Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Everybody saw this coming.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

An almost top 10,000 blog!

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

“woke” is the new caravan.

I really should read my own blog.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Open Thread: Jeb, GOP Voters, and the Septic Truth

Open Thread: Jeb, GOP Voters, and the Septic Truth

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The metaphor is inescapable! But I would argue the Great NH Septic-Tank Demand says something larger about the GOP’s forty-year disconnect between the need for community services and the unpleasantness of paying for such services. Philip Bump, at the Washington Post, has the backstory…

… The septic tank problem to which Bush referred arose fairly early during the question-and-answer part of the event. “First of all, governor, thank you for coming to Raymond, New Hampshire,” the man asking the question said, prompting applause. “We’re a community of a little over 10,000 people and we are facing an enormous infrastructure issues. We need help. We do not have sewers.”

“Why not?,” Bush asked.

“We can’t afford it,” he was told. Even the building they were in used a septic tank instead, the man said, “so don’t everyone go to the bathroom at the same time!” (Bush: “Ha ha ha! That’s pretty graphic.”)

“Coming from Florida, we wouldn’t expect you to know this,” she said. “You have sandy soil. You know we have granite here in New Hampshire.” Drilling through sandy soil to create a sewer system is one thing. Drilling through granite is another. “To build the type of infrastructure that Raymond or other small towns would need costs one to two million dollars per mile. … Many small towns do not have the funding to build that infrastructure.”

Bush’s response was as you might expect: Funding for infrastructure is important, but it should be dealt with by the states. “This is not the job of a president,” he said. “The federal government needs to be a partner with what’s going on.”…

And right there (says the cynical Massachusetts resident) is the problem, my fellow voters: The “Live Free or Die Trying” New Hampshire voters have internalized the eternal fantasy of government benefits without corresponding government costs.

They want — they consider it their right! — Tha Gubmint to provide them with a sewer system.

They don’t want Tha Gubmint to “take their tax money”, because taxes just get flushed down the toilet (and the more you flush, the fuller the septic tank!).

And the responsible, grown-up, Permanent Establishment wing of the Republican Party — currently embodied in John Ellis Bush, son and brother of former presidents — can only parrot slogans of anti-Tha-Gubmint defiance, because it’s become Repub doctrine that there’s a government-funding money mine under the White House, from which the Right People are being blocked by stubborn Democrats and their greedy, wastrel un-American partisans.

I’m sure there were some Republican voters at that town meeting who genuinely can’t afford the property-tax surcharge it would require to install a proper sewer system, along with the snowbirds who don’t want to pay for a system they’d “only” use six months a year, and the retirees who figure they’ll be dead before the sewers get hooked up anyway. But I’d have more sympathy if I didn’t suspect a lot of those voters moved to New Hampshire because it’s a no-income-tax, limited-services Libertarian paradise where the local politicians are happy to denigrate Tha Gubmint in the name of Freedum!!!

And I sure as hell don’t have any sympathy for Jeb Bush, whose family has been profitably exploiting the disconnect between government funding and community services since Poppy shut up about “voodoo economics” and accepted the undercard spot on Ronald Reagan’s deliberately dishonest Morning in America campaign.

Reader Interactions

206Comments

  4. 4.

    srv

    I thought this blog had an anti-bullying policy.

    You Front-Pagers need to stop picking on Jeb – he’s clearly got issues. His Dad. His Mom. His Brother. His inability to talk. His low energy. Not to mention all those donors who are unhappy with him.

    We all know he’s not a serious candidate, so let’s just move on to the real candidates and stop picking on the poor guy.

  5. 5.

    TheMightyTrowel

    Since it’s an ot, a little update from deepest darkest rural England where I’m doing fieldwork/drinking beer… just had a crazy good week. Learned i was awarded a career defining grant on Tues then today for the news that i was shortlisted for a research fellowship which would buy out all my teaching from middle next year thru 2019.

    Clearly 2015 is my year.

  7. 7.

    dedc79

    As I’ve mentioned on prior threads regarding New Hampshire: I spent a lot of time there over a period of three years because of a case I was working on. I’d fly in to Manchester Airport and drive 30 minutes or so up to Concord using 293/93. There was a $1 toll on that road, and I can’t begin to tell you how many times locals volunteered to me that I should take the exit right before the toll, drive around it, and get back on the highway. It’s not just that they don’t want to pay taxes; they don’t want to pay for anything.

  9. 9.

    Calouste

    Funny that. I just bought a new house (not in New Hampshire), and I and any future owners have to pay $57 every month for the next 15 years because it is a new connection to the sewer system. Maybe Raymond, NH can try a similar system instead of trying to be outright moochers.

  10. 10.

    MattF

    I’m guessing that the NH audience was hoping for a ‘JEB! will fix it!’ response. But… nooo… It looks, in fact, like JEB! won’t be fixing anything.

  15. 15.

    jl

    @MattF:

    ” It looks, in fact, like JEB! won’t be fixing anything. ”

    It looks like Jeb? has already fixed himself. In the wrong way.

    I see Jeb? is trying to spin H’s biography as putting his brother W’s administration “in a new light”. Which I gather is that W was betrayed by ruthless, incompetent staff with poor judgment (eg, Uncle Dick searching for a VP and deciding he himself was the perfect person).

    I don’t see how that “new light” helps Jeb?, who has made a point of retaining W’s advisors and staff for foreign policy and national security affairs, precisely where W’s record is a disaster.

  18. 18.

    Seanly

    The City of Boise has been trying to pass a levy to buy more of the surrounding foothills for the last couple of election cycles. When I did calls for the first proposal, there were 2 items on the ballot (one for the foothills & another levy for fire houses). Together, the items would increase property taxes on a home with $100,000 of taxable value (about $200,000 in real value due to homesteading breaks) around $1 per month. I had multiple people literally tell me they could not afford another $1 a month in taxes. Idaho requires public bond measures to pass with 66.7%. Both levies failed…

  25. 25.

    KG

    Bush’s response was as you might expect: Funding for infrastructure is important, but it should be dealt with by the states. “This is not the job of a president,” he said. “The federal government needs to be a partner with what’s going on.”

    Am I missing something, or is he completely talking out of both sides of his mouth? The feds should leave it to the states, but the feds need to be a partner. Which one is it?

  34. 34.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @raven: It’s not a bad town. Of course, when I was there, few of us had cars so we stayed pretty close to campus.

  41. 41.

    Starfish

    But it is not like New Hampshire people are not paying any taxes at all. They are paying a ton of property tax to cover all that income tax that no one is paying.

  42. 42.

    trollhattan

    @BillinGlendaleCA:
    It’s the family baby, being a scant ten years old. UCs Santa Cruz and Irvine are next youngest at 50.

    Merced itself is no draw, other than being near Yosemite. The farther down-valley one goes the dumpier things get.

  45. 45.

    redshirt

    I’ve been digging all around my septic system and it makes me nervous. We had some heavy rains last week with an open trench and next day when I went to investigate I saw many wall collapses and one of them exposed some plastic with a black cap. I was like “oh no”! But it turned out to be a squashed powerade bottle.

    I’m still finding trash from the contractors who built my house in 2010. Amazing.

    Also, fuck NH.

  47. 47.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @trollhattan:

    I’m assuming it was one of those UCs that was founded so people could say they attended a UC but still live at home.

    G’s future alma mater, San Jose State, touts itself as the oldest public college on the west coast, since it was founded in 1857 as a teachers college. We don’t have to move there, fortunately, since their library science program is all online.

  48. 48.

    srv

    Carson wrote in “Gifted Hands” that people who didn’t know him as a yout would “think I’m exaggerating when I say I had a bad temper,” but even the people who did know him believe he’s exaggerating.

    “He got through his day trying not to be noticed,” Robert Collier told CNN. “I remember him having a pocket saver. He had thick glasses. He was skinny and unremarkable.”

    Even Urkel thinks he was a thug now.

  49. 49.

    Schlemazel

    When I lived in FL they had a terrible problem They had filled the jails with ‘life without parole’ kids who had 3 joints on them so they had to release murders and rapists who had served a month for every year sentenced. Gov Chiles offered a plan that would cost every home owner about $20 a year to keep those murders and rapists in jail for 80% of their sentence. The GOP head of the Senate came out with an attack on “tax and spend liberal” policy. He was a shoo-in for the Governorship . . . up until a shit load of tourists started getting shot & robbed. The GOP abandoned the guy who now looked like an idiot & chose instead a real idiot by the name of JEB? Bush.

    This something for nothing theme runs throughout Jonny E’s life as well as the teapublican pary.

  52. 52.

    boatboy_srq

    “Coming from Florida, we wouldn’t expect you to know this,”

    Cough. Splutter. Choke.

    She obviously never spent time in non-urbanized FL. Septic tanks (and wells) are the norm. Public water/sanitation is a rarity once you get just outside the major urban centres, and pushback on the cost to deliver water and sewer services is remarkably strong. One neighborhood I knew had been discussing water (only) – and had been pushing back against it for twenty years – and only knuckled under when the neighborhood’s wells all went salt from seawater intrusion (thanks to over-development inland and over-pumping from the aquifer).

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    TCM Alert: They’re showing the Richard Lester version of “The Three Musketeers” at 10:15 pm ET tonight. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a really fun version with a classic 70s cast that includes Michael York, Oliver Reed, Raquel Welch, Faye Dunaway, and Christopher Lee. It even has one of my favorite minor character actors of the period, Michael Gothard.

  57. 57.

    jl

    @trollhattan:

    ” Merced itself is no draw, other than being near Yosemite. The farther down-valley one goes the dumpier things get. ”

    I call San Joaquin Valley slander. Depends on where you go and what you want to do whether it is dumpier or classier.
    But, what would you Sacto snoots know about it? You’re too good (or afraid, heh heh) to go down there.

  61. 61.

    fuckwit

    I don’t know if anyone here notices, but I been gone a while.

    I love Medicaid expansion! I’m a fucking success story, and I’m thrilled. Thanks Obama!! And lucky me living in a state that opted in for the expansion.

    My medical care is now free. Mental health care is also free (I think it’s covered in Obamacare as well, but also in Medicaid). I finally got treated for lifelong depression and anxiety, am on meds which work wonders, and I just don’t feel angry, frustrated, agitated, and in constant pain and anguish. I had a ton of what I thought were medical problems, which turned out to have been mental and emotional in their cause.

    I feel great now! Which means… I don’t have a lot of patience for politics anymore :P. I’m sure I’ll get involved in some campaign or another as the new year rolls around, but following the outrage-of-the-moment no longer feels like what I should be doing.

    I thought I’d drop a note here to say hello, and I noticed the new site redesign which looks fantastic! Thanks to Cole and Mistermix and whomever did this. You’re WP champs.

    Oh yeah, also: Bernie 2016!

  62. 62.

    dr. luba

    @srv:

    Even Urkel thinks he was a thug now.

    Well, by GOP standards, anyone not white is automatically a thug, no?

  63. 63.

    jl

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    ” I’m assuming it was one of those UCs that was founded so people could say they attended a UC but still live at home. ”

    I thought it was one of those UC’s that was founded so that the CA higher education master plan, of admitting top 12.5% (or is it 10% now) of CA HS grads to UC, had a hope in hell of being followed.
    I don’t think any more students could be crammed into existing campuses without seriously harming the quality of the product. Already way too many 250+ BS intro courses at popular UC campuses.

  69. 69.

    maya

    @KG:

    Am I missing something, or is he completely talking out of both sides of his mouth? The feds should leave it to the states, but the feds need to be a partner. Which one is it?

    That’s only if they’re putting in a two holer.

  73. 73.

    Felonius Monk

    “This is not the job of a president,”

    In the context of the story, this makes Jeb? a real shit-weasel.

  74. 74.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone): UC Merced exists because the southern central valley didn’t have a UC. San Jose Sate, as you mentioned, started out as one of the two teachers colleges. The other being the Los Angeles Normal school where the downtown Central Library is now. The moved to a campus on Vermont, now LACC, and in 1919 the campus was taken over by the Southern Branch of the University of CA, which later moved to Westwood and became UCLA.

  75. 75.

    ThresherK

    @boatboy_srq: Of course Jeb doesn’t know about Florida’s water and waste woes. That’s what the servants are for.

    “We can’t afford [sewers]”. And in Raymond’s public building, “don’t everyone go to the bathroom at the same time!”

    To quote another tone deaf Bush, to a woman with two or three jobs and no health insurance:

    “Only in America!”

  76. 76.

    PurpleGirl

    @fuckwit: Good for you. Hope you live long and prosper. And do stop by for the non-political stuff and let us know how you are doing.

  78. 78.

    Davebo

    @kc:

    No need to be sorry. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

    In my opinion, the old layout looked like it was setup by a 14 year old who decided to play with WP.

  79. 79.

    gratuitous

    Aaaaahhh! Taxes! Run, everybody!

    God damn, people. Grow up. Things cost money, and it’s a lot cheaper if we combine our resources instead of everyone having to pay for his or her own personal stuff. A municipal sewage system would be one of those things that’s better done with a group effort. None of this “Well, my kids are already through school” or “I don’t have kids, why should I pay for a school” nonsense. Everyone will use a sewer system. If the up-front cost is prohibitive, sell some municipal bonds, put a levy on the property tax to pay off the bonds, and get to work. It’s not going to be cheaper to build next year, five years from now or ten years from now.

    Quit being such babies about paying taxes.

    Or, Candidate Legacy could have said, “You know, that seems like a great opportunity for the federal government to invest in New Hampshire, and improve the public health by installing a modern sewage system. Spreading the cost out over 300 million citizens would make it pretty affordable.” As the heads nod around the room, he’d follow up with, “Of course, that would mean that some of New Hampshire’s tax dollars would go to pay for a new school in Lexington, Kentucky or repair a U.S. highway in California. That’s part of what it means to be an American, right? Helping each other out.”

    Get ready to be called a commie socialist.

  80. 80.

    SRW1

    There are places where trouble starts when shit hits the fan, and then there apparently are also places where trouble starts when it hits the septic tank.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    The Three Musketeers and The Four Musketeers are a great duology! Lush production values, great acting and Richard Lester in top form at the helm.

    ETA: Also, bracketed by two other great movies: Jean Renoir’s Grand Illusion at 8:00 p.m. EST and my all-time favorite film noir, Out of the Past, at 12:15 a.m.

  82. 82.

    Fair Economist

    @boatboy_srq:

    Public water/sanitation is a rarity once you get just outside the major urban centres, and pushback on the cost to deliver water and sewer services is remarkably strong.

    Hmm, getting your water from a well next to your septic tank? Sounds delicious! That must really help property values.

  83. 83.

    Tyro

    I can think of nothing that more embodies the small government ethos that a town without a public sewer system. It’s a place you should only live in if you can afford septic tank service. Having a sewer system is a choice you can make by moving to another town that has one. If the ground isn’t amenable to building an affordable sewer, don’t ask the federal government for help, ask your town and state. If they don’t want to pay for it, move, if you insist on having such an amenity.

    It sounds pretty straightforward to me if you’re a small government conservative.

  84. 84.

    Francis

    To be technical, the EPA will help out with low-cost loans and (rarely) grants through the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund. So oddly enough I agree with the candidate — it’s not the job of the president (because it’s been delegated to the EPA) and the federal government will partner with local agencies who take the lead on drinking water programs.

    Still, he does come off as completely tone deaf.

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne (iPhone)

    @gratuitous:

    it’s a lot cheaper if we combine our resources instead of everyone having to pay for his or her own personal stuff

    Commie socialist!

    I do think you’re right, though, and that at least some of the resistance to pitching in for collective-use items like sewer systems is that some people want to feel like they own something if they’re going to pay for it. It’s like there’s a potluck at their office but they insist on spending $20 on a separate lunch rather than pitching in $10 for a collective lunch because they want that lunch to be THEIRS, damn it!

  94. 94.

    satby

    @fuckwit: Glad to hear you’re better and happy. That’s really all that’s important.

    It’s hard to tell who’s been around and who hasn’t since the new site rolled, so if we didn’t notice you hadn’t posted it was because we thought you were waiting for the dust to settle. But keep everyone posted on how you are!

  96. 96.

    PurpleGirl

    @Francis: Back in the 1980s (IIRC) a friend moved to Maryland to direct one of those revolving funds. As the loans were paid back, they made more loans to other areas. I think her agency was doing waste water treatment. I t allowed a lot of small municipalities to build or upgrade facilities they had.

  106. 106.

    jibeaux

    Is there really no way to format this for the phone without a 1″ margin, 1″ text, 1″ margin?

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jibeaux: I don’t know why, because I didn’t press any buttons to do it, but my phone is still on the old version. It went to the new one briefly on roll out night and then switched back.

  111. 111.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Rethuglican party has surrendered itself to pants pissing cowards who are unwilling to pay for services they demand. There are no more adults around in the GOP. They pander to these fucking infants who have the right to vote.

  113. 113.

    Baud

    Fox Business has announced which candidates have made the cut for its next Republican debate on Tuesday — and the primetime stage will be less crowded.

    Only eight candidates will appear in primetime, down from ten at the last debate. These candidates are Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, John Kasich, and Rand Paul (who just barely made the cut).

    Two candidates will be demoted to the earlier undercard debate — Chris Christie and Mike Huckabee. Both (barely) failed to average 2.5 percent support in the four most recent national polls, which was the cutoff Fox used.

    The undercard is getting a shakeup too. Christie and Huckabee will be joined there by just two other candidates — Rick Santorum and Bobby Jindal. Meanwhile, two candidates who were in every undercard debate so far — Lindsey Graham and George Pataki — missed the cut, because they failed to hit 1 percent or above in any one of those four most recent national polls. Jim Gilmore also failed to qualify.

  122. 122.

    currants

    @TheMightyTrowel: WOOOOT! CONGRATULATIONS! That is some truly incredible news–good for you! (Because we all know those things don’t happen by magic, even if all who are deserving of them don’t win.)

  129. 129.

    rikyrah

    Michelle Obama’s Qatar visit praised by Arabs, slammed by U.S. media

    Staff writer, Al Arabiya News Thursday, 5 November 2015

    Despite mostly positive press coverage of U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama’s recent visit to Qatar, some media outlets appeared to have an agenda when they slammed her trip to the small Gulf state, in addition to the charitable works conducted by the Qatar Foundation.

    During her visit to the capital Doha, the U.S. first lady spoke at an education summit at the Qatar Foundation to advocate her “Let Girls Learn” initiative, a program which aims for providing learning opportunities for around 62 million girls worldwide.

    But some media publications ignored the positive aspects of her visit. U.S. current affairs site Politico, which relied on unconfirmed translations from infamous pro-Israeli media monitor MEMRI, attacked the Gulf state’s policies. According to Politico, Michelle Obama had shared the same Qatar Foundation platform with a “notoriously anti-Semitic sheikh who inveighed against ‘Zionist aggressors.’”

    Politico took to case the fact that Qatar Foundation’s mosque, situated on its multi-university campus area, hosted the controversial preacher who only days earlier had said in a sermon: “To count them [Jews] in number and kill them completely, do not spare a [single] one of them.”

    Politico also mentioned that this same preacher has courted controversy, after having wished in a 2013 speech: “if only Hitler had finished them [the Jews] off.”

    In response to Politico’s article, White House spokesman Eric Schultz wrote an email questioning whether the site was asking “for a response to a statement made about speakers who the First Lady has never referenced, has never met, and nor will be participating in the First Lady’s event?”

    http://english.alarabiya.net/en/media/digital/2015/11/05/Michelle-Obama-s-Qatar-visit-praised-by-Arabs-but-slammed-by-U-S-media-.html

  130. 130.

    Sad_Dem

    How many sewer systems could we build if we canceled the F-35 program? How about shutting down foreign military bases too? Taxing the 1% at 1950s rates?

  132. 132.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: well well well – look at Fox helping its party help itself

    Two more rounds of this sort of winnowing process and…well, why have primaries??

  134. 134.

    Jeffro

    @Baud: also, watch: in the next debate, Kaisch and Paul will get demoted, while Santorum and Jindal get booted. Like. Clockwork.

  137. 137.

    Mandalay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Lindsey will have a loud sad.

    Graham’s campaign manager on the news that Graham didn’t even make the cut for the kids’ table:

    the biggest loser tonight is the American people and the Republican Presidential primary process that has been hijacked by news outlets.

    It’s not the fault of the RNC who negotiated with the news outlets.

    It’s not the fault of the voters who ignored Graham.

    It’s not the fault of Graham himself, who screams for perpetual war and can’t get to 1%.

    It’s entirely the fault of the news outlets.

  138. 138.

    daize

    Mostly a lurker here. But jesus christ, if anyone has advice regarding sciatica I would appreciate hearing about it. I’m ready to chew off my left leg. Thanks very much in advance to all. Take care.

  139. 139.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    Putney Swope played for 2 (or maybe it was 3) months at the theater where I was an usher. By the end of its run there, my lips were moving along with the dialogue.

    “How many syllables, Mario?”

    Also featured one of the truly pig-dog ugliest, wretched excess cars ever made in America – a ’59 Chrysler Imperial limousine – as the Presidential vehicle.

  141. 141.

    Corner Stone

    @Baud:

    Site redesign affects spelling. Tommy is working on it.

    You sure about that? It may be that none of us are using spelling correctly, after all, and just don’t know how useful it is. The way to spell things is not even up for discussion.

  142. 142.

    sparrow

    @TheMightyTrowel: AWESOME!!! As a fellow academic I know how much work goes into getting those grants. And holy crap, an award to buy out teaching? I wouldn’t mind some of that… at least half-time so I can do more research. What field?

  143. 143.

    Chris

    @Mnemosyne (iPhone):

    The 1990s Disney version with Kiefer Sutherland, Oliver Platt and Charlie Sheen (and Tim Curry as himself by way of Cardinal Richelieu) will always be my favorite.

    No, I don’t care how many egregious liberties it takes with the book.

  146. 146.

    Kyle

    @jl:

    W was betrayed by ruthless, incompetent staff with poor judgment (eg, Uncle Dick searching for a VP and deciding he himself was the perfect person).

    And of course you can’t expect a POTUS to show good judgement and be involved in selecting his staff, not when there’s singletrack trails to ride and books about pet goats to read during national emergencies.
    Bush family rule #1: It’s never our fault

  148. 148.

    Jeffro

    @Mandalay: it’s both??

    If a good thing (Graham being shown the door) happens for a Bad reason (Fox taking charge of the GOP debate process) it is still technically a good thing.

    Technically.

  155. 155.

    RSA

    @TheMightyTrowel:

    a research fellowship which would buy out all my teaching from middle next year thru 2019.

    Holy… Wow! Like a 2.5 year sabbatical? Congratulations on the research award, and good luck with this one!

  156. 156.

    Steeplejack

    @daize:

    I have had two bad bouts with sciatica in my life, the second one really bad, and I have two words for you: Thai massage. That was the only thing that worked for me.

    Thai massage is basically like assisted yoga. The masseur moves your body through the positions; you just lie there and let go. I had about four sessions over a two- or three-week period, and that eased things enough so that the sciatica dissipated.

    Pretty good illustrative video here.

  158. 158.

    Baud

    @BillinGlendaleCA: It’s time the official rules of the English language conformed to usage on modern social media. As America’s first virtual president, I will appoint a blue ribbon commission who will use the latest science of online polling and twitter analytics to determine the standards of English grammar and spelling for the 21st Century. #EnglishDeathPanel

  160. 160.

    JPL

    @daize: Hopefully someone else will offer advice. I had friends who have really suffered with the pain involved. Have you been to a doctor?

    I see Steeplejack has some solid advice. Good Luck

  161. 161.

    Mandalay

    @Jeffro: Right – it doesn’t even matter whether he is being shown the door for the right reason or the wrong reason. If you can’t muster 1% support after several months of campaigning you are never going to win.

    I find polling averages to be just as reasonable a way of deciding who gets chopped at the bottom as the voting decisions of Republicans in Iowa, NH and SC, or the check books of billionaires.

  162. 162.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @daize: My wife struggled with sciatic pain for years. She swears that what helped alleviate the pain for her was a movement program called “essential somatics”. The lady who does it (Martha Peterson) has DVDs, which my wife uses and swears by, but I know she’s also got some stuff on youtube for free. Hope you find something that helps. I know how disabling that kind of pain can be.

  163. 163.

    Arm The Homeless

    @boatboy_srq:

    Per Fla Supreme Court ruling, the Water Management Districts cannot deny residential wells 4″ or less in diameter. We have so many straws in the ground, even DEP has no real good numbers on where or how many there are.

    Fun fact, Disney has their own WMD, Reedy Creek Improvement District. It has taxing authority.

  169. 169.

    raven

    @BruceFromOhio: If the city had known where it was they would not have issued both a historic and building permit. They had no easement and it went under a neighbors house so, even though it took 2 1/2 years, we was lucky.

  170. 170.

    Anne Laurie

    @KG:

    Am I missing something, or is he completely talking out of both sides of his mouth? The feds should leave it to the states, but the feds need to be a partner. Which one is it?

    If there’s going to be a sewer line — or any other community upgrade — the town is going to have to scrape up the money somehow. But once it’s a done improvement, Jeb and his followers will most certainly take credit for the achievement.

  172. 172.

    evil is evil

    New Hampshire never thinks small and reasonable. They need some oldies with filming skills to take a motor home to Crawford, TX and see what kind of shitter George W thought that he needed on the government dime. They could just drive over to Kennebunkport, Maine, and see how the whole clan treats itself and its servants, maybe drive down to Jeb’s vacation home in Florida and check out the facilities.

    Bushes aren’t smart. They leave evidence lying all over the place. They would never dream that the peasants would get pissed about poor sewer systems while having Dick Cheney’s two bit thieving operation called Halliburton buiid multi million dollar sewer systems for each of them.

  175. 175.

    Zelma

    @daize:

    Re sciatica: sometimes a massage therapist or a chiropractor can use manipulation to reduce the pressure on the nerve but if the nerve is inflamed (and you can tell if it hurts badly if you touch the hip area), you have to reduce the inflammation before anything can be done. My neighbor finally went to the doctor who gave her a course of prednisone and told her to spend lots of time in her recliner. It worked.

  176. 176.

    Debbie

    @daize:

    The sciatic nerve runs the entire length of the body and can be due to any number of things. You ought to go to a doctor who will at least be able to narrow down the possible causes.

  178. 178.

    RSA

    @daize: My sympathies. My wife has been undergoing physical therapy for the past six week for back and hip pain; the massage and stretching exercises have helped a little but not enough. She’ll be getting a sacroiliac joint injection of cortizone, which her doctor thinks may do the trick.

  179. 179.

    Another Holocene Human

    @dedc79: When Yankee thrift goes wrong.

    Take heart, though; Yankees are known for being standoffish, and there they were offering to show you–a stranger–how to cheat and everything. That was some hospitality right there.

  183. 183.

    different-church-lady

    But I’d have more sympathy if I didn’t suspect a lot of those voters moved to New Hampshire because it’s a no-income-tax, limited-services Libertarian paradise where the local politicians are happy to denigrate Tha Gubmint in the name of Freedum!!!

    Yes, but you’re forgetting that the vast majority of those invaders are former Massholes.

  184. 184.

    Shana

    @efgoldman: Sounds like our efforts to get gas service at our house for furnace, water heater, dryer and stove top. For some reason it stopped at the corner two houses up from our house. We, also, were told we needed to get most of the neighbors to sign on as well as committing to replacing their furnaces and water heaters. Of course they surveyed everyone right after the first of the year when everyone was paying off holiday bills. Never happened.

  185. 185.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Chris:

    Well, we all have our little weaknesses. One of the things that won me over to “Ted” was that Shane Macfarlane and I apparently share an unreasoning love for the 1980s “Flash Gordon.”

    But you can’t beat Oliver Reed. In anything.

  186. 186.

    Linda

    In the book Goodfellas, it was explained that Friday nights out with girlfriends–or Saturday’s with wives–were financed with token credit cards. Only chumps actually paid for things on the square. We now embrace that ethos. We tax smokers, drinkers, gamblers, speeders, everybody but our selves. We are all Goodfellas now.

  187. 187.

    Anne Laurie

    @daize:

    if anyone has advice regarding sciatica I would appreciate hearing about it.

    A chiropractor using accupressure did wonders for relieving my sciatica. Not every chiropractor will be equally useful to every person — some people don’t respond to chiropractic adjustments at all — but for me, it was a miracle cure.

    If you sleep on your back, start putting a pillow (or, better, a bolster) under your knees, even when your sciatic nerve isn’t acting up. I use one like this, but anything that will keep your lower spine ‘flat’ will work. If you sleep on your side, there’s a wide variety of pillows made to fit between your thighs/knees to keep your hip from hyperextending — believe it or not, it does make a difference, even if you’re a skinny person with a narrow pelvis.

  188. 188.

    trollhattan

    @efgoldman:
    Knew a couple who lived in an early 20th century house in the city. They had a drain backup issue that led to digging up the backyard, whereupon they discovered they were hooked up to the original cistern and not the city sewer. Not a septic tank and drainfield mind–a cistern filled with a century of crap.

    Epic fight with the city ensued as to who had to pay for the sewer hookup and how bloody much. On one hand it was their responsibility and on the other, the city had been collecting the sewer fee on the house for something like 80 years. On the third hand the couple were both lawyers.

  190. 190.

    Jay C

    @daize:
    Man, my sympathies: sciatica is a real pain (no pun): my wife (a chronic-pain patient) gets it occasionally: I had it once – no fun – so I’ll second the reccs for massage (and/or acupuncture, if you have a competent practitioner available): moving the hip/leg/buttock muscles and trying to relieve the pressure on the sciatic nerve (a big sucker that goes from your pelvis to your ankle) is about all you can do. Oh, and pain meds. LOTS of pain meds.

  192. 192.

    Anne Laurie

    @different-church-lady:

    you’re forgetting that the vast majority of those invaders are former Massholes.

    If so, our state’s well rid of them!

    We moved here from the Midwest. I cannot tell you how many otherwise intelligent, math-competent people advised us that we “should” buy a house in NH, not MA, because low taxes. We’d actually run some basic numbers and established that, in our price range, property taxes in a NH border community would more than eat up any savings on MA income taxes, and that was apart from doubling the commuting time into Cambridge/Boston. But low taxes!

    It was scarily like a religious mantra. New Hampshire is philosophically opposed to taxes, ergo, it must be a cheaper place to live. The fact that services need to be paid for, whether you take the money out of the envelope marked ‘income tax’ or the one marked ‘property tax’, just couldn’t penetrate the religious certainty.

  193. 193.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @daize: I just got off the phone with someone who has had issues with sciatica in the past. She said the big thing is physical therapy, but, in the short term, lying flat on your back with your feet up on a coffee table or chair can relieve some the pain. In addition, recommended doing pelvic tilts. I hope this is of help.

  194. 194.

    NorthLeft12

    No, No, you don’t get it Annie. All that government money is being wasted on those other undeserving people. It needs to be spent here in my neighbourhood where it will do the country the most good.

    And by the way, my taxes are too fucking high! When are you going to cut them again?

  196. 196.

    Calouste

    @Anne Laurie: Whether it comes from the envelope marked ‘income tax’ or the envelope marked ‘property tax’ or the envelope marked say ‘car repairs because of the crappy state of the roads that the state has no money to repair’, you still have to pay.

  198. 198.

    Anne Laurie

    @different-church-lady: Well, I grew up in the Bronx. Then I spent fifteen years in Michigan, learning to be “nice”, before it became clear the “Reagan Revolution” was going to ensure that neither the not-yet-officially-Spousal Unit or I would ever be securely employed. Twenty-five years later, I still miss some of my Michigan friends, but everything they tell me about MI politics confirms that we made the right choice in fleeing to MA…

  199. 199.

    Agoner

    @daize: Non-force chiropractic work. Also a ct scan to tell you which disk is herniated (most likely the cause). Once you know which vertebrae is the problem, ice the area for 15 minutes every hour, no heat! Tiny, extremely gentle back/core strengthening excercises and gentle stretching. My sister has been going through hell for the last year, and is finally getting her life back. There is hope.

  200. 200.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Starfish: Well, it’s not working. Their schools have repeatedly been in crisis. They also have high sales taxes (which of course dodging is an art). It’s not working.

  204. 204.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    I really don’t understand your hatred of NH. They’ve chosen to fund government with property taxes rather than sales or income taxes, but they do pay taxes to support government services. Maybe not as many government services or as nice government services as you personally would like but that’s their choice too. I don’t know where property taxes fall on the regressive-progressive meter but I’d expect they’re less progressive than income taxes but more progressive than sales taxes if I had to make an uneducated guess. Property taxes are a tax on wealth so the choice they’ve made isn’t on it’s face a horrible one from a progressive perspective. I suppose there are more people there wrapped in a libertarian thought bubble than in neighboring states, but it’s in no way outrageously wingnutty by plains or southern state standards, and they haven’t, from my remove (Maryland), elected anyone as insane as Maine Governor Paul LePage.

  205. 205.

    daize

    Very much late to this thread but thank you so very much to all who offered sciatica care advice. I will check out all suggestions. You all are so wonderful. Thanks again.

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