Dr. Sowell:

Let me start by saying that I am an admirer and devotee of yours. I would like someday to put a statue of you in my front yard to inspire my children and neighbors. But I find myself having to correct your grammar for a simple mistake that I would never have imagined you capable. The term is "SAFE deposit box," not "safety deposit box". Please forgive my impertinence in pointing that out.

-- Stuart

Stuart (Austin, TX),

I too am an admirer of Dr. Sowell and he was not mistaken in his grammar. According to Webster's New World College Dictionary either use is correct.

Ah, Dr. Sowell, right on again! "Destroying a neighborhood is more than destroying the physical structures there. Valuable personal, professional and business relationships, built up over a period of years, are also destroyed when the people are scattered to the winds."

A classic example is Richmond, California. Years ago the "iron triangle" and downtown area were picture perfect examples of the traditional middle class American small town lifestyle. Then the local political elite decided that "redevelopment" was called for and all the property in that area was acquired under the rules of eminent domain. The Richmond of today is the result. 'Nuff said.

Excellent post and excellent point! Here's what came to mind while reading your post:

Guard dogs need a certain amount of food to serve & protect the family. It seems logical that, as the family grows and prospers, more protection is needed - and so we have allowed the dogs to breed unchecked. Now the pack has grown so large, ravenous and wild that the dogs longer obey their masters – rather, they live only to feed.

No work can be done efficiently when two people are required to fight back the feral beasts, so that one can accomplish a day's labor.

The farmland is fertile, but the fields are sparse. Livestock not slaughtered have been chased through the fence to raise their young in safer pastures where the beasts are not as ravenous. Oxen tied to the plow are easy prey, so the spring planting has been forsaken. Survival of the family depends entirely on food from the few rugged, determined volunteer plants that have pushed up through the untended and weed-filled soil, where fields of abundance once grew...

As the pack size and appetite increased, it found the children to be easy prey – that future generation that is out of sight and without protection (to our shame).

The solutions of current leadership are this:

(1) they have drastically INCREASED the size of the pack…

(2) they are processing the old and the sick people to become food for the pack as well…

...the dogs are running the kennel.

….

A dog or two will earn their keep. A pack produces nothing, but destroys everything that breaths.

The spirit of liberty, is the

spirit which is not too sure

that it right.---B. Learned Hand

(1872-1961)

The biggest abuse of eminent domain occurs when the property owner doesn't wish to sell, and the government condemns the property in order to steal it for a much lower price than would be paid even under eminent domain.

time to shoot(vote to retired and fire) most of them, 30% reduction of governmental employees, 30% reduction of electeds pay and benefits, including staff and all other costs....lets see how serious they are about reducing costs...or how serious we are about taking the garbage out for good....by the way, no retirement for them....and they can start figuring out the way they will repay us for all the damage done to us.

There can be no greater greed than is found in governmental materialism. To quote myself.

I am in total accord, sir, suggesting only this one item as an addition.

An excellent form of alternative energy:

The complete distillation and combustion of all lawyers and politicians, at standard temperature and pressure as sustained by their incandescent stupidity, until the supply of both has been exhausted.

After which life can naturally continue as normal.

As any new lawyers or politicians happen to spring up in their place, they can be sent to the furnaces as well, before they introduce their characteristic problems, to keep the air and water clean and fresh.

The costs of all other forms of energy will then fall to their appropriate levels.

As to the misuse of imminent domain for the purposes of theft;

"It is appalling to see how few politicians are hanged".

G.K. Chesterton. (1923)

Correction - Eminent domain

Most people don't know it, but insurance claim checks that are never cashed are turned over to the state. This amounts to many millions of dollars each year that could be credited back to the policies and would then result in lower premiums for the public. But no, somehow the states feel it should go to them..I'm sure that there are a lot of other similar low-key, devious ways that funds are confiscated from the public.

On the Mount, Jesus said, Blessed are the 'confused', [Aramaic] for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

That is because He knew that virtually all the greatest pain and suffering throughout history was perpetrated by those who were absolutely certain of what they were doing - and that all others must conform.

This is the core of the problem of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid troika and Friends. They aren't the only ones like this, just the most obvious.

The liberal/Socialist left has so much contempt for the capabilities of individuals to build a successful life for themselves that they 'know' they must do it for them, . . . and take away more of the freedom of all in the process.

Those like them, who believe government is the solution to all social problems would fight a forest fire with flame throwers. They simply don't know what they don't know this ignorance is drowning the nation in debt and strangling it in regulation.

Unless it is specifically stated in the Constitution, the federal government must be kept out! We have 50 states for a reason, one of which is to prevent tyranny by an omnipotent national government.

Have you had enough of them yet?