Posted on 07/31/2013 8:51:48 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
DETROIT
In 1860, an uneasy Charles Darwin confided in a letter to a friend: I had no intention to write atheistically but I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars. What appalled him had fascinated entomologist William Kirby (1759-1850): The ichneumon fly inserts an egg in a caterpillar, and the larva hatched from the egg, he said, gnaws the inside of the caterpillar, and though at last it has devoured almost every part of it except the skin and intestines, carefully all this time avoids injuring the vital organs, as if aware that its own existence depends on that of the insect on which it preys!
Government employees unions living parasitically on Detroit have been less aware than ichneumon larvae. About them, and their collaborators in the political class, the question is: What. Were. They. Thinking? Well, how did Bernie Madoff or the Enron executives convince themselves their houses of cards would never collapse?
Here, where cattle could graze in vast swaths of this depopulated city, democracy ratified a double delusion: Magic would rescue the city (consult the Bible, the bit about the multiplication of the loaves and fishes), or Washington would deem Detroit, as it recently did some banks and two of the three Detroit-based automobile companies, too big to fail. But Detroit failed long ago. And not even Washington, whose recklessness is almost limitless, is oblivious to the minefield of moral hazard it would stride into if it rescued this city and, then inevitably, others that are buckling beneath the weight of their cumulative follies. It is axiomatic: When there is no penalty for failure, failures proliferate. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Who didn't see this coming a long time ago? Apparently, these 700,000 remaining Detroiters. And to them I ask, Who is John Galt?
Only the bottom feeders are left.
Government employees unions living parasitically on the United States have been less aware than ichneumon larvae.
This would have been Wisconsin’s fate too, if not for Scott Walker. Government employee unions negotiating obscene contracts with...government employees. What could possibly go wrong?
Democracy is theft?
Why don’t they just create more gummit jobs like Obozo?
Pray for America to Wake Up
updating tagline ...
Those who can, have fled.
I'm afraid that, like the hopeless alcoholic who wakes up in a dumpster one afternoon, covered in his own feces, urine, and vomit, America has to "hit bottom" before it can admit out loud what it has become and begin a road to recovery.
But even then, recovery is far from certain. What, are the moochers, bums, deadbeats, and parasites who comprise the Demcrat party's massive "base" suddenly going to become self-reliant and work for a living? I don't think so.
I practice in the bankruptcy courts, but Chapter 9’s are extremely rare animals. Few have any expertise in them. I am watching this case in wonder, and I have to admit - if it fails, if the case is dismissed because the Governor did not have the power to authorize the filing , or because of a conflict with the MI Constitution which says that public employee retirement packages cannot be reduced (which is pretty much the essential point of a trip through Chapter 9), then what?
all of them...the military and their pensions..the present govt workers....the teachers...the cops and the firemen...the postal workers....those greedy lazy ones who do not deserve SS let alone SSDI and medicare or medicaid....
all takers....all taking from those trying to make a living....
so give it back, its not going to happen...
but since they're precious govt workers, they'll most likely be bailed out by a directive from the jerk in DC....
otherwise, Detroit could just merge with another city, sell off all its assets to pay off the pensions, and of course fire all city employees immediately....
I'm sure the unions don't care as long as their retired get their goods...
Yes, that line pretty well describes most of our gov’t, right now.
Hmmm. Where does it say that in the Constitution?
Obviously the city cannot meet its pension obligations. If there is no court mandated formula then the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation may come into play. They would take over the pension plans as trustee and try to go after the city’s remaining assets. I think.
GF Will is one of those people who just writes so well I don’t even care if I don’t particularly agree with him.
But I agree with him this time.
Well, I guess it comes down to getting blood out of a stone.
Detroit will have to raise taxes. Its remaining inhabitants, those of whom can pay taxes, will up and leave. The People of Michigan will amend their stinkn' Constipation. And the City pensioners will be SOL!
And that's how it should be! Argentina on the Huron! An object lesson on the endpoint of Progress!
Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin
The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx
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