Reply
Sat 21 Nov, 2009 05:00 pm
Subject: The menace of the Public Option
Saturday, September 19, 2009 (SF Chronicle) M.C. Blakeman
“Of all the current assaults on our noble republic, perhaps none is more dangerous than the public option - specifically, the public library option.
For far too long, this menace has undermined the very foundations of our economy. While companies like Amazon and Barnes & Noble struggle
valiantly each day to sell books, these communistic cabals known as libraries undercut the hard work of good corporate citizens by letting people read their books for free. How is the private sector supposed to compete with free?
And just what does this public option give us? People can spend hours and hours in these dens of socialism without having to buy so much as a cappuccino. Furthermore, not only can anyone read books for free in the library, they can take them home, too.
They get a simple card that can be used at any library in town. No checking on the previous condition of books they've read. No literacy test. Nothing. Yet, do these libertines of literature let you choose any book you want, anytime you want it? No. Have you ever tried to get the latest best-seller at a public library? They put you on a waiting list for that, my friend. And if you do ask these government apparatchiks a question about a book, they start talking your ear off, and pretty soon they're telling you what to read.
Of course, if you break one of their petty rules and return a book late, you have to pay fines that mount grotesquely each day. Even if you die, your overdue fees keep piling up. Is that not a death tax? How long must the elderly live in fear of burdening their children with these unfair sanctions on their estates?
Don't be fooled for a minute. Somebody has to pay for these "free" libraries, and I'll tell you who it is, pal. Those good ol' suckers, the American taxpayers, that's who.
Have you ever wondered who's really behind this public library option? And don't you think it's fishy that they mask their nefarious activities with benign-sounding names, like Friends of the Library? What's their real agenda - and why do they have so many "volunteer" meetings, anyway?”
I'd add garden clubs to your list of menacing public options
Garden club members give plants away for free! how can a plant nursey compete. The open garden scheme is just a ruse to convert the unsuspecting.
Be warned!
@dadpad,
and public sewerage. Companies like Aqua America and Severn Trent can operate sewage plants and here are these damn munciplaities trying to make every poop, public.
@Merry Andrew,
Obviously, merry, you are not as good looking as me. I always hand books back late, never get a fine, have a personal accomplice/staff hurry me along when i go book searching, and get ushered out the door very quickly.
What does worry me is there is talk in Oz of having to pay high water rates. Just before Federation, in 1901, a report was published to say we have enough water for 20 million people. Totally by coincidence (????) we reached 20 million and ran out of water. Perhaps our forefathers knew more than this pack of drongos we have now. Of course all the utilities are being switched to the private sector, and things can only get worse.
@Merry Andrew,
Goodness! I'd never realised the insidious nature of this menace!
@dlowan,
Right word, Deb. It
is insidious. What next? Free schooling for our poor children? Oh, wait a min. . .
@Merry Andrew,
Where can I get some creeping socialism anyway ? I have the perfect spot in the garden for a creeper, if it lives well with rampant capitalism. Does it need manure ?
@Merry Andrew,
Thats an indoor plant, right ? I thought it was a creeper...
@Ionus,
Ionus wrote:
Where can I get some creeping socialism anyway ? I have the perfect spot in the garden for a creeper, if it lives well with rampant capitalism. Does it need manure ?
It generates its own manure, Ionus.