Nietzsche by a wide margin

.

one needs to hire a electrician that is somewhat above the mean in their understanding

several possibilities, hot neutral, aluminum wiring[gaping]. somebody cross wiring a neutral and positive

I'm 65, missed the last couple of meetings do to other commitments but plan to attend

I've worked in the field of urban construction for 45 yrs or so, and I think qwern's point is well taken. Urban planning meetings are complex affairs involving many competing interests. To expect a group of humans, with differing agendas to always make rational decisions is not going to happen in the near term. Until something is worked out to improve human thinking and decision making we'll have to keep muddling along. Having worked with it I am amazed we do as well as we do.

give mobipocket a try, with the annotation pane open very convenient for note taking/highlighting, been using this on a notebook with a pixel qi screen for a couple of months, user friendly combination hihttp://www.mobipocket.com/en/downloadsoft/productdetailsreader.asp http://www.pixelqi.com/

I'm not sure, I could do that. I work in a highly regulated business. Urban housing has a range of zoning and technical regulations 90% of which work 100% of the time. The other 10% seen like normal considerations, changes in fashion and legacy issues that are always being resolved. For me a general case for or against regulation wouldn't map on to my experience of the world.

In my view signalling a strong view for or against regulation suggests the need to properly think through the idea of contexts. The situation in which a regulation is applied is essential to determining its usefulness. For example; in my business we have had serious and expensive problems with substandard copper pipe imported from under-regulated manufacturers. Short term cost advantages turned into long term cost disadvantages. The difference at the initial construction end was less than $500.00. A re-pipe, in a condominium development costs between $50,000 and $100,000 per unit. In this case deregulation didn’t work. There are many counterexamples, the point I’m trying to make is that unless you are prepared to delve into the specifics the general case for/against regulation is not all that useful.

"most of the time you’ll end up doing more harm than good",

its the most of the time assumption that I have the most difficulty with, what's your base rate?

"and the next time won’t be much different from the last time." seems like an arbitrary application of the planning fallacy, why is it any different if you do or you don't?

other examples, Mondragon Corporation and many private companies have democratic decision policies

and old retired guys, see you there