 | Jesus. Do you know if they can do that to citizens outside the States? |
 | Ohhh, I can't wait to tell my libertarian and Bush supporting friend about this. |
 | Inside / outside the US. Do you think that matters to them?
And yes, I think they think that they can do this to "citizens" outside the US. |
 | mivox wrote on Jul 19, '07 How can someone be both a libertarian and a Bush supporter, unless they have absolutely no conception of what libertarianism means?! |
 | hrld wrote on Jul 19, '07 Being a delusional moron should do. But that will probably imply the "having no conception" part... |
| mivox wrote on Jul 19, '07 If Bush and his cronies stick around much longer, there won't be much left for the Dems to demolish.
*shakes head* |
 | I read up on this. The order is only good for a year at least. Congress can override it, and the Sec of the Treasury has to get Defense and State to agree. So it's still fucked, but it's salvageable. As I said Congress can override him. They better.
As a side note. The IRS can do similar things to you for various reasons. |
| mivox wrote on Jul 20, '07 Although, from an environmental standpoint, developing a better nationwide rail system instead of the interstate highways would have enabled us to use mass transport on a nationwide level, rather than tearing around in cars everywhere. I think that probably would have been the better option.
Still would have terribly violated the hardcore principle of libertarianism though.
I'm libertarian on social/moral issues (marriage, sex, abortion, drugs, etc.), but other than that, it's a ridiculously impractical philosophy for a large scale society. |
| mivox wrote on Jul 22, '07 "Until the advent of the car," is exactly my point. The country went car-crazy, and basically stopped development of the rail system. I don't see any reason why trains couldn't be the primary mode of transport between cities, rather than interstate highways. |
| mivox wrote on Jul 23, '07 Well, I meant I don't see any logistical reason. ;-) |
 | I would wager that car ownership could be successfully replaced with inter-city hybrid or electric car rentals and cross-country rail. That's the kind of thing Richard Branson could implement and really make work. |
| I'm trying to think of logistical reasons why it doesn't work (minus the human factor), and so I started looking up the operating budgets of BART, CTA, and MTA. City / System / Ann Budget / Miles of Track and Bus routs Chicago / CTA / 1 bil / 2,495 New York / MTA / 10.3 bil / 5,937 San Fran and bay area / BART / 1.6 bil / 104 Now we consider initial overhead and the reoccurring and incalculable cost for updating technology and conforming to new city codes as we expand this rail system to national levels. To pay for such a thing, there's quite a few options; take from highway budget, shift cost to rider, and find private/corporate sponsorship or investment. Let's say we do all of the above. We should also consider how much can be taken from the highway budget. We can't take it all away because people still live out in the boonies or areas of low population, and they still need roads. Okay, so how much money will we need to maintain a nation wide rail system that networks cities of...lets say 101-500 people/km. Let's also add intermittent stations between the cities of high population density, so those on the way outskirts of the 'bubrs can get to the city. It's easy to guess that this is somewhere in the quadrillion range. You know, if we slash the defense budget in half, this may be doable. As for me, I'd rather use the money towards national health care 'cause actuary 101, it's better for everyone (except health insurance companies) to insure the entire nation as apposed to a specific cross section. |
| ...I'm sorry...things get stuck in my head, and it makes me do things like that above... |
 | heiko wrote on Jul 24, '07, edited on Jul 24, '07 ah, not that much ... it's just about 730USD per head. |
| mivox wrote on Jul 24, '07 I'll take national healthcare instead, that's fine.
After all, Alaska already has a rail system between the major cities, with stops in between. Of course, that only requires one route between Fairbanks and Anchorage. ;-) |
 | I hope this does not hold if you don't have an American bank account... |
| |
How can someone be both a libertarian and a Bush supporter 
