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Boone County Fiscal Court Insults America’s POWs

On December 20^th, the Boone County Fiscal Court voted to purchase 81 acres of property along Gun Powder Creek.
Why does government keep buying up private property? The court’s reasoning is an insult to every American POW.

Read the Story here:

http://politics.tomwurtz.com/archives/1178#more-1178

http://politics.tomwurtz.com/

Hooked on Money

Boone County Addicted

to the "Greenways" Boondoggle

James Duvall, M. A.

Big Bone, Kentucky

"It is liberating to refuse money —
ask me how I know."

There are people who are addicted to drugs. They will give almost any excuse to get one more fix, and some of them are extreme, but of all the arguments put forth I have never heard of anyone using the excuse "If I don’t take this cocaine someone else will!" But that is exactly how our officials in Boone County argue to support their money addiction to the Federal money pipeline. I suggest that if another Kentucky county takes the dough that is their problem; as for us, we should do our part in breaking the cycle of addiction. Even one step away from dependence on Federal dollars, be it ever so small, is a step in the right direction.

If someone suggests that a kick in the leg might be the just reward for voting to increase Federal spending right now, they should have the courage of their convictions, and vote NO. For myself, I think that a good kick from the rear, aimed a bit higher, might do more good.

Speaking of Federal funding, a few hundred thousand dollars, more or less, is not the real issue — though it adds up fast enough — the Fed can print all the dollars it wants to, for now — the real issue is Control. Government ownership of property means government control, whether this be at the Federal, State, or Local level. This is not a new idea. Quintin Hogg, a member of the British Parliament, wrote in The Case for Conservatism (Penguin, 1947), p. 97: "private property — including some large fortunes — is the natural bulwark of liberty because it ensures that economic power is not entirely in the hands of the State." This is being slowly eroded, and insult is added to injury when we are forced to pay for this erosion with our own tax money.

The issue now is about more than control — it is about self-control: "Everybody is doing it!" is not a good excuse for a teenager, much less people in positions of trust and responsibility. The Boone County court had here a perfect chance to make a decisive statement that would give our county some real credibility when it comes time to take about taxes and spending, both here in Kentucky, and to the rest of the nation. It is liberating to refuse to take money — ask me how I know. There is no tax money "given away" by our Federal government that has no strings attached.

I had hoped that we could be leaders in what must soon become a sweeping movement of demanding fiscal restraint and responsibility, if our government, and probably with it, our way of life, is not to collapse under the weight of debt incurred for what are essentially trivialities. Nothing can save us from our own greed and stupidity. We must have the courage to break the cycle of money dependence, and the only time to do that is now. Instead of trying to beat other areas of the state and nation to the dollar trough, why don’t we show them the alternative.

Our county needed to send a message that was much more important that hoarding a few more acres of land among its growing holdings, and increasing its economic clout at private expense. It is true that our county would have lost about $235,000 in Federal matching highway funds — tax money — but it would show that money is not always more important than words and actions.

It would also have sent a strong clear message to the electorate that the county is not trying to revive the Greenways Plan. One of our Commissioners remarked: "This has trails and Greenways written all over it." And so it does. Yet he still voted for it. There were many other indications, both overt, and subtle, brought up at the discussion in court that the county Administration has every intention of implementing this plan that the voters overwhelmingly rejected. I think this is going to have huge political consequences at the next election.

Is it possible to cure an addict? Yes it is, and it is not as difficult as people think. Theodore Dalrymple, pseudonymn for a British doctor, author of Romancing Opiates (Encounter, 2006), tells us that breaking an addiction is not as difficult as people have been led to believe. He wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal, that bastion of GOP conservatism, in which he points out that of course the addicts have "histronic displays of suffering", provoked by the presence of anyone who can prescribe a substitute for them; but you won’t hear this from addicts and therapists, who have a vested interest in promoting the orthodox view. Remember the Chinese opium dens which involved millions of Chinese? Where did they all go? According to this article: "And in China, millions of Chinese addicts gave up with only minimal help: Mao Tse-Tung's credible offer to shoot them if they did not. There is thus no question that Mao was the greatest drug-addiction therapist in history." ("Poppycock" WSJ, 25 May 2006, p. A-14.) Of course the Journal article has been attacked by the therapists, but what does that prove?

We are going to be told over and over that breaking the money cycle is impossible, impractical, and just plain nonsense. However, the fact remains that everything the government spends it takes from someone else, that is, it was private property. The control over public funds can only be properly controlled where they originate, at the local level. Franklin Roosevelt once said: "If we can boondoggle our way out of the Depression, that word is going to be enshrined in the hearts of American people for years to come." Have you ever noticed how often that word comes up? The truth is, we never really got out of the so-called Depression, we just continued to cover up the problem with government spending for wars and social programs. We are now addicted to boondoggles. And of course Boone County has shown it is still in on the big government Boondoggle; but let me warn you, we ain’t going to boondoggle our way out of this one; now we’ve got to pay for it.

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University: A Think Tank, Research Institute, & Public Policy CenterNec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.Big Bone, Kentucky
24 Dec 2011.

Note. For a copy of the article "Poppycock" see: http://www.manhattaninstitute.org/html/_wsj-poppycock.htm

Political Fantasy and Revival of the Greenways Plan

Some Interesting Boone County Twists

A Piecemeal Greenways Plan Part of Agenda 21

at the Local Level in Kentucky

James Duvall, M. A.

Big Bone, Kentucky

2011

I received a communication recently about the notorious United Nations Agenda 21 which has as its objective the "depopulation" of earth. Included was this statement: "Agenda 21 calls for . . . .  open space that will eliminate the use of cars; development of public transportation and high-speed, light rail trains; etc."  I instantly thought of the following comment by Professor Harvey Cox of Harvard University, who was well aware of the potential of what could happen when the "establishment" controls the social agenda:

"Political fantasy goes beyond the mere political imagination.  It is not content to dream up interesting twists within the existing societal patterns.  It envisions new forms of societal existence and it operates without first asking whether they are 'possible'.  . . . the powers that be must never be allowed to hold the mortgage of the house of political fantasy."
Harvey Cox.  The Feast of Fools.  (Cambridge:  Harvard University Press, 1969), p. 82-83.

I believe that the Federal Government is trying to control political fantasy in the United States, not to mention the rest of the world, and that there has been a concerted effort, as documented by the Schiller Institute, and others, to control the world population though the food supply, from at least the time Henry Kissinger was Secretary of State.  The other name for "depopulation" (especially when you are talking about starving the so-called surplus population) is, of course, genocide.  Food is not the only way to control populations.  A political elite at the U. N. has decided that there are too many people on earth, which is accepted as the common wisdom, but is very far from being the truth.  The elitists, or rather fascists, who are promoting this agenda do so out of their superior knowledge, and are pushing what is essentially a secular religious program.  (For more details see in particular:  Jonah Goldberg, Liberal Fascism:  The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning.  New York:  Doubleday, 2007.)

The plan is to use state and local governments in implementing this program through mandates and Federal grant money.  Of course it is difficult for local governments to turn down "free" money; but this money (it is, of course our tax money, and is "free" only to the elitists in our government); it actually comes at a very high price:  it is being used to subvert our way of life.  Our local government, which I shall here call the Administration, because it is much larger than simply our elected Fiscal Court seems to be bent on promoting this agenda in every way possible.  It is true "Greenways" was voted down by the taxpayers a few years ago; but that does not keep them from implementing it piecemeal until they are again  in a position to force this down the taxpayers throats.

I was struck by a newspaper article (Enquirer 25 Nov 2011, p. 1) entitled:  Boone May Step Up Improvements".  I would like to know why squandering our tax money on new parks projects is considered improvements, when this was already rejected by the voters.  Boone County already has plenty of parks, but the problem is most of them don’t join up.  The idea of Greenways was to get trails.  Why?  Because Agenda 21 calls for "development of public transportation and high-speed, light rail trains; etc."  It is but a short step from trails to monorails.  And our local "planners" (they should be called control freaks) who have adopted Agenda 21 are doing this subversively and calling it "improvement".  One clue that the real agenda is trails and rails is that Federal Transportation money is being used to pay for some of these acquisitions; wouldn’t you rather they fixed potholes?

According to the "Improvements" article the Administration wants to purchase the "Rivershore Sports Complex" and "Valley Orchards."  Our local parks mogul, David Whitehouse, thinks revenue from regional tournaments can be generated to pay for them.  In other words, he can spend millions of your Boone County taxes to buy new parks, and justify it because he thinks it will produce income that will benefit the Administration politically — you don’t think that "income" is going to ultimately reduce your taxes do you?  If so, why doesn’t that expensive golf course (used mostly by our elite) which is owned by our Administration reduce our taxes?  On the contrary, it wastes our money, and spawns new bureaucracy.  Currently the county’s website is advertising for a new assistant golf course superintendent (to make between $39,000 and $52,000 a year); this is a new employee, controlled by the Administration, who can lobby for their agenda:  acquisitions and "improvements".

The trouble with the people who make up the county Administration is that their chief business is preserving their jobs.  The best way to do that is to extend their "empire"; I note this in particular in the case of Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Jeffery Earlywine (on whom I have written at length in earlier articles on my blog).  When the voters of the county, led by Rick Brueggemann, Cindy Arlinghaus, and Kenny Brown, among others, overwhelmingly rejected the Greenways Plan or Parks Tax, their little playhouse was upset.  The Administration is now covertly engaged in thwarting the will of the voters and getting this done by connecting to pieces of land already owned, expansion, and making connections in any way possible in the name of "improvements".  The taxpayers have paid employees who make it their business to work against the expressed interested of the voters.  In my view it is time to clean house.

The Administration cannot use the name "Greenways" of course, not yet; but what’s a name?  For  now it can be called the "Step Up Improvements Campaign".  The Recorder (1 Sep 2011, p. 1) reported Mr. Earlywine as saying that for the second time in Boone County the income of the Administration had exceeded $5 million in a single quarter.  The same article also notes that there were unexpected expenditures for the golf course, proving that park revenue is as likely to be negative as not.  Most to the $5 million was from occupational licenses (which are unconstitutional); do we have a surplus?  It won’t last long.  Mr. Earlywine and Judge Moore already have plans to spend it on "improvements".  True they plan to take some of your Transportation Tax dollars for part of the new acquistions, but it still costs you, now, and in the future, when all of this (like the golf course) has be maintained, no matter what the cost, or what new regulations are set up that have to be followed (like the "potty tunnel" built by SD1).

As the Administration grows, and further increases its income it is going to become more and more difficult to stop the Administration from implementing the fascistic agenda of the elite, or "improving" us into poverty.  Your taxes can only go up from here.

How do I know all of this?  Because I’m smart?  (An old lady I know says "I was born at night, but not last night!")  The evidence piling up shows that the Administration has  not given up on an alternative to the Greenways Plan, though the actual language, at the insistence of the Teaparty and other interested groups, has been carefully deleted from the county Comprehensive Plan.  Do not forget that there is still the "Licking River Greenway and Trails Interlocal Agreement Partners" agenda, which is still alive and well.  This is actively promoted by Vision 2015 and other local groups, and it is a generator and impetus to force Boone County into the system despite that fact that the voters rejected it here.  If you follow what is going on, and what has been proposed, and observed the fundamental unfairness of the Planning and Zoning Commission in slanting evidence presented at their meetings, and excluding what they do not want (setting themselves up for expensive Judicial Reviews), you can already see the plan in outline.  Plan, or if you prefer, Plot.

Not only is the Administration trying to get the two developments already mentioned, they are promoting a number of other projects which are part of this agenda which is (for the time being) a piecemeal effort to connect various tracts of land.  I have written about one of these the "Gunpowder Plot" which is near Central Park and other areas owned by the Administration or controlled by our elitist Conservancy, who have agreed to pay half for 80 acres of land (valued at $480,000) on Gunpowder Creek.  Why the other half is to be paid for from Federal Transportation Taxes is more than I can fathom, unless it is to further the agenda of which I spoke earlier.  What I can tell you is that no matter how the Administration acquires the land, not only will it come off the tax rolls, but the maintenance  and upkeep, including further expansion, are going to take even more of your tax dollars in the future; besides, the Administration will be enlarging its power at the cost of your tax dollars; not a bad deal — for them.

What else is on the list?  The county dock is slated to be connected to Big Bone Lick State Park three miles away.  This has been on the agenda since 1972 with the publication of a comprehensive plan for the park which said ideally the park should include everything between Beaver Road and the Ohio River.  Has this been given up?  The state has allocated $3 million for land acquisition in the area, a mere drop compared to that original plan, but the piecemeal agenda (still included in the Boone County Comprehensive Plan) is to connect, as a first step, the park and the dock.  The Blackmore proposal, to turn Jane’s Saddlebag into a bar and promote outdoor events, states that it is desirable to make this connection; and the proposed zone chance appears to be part of the county’s attempt to accomplish this connection in the area. 

Certainly Kevin Costello, executive director of Planning and Zoning , who with his wife, Nancy B. Costello, an officer with Vision 2015, a major impetus behind the Greenways Plan, are up to their ears in the alternate parks plan.  Without it Kevin cannot justify his $100,000 plus a year "planning" job.  It is necessary to have something to plan.  (Plan means control; but why should these people control our future?)  Kevin Costello has bent over backwards, along with Mr. Earlywine, and Kevin Wall, and a few others, to get this zone change for Peter and Nancy Blackmore, the owners.

The Blackmores tried to get zoning for a bar in the area seven years ago.  If anything, there is less reason to grant this now than there was then.  The Blackmores have been terrible neighbors, and have stalked and harassed my family in many ways; even now they insist on walking past my house regularly (something they never did before the zone change issues), and even follow us to church, apparently thinking that this will somehow cause us to change our minds, and drop our opposition to their bar.

There is also a proposed park in Francisville.  The library bought 50 acres of land in the area, and now proposes to put a park on part of it.  This is strictly against the Constitution of Kentucky, which states in section 180 that "no tax levied and collected for one purpose shall ever be devoted to another purpose."  The fact that the library requested Mr. Whitehouse to review this proposal shows that the ultimate intention is to transfer the property to parks, to further the agenda; however, this is an invitation for a legal challenge.  There are too many of these piecemeal proposals in which the Administration is engaged to me to think they are not being orchestrated to further the agenda.

What we have here is political fantasy on the part of the Administration.  They are actively engaged in furthering an agenda that is (for all its vaunted avant garde ecological character) ultimately fascist and genocidal.  A program that forces people into high density areas in our already overcrowded crime-ridden cities, is a social agenda that our Fiscal Court needs to stay away from.  It is pushed by the Conservancy, Vision 2015, and the Administration, which has many connections to these groups.  Judge Moore is a member of the Vision group.  Another member, William Butler, CEO of Corporex, wrote a letter endorsing the proposal for the  Blackmore’s bar.  There are many connections between these interlocking groups that cost you a lot in tax money; eventually it is going to cost us even more in terms of infringements on our freedom.

This political fantasy is not something rising spontaneously from the people.  It is being foisted on us by our "utopian planners" who, if they are not actively involved in the Agenda 21 conspiracy are selling out to it either through ignorance or avarice.  As Prof. Cox warned in the quotation above, these people must not be allowed to "hold the mortgage of the house of political fantasy."  Maybe their dreams are "possible", and they are certainly going to be expensive, both in money, capital, and individual freedom.  That is the ultimate cost.  It is necessary for the people to wrest this mortgage away from the elite planners and their agenda not, so that the future will not be sacrificed to an Administration bent on circumventing the expressed will of the voters, and restoring, as they surely are, a new version of the old, rejected Greenways plan.

Though this is now being done in increments it will, if we allow these things to go forward, gain in strength, for it had and still has many powerful advocates.  It might have passed the first time if the library dome had not focused attention on extravagance with taxpayer money.  If this new incantation of the fantasy remains unchecked and reaches full operation it will be almost impossible to stop — the time to act is now.  Let your voice be heard; contact the members of the Boone County Fiscal Court, or come to the Court Session at 5.30 p.m. on 20 December 2011 and let the Court know you oppose the Gunpowder Plot and the Blackmore proposal.

James Duvall, M. A.
Big Bone University
Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem. 18 December 2011.