View from the Chair – May 2013

by Sue | Oct 2, 2017 | From the Chair

I’m a recovering engineer.  I’m in a 12-step program, I meet regularly with my fellow afflictees, and I seek counsel frequently.  However, despite my most strenuous efforts, these steps are having only limited effect on my disorder and I see very little improvement.

The root of my problem is that I am hopelessly addicted to facts and definitions.  Definitions that do not change over time and at the whim of an increasingly liberal government.   Definitions that are fact-based and not merely a matter of opinion.  This, of course, remains a continuing problem for me as I try to make my way in a world of changing definitions and shifting meanings.

For instance, I have a real problem with the term “undocumented worker” that is increasingly used in place of the more precise – and fact-based term – “illegal alien.”

As a “definition-obsessed” engineer, I define alien as “foreign person” and illegal as “an unlawful act.”  In short, a foreign person who has committed an unlawful act by entering our country illegally.

This is in sharp contrast to an “undocumented worker” which seems to describe someone who has missed some minor step in acquiring some small bit of paper work.

Is this the direction that we are moving in?  Redefining criminal acts to appear less heinous, less morally reprehensible?  Are we soon to redefine bank robber as one who makes an unauthorized withdrawal?  Trespassers and burglars as uninvited guests?  Drug dealers as unlicensed pharmacists?  Robbers as merely overly aggressive panhandlers?   Because if it is, my recovery will take a long, long time.

But maybe this is not the trend.  Because I am starting to hear some voices in the wilderness.   They are still somewhat muted but the voices of the Rand Pauls, the Marco Rubios, the Paul Ryans, the Chris Christies and others are rising above the fray.  I hear the voices of 30 Republican governors…  I hear voices in the House of Representatives…

And many are making sense.  They base their opinions on logic and commonsense instead of feelings and wishes.   More importantly, they are defining problems on the basis of fact and not opinion because they know that a problem cannot be addressed and fixed until it is defined.

And others are starting to listen…and to agree…even some of the leftist liberal media…  Who would have thought?

So maybe, just maybe, my fact-based, logic-directed, definition-afflicted disorder is not an illness after all.  Maybe I am not in recovery.  And shouldn’t be.  Maybe the country is in recovery.

Let us hope…

Dick

View from the Chair – April 2013

by Sue | Oct 2, 2017 | From the Chair

The Arrogance of Ignorance

April 2013

I once knew a drunk who claimed that the only drinking problem that he had was when he couldn’t get another drink.

This is not unlike our esteemed “Spender in Chief” who appears to believe that the only spending problem that we have is when we run out of money to spend.  Or, more accurately stated, when we run out of your money to spend.

This logic – or illogic – is pervasive… it can be seen throughout the government and at every level.  From Obama to Pelosi to Reid and right on down to our own local representatives.  They all seem to truly believe that we really don’t have a spending problem; we just don’t have enough money.

What the heck??  Do these people undergo some sort of fiscal lobotomy upon being elected? An operation that disconnects economic logic from the thought processes?  A medical procedure that somehow removes the “Hey-do-we-really-need-that-and-can-we-really-afford-it” section of the brain?

And the answer is “Probably not.” At least not for most of them… Although I am not real sure about some of our beloved local reps…

No, the trouble is, most elected officials have never run anything in their lives.  Except countless campaigns, of course.  They are not business people…  they have not been required to oversee a budget… they don’t know what a profit and loss statement is… and most importantly, they never have any of their own “skin in the game.”

Fact is, because they work for an outfit that can print its own money, a dollar (or a billion dollars) is like play money and spending it becomes like playing a game of monopoly.  Except that the money they use is extorted from us – the taxpayers.

And after handling huge sums of other people’s money, they become used to it… they feel that they know what they are doing… and their financial ignorance becomes an arrogance… hence the idiotic statements by Obama, Pelosi and others.

So what to do?  Well, maybe we should look at an aspiring politician’s resume before we elect them.  See if they have run anything before we hire them to run our government.  Determine if they have been fiscally prudent in their business before we invite them to stick their nose in our business.  And, most importantly, check to see if they have ever really done anything.

Because if they have not done anything in the past, why would we think they can do anything in the future??

Dick

View from the Chair – March 2013

by Sue | Oct 2, 2017 | From the Chair

Ok, so are we in charge of the government or is the government in charge of us?

“We the People” would like to think that our elected representatives do “we the people’s” work in a manner that “we the people” have so directed.  But so much of our government is merely appointed and not elected by “we the people” and therefore cannot be held accountable by “we the people” and so “we the people” are held hostage by a group of unelected bureaucrats who operate largely beyond our control.

For instance, pen-pushing appointees in the Department of Ecology (DOE) have developed a cumbersome, expensive and immensely complex solution to a completely non-existent “water shortage” problem and are intent on shoving it down our collective throats.  Firstly, there is no water shortage and, if there was, the DOE’s solution does absolutely nothing to increase the supply of water but, rather, does much to further decrease its availability to the residents of our county.  And in so doing, will, in fact, create two classes of landowners… the “water haves” and the “water have nots.”

This ill-advised, unnecessary and totally pointless effort will cause property owned by the “water have nots” to plummet in taxable value and thereby result in dramatic increases in property taxes for everyone else in the county no matter where you live.

Another prime example of an unaccountable and out-of-control government is the ever on-going saga of the Rayonier property.  As we enter the 15th year of a three-year clean-up program, we still have 75 acres of prime waterfront property laying dormant and unproductive while paper shufflers at the Department of Ecology continue to vacillate, procrastinate, fluctuate and contemplate – but never facilitate –  an end to this situation.

These are but two examples of an over-reaching and unrestrained bureaucracy that governs from afar and attempts to micromanage our lives and thereby restrict some of our most basic freedoms.  You want more??  Check out the Shoreline Management Program (SMP), the Combined Sewer Overflow program (CSO), Storm Water Management Manual for Western Washington (SWMMWM) and many other “alphabet” programs that are mandated by Olympia.

So what do we do? How do we push back against these faceless, unelected bureaucrats who invade our county from afar and dictate their agendas?   Short of meeting these modern-day carpetbaggers at the county line with torches and pitchforks, that is.

Well, first off, pay attention to what is happening!!  Educate yourself and then elect people at the grassroots level who will push back against government overreach.  There are 43 various positions that are on the ballot this year.  They range from city council, port commissioners, school boards, etc.  Putting responsible people in these positions will make it possible for Clallam County residents to govern Clallam County without the unwanted assistance from Olympia.

Of course, come to think of it, that pitchfork and torch thing has a certain appeal…  Maybe that should be Plan B.

Dick Pilling ,
County Chair

PREVIOUS COMMENTARIES

by Sue | Oct 2, 2017 | From the Chair

February 2013 View from the Chair: Your Party needs YOU!

January 2013 View from the Chair: Land of Exceptionalism

I don’t know about you, but all this talk about Obama’s health care plan is making me sick.

Let’s get this straight… the whole plan is based on providing health care to an additional 30 million or so recipients which, on the face of it, sounds like a good idea.

However, we are not going to increase the number of healthcare providers which, incidentally, are retiring in droves without significant replacements on the immediate horizon.  Nor will we increase the “waiting time” for services.  And we will definitely not institute a method of prioritizing services whereby certain persons will be “more eligible” than others. (Can you say death panels?) Moreover, to top it off, we will actually decrease the overall cost of healthcare.

Really??  Well, maybe…  But only after we successfully repeal the law of supply and demand…

Let’s face it… the bottom line is that providing healthcare to many more people will, in fact, cost more money.  And if those who are newly added to the healthcare roles cannot or will not pay for these services, someone else will be required to.  And that “someone else” is likely to be you!

You see, there are only three payment options for health care.  One pays for their own healthcare… or one “freeloads” on the system thereby making others pay for their healthcare… or one pays for their own care and that of the “freeloader” as well.

This last option is the one to be chosen for you in the coming year and this is why your healthcare costs are going to skyrocket.  You see, Obama is determined to save you money no matter how much it costs you…

In the past, I have had the opportunity to live in several countries wherein health care is provided without charge to its citizens.  And I have to tell you… if you think your healthcare is expensive now; just wait until it is free…