So how will Massachusetts handle a depression?
By adamg - 9/20/08 - 2:53 pm
Susan read the news today, oh boy, about state revenues collapsing and offers some advice:
... Get out the history books boys and girls, some states handled The Great Depression better than others( marginally better) and it's time for a refresher course in how to handle the burgeoning crisis.
The Outraged Liberal is glad the Globe is finally covering the issue, even if two months after the State House News Service first started reporting on it.
Comments
Bring on the Casinos
Let's face it, we are going to need the revenue from casinos (or "racinos") to get through these trying times.
racino
Racino? Please clarify.
race track + casino
Racino refers to some type of race track (dogs, horses) and casino gaming in the same place. I believe Saratoga in NY is a Racino.
I agree with a Racino as
I agree with a Racino as long as it is more then just slots and dog racing. We want the revenue but we dont just want the low end of the spectrum.
I was always for a Casino in East Boston/Revere I think it would have been a huge boon for an area that while close to Boston is always treated differently then the other side of the city (Cambridge, Brookline and the like.) Some really nice casinos, new hotels, new entertainment complexes, restaurants , it would have been really great. The Blue Line is very underutilized on off hours (which could be why it gets shafted on MBTA improvement dollars) and a projct like that would increase blue line usage on weekends and evenings when it drags the most (anyone who has ever waited for a train in Revere later at night can tell you its dead.)
By the time we get our casino approval there wont be any money floating around the system to finance a decent operation and we will end up with some subpar facility. Too bad.
It should be noted...
...that it's the Saratoga harness track that has the slots, not the thoroughbred track.
A different gamble ...
How about robot racing? Give the high tech sector a bump in the process, and leave the dogs and horses out of it.
There used to be a show on
There used to be a show on tv about robot fighting, it looked like a replacement for cock fighting, seems like a similar concept lol.
I wouldnt be opposed to introducing robot racing, maybe it can start at MIT or something and work its way over, but I dont think it would quite catch on. They would essentially be little remote control cars riding around a track, almost like Nascar but without the humans, a toy version of Nascar... I guess it would be more intresting if you added in factors like it had to have legs instead of wheels, or it has to be self guided as opposed to remote controlled but somehow I feel like our technology is not quiote ready for that yet (I just have visions of a pack of roombas racing to the finish line slamming into each other and the walls until one randomly passes the finish line.)
Yes, except...
...no doubt will these robots be oufitted with many LEDs, and wires, enough to make Star Simpson look like Mother Theresa to Homeland Security.
BUT, Swirly, you gave me another idea, a way to switch it around. You know how they put fake bunnies on the inside of tracks for greyhounds to chase? Maybe we could replace the bunny with a breadboard littered with LEDS and wires, and the Bomb Squad people have to chase it around the track.
"Yeah, I'll put fifty bucks on Officer Jones, and a grand for Deputy Diffuser Hermanson to place third."
I mean, if we're going to pay Homeland Security through the nose, we many as well get some entertainment out of it.
Tell us about your
Tell us about your experience on the bomb squad. How does you family deal with knowing that you may not come home at night? Do you have enough life insurance to pay for your children's college education? Do you ever talk to Jeremiah Hurley's family about it?
http://www.odmp.org/officer/269-officer-jeremiah-j.-hurley-jr.
Tell US about your...
...experience, or lack thereof, in taking a sarcastic joke.
Sheesh. Lighten up.