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Grex > Agora56 > #144: A sampling of junk mail to Republican friends | |
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| Author |
Message |
| 22 new of 42 responses total. |
keesan
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response 21 of 42:
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Mar 3 03:50 UTC 2006 |
The city sends me tax bills and I am happy they are making it possible for
people to travel without cars, which is to my benefit because it should mean
less pollution (though in our case it probably means more because there are
stinky buses running around all day with 5-6 passengers in them and 2 cars
would pollute less). I don't have to live in this community and receive
property tax bills, it is voluntary. What I really object to is having to
pay for all the road paving and maintenance, which causes more cars to pollute
and make noise and generally get in the way, but I understand that is a
requirement of living in this town, even though it is a big waste of money.
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nharmon
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response 22 of 42:
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Mar 3 04:30 UTC 2006 |
I don't see roads as a waste, because they are necessary to our
transportation infastructure. Without roads, food would get from the
train yards and airport to your grocer's freezer.
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keesan
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response 23 of 42:
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Mar 3 04:38 UTC 2006 |
Food could be transported by rail to the stores, and people could take trams
to buy it.
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marcvh
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response 24 of 42:
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Mar 3 05:26 UTC 2006 |
The trams still need a public right-of-way, which amounts to a road.
Besides, you wouldn't want to own a piece of property with no road
access. Even if you personally never use a motor vehicle, you would
occasionally need a road so that moving trucks and furniture delivery
and utility maintenance and garbage trucks could get there. But I
guess that if you're willing to live without electricity, water, sewer
(no septic tank either, you need a road in order to access the
equipment required to install one), gas, garbage pick-up, and pretty
much every other modern convenience then it's worth a shot.
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mcnally
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response 25 of 42:
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Mar 3 06:21 UTC 2006 |
> Besides, you wouldn't want to own a piece of property with no road
> access. Even if you personally never use a motor vehicle, you would
> occasionally need a road so that moving trucks and furniture delivery
> and utility maintenance and garbage trucks could get there.
Oh, I don't know, it's not that bad (but then I have access to my house
via a public stairway and footpath and the road isn't all that far away.
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nharmon
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response 26 of 42:
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Mar 3 13:08 UTC 2006 |
> Food could be transported by rail to the stores[...]
How do you get the food from the rail yard to the stores? I think you
underestimate the importance of commercial trucking.
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bru
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response 27 of 42:
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Mar 3 14:17 UTC 2006 |
Food could be transported by rail to the stores, and people could take trams
to buy it.
That is how it used to work up until the age of automobiles, and it could
still work if all cars suddenly no longer worked. But it would require that
stores either run rails to their location, or move to where the rails are
located.
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keesan
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response 28 of 42:
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Mar 3 14:33 UTC 2006 |
Railed transport is still much more common in Europe and other parts of the
world. Where my friend lived in a Budapest suburb, most of the local streets
were unpaved sand and had almost no traffic. You would walk a few blocks to
the nearest paved road and take a bus to the tram station. The stores were
along the avenue where the tram ran. Same thing when I was growing up in
Boston, on a street where there was a total of two driveways and no garages
and the houses were a few feet apart from each other. It was a very nice
place to live. We were a few houses from the main avenue and met all our
neighbors while out shopping. If you bought a lot of groceries you put them
in a box and got them delivered. We took the tram partway into downtown then
switched to a subway. When I was about 5 or 10 they replaced the trams with
stinky buses.
You don't need 40' of paved surface for a garbage truck. You don't even need
garbage trucks to come to every house, they could collect from our wheeled
carts if people wheeled them all to a main street that was paved. No
incentive to steal the carts since everyone already has the same one.
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nharmon
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response 29 of 42:
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Mar 3 15:41 UTC 2006 |
> If you bought a lot of groceries you put them in a box and got them
> delivered.
How would the groceries be delivered?
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johnnie
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response 30 of 42:
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Mar 3 15:49 UTC 2006 |
By four-wheeler (no need for roads there).
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nharmon
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response 31 of 42:
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Mar 3 15:52 UTC 2006 |
hehe
Seriously, mass transportation is great and everything, but it is not a
replacement for roads. That is just silly.
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tod
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response 32 of 42:
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Mar 3 16:42 UTC 2006 |
It is nice when an ambulance can get to you in less than 5 hours.
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gull
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response 33 of 42:
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Mar 4 00:54 UTC 2006 |
Re resp:6: The ones that really bug me are the calls from the Fraternal
Order of Police. I usually just hang up like I do for every other
telemarketer, but I always have this nagging fear that this may be
singling me out for a traffic ticket or something in the future.
Re resp:20: What about when a government asks you to pay for a missile
defense boondoggle that will never benefit anyone except defense
contractors?
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tod
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response 34 of 42:
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Mar 4 01:16 UTC 2006 |
I've said "Put me on your no call list, please" *click* enough times that we
never get the nagging calls anymore unless its a bill collector or loanshark.
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granger
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response 35 of 42:
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Mar 4 01:20 UTC 2006 |
I was never required to attend a religious service while I was in the
military.
Have you considered just throwing out stuff you dont want?
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keesan
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response 36 of 42:
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Mar 4 01:42 UTC 2006 |
I object to the massive waste of paper and try to stop it from being
generated.
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johnnie
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response 37 of 42:
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Mar 4 01:52 UTC 2006 |
>The ones that really bug me are the calls from the Fraternal
>Order of Police.
Many times scam artists or pseudo-charities will use a police-like name
("Police Officers Benefit Association") that has no actual connection to
any police organization anywhere. Ditto for firemen, vets, and other
sympathetic groups. Another ploy is to use a name similar to a legit
organization (Cancer Society of America instead of the American Cancer
Society, for instance). It can be fun to quiz them to clarify exactly
who they represent (if anyone).
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keesan
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response 38 of 42:
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Mar 4 01:55 UTC 2006 |
If anyone phones and asks for money, I tell them I make it a rule never to
give money to anyone who phones and asks for it and they can mail me. They
never do. I also ask them not to phone again. They don't. We have not
received such a phone call for a few years now. I made one exception once
when someone phoned asking for donations for a respiratory machine because
a government program had been terminated and the recipient needed it badly,
and they would send me a prepaid envelope and receipt. They sounded really
embarrassed to be doing this (for a friend). I sent $25 without waiting for
an envelope. My cousin died on a respirator.
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nharmon
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response 39 of 42:
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Mar 4 02:19 UTC 2006 |
The Fraternal Order of Police are the worst. When I first bought my
house, I made the mistake of telling them I would donate $10 if they
sent me some information that I could use in determining if they were a
good charity. They sent me a SASE with a letter saying thanks for the
pledge, but remember my donation is not tax deductible.
Now I get calls every 6 months from them; "Mr. Harmon, we still have not
received your pledge for $10".
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johnnie
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response 40 of 42:
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Mar 4 16:26 UTC 2006 |
"Oh, I'm sorry--I've been so swamped. I'll make it up to you by
pledging $1000. Would that be okay?"
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tod
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response 41 of 42:
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Mar 4 17:25 UTC 2006 |
re #39
The last time they called me, I was living in West Seattle. They called me
at 7:30pm on a weeknight and interrupted Family Feud. I was pissed.
"Mr Plesco, would you like to help save a life this year and donate $35?"
"No, put me on your no call list. Thanks"
"So, you don't want to save a life?"
"You're a smug smart ass and I bet I could knock your teeth out in one punch."
"Have a good evening. Thank you, Mr.Plesco" *click*
I used to humor those folks and lie to them for fun just to run up their phone
bills by saying I'm 13 years old and there are no adults living at this
residence, blah blah..but I lost my patience for scheisters.
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happyboy
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response 42 of 42:
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Mar 6 08:38 UTC 2006 |
hahah!
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