North Dakota News Bulletin

Oh, now you've done it! Just wait until Don sees this one!!

I saw it. Other than the stupidity of pretending that only one side has any faults, it was actually pretty accurate. Once again, some jerk thinks he can categorize the entire left as "affirmative action" and "welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks". What the heck are they going to do with a left-leaning, Democratic card-carrying liberal who thinks that people should take responsibility for their own actions?

It's impossible to categorize people as being completely one way or another, and it's just stupid to try. When I see it, I don't know whether to get mad or cry over the idiocy.

I've got to tell you, I can't abide morons and idiots who have enough ability to know better if they'd only use it.

In this post, the emergency manager is saying that people should take reponsibility, be prepared, and help themselves. I agree. In fact, I agree so much, in another post I said people should do their own research before they spout off stuff that just isn't true. It's exactly the same situation, and it's somewhat laughable that some people can't see it.

Chill out Don, Dargo was just kidding.

Your not trying to bait someone are you? If so please don't.

's ok Doc......I've notified MikePa and he'll be along to close this thread soon

OkeeDon said:

I Once again, some jerk thinks he can categorize the entire left as "affirmative action" and "welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks". What the heck are they going to do with a left-leaning, Democratic card-carrying liberal who thinks that people should take responsibility for their own actions?

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Sing along now:

"Can you feel the love tonight?"

A left leaning, Democrat card carrying liberal who thinks that people should take responsibility for their own actions.


Yeah, I saw a unicorn once too.

Your not trying to bait someone are you? If so please don't.

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Nope; Dargo's right. When I saw the thread, I was offended at the blanket generalizations of anyone who doesn't think the way they do. But, as I accurately relayed in my response, I was under mixed emotions, because I do think people should take responsibility for their own actions. The thing is, I live south of 48 degrees Latitude, and I can assure you that the generalization is dead wrong.

I was a little surprised you posted it.

Cityboy said:

Yeah, I saw a unicorn once too.

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Are you calling me a liar?

OkeeDon said:

Are you calling me a liar?

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Nope. Not you individually. I understand you are a retired business owner, so if that is correct and you were successful at it, you were probably a "take responsibility" guy. That makes you an exception, not the rule.

The political left is by and large the creator, supporter and perpetuator of the welfare state and does indeed trade sit-at-home-checks for votes. Personal responsibility is not and never has been a platform of the left, at least not in my lifetime.

Doc said:

Chill out Don, Dargo was just kidding.

Your not trying to bait someone are you? If so please don't.

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With all of Doc's posts this past week, I am beginning to think that he is MikePA just operating in stealth mode trying to put out the brush fires before they turn into forest fires. I think that this is comical, since I don't see any flames at all. Just good ole folks having a good time playing mind games.....

OkeeDon said:

I was a little surprised you posted it.

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I got a chuckle from it. It was mailed to me in a joke listing I receive. I have to admit, at first I was going to post it in jokes, then I thought I better put it in the debate / discussion forum ....but in the end decided on the open forum.

If it is true (the county news clipping) I applaud the folks in ND for taking care of business and not whinning about their situation. New Orleans was the extreme opposite, at least from what the news media showed us. I've also seen some of the same in FL, but I also have to suppose that is the kind of story the news hounds are out there digging for. There is a happy medium to all this, but we are seeing the extremes (my post vs the news media). I"m sure there are thousands of folks from New Orleans and FL that are taking care of business themselves (much like you and yours Don); but that does not make good news copy.

Who woke Junk up???

Sort of on the subject, sort of not; I have a good friend who lives in Metairie, LA, which is a suburb of New Orleans, and he told me a story of what he personally saw that didn't make any news. He told me that he personally saw some people looting a convience store open fire on a USCG helicopter that was flying over. The USCG helicopter circled around, eliciting more fire from the looters, and then opened up with a volley of fully automatic heavy machine gun fire and wiped out the looters and part of the store. The USCG helicopter then simply returned on whatever course it was flying.

And that is exactly what the USCG helicopter crew should have done. Too bad there were not more of those stories in the public eye. Seems to me if they would highly publicize a few of those stories then the idiots would think twice before doing stupid things. Then again, Darwinian thought would suggest that we don't want the idiots to learn because they could breed more idiots if they did.

B_Skurka said:

we don't want the idiots to learn because they could breed more idiots if they did.

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I'm afraid that is the one thing they have figured out. They do that all to well, it means more in the welfare ck.

Unofficial North Dakota State Motto:

"40-Below Keeps the Rif-Raf out".

While I think "40 Below" may be a part of the reason, I really think it boils down to city verus country.

City folks have to rely on government for many things because of the interdependancy they have in the cities. I also think that city people tend to have a high degree of annonimity so what they do as individuals often goes unnoticed. I also think that many city dwellers are more tolerant of things.

Now for everything listed above that city people are, country people are often quite the opposite. And certainly exceptions exist on both sides. But when you live where many of us live (lets face it, most of us live in semi-rural to very rural areas) we have to depend on our own wits, our own resources, etc to get through adversity.

I think easy access to the welfare office plays a large part in the city too. Its easier to nuture the entitlement mentality when large portions of the population are condensed within the projects and section 8 housing areas in densley populated urban areas.

That is not to say some rural areas lack "sit-at-home" check services.

Cityboy said:

I think easy access to the welfare office plays a large part in the city too. Its easier to nuture the entitlement mentality when large portions of the population are condensed within the projects and section 8 housing areas in densley populated urban areas.

That is not to say some rural areas lack "sit-at-home" check services.

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Well there is no argument with me that crowds can foster certain activities, and that is essentially what a city can bring. If a large % of the population in a given area is of the 'independant spirit' then they will tend to foster a social climate that is less tolerant of 'hand out' type of mentality. Consequently the folks in North Dakota, being an idependant, fend-for-yourself group fo folks, would likely take care of themselves and their families and neighbors without the need for FEMA. On the other hand, a concentrated % of the population of many urban areas believes in the public dole as an entitlement, in those areas, the expectation for outside assistance is going to be much greater.

Florida and New Orleans suffer a hurricane and the government sends millions of $$$$ to them to recover. New England gets hit by unprecedented 9 days of rain and the flooding in some communities is just as bad as it was down South, but the government doesn't even notice. Blue states get the shit and the red states get the $$$$$.

North Dakota is a red State. They didn't get the $$$$$$$. It appears to be more of a North vs South thing.

Louisianna may be red, but NewOrleans is blue. I don't think we are comparing apples to apples here. Did the NE get damaged to the extent that Florida did and does on a regular basis?

CB ....i should have put a smiley in my post. I meant it more as a joke than serious. Indeed we are not comparing apples to apples and I didn't mean it as a serious comparison. Had NE been hit by a Hurricane like either of the southern states I'm sure they would have gotten their fair share of FEMA bucks.

I thought this news story fits into this thread pretty well and speaks to the concept of sell sufficiency in areas where disasters are common.

Before I closed my business, we were the largest single dispenser of propane in the city, refilling portable tanks from our bulk tank. Every time there was a threat of a hurricane, cars would be lined up for blocks to get their grill tanks refilled. Several times, the city assigned us a police officer to help direct the traffic. Our refill station was close enough to the street that we didn't allow cars into the parking lot; the tanks were carried to the line, refilled, and carried back to the cars. It was back breaking work, but we considered it our obligation. We stayed open as long as there were customers wanting to get propane. Our bulk tank was only 1,000 gallons, but our distributor kept the bobtail trucks running to us to keep our tank filled.

We set up a generator that could power the dispenser pump, a couple of lights, the water pump for our well so we had a toilet, and the refrigerator so I could store enough Diet Pepsi to keep going. Our plan was to continue operations as long as people needed propane. I wanted to get an LP gas generator and fuel it from our tank, but I got such a good deal on a gasoline generator I took it. After I casually asked them, our city agreed that cooking fuel was a pretty essential need, and agreed to supply us with gasoline for the generator from the city's emergency supply.

Ironically, we never had to use it -- after every hurricane watch or warning, it veered away from our area, and we never had damage. That 57-year-old record was broken last year and this year with a total of 3 hurricanes, but I had been out of business for 3 years, by then. I don't think any of the other refill outfits had generators, but the culture has changed; most people now use cylinder-swapping instead of refilling their own tank.

By the way, we hated the hurricane scares. Sure, we'd fill hundreds of cylinders in a short time, and that was god money. But, the customers did not enter our store and buy other impulse items. They were concerned about fuel, not barbecue supplies or wood chips or sauces or accessories. Our overall sales numbers dropped off the chart. Afterwards, because every cylinder in the city was full, our gas sales dropped to nothing for up to 6 months, and no one even came to our store for those all-important sales of other items. You see, we used the propane dispensing as a draw to get customers in and entice them with the other merchandise. We were not in a mainstream location. The extra money we earned from filling all those tanks in 2 days went away real soon.

We knew that, and we could probably have used it as a justification to raise our fill prices temporarily. But, once again I'm a nutcase who feels a public service obligation, so we held our normal prices and swallowed the subsequent losses.

I mention all this because I don't think the general public has a clue how things work for the merchant. They think we're walking away with enormous profits as a result of the storm.

OkeeDon said:

But, the customers did not enter our store and buy other impulse items. They were concerned about fuel, not barbecue supplies or wood chips or sauces or accessories.

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Why you evil profiteer! Impulse items? You should be ashamed, you closet Republican! ( Just kidding Don.)

OkeeDon said:

We knew that, and we could probably have used it as a justification to raise our fill prices temporarily. But, once again I'm a nutcase who feels a public service obligation, so we held our normal prices and swallowed the subsequent losses.

I mention all this because I don't think the general public has a clue how things work for the merchant. They think we're walking away with enormous profits as a result of the storm

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The general public does not have a clue. I do not think it would have been wrong if you raised your prices enough to cover your added expense given the situation. You would still be providing a public service at market rates, and at your normal profit margin and not taking it in the shorts in the long run. Nothing immoral or wrong with that at all. The point of business is to make a profit afterall.

Well kiddies now you know the liberals that like to buy their votes. No point to send money up to the states where people can think, no return on that. We even have some welfare trash in our little town. Only thing is no one talks to them. They live out this far because they can get more free stuff. We are a hard working group, that mine, and fish, and hunt, and live. No local Government, no cops for 150 miles, not even in a bourough( what we have for counties). Snow we already have over 2 feet, and it will not melt for 7 months. Cold, it will hit -20 in a day or two, and we will see -50 or -60 in a month or so. We ask for nothing, and take care of ourselves. You will find the only liberals are the Welfare Seekers, you know the ones with no pride, and I guess no mirriors in their houses.
I worked hard most of my life, and do not like supporting a bunh of lazy people that think they are owed something by the rest of us. So if that makes me stupid or uninformed, then you come up and tell me that to my face! I was very successful in business and made a fair amount of money and I do give some to people that need it, but they are people that are looking for a helping hand, not a way of life.
Generally Liberals, suck! I remember the liberals when I came back from Indo China!!! I was spit on and called some really foul names, and I can assure that some of those bastards are not around anymore. I remember the 60's and 70's. You may not like the War, but you better support the troops! The liberals will never get a chance to do that to our troops ever again!