and balance the monitor to show off pictures of my grandkids.
LOL! Get a LAPTOP now, Grampa!
Posted on 06/05/2002 12:10:14 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Institutions – established law, custom and practices – matter and should not be ignored. How is it that Western Europe and the United States managed to amass unprecedented wealth while countries of the former Soviet Union, China, Africa, South America and the Middle East haven't?
The answer has little to do with the people of those countries. After all, people who migrate to Western Europe or the United States often wind up doing quite well.
The reason why the West has been able to amass great wealth is that rule of law is embedded in Western values. Where there's rule of law, human initiative flourishes. Rule of law refers to freedom of contract and enforcement of contracts, protection of private property, stability of laws, a requirement that all persons, private individuals and government officials are subject to the same laws and, most importantly, limitation of the authority of government.
For more than a half-century, various elements of the rule of law have been under ruthless attack in America. Private property means the person deemed as the owner makes decisions on its uses, and that applies to the most valuable property we own – ourselves. Sanctions are taken against persons who use their property in ways that violate the property rights of others. However, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bans an owner from using part of his property because some animal has chosen it for a habitat, that's a private-property-rights violation, resulting in losses to the owner.
Government attacks on private property have become routine in today's America. John Adams warned, "The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence."
Freedom of contract has come to be viewed with contempt. Suppose you offer to pay me for $3 an hour and I agree; suppose I live in Virginia and want to purchase liquor in Washington, D.C.; suppose in rent-controlled New York and San Francisco a landlord and tenant mutually agree to pay a higher rent; suppose I'm a California navel orange grower who wants to sell his entire crop; and suppose you want to provide taxi services in New York but don't have $170,000 for a license. There are literally thousands of restrictions like these on freedom of contract.
You might say, "Williams, there are good reasons for restricting the freedoms of others." You're right, and every tyrant who has ever existed has had what he considered a good reason.
Another part of rule of law is simply the stability of laws. For most of our nation's history, people could make plans. For the most part, they could expect today's laws to be tomorrow's laws; hence, they could plan for the future. Today, that's not true. A businessman making investment decisions doesn't know what Congress is going to do a year or two down the line making today's investment decisions worthless. As such, it produces the quick-buck mentality – get in and get out.
Another increasingly prevalent violation of the rule of law is seen in companies using government to overturn lost competitive advantages in the market. The Microsoft case is an example where its competitors, not customers, employed the heavy hand of government to accomplish what they couldn't accomplish in the market. It's increasingly paying companies to invest more resources, currying favor with government officials rather than investing those resources in real productivity.
We're such a rich nation that the immediate effects of attacks on rule of law aren't readily apparent. But enough pinpricks, even into an elephant, will eventually kill.
If anyone wants to donate a new and powerful laptop to a kindly old Grampa to show off the pictures of his Grand Children, please step right up.
Well, if we're going to get honest, call it "Progressive Metastasizing Cannibalistic Socialism".
I like your style.
And there's always another adjective one can add...'flesh-eating', for instance. lol
That can get to be a serious addiction. Farm pond bluegill on a 4-5 wt rod w/2lb leader and little popping bugs is about the most fun you can have with your clothes on!
We have Putah Creek which is a stream that flows out of Lake Berryessa and 6 lb + native rainbows are not that unusual. I had one break off my reel seat from that 4 weight Sage. No more light gear there. Nothing under a 6 or seven weight rod for me.
I hurt my shoulder last May and now use a Sage 13'6" 7 wt Traditional Spey rod on Putah Creek as I can't cast ver far for long with a single handed rod with the bad shoulder. I get a lot of funny looks and remarks when I walk up with that close to 14' rod. Then, when I hook and release a couple of those biggies that even great casters can't get to with a single handed rod. The hecklers start pleading about what kind of rod is that? If they really whine, I say "No Habla English!"
The government has been expanding which is the opposite direction of what it should be doing. Shrinking by becoming more effective and efficient at doing its legitimate job of protecting individual rights and private property rights against war, terrorism, crime and fraud. Right to the point of being virtually out of sight out of mind. Yet open to any citizen that wants to inspect it closer.
Larger type is easier on my old eyes.
Maybe the down page button would be good when you see Q's name. Someone one another thread said holding the down page button down makes my colors a pretty kalidescope sort of effect. You might want to try it.
Conventions have never to rarely been exceedingly popular with me. Some net conventions seem to be in that ballpark with me, too.
It's amazing the things we choose to be offended by.
Out here in N. Kali and Oregon, with some really big, strong and fast trout or steelhead, most automatics would becomed fused after one or two runs or have parts and pieces on your reel seat and in the river at your feet. A twenty inch red side trout on the Deschutes in Oregon can be past 50 to 100 yards of your backing before you can yell fish on. The basic Orvis Battenkill is at a loss with these hot fish.
When you are fishing for steelhead which are so fast and powerful, if you get you fingers into the handle as it is spinning around during a run. You could get fractures on your finger tips if they get in the way of the spinning handles as the line shoots out.
As I get more into the big trout and the powerful fish, I use the Gunnison reels, Lamsons, Loop and the new BattenKill Large Arbor reels. With the come back of salmon from late summer throughout the winter, you can be fishing for trout or steelhead and end up with a 30+# King salmon here or in Oregon last fall a hot 10 to 12 pound Coho/Silver. These fish will destroy any rod below a 7 weight and any basic reel. Many guides now will not let you fish with less than a 10-wt fly rod if you are after salmon and steelhead in late summer or early fall.
A good friend bought my Orvis, 4 piece five weight with the Orvis BK 5/6. He didn't listen to me and went on the lower Sac in October. He hooked into probably a 35# fresh king. It broke off half of the last rod section, took off and burnt up the reel and broke the last knot on a hundred yards of backing on a 90 foot line. In about 40 seconds, he lost about $500 of gear. His friends had to help him to shore, and he shook for about 10 minutes. He is lucky that the line didn't get around his fingers, hand, wrist or some other part of his body.
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