is to herd the sinners to virtue at bayonet’s point still holds.

By: Kev

Kev — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 06:47:12 +0000

"How exactly do you propose to run things without petty bureaucrats?" Hiring people who aren't petty would be a good start... But seriously, the answer is simple: Term limits. Nobody is allowed to be a bureaucrat (or work for the government at all, save for the military and perhaps the post office) for more than ten years. After that, they have to go out into the real world and do a job that actually produces something. This dovetails nicely with my solution for the public schools, which are spending way too much money on non-teaching positions: Administrators must also remain teachers. This would keep them grounded in the real world and away from the proverbial ivory tower, with less time to figure out what to ban besides Skittles. (And besides, what can someone who hasn't taught for thirty years possibly do to help teachers? That's why administrators should be there in the first place--not to come up with their own agendas, which often have little to do with education.) "The bureaucrats are just trying to do their assigned task, not trying to control your life." Well, maybe it starts out that way, but we've all seen, more often than not, how it ends up.

By: BlogDog

BlogDog — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 01:17:44 +0000

First they came for the Skittles and I didn’t care. Then they came for the KitKats and I still didn’t care. etc etc etc ad nauseam.

By: Discovery Blog

Discovery Blog — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 00:45:05 +0000

How Many “Spitzers” are there in Public Life?

Everyone says that (former) Governor Eliot Spitzer’s flaw was his hypocrisy. I disagree. His most salient flaw was his self-righteous, Javert-like prosecutorial zeal, the ferocious delight he took in putting others in the wrong. And, beyond Victor Hugo…

By: wanderer

wanderer — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:21:09 +0000

Denus Eugenes Sullivan

Moral relativism is the cocaine the left and liberals who have been debilitated by it to the point where they have have become a dangerous mob of dirty, smelly, delusional needle scarred addicts with all their external veins collapsed that are threatening the freedoms of all.

By: srp

srp — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:13:00 +0000

It’s hard to beat Tocqueville on how Democratic Despotism:

” resemble paternal power if, like that, it had for its object to prepare men for manhood; but on the contrary, it seeks only to keep them fixed irrevocably in childhood; it likes citizens to enjoy themselves provided that they think only of enjoying themselves… . It willingly works for their happiness; but it wants to be the unique agent and sole arbiter of that; it provides for their security, foresees and secures their needs, facilitates their pleasures, conducts their principal affairs, directs their industry, regulates their estates, divides their inheritances; can it not take away from them entirely the trouble of thinking and the pain of living? … [This power] extends its arms over society as a whole; it covers its surface with a network of small, complicated, painstaking, uniform rules through which the most original minds and the most vigorous souls cannot clear a way to surpass the crowd; … it does not tyrannize, it hinders, compromises, enervates, extinguishes, dazes, and finally reduces each nation to being nothing more than a herd of timid and industrious animals of which the government is the shepherd. “