[geeks] power (was Mr. Bill)

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 17 Sep 2008, Bill Bradford wrote:

> 2.  Whiny people who dont want to give up 12' of their land so that
> there's places to bury the cables.

A 12'-wide strip of frontage is quite a lot of land.

> 2a.  People who whine louder when eminent domain or right-of-way is
> used.

Eminent domain is theft, pure and simple.  I don't care if it's for "the
common good".  I don't care if it's legal[0].  I don't care what benefit it
offers.  When someone's proposition is to take land that I've purchased as
the fruits of my labor, by force, at gunpoint, and I don't get any say-so
in my compensation, that's armed robbery.

I don't believe in using force against other people to get something that
benefits me, and I submit that anyone who does is an inherently violent
person.

> and so forth.  Yes, I'm grumpy.  I'm wearing plaid shorts and a navy
> blue tshirt, flagrantly violating company dress code because I have no
> way to run my washer/dryer.

How grumpy would you be if land you'd worked to maintain for several
decades suddenly became the property of someone else because some words on
a sheet of paper (laws) written by people you've never met allegedly give
the authority to a group of armed robbers to take it in the name of their
mob bosses?  I don't know about you, but that made me pretty fucking
grumpy the last time it happened to someone in my family.


[0] "Legal" should not be confused with "good", "honest", "right", or
     "wholesome".
-- 
Jonathan Patschke | "There is more to life than increasing its speed."
Elgin, TX         |                                   --Mahatma Gandhi
USA               |