Stephann
Posts: 4214
Joined: 12/27/2006 From: Portland, OR Status: offline
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Seriously, I'm all for individual rights. Yet, I'm one of those tree hugging assholes who believe that global warming isn't just a fairy tale made up by people who have nothing better to do with government science grants (have you ever actually tried to get one of those things?) I use a simplified analogy. If I lived in the Los Angeles in 1750, I probably could have bought a square mile downtown, and tossed my trash out the back door every day. Skip to 2008; generations of my family tossing garbage out the back door would have created a mountain of trash, pollutants, lead, oil, you name it. My family simply doesn't have the 'right' to put my neighbors at risk the way they did, by using our own back yard as a toxic waste dump. At some point, the government needs to protect my neighbors, by instituting regulations and rules on how I am permitted to dispose of my garbage. I don't believe anyone has the 'right' to 60 degree air conditioning when it's 110 outside. Part love living in a crowded civilized means making certain personal sacrifices so that the whole of the group can thrive. If there's only 10 homes in a 10 square mile radius, obviously you don't need the same kind of regulations as, say, 5000 homes. Is that communism? No. But any approach that ignores the responsibilities that come with co-habitation is doomed to become a city planning nightmare. Perhaps this is where an old redneck approach actually has some meaning: "If you don't like it, you can get the hell out." Stephan
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Nosce Te Ipsum "The blade itself incites to violence" - Homer Men: Find a Woman here
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