"Notes and Quotes"

One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. - Elbert Hubbard

Saturday, February 20, 2010

I think of government like a ball in a pinball machine.

2/20/10
by Chuck Hakes
Can someone please explain this???

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2010-02-17-stimulus-funds_N.htm

I think of government like a ball in a pinball machine. Did you ever watch a ball in a pinball machine? Once launched, the player has very little control of it. The ball goes on its merry way, bumping into things at random, sometimes scoring, sometimes not, and usually not giving the player the score the player hoped for.

The player can choose how much "launch" to give the ball. Some players presume that a hard-launched ball will score more.

The machine has flippers the player can use to try to influence the course of the ball, and sometimes the player is successful doing this and improves the course of the ball and the score of the game.

The player also tries to influence the course the ball takes by giving the machine little bumps and nudges.

  • I think of the ball as the government.
  • I think of the player as the voter.
  • I think of the launch as liberal or conservative. A hard launch means the player hopes the ball bounces off more things.
  • I think of the flippers as our letters to our representatives in government, and other public expressions of opinion.
  • I think of the bumps and nudges as how we try to have some influence on the "ball" via the Internet, and sometimes liberals cry "Tilt!" And sometimes government reacts adversely, which has happened a lot recently.
  • I think that the Tea Parties have given us bigger flippers and a better chance at a new game.

It is so appropriate for comments on government these days to be in comic sans typeface.

Some thoughts on the budget report in the link:

Obama's proposed budget also includes $334 million in cuts to programs that got more than $3 billion in stimulus money. They include:
• A $100 million cut in funding for maintenance and construction in national forests. The Forest Service got $650 million for such projects in the stimulus package, of which $55.6 million has been spent, according to USDA reports. The White House budget says the Forest Service doesn't need as much money because it is building fewer roads.

So -- which came first? The chicken or the egg?

• A $44 million decrease in funding for an Interior Department program to thin trees and brush on federal land to mitigate wildfires. The stimulus provided $15 million for the program. The administration says it is reorganizing the program, which has been less effective than it should be because it didn't focus on preventing the fires most likely to threaten homes.

Remove the funding and it sure as hell won't prevent fires that are most likely to threaten anything.

Chuck

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"Notes and Quotes" Archive

  • **“Nothing can destroy a government more quickly than its failure to observe its own laws, or worse, its disregard of the charter of its own existence.” – Justice Tom C. Clark (1899-1977) US Attorney General, 1945-1949
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  • **"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in the time of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality." Dante
  • **“When anyone gets something for nothing, someone else gets nothing for something.” -Anonymous
  • ** "My desire to be well-informed is currently at odds with my desire to remain sane" Author unknown
  • ** “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” — Peter F. Drucker
  • ** “If getting employer benefits without paying union dues is BAD, why is getting government benefits without paying taxes GOOD?”
  • ** “It's not that ‘the rich’ aren't paying their ‘fair share,’ it's that America isn't. A majority of the electorate has voted itself a size of government it's not willing to pay for.” - Mark Steyn
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  • ** An ideal Federal government in our country wouldn't take much from you, do much for you, or get in your way . --John Hawkins
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