In outback, Betsy gets her bona fides My take: I've actually been up Rainier Hill plenty of times and driven Apiary Road quite a few times. Nice back road and a good way to get to Portland via Vernonia and Banks if you're not in a hurry. I took Highway 30 home today from Portland and just north of St. Helens where the four-lane highway becomes a two-lane highway, an Oregon State Trooper came racing by me, lights flashing. A few miles later, I saw why: The minivan's driver no doubt found herself suddenly coming up too fast on a car stopped to turn left, hit the brakes hard and took a good solid high-speed skid into the guardrail, bouncing off it to come to rest on the shoulder a few dozen yards down Highway 30. Fortunately, it didn't look like anyone was seriously hurt, although someone's in the market for a new set of family wheels now. Maybe the trooper that went blowing by me was the same one mentioned in the column. It very well could have been, because the ranks of the Oregon State Police are stretched pretty thin, especially in rural areas. The OSP is expected to handle a whole host of other duties besides traffic control, and it's astounding how few officers there are to cover some pretty big country. That geography only stretches out even more when you consider the poverty in some places and the meth problem that's hitting rural areas hard. My point is this: We bitch about taxes, especially with April 15 just past, but the same people who holler the loudest about paying for it always seem to be the first to dial 9-1-1. And people don't always make the connection. Here across the river in Cowlitz County, people are complaining about the cost of a new jail, right after they get done complaining about the cops having to release people they arrest because there's no room in the current jail space. Columbia County is having a property levy dedicated to hiring extra deputies in May's Oregon primary election. Going to be interesting to see if it passes or not.
People are dumb. Collectively speaking, I mean. I'm not sure why this is such a difficult concept, but taxes pay for services like police, fire, road maintenence, etc. The fact that people subbornly refuse to acknowledge this fact... well, I'm not sure what other conclusion to draw other than "dumb". Of course, nobody likes to pay taxes (imagine all the useless consumer crap I could buy!). Ideally, government services would be inexpensive and 100% efficient, keeping our tax burden at an absolute minimum. Even then, people would be complaining about paying too much in tax. I'll avoid calling it "human nature", because I think humans naturally see the value in community. I think the biggest issue is that it's a cultural extension of the Boston Tea Party to be anti-tax in America, and our concept of what makes up a community is rapidly shrinking to include only our immediate families (witness the conservative response to Hillary's "It Takes A Village" - there is a reason it's an old African proverb).
well of course we don't want to pay for someone else's way.. but then we don't to pay for ours either.
People are all for services. Politicos like to say "we have to cut <insert vital service here> in order to save." People hate the waste and redundant crap we either don't need, want, support, ie: the pork. The sad thing is that government is and always will be inefficient on all levels. The private sector has the obligation to do things in a cost effective manner...unless they get a govt project and the govt foots the bill. What makes people "dumb" in my opinion is that their pork is OK because it helps them. I would also like to introduce the idea that certain departments need to continue to use/spend money budgeted to them in order to continue to get the same level (or more) of funding in following budgets. Man, my wife could do some real damage if she worked for the govt. I have the bills to prove it.
Doesn't sound like Senator J. ever 'exited the vehicle', but she's still got a good story to tell! The trooper should keep this press clipping to show IA the next time he gets called in for writing some big whig's kid a speeding ticket!