Jo Nielson
-
The Basics
-
Jo on Patch
-
More Stuff
Comments
-
On the article McMillin, VanRaaphorst Will Debate Issues Wednesday Night
-
On the article Livernois Bridge, Too, Will Be Rebuilt This Summer
Jo Nielson
4:13 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
ReplyTwo different cities. Two different city councils.
I don't mind the construction because I know that the end result will be better traffic flow at the intersection of Avon and Livernois. The bridges need fixing and I'm glad the repairs are coming sooner rather than later. The backups on Avon had become insane because people haven't been allowed to use the right lane at the light. I started avoiding that corner long before construction started because it's just a mess, especially at peak travel times. At peak travel times, it's not unusual for cars to be lined up from the light all the way up to the Home Depot and that creates problems for everyone who lives/works around Rochester College. So, I will be glad when the bridges are complete and traffic will get back to "normal".
I know I'm going to hear about how "sacred" the corner of Tienken/Livernois is, but I'm in favor of the roundabout. Traffic flows a lot better at the corner of Hamlin and Livernois than it did in the past. The corner of Tienken/Livernois needs a revamp because Tienken is a mess during peak driving hours. It's a real mess between all the large trucks/school buses/commuters in the mornings/early evening. You can't have it both ways. You can't build businesses in the area and then get ticked off when the traffic starts coming to those locations. A roundabout is a logical solution to keep traffic flowing at the corner.
-
On the article So Far, 28 Rochester School Employees Have Made Plans to Retire, Resign
Jo Nielson
10:51 am on Friday, April 20, 2012
Reply1) Snyder really isn't a radical. What makes him a radical is that he isn't beholden to the extreme right of the Republican party. Tomato - To-mah-to, I guess....
2) Lansing has it's own mess to clean up that has nothing to do with how the Rochester Community Schools are administered. Ultimately, RCS is responsible for how RCS is run. While there's a relationship between the schools and Lansing, we can't confuse their roles in educating our kids. The MDE focuses on schools state-wide, so it isn't like their central focus is what happens in RCS on a day-to-day basis. I don't drive to Lansing when I have a problem with RCS. I go directly to the local school district.
It is just and right to question the Legislative pension system in Lansing, but that really isn't going to solve the problems in the RCS district.
3) A lot of parents are looking for alternative choices for educating their children. That's just reality. Nobody wants an uneducated population, but we differ on how to get there. Insulting people who disagree with Democratic talking points only creates more problems and disharmony.
-
On the article In Troy, Rick Santorum Calls Obama a 'Snob'; Mitt Romney Plays to Home Crowd
Jo Nielson
1:36 pm on Sunday, February 26, 2012
So, it was okay for President Clinton to bomb Iraq in 1998. Even Dems voted for Afghanistan and Iraq, so it's hard to claim a high moral ground there either. I find it odd that the anti-war movement has significantly died down since President Obama took office. And, nobody seems to have problems w/ the fact that we supported going into Libya (and too many people enjoyed seeing the pictures of his dead body on television) and Uganda.
The message a lot of us have gotten is that Dems are only anti-war when the President is a Republican.
Obviously, a lot of people don't want to acknowledge the NDAA was signed into law by President Obama. Designating the US a military zone and allowing the military to capture and jail US citizens without cause or due process isn't what I'd call freedom. That piece of legislation was passed around Christmas time 2010. The vote on it wasn't even close. It passed with large majorities in the House and Senate. And, it needs to be noted that one of the main sponsors in the Senate was our very own Sen. Carl Levin (who, ironically, also issued statements stating a belief that there were WMDs in Iraq). This idea that Dems hold any high moral ground when it comes to war and civil liberties is suspect, at best, and hypocritical, at worst.
-
On the article Michigan 'Power Outsiders' Would Choose Mitt Romney for Nomination
Jo Nielson
4:35 pm on Saturday, February 25, 2012
From what I understand, Mitt is going to allow the free-market to work. Novel idea...
-
On the article McMillin Voices Support for Santorum
Jo Nielson
1:31 pm on Friday, February 24, 2012
Reply"Either you are for us or against us" seems to be the motto both Parties have adopted. Where are the pro-life Democrats? How many blue-dog Democrats have lost their seats or retired since 2010? The message has gone out that conservative Democrats are just as treacherous as moderate Republicans. Ignore it at your peril.
Just because you choose not to agree with my values and my faith doesn't make my values/faith any less valid than yours (if you choose to have faith). Too many people seem to think that it's okay to force their values on me and just can't understand why I fight back when I say I don't agree with you. I'd like to believe that people don't want tyranny from either the right or the left. However, based on the comments I've seen from both the Left and the Right (on this and other forums), I have a hard time believing either Party can say they have a monopoly on tolerance w/a straight-face. A person can believe they are tolerant, but the truth is always seen in words and deeds.
-
On the article UPDATE: Campaign Briefs – Gingrich Skips Michigan; Romney, Santorum 'Neck and Neck'
Jo Nielson
8:31 am on Thursday, February 23, 2012
Both the Left and the Right have people who want to mandate how they live their lives. Some of us resent it when it comes from either party. Taxing people to get them to behave the way they want them to is still social control. What are you doing to stop the Left from trying to exert the same social engineering on society? (I'm really not expecting an answer.....BTW).....
We've got Ron Paul....who do you have on your side calling people out?
-
On the article Santorum Stresses Country Foundations, Family in Novi Speech
Jo Nielson
5:01 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
Tamera - Keep reading your Bible! We need all the prayers we can get! 8-)
1) It is fair to say that some of our founders weren't Christians; however, they didn't overtly try to convert colonists to another tradition. They realized that there was a spiritual part to humanity, even if they didn't explain it as "Christian".
2) A lot of government buildings in DC have the 10 commandments engraved somewhere in the sculptures of the building, even if they were designed in a Greco-Roman style. A lot of the art has religious themes. It's not as simple as some would make it out to be.
3) The church has historically played a role in social activism. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr came out of the church and led the Civil Rights movement. Both the Prohibition/Anti-Slavery movements used churches to make their cases to communities. The fact is that the church wasn't just about "religion," (back in the day) but it was also a place where people shared ideas. We have other ways of doing that now.
4) To understand Western culture, you need to understand church history. Church history isn't always pretty (i.e. the crusades), but that shouldn't negate the good things that the church has done. A lot of cultural references are Biblical, so even if you don't "believe", it is still helpful to know the Bible.
-
On the article Santorum Stresses Country Foundations, Family in Novi Speech
Jo Nielson
1:11 pm on Monday, February 20, 2012
For some people, religion is irrelevant. Sadly, religious bigotry still exists and we'd be neglectful if we didn't point it out. For most people, Christian isn't a dirty word, but for some people it is. (Or insert another faith for Christianity)
Most people want reasonable boundaries when they talk about the separation of church and state and current interpretations of this idea go too far towards the secular. None of our candidates are talking about wanting a "state" religion. Most people don't care how others worship. This whole thing is about tolerance.
People want to feel like their society will tolerate them, even though they are traditional and religious. They want to feel like they and their culture has a place in our multi-ethnic, diverse society.
Too many people feel like their values, culture, and traditions are being marginalized. That's why people get so emotional when it comes to this issue. They value that our ancestors came here for religious freedom and then our culture tells them that they can't say a little prayer at their kid's high school graduation.
As for Rick, he's not handing out religious pamphlets or directing people to the nearest Catholic church for conversion purposes.
-
On the article Santorum Stresses Country Foundations, Family in Novi Speech
Jo Nielson
3:53 pm on Friday, February 17, 2012
ReplyWhy would it be such a problem if the founders were Christian? Washington was a Methodist. Does that make him any less great as a man? Does that somehow diminish his accomplishments? Judging an 18th century man by 21st century standards is dangerous because the founders were men of their time.
Everyone needs to remember that even if Rick gets elected, he'll need Congress to actually write the legislation to make some of the changes he wants. If one of the branches of Congress is Dem, then he's going to have a hard time passing anything. It takes a lot to undo legislation/regulation, so I'm not overly paranoid about him sitting in the Oval office. We have checks and balances. We have separation of powers for a reason. It's been a relatively recent phenomenon that the Executive branch has exerted more power over the others. Given how divided the country is nobody is going to be surprised if he gets blow-back when he tries to implement his ideas. It's just how the process works.
Jo Nielson
10:57 am on Tuesday, October 2, 2012
When only 7 people show up at the city council meeting in RH to prove to the rest of us that LGBT civil rights are being violated, it's kind of obvious that this isn't a divisive issue for the majority of people who live in our community and could, legitimately, be classified as a fringe. 7 people out of how many who live in the city????? I mean, that's not even a single percentage (1%) of voters in the whole city. Now, if the numbers increased and it wasn't all the same people at the meetings month after month, I could be persuaded to reconsider labeling it as "fringe."
Sadly, it's really the fringes of both parties that want to sit there and dictate these sorts of things to the rest of us. There's plenty of blame to go around for both parties on these things.
A lot of Dems want to force everyone be just as open-minded and tolerant as they are and a lot of Reps want to force everyone to into sharing their morals and become as righteous as they think they are.....and neither can figure out why so many people are deciding to declare themselves independent of both. Most people are really somewhere in the middle when it comes these issues. Most people aren't tolerant of discrimination, but there's a disconnect between those who say that this is this "huge" problem and the average citizen - who doesn't attend city council meetings and barely registers that Rochester/Rochester Hills are actually two different cities.