drjohn on December 31, 2007 at 8:52 AM

Maybe they should just brand their mentality as a new religion: Parasitology.

“Live Free – Live off of Others”

thejackal on December 30, 2007 at 7:28 PM

Oh YeaH!

This will probably take about a year, maybe a bit more.

Lets schedule this for January 21st, 2009. By then we should be ready, and setting a date now will help sort out the necessary timelines to get this done.

…

And yes, I know. No, really, I know. Please don’t pretend I don’t know. :)

Live free or die!

ronsfi on December 30, 2007 at 7:18 PM

Put the bottle down. “Live free or die” is New Hampshire’s motto. Vermont’s is “Don’t Bogart that joint!” And you can’t “pack heat” if you’re nekid unless you use your patootee as a holster.

Jeez!

The people in control of this state are incomprehensibly stupid.

drjohn on December 30, 2007 at 1:00 PM

No argument here.

There are many Vermonters, particularly in the upper northeast and northwest part of the state, that do not deserve this scorn… many of these flatlanders that come into the state, from Massachusetts and Connecticut, destroy the state and give it an undeserved image.

I’m sure there are some, but destroy the state? Good grief, we pay for this state. We keep it alive. we pay for the idiotic school system here.

Much of lower Vermont is indeed liberal and there are quite a few leftist academics, yet Vermont’s conservative image, history, and traditions are alive and well… for those of you that want to see this image, think “Cambridge” and “Highgate” Vermont; holdouts of conservatism in the Green Mountain state…

IntheNet on December 30, 2007 at 9:01 AM

I’ve been in Burlington and Montpelier. I’ve lectured there. You cannot make a Hillary joke. This state has a conservative tradition, but it’s being wrecked by the entitlement mentality.

Bernie Sanders

Jim Jeffords

What else is there to say?

I have watched with bemusement the circle jerks conducted in the name of state business, described above. I have watched with bemusement the misuse of state tax funds expended on completely meaningless and invalid gestures.

I wait with baited breath to see the same elected officials vote to outlaw global warming or the next asteroid strike.

They have Boards of Education for about every town, some with school populations of 4-6 children. (That’s right- 4-6 kids) They maintain these miniscule little schools rather than regionalize, and that means the complete infrastructure for each of the mini-schools- staff, pensions, on and on. And then they wonder why schools are going to bankrupt this state.

And then they tell that young people are leaving the state. Who in their right mind would want to stay? If they don’t grant us property tax payers the right to vote here, this state will fail. I pay about 2-3 times as much in property taxes as most citizens but am not allowed to vote on those issues which affect me financially. That’s the Vermont magic; stick a siphon into your side and drain you without your permission.

The people in control of this state are incomprehensibly stupid.

Helen Thomas: Do you plan to visit Battleboro Vermont to answer the charges that have been levelled against you?

Bush: Helen, I’d be glad to go and let them try to get past my security detail to arrest me. They’ll be the guys in the gray suits fitting people for straitjackets, heh, heh. If the State Police don’t cooperate, I’ll make sure that all the earmarks procured by their senator get plenty of media attention. But, I’ll only show up on the condition that they all promise to wear clothes.

I sympathize, both with you and IntheNet, on the negative consequences of seemingly uncontrolled influx of people with, to be polite, radically different political and social viewpoints. Not to be a professional contrarian, however, one thing I like about living outside Vermont is that you don’t have to endure public scorn for having an American flag on your property. In Vermont, I can’t recall ever seeing an American flag anywhere but the post office and municipal buildings. In NJ, people fly them on their docks, put them at their place of business, etc. There is a large population of immigrants who are truly some of the most patriotic Americans you can meet. They left lousy places and found paradise in our country and are not ashamed to act like they are happy to be here.

When I was living in Vermont, if someone (the “Ma$$holes” as they are called) moved in, Vermonters decried the end of the world. Where I now live, if someone from Greece or Russia moves in down the street, hey, it’s just another day in the great melting pot. In Vermont, they hate their own countrymen.

So, yes, much grief comes from outside your own state. But out-of-staters also help to eradicate the backward provincialism that can easily take root when too many likeminded people spend too much time in too small a place. I can’t comment on NH, but despite their conservative outlook, there are many native Vermonters I would rather not share a cab ride with.

What I should have said was that the BDS mentality, currently rearing its head in Brattleboro is very much evident in the Legislature.

Someone previously mistook my meaning re the “US out of Vermont” comment to reflect the 4 college professors and 2 lawyers who want VT to secede from the union. Yes, the secession movement is puny; but the silly mentality is far more prevalent than a few people in the headlines.

What gets headlines is the radical, the crazy, and the outrageous.

True.

Vermont still boasts the most effective local government: Town Meeting Day, the purest form of democracy available today.

1. Jury is still out on that.
2. Just about any Danziger cartoon accurately shows how silly Town Meeting Day is (i.e., “That G*Ddamned snowplow took out my mailbox again!”)

Further, the traditional Vermont you wish to bury is very much alive

I don’t have anything against “traditional Vermont” because it’s unfair to pick on 43 people.

I urge you to visit Cambridge on opening day of deer season or visit Highgate on Town Meeting day.

Been there. Done that. Not Impressed at all.

These loons that wish Bush or Cheney arrested are fringe elements.

So now the Vermont Legislature is a fringe element?

be part of the traditional Vermont as real Vermonters reclaim the state and boot these loons out!

1. I left because traditional Vermont is no longer in the driver’s seat; it is bound and gagged in the trunk.
2. Boot the loons out? These loons–and I suspect you will agree with me on this–are largely well funded out-of-staters who spent their lives making serious coin and took up residence in Vermont to get away from the congestion of wherever they came from. They are not going to be booted out.
3. Step One in solving the liberal lunacy in Vermont is to stop letting out-of-state college kids vote. That was the beginning of the end. Chittenden County runs Vermont, and the screwhead students at UVM and St. Mike’s College have no business voting!

Let’s back up just a bit. I don’t think you and I are philosophically opposed on any of these points. The line of demarcation between our positions appears, to me, to simply be I see traditional Vermont as a thing of the past and you feel it can be revived. No offense meant.

The whole notion of traditional Vermont is 50 years dead. Now bury it.

thejackal: What gets headlines is the radical, the crazy, and the outrageous. There are still pockets of Vermont that have not been touched by the infusion of flatlanders from down country and it is unfair to taint the entire state with liberalism. Vermont still boasts the most effective local government: Town Meeting Day, the purest form of democracy available today. Further, the traditional Vermont you wish to bury is very much alive yet it rarely gets headlines. I urge you to visit Cambridge on opening day of deer season or visit Highgate on Town Meeting day. Both events rarely get headlines but they characteristically represent conservative democracy in action. The real Vermont rarely gets in the newspaper.

Rather than bury traditional Vermont why not be part of its emphasis? These loons that wish Bush or Cheney arrested are fringe elements; be part of the traditional Vermont as real Vermonters reclaim the state and boot these loons out!

for those of you that want to see this image, think “Cambridge” and “Highgate” Vermont; holdouts of conservatism in the Green Mountain state…

IntheNet on December 30, 2007 at 9:01 AM

Sorry, Net, but I used to live there. When I think of Cambridge, I think of pot-smoking hippies. And when I think of Highgate, I think of people with three teeth and a fondness for their sister.

And all this chatter of Vermont character makes me ill. YES, VT has been overrun by people from outside the state. What of it? Once you have a VT driver’s license, you are a Vermonter. To claim you aren’t a Vermonter because your great-granddaddy didn’t shoot squirrels with Ethan and Ira is ludicrous. The whole notion of traditional Vermont is 50 years dead. Now bury it.

But Vermont was already well on its way to becoming a liberal lovefest thanks to all the immigrants from Massachusetts and New York trying to re-create the state in its own image. I believe my beloved late father said it best when my parents came to VT for a visit: “People are weird here.”

explains Nirenberg, who finds that his sense of outrage and jogging background help him complete 15 miles per day.

Now there’s an unfortunate name. Wot’s he gonna do when he gets done with his trek? What are all these people with BDS going to do when there’s another pres in the White House? We should track a few through this change in their lives and see what becomes of them.