I was given a great gift — but see below — to travel throughout California the last week, by land and by air over the state. It was hard to determine whether the natural beauty of the landscape or the ingenuity of our ancestors was the more impressive. The Sierra is still snow-locked and towers in white above a lush valley floor below. The lakes of the 1912 Big Creek Hydroelectric Project — Shaver, Huntington, and the still snowbound Edison and Florence above — belong in Switzerland. The squares of grapes and trees below look like a vast lush checkerboard from above.
I prefer the beauty of the Napa and Sonoma valleys to Tuscany; the former lacks only the majestic Roman and Renaissance history of the Italian countryside. Human genius in just a half-century has almost matched 2500 years of Italian viticulture. The California coast — the hills, beaches, and landscape — could be in the Peloponnese and easily stands the comparison. When early summer finally comes to the state in late spring, as it did last week, the result is almost divine: warmth and light without high humidity, daily rains, or high winds.
They say the Central Valley is the ugliest part of the state; I disagree. Last week from my great-great-grandmother’s upstairs balcony I could see snow capped mountains tower just thirty miles away; in-between were millions of green trees and vines and the water towers of small towns in every direction. Nothing in Spain or southern France is prettier. A man would have to be mad to leave such beauty, and the brilliant work of his predecessors who as artists built the dams and canals, laid out the agrarian patchwork, founded these communities that serve as bookends to the works of architectural and municipal genius in San Francisco, or Los Angeles and San Diego. Yes, a man would have to be mad — or quite rational — to leave paradise lost.
You see, here is the situation in California. Tens of thousands of prisoners are scheduled by a U.S. Supreme Court order to be released. But why this inability to house our criminals when we pay among the highest sales, income, and gas taxes in the nation? Too many criminals? Too few new prisons? Too high costs per prisoner? Too many non-violent crimes that warrant incarceration? God help us when they are released. We know what crime is like now; what will it be like if thousands are let go? I doubt they will end up in the yards of the justices who let them out.
I think I have a clue to what’s ahead. Here is an aside, a sort of confession of my last six months in the center of our cry-the-beloved state:
December 2011: rear-ended by a texting driver; I called 9/11 and the police; she called “relatives” who arrived in two carloads. You get the picture. Luckily the police got there before her “family” did, and cited her. Still waiting to fix the dented truck.
March 2011: riding a bike in rural California, flipped over a “loose dog,” resulting in assorted injuries. Residents — well over 10 in various dwellings —claimed ignorance about the dogs outside their homes: no licenses, no vaccinations, no leashes, no fence. Final score: them: slammed door and shrugs; me: ruined bike, injuries, and a long walk home.
May 2011: two males drive in “looking to buy scrap metal.” They are politely told to leave. That night barn is burglarized and $1200 in property stolen.
Later May 2011: a female drives in van into front driveway with four males, “just looking to rent” neighbor’s house. They leave. Only later I learn they earlier came in the back way and had forced their way in, prying the back driveway gate, springing and bending armature.
Later May 2011: shop is burglarized — both bolt and padlock knocked off. Shelves stripped clean. It is the little things like this that aggravate Californians, especially when lectured not to sweat it by the academics on the coast and the politicians in Sacramento.
NB: I have been hit three times in the last 10 years: 1) driver ran stop sign, slammed into my truck, limped off, was run down and detained by me until police arrived; 2) speeding driver hit a mattress in the road (things such as that are rarely tied down by motorists in California), swerved, was hit, did a 180, braked, but still hit me at 45 mph head-on (survived due to the air bags of the Honda Accord); 3) rear-ended as explained above. But this time your wiser author, when the car rear-ended me at 50 mph, was driving a four-wheel-drive Toyota Tundra with huge tow bar in back; the texter was driving a Civic. Nuff said.
Such is life 180 miles — and a cosmos away — from the Stanford campus.
Be careful out there in traffic and around the farm. We need you.
“They say the Central Valley is the ugliest part of the state; I disagree.”
Well, you need to buy new glasses then. As a Southern California resident I often drive to the Bay Area to visit friends and relatives in S.F., Marin, and Sonoma. After you get over the Grapevine and descend into the valley you Know you are in quite a different world. You stop at these little gas stations with markets in the middle of nowhere and you wonder where the 400 pound clerk behind the register lives. Then you notice the trailer way out in the back. Sad.
Yep, this is Red Territory, Republican represented territory (yes, such a thing exists in CA), it is the Central Valley and poverty abounds. It is gross. It stinks. It is disgusting. And were it not for the fact that I like bringing my dogs with me (they hate flying) I would really rather just avoid this part of the state. So, I fill up the tank in Grapevine, roll up the windows, and drive right through if I can. Generally, I have to make one stop for the dogs, but other than that the valley is a blur.
Most of the problems mentioned in the article are not things that I am not accustomed to seeing or experiencing where I live and I don’t expect that to change with the release of these prisoners. The California I know and love is still the Golden State. If California isn’t the Golden State to those in the Central Valley, I could care less.
It is because of sneering, condescending liberal elitists like yourself who scurry from liberal enclave to liberal enclave looking down on the rest of us peasants as you drive by in your eco correct prius, that California is facing the on-rushing catastrophe which will result in an economic and societal meltdown. The Central Valley is spectacularly beautiful and more importantly enables fools like yourself to be able to drive down to the local supermarket in that oasis of civilization Southern California (courtesy of that evil Big Oil) and buy enough food to sustain your rarified life. Your very life depends on the vibrancy of the Central Valley and yet you chose to denigrate it. Your intellectual firepower is underwhelming.
The article was speaking directly to and about people like yourself, who have destroyed this state. Your arrogance and willful ignorance have blinded you to reality and will be your downfall. When the final collapse occurs and it will, who do you think those released felons are going to be visiting first to take what they want? Elitists like yourself or self reliant Republicans out in the “sticks”. You are clueless. When the time comes don’t look to us dumb Republicans and peasants to bail your butt out.
Just because I’m, as you say, a “sneering, condescending liberal elitist” doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use the gun (or two) that I own for self protection. However, communities are protected as their tax base allows. Mine is doing just fine in that area. But thanks. California will be just fine. The only problem you seem to have with California is that we hate fascist Republicans like you, which is why you can’t win an election. Moreover, speaking of elections, looks like the Dems just picked up NY 26. Solid GOP territory. Looks like America is through with its frivolous flirting with fascism. They said loud and clear, “hands off our Medicare.”
Don’t worry, soon ALL fascist Republicans will be long gone, and you will have to deal with the reconquista on your own Mr metro male. All those fat, ugly Hispanic workers you loath that you welcomed into OTHER peoples communities will be showing up on your doorstep. They will be hungry and they will help themselves to you and yours. Smug Liberals like you never learn, you are just too special to not know everything already. Anything that goes wrong is someone elses fault. Once your servant class of Mexicans has taken over, do you think they will allow you to keep your lifestyle? The militant Mexican groups have made it quite clear what they intend to do with you. Just don’t come to Colorado, your ilk isn’t welcome here.
People who call Republicans “fascists” are ignorant fools with no grasp of history, no subtlety in rhetoric and unfortunately are legion in blue states. You’re an arrogant preening jackass who will deserve it when your delusional welfare state crashes down on your head.
Of course, Praetorian doesn’t mention that the Copperheads ran under false colors there.
pratorian u are wrong about facist republicans. fascisim is socialism, i really doubt u are close to being a pratorian. u immediately resort to name calling. ie facisist. u and people like u have screwed up califorinia for thew past 50 years. ur financial situation is caused by the people u elect to office. u elected a kennedy brother-in-law for ur govenor, did that help ur state ? to bad u didnt build more prisons. the criminals that will be turned loose, to prey upon society again, probably will vist ur neighborhood. invite them in for tea and bisquits.
Bit of a measure of the definitive thicker-than-two-planks stupidity of thugs like y’all that you have no idea fascism is but modified Marxism. Of the nature of that imposed upon My America these past hundred-odd years by the ilk of the 20%-Hard-Leftard savants that comprise the vast recidivist, lying, looting, thieving, traitorous, RICO-racketeering, organized-criminal gangs known “collective-istly” as the modern national socialist mobbed-up workers’ and gangsters’ “Democratic” potty.
Some might be tempted to dismiss this as an oxymoron, but it’s really not, considering the term, “Republican” to mean those who claim that party affiliation, rather than the deeper meaning of one who values the principles of the Founding Fathers.
Nor is it a factual error – there certainly ARE fascist Republicans. (We usually call them RINOs.)
But taken as a percentage, Democrats have FAR more fascists among them than do Republicans.
In fact, I can’t think of a leading modern Democrat who is NOT a fascist.
I can remember when that was not true, but over the last 30 or 40 years, the terms have almost become synonymous.
I hate to break your bubble there brain dead, but NY 26 isn’t representative of the United States…however the November 2010 results do indicate a growing trend. Sentient individuals would consider that a wake up call, which explains your over blown sense of self worth and elitism. Criminals have cars, most likely stolen, and guns, most likely stolen. One elitist snob with 2 guns isn’t much use when confronting a mob. I also question your ability with a weapon much louder than your mouth. You’ll cry, wet your panties and shakily dial 911. You’d be wiser to call ServPro to come clean up your remains.
Yeah, sure, Patrician. Hang on to those guns while you can, ’cause our beautiful California government is ready to spend YOUR tax dollars taking ‘em away from you. Current bills to:
Outlaw open carry of firearms– AB 144, with CCW available only to celebs or California legislators [SB 610]
Restrict most ammunition sales: AB 124
Of course, all those recently released inmates WON’T be paying such close attention to the new laws when they show up in your front yard.
I hear Florida’s getting more and more affordable these days…
“doesn’t mean I don’t know how to use the gun (or two) that I own for self protection”
Ahh, so your a gigantic two-faced hypocrite too.
“California will be just fine.”
So, no Federal bailouts? Man, that’s great!
(um, can we have that in writing please)
Well said sir/madam! Well said!
Take some small comfort in the fact that smug elitist leftists like this guy are highly unlikely to survive the consequences of their very bad ideas. If history’s any indicator, they’ll be among the first to go.
I presume you don’t live in Los Angeles either. I don’t know where your mythical Golden State is, but it sure isn’t in the LA metroplex.
There are bad sections in all big cities. L.A. has them for sure. However, there are many beautiful communities in L.A. Generally, I make a point of staying west of the 5, west of the 405 even better. Does that clear things up?
Clears things up for me, you miserable bastard. I bet I live a mile from you. As you proceed north toward the Grapevine for your little dog walk in SF, you get to go past the Sunset Blvd overpass. Construction has destroyed traffic on the 405 for a year and there are two years to go. This miserable state government is taking longer to fix an 80 yd overpass than it did to build THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE
And as far as elections go: you and the socialist utopia that destroyed this state are the ones on the way out, not conservatives. You spent all of our money and your dog’s inheritance, too. Here’s a word for you, one you picked up between your Alinski and transgendered history lessons in the People’s Republic of Santa Monica: SUSTAINABILITY. YOU HAVE SPENT ALL THE MONEY. Idiot.
Los Angeles is a PIT. Ask the paramedic who was beaten nearly to death for wearing a Giant’s shirt to a Dodger game what he things about this city. There is the perfect analogy of this town for you: a man who saves lives for a living given brain damage by career gangsters for watching a baseball game. Probably they called him a fascist as they kicked his head in. People like you have a habit of using words you do not understand.
I can’t get over the hostility of the comments. VDH was pointing to a general breakdown of law and order, of widespread corruption pervasive in the State. With trepidation I direct you to my last blog that takes up the moral quandary posed by these conditions, where the law seems hopelessly corrupt or unenforced. http://clarespark.com/2011/05/20/the-mentalist-melville-blake-and-israel/. Note that “The Mentalist” is set in Sacramento, and takes up the same moral issues that are found in VDH’s article.
That, actually, does clear a lot of things up. ‘West of the 405′ is codespeak in la-la-land. It means where the rich white people live, generally in their gated communities. Heck, it was even used in an episode of Entourage.
I live West of the 405 too. But I’m the one who doesn’t vote for Waxman.
name two cities , hell name one
Funny, because us Californians who don’t live in LowCal typically view your neck of the woods as a sordid, polluted, sprawling dystopia full of pornographers, desperate out-of-work actors, pea-brained in-work actors, and shallow upper-middle class dolts who can’t possibly fathom living somewhere without access to decent sushi.
Every time I fly in to L.A. from back east, and we go from the desolate but gorgeous Mojave to the green central valley…only to fly into the brown and black dead zone of the L.A. basin, my first thought is “it looks like this particular part of the state has cancer.”
Los Angeles…the malignant tumor of California. Great slogan for the tourism commercials!
Come to Texas! (Not you Praetorian. Not even Austin.)
Who said I live in L.A.? Not that that;’s bad. I live along the coast North of San Diego. Nothing but yoga and meditation centers, organic restaurants, etc., you get the picture. Paradise, plain and simple.
I don’t care where you live. Just don’t preach about a better way of living.
“Nothing but yoga and meditation centers, organic restaurants, etc., you get the picture. Paradise, plain and simple.”
That says more about you than you could possibly imagine…..
Along the North Coast of San Diego, the Elitist snob lives in an area of make believe and self-indulgent excess. The California of your dreams is inhabited by wealthy dilettantes who pride themselves in doing nothing useful or practical; unless, you consider yoga and meditation practical.
California has a ticking time bomb, it is commonly called the illegal alien. Eventually, after enough of those dreaded businesses have left and California’s tax base has shrunk to the point that it must tax the estates of the wealthy, you will feel the pinch before the shove. California will soon be bankrupt from supporting the ever growing mob of Mexican Nationals and your erotic dream time will be over.
Oh those people who live in the shacks and trailers in the Central Valley and the deserts, they are not the once that will destroy your dreams, they work: it is the ones that you support with your entitlement programs, the ones who don’t work, they are the ones bringing about the destruction of the once fourth largest economy in the world.
Buy those votes with welfare money and appease your trust fund guilt complex; soon, within your lifetime, the house of cards will fall all around you and the only ones I will laugh at or the Elitist Dilettantes like yourself.
Let’s see…you claim you live on the California coast and you enjoy yoga, meditation, and organic restaurants.
You reflexively call Republicans “fascists”.
You apparently live in a nice, “protected” community.
Protected from what, pray tell? Hordes of the filthy, unwashed GOP-leaners in Bakersfield? Or the Mexicans that aren’t there to trim your hedges?
What’s next? Are you going to claim that Obama is a “thoughtful centrist”?
Now I’m convinced that you don’t actually exist. You can’t make up a better elitist snob than that.
LOL
Lived in that area for a long time. It’s a paradise, if you’re a trustafarian who doesn’t really have to be anywhere in particular. For commuters, not so much. And it’s one of the best parts of CA.
Surfing in North County was great, before the yoga yuppies all showed up and decided to fill the water with flotsam. Then, when you get back to your car and it isn’t there because it’s on the way to TJ to get parted out, or it’s there but some peace-loving hippie broke the windows to steal some change…
I miss the place, sometimes, until I realize that what I miss was the place 25 years ago, not now.
“Nothing but yoga and meditation centers, organic restaurants, etc., you get the picture. Paradise, plain and simple.”
LOL…It’s hard to believe this is not just calculated trolling. If, incredibly, it’s sincere then Praetorian is truly a five star a**hole. I lived in southern Marin County for many years and am well acquainted with the type but I still find it amazing that anyone could consciously, freely choose to be so completely free of character, soul and integrity.
And everyone had a grand time at the ball, until that fellow with the Red Mask showed up.
Northern San Diego county and orange county are republican strong holds. Go to South east San Diego and National city to find Democratic Utopias but don’t go at night.
Oh, come now. It’s not like he’s hiding his smug sense of entitlement. He calls himself ‘Praetorian’ for heck’s sake. He’s a defender of the throne, and in historical context specifically a defender of unilateral, militaristic paternalism. Hence his constant projection of the word ‘fascist’.
@Praetorian – your smug blindness and total disregard for anything beyond your tiny precious enclaves is entirely typical of liberals across the country. You’re like a nobleman in the midst of a famine who gets fat on his serfs’ seed grain, without any thought of the future or fear for the reprocussions. It’s people like you who have destroyed California, New York, etc.
Just stay the hell out of Texas.
This is an example of one reason why I left the Democrat party. The Democrats of today look down on the working people. They are amazing snobs. Snobbery is one thing I just can’t tolerate.
From Frank Herbert, author of Dune: Scratch the surface of a liberal and you’ll find an aristocrat.
Frank Herbert was one of the most under appreciated geniuses of the last century. His work on Dune will eventually be called the greatest socio-political treatise since Machiavelli, which is what Dune is, Machiavelli’s “the Prince” extended into a technological age.
The coming crash of California is inevitable, say a native son (me). I left their with several other natives 30 years ago & never looked back. The liberal culture is 100% self-destructive at personal and community levels, it is a train wreck in the making for decades. California’s economy is so massive it will take a while longer to die completely, but die it will. The resulting mayhem will rock the financial foundations of the entire world when THAT massive beastie hits the ground for the last time.. Thanks Liberals.
What a brilliant parody of an elitist liberal Californian.
I do believe that you and I are the only ones who get the joke.
If “satire” is what it is, it fails because it doesn’t sufficiently mock its target. It only irritates its audience by amplifying the tedious abrasiveness of the type of a-hole who actually says the sorts of things Praetorian is saying.
I bet Praet is a realtor.
What Praetorian heard:
“Ask not what you can do for your country, but what your country can do for you!”
Wait till you have kids instead of dogs.
As for “you get what you pay for” in police protection, how much do you have to pay to get them to enforce law in the barrio/ghetto? It’s a free for all there in my little LA suburb.
I doubt this individual and its long time male companion are interested in their having own children since adoption is so time consuming, and the biology just isn’t there.
Wait till you have kids instead of dogs.
And how much do you have to pay your police before they write traffic tickets and enforce housing codes in the barrio/ghetto too?
First they came for the Jews — but I was not a Jew ….
But they’ll be by for the Praetorians — and he’ll be on his own!
“So, I fill up the tank in Grapevine, roll up the windows, and drive right through if I can. Generally, I have to make one stop for the dogs, but other than that the valley is a blur.”
Under most circumstances I adhere to the tried-and-true formulation “Don’t feed the trolls.” However this post reeks of such preening elitist narcsissism and simple-minded blockheadedness that it MUST be a fake. No reasonably intelligent human being could possibly want to express himself in any public forum in this manner. This is clearly a Soros-type plant intended to get under the skin those who appreciate VDH and his analysis of Golden State issues. If it isn’t then Praetorian must be the most monumental ass in the state of California. (Quite a trick considering the competition.)
…. No reasonably intelligent Human being could possibly want to express himself in any public forum in this manner ….
True. No reasonably intelligent Human being could.
But since Woodrow Wilson every Socialist International-serving Military-morphed-into-Greenzilla Industrial Complex-subordinate national socialist mobbed-up-workers’ and RICO-racketeering gangsters’”Democratic” potty-fronting girly-boy: Roosevelt; Kennedy; Johnson; Carter; co-serial-rapist Cli’tons and Buraq Hussayn included and their every propagandist “press” panderer and Hollywood lickspittle has so expressed himself.
If the Central Valley so detests you, perhaps you should restrict your north-south travels to US-101, and you can enjoy Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and San Jose.
I’m sure the despised denizens of that fore-lorn stretch of I-5 will not miss your pseudo-presence.
Also, you could stop in Soledad to help re-hab some of the poor miscreants incarcerated there (wrongly, of course).
This guys yanking your chains and we are taking the bait. Just ignore him and he will click his heels three times, where you will see him traipsing down the yellow brick road looking for the wizard of oz.
Your ignorance speaks volumes. I lived throughout Los Angeles for over 20 years (Valencia, Pasadena, Hollywood, Northridge and Palos Verdes) and lived in the Central Valley (Tulare) for almost 10. To base an opinion on the Central Valley based on the I-5 corridor from L.A. to San Francisco is like judging Los Angeles based on driving the I-5 to the 210.
How very Mary Antoinette of you! LOL!!!!
The comment by Pretorian sounds like parody to me but perhaps he is serious.
About four years ago, friends from England, were stopping in California on their way home from Hong Kong. I had been inviting them to visit for years. They had a week and had never been to California. Where did we go ? We skipped Los Angeles as it has grossly declined sine I first saw it in 1956. We drove up the interstate 5 over the Tejon Pass and through the Central Valley to Yosemite. I told them that this was the real engine of California prosperity, not Hollywood. We stayed in Yosemite two nights and they got to see a bear. We then drove to the Bay Area and stayed in a rat hole hotel in Berkley. Don’t trust internet ratings. From there, after a visit to the city of San Francisco, where they got to see one of the frequent gay festivals with all its oddities, we drove to Sonoma, the first capitol of the state. We visited wineries and spent a day at Jack London’s estate. I thought they saw the best California had to offer.
COULD’T care less. Why is this so hard for people to get right?????
Praetorian drank the Kool-aid
Folks, it’s important to remember that Pricktorean is distracting from the real issue: the state is being compelled to release the 46,000 Felons by a majority of the United States Supreme Court. That majority is a simple result of Obama’s perverse appointment of TWO utterly unqualified chowderheads. Kagan and Sotomayor were chosen NOT for any legal expertise, but for their conspicuous loyalty to Marxist Doctrine. Even moreso for guaranteed malleability to whatever insane destructive direction Urkle passes along from Mr. Soros.
Funny, I can’t help recalling that a certain figurehead in a well-known teutonic state that arose in mitteleuropa in the 4th decade of the 20th century pulled an identical trick:
Release vicious criminals from prison, and give them freedom to assault and murder anyone the leadership wants to intimidate and silence.
The great thing about that strategy is that the Administration gets to claim “It wasn’t US, it was those rascally ex-convicts!
You state:
“You stop at these little gas stations with markets in the middle of nowhere and you wonder where the 400 pound clerk behind the register lives. Then you notice the trailer way out in the back. Sad. ”
I could not agree more with your desdain for the working poor. Don’t they know that there are government welfare programs and government projects?
So let me understand. They are poor because they are Republican-represented. You mean your Democrat-controlled legislature discrimates agaisnt people who voted for the wrong party – as did Paris Glendening in Maryland and (arguably) Barack Obama in Washington – even though all pay their salaries? That’s the best argument for shrinking government that I know.
BTW, both Obama and Glendening were college professors, as was Clinton. Do you think surviving the cut-throat academic environment breeds immoral people (or attracts them)?
NOTE: I don’t mean to generalize among all professors. My Dad was a professor at a small, private, religiously affiliated university, and neither he nor his school fit the stereotype. (They couldn’t afford to grant tenure, anyway, and the professors actually taught.)
Victor: Why don’t you run for CA governor?
Why would he want the headache?
VDH, I understand the loyalty to land held for so long, but why do you stay?
I moved to California in 1968 and, except for college, was determined never to leave. Yet I changed my mind four years ago and I’ve never been happier. California’s a lost cause.
Jim, where did you move to? I’m also wanting to get out. Have witnessed a faked accident, tolerate daily trauma from my neighbors, am discriminated against by California law that forces employers to prefer non-Caucasians.
Thanks.
Tom
Where is ‘Snake Plissken’ when we need him?
Hah! Indeed. I wonder how many will appreciate your insight.
I thought he was dead.
It would be interesting to hear about what the voting trends are municipally. There are such direct consequences when it’s local, that I wonder if that would provide a glimpse into attitudes in the state of California.
Here in Toronto, thankfully, there’s a sense of getting our ____ (act) together. Where there was construction blocking major city arteries, magically, progress has accelerated, and traffic can flow again. For the last 5 – 8 years, there were two seasons in this city – winter, and construction. And in a manner, that literally shut down huge sections of the city, with seemingly no logistics to maintaining flow. Traffic has resumed, grid lock abated, and there’s even hope that what have to be the worst road conditions in the cities’ history will even improve.
This of course is anecdotal, and from “far, far, away” in Toronto, but it seems that there is a want for function, rather than esoteric notions of what ought to be and initiatives having nothing to do with everyday life. The former city councilors, perched from on high, gave no time and attention to the lowly mundane elements of everyday responsibilities of the job – simliar to the ‘coastal academics’.
Is this “change” we heard about from Barry O (the now Irishman with the missing apostrophe) happening in an unexpected manner!?… and in spite of him rather than because of him!?
If so, then maybe there can be hope.
Not for California.
The death grip of the public employee unions is absolute.
There is no hope.
I just saw “Gran Torino”.
Are you going to have to move, due to the “Mexifornication” of the Golden State?
Too many parts of California are essentially becoming third world “countries”.
Maybe you should hire some reliable guards, to protect your property.
Gated community, anyone?
Most of the nicer communities in CA have good protection because the tax base supports it. You get what you pay for.
So only the rich suburbs should be protected by the state?
Didn’t take long for you show your true self leftie. Let them eat cake!
No, I said you get what you pay for. Different communities have different priorities.
You are paying for a public employee unions that skim part of the check-off to elect Dems. If you are a Dem, its great!
Others may feel that taxes should pay for public safety rather than the Dem party.
Praetorian (glib nitwit) – Are you kin to Rabbi Tony Jutner?
‘You get what you pay for.’
Since, as you’ve repeatedly reminded us, you are a student, you pay for none of it. Even if you have a part time job, you don’t approach the taxpayer’s share of educating you and in the state system by the evidence of your complete lack of critical thinking, appreciation for cause and effect, and general personal irresponsibility, the California taxpayer is not going to recover much of their investment. You’ve whined in this forum on several occasions about how unfair it is that you’ll graduate with student loans, (the rest of the country’s taxpayers are looking at a bad return on that investment), when by RIGHTS, (according to you and your girlfriend), you should have your education completely subsidized.
Yet you and your dogs have the wherewithal to take repeated trips north through the central valley. Wishing your gas were government paid for when you stop at that gas station with the trailer out back you mentioned. The one with the ‘fascist republican’ who works for a living.
You’re a load, praetorian. A burden to the taxpayer. As someone else aptly said, someone who demands, as his right, to eat the seed corn. You’d be nothing but a classic self-parody if it were not for the fact that there are so many other progressive loads like you in California. All of them voting other peoples money into maintaining their pocket utopias.
We know much about the decay in California, but thousands of ex-cons on the loose, like rampaging Vandals and Visigoths, gives the situation a sort of neo-medieval feel. Best of luck to you, professor.
VDH, California is in a death spiral. They tore down paradise and put up a larking spot.
The landscape is breathtaking, which is bittersweet, since our breath is the only taking not done by the corrupt legislature and the Constitution-busting court system. As the only thing they haven’t taken from us, at least we have something to give to the natural beauty they have not yet destroyed in the name of “saving” it.
The 9th Circus appellate land of magical fairies and pixie dust and magic wands…that scold us into their private hallucinogenic “redistributive” law of this land…furthers the deterioration of one of the richest natural lands gifted to this world.
And the railway to nowhere is designed (as are the INTENTIONALLY inflated gas prices) to get us off the roads and to stop burning those awful, dreadful, global heating devices…car engines. Except nobody is going to use the stupid thing. It will go broke just like every other imbecilic “save the world” hoax that leftists cook up.
We can’t house criminals and we can’t educate students because we do not have the interests of law and order and education at the head of our priority list. We have instead the advancement of union “workers’ party” favors, the protection of non-citizens over citizens, and the “redistribution” of law, money, natural resources and rights…to the “victims” of “oppression”.
Except, of course…during campaign season…where our fearless leader travels to an equally broke Ireland to sip Guinness and get in touch with his inner “typical white person”, to whom he apparently has learned to talk in soothing tones so as to eliminate their fears that this country is going to hell in a handbasket.
Very well stated!
“They tore down paradise and put up a larking spot.”
I can improve on that: “They paved Paradise and put up a garbage dump.”
(Come to think of it, why hasn’t anyone turned that song into a parody of California’s ruin?)
In another note: have any of you ever watched “Designed to Sell” on HGTV? It seems to be that, of all the makeover shows taped in the LA area, about a fourth of the people selling their houses have intentions to move here to Texas! Have you noticed that?
For the price many of them sell their houses or condos in CA, they could buy a much bigger house here.
Feel free to improve upon it.
1)They depraved Paradise and elected the whole barking lot.
2)They craved Paradise and created all decay and rot.
3)They enslaved Paradise and grew only potholes and pot.
4) They shaved Paradise and skimmed all they could off the top.
Mix and match any and all of the above. They all work, because they are all true
Truly insprired!
“1)They depraved Paradise and elected the whole barking lot.”
OK, cf, I had to stop reading this thread right there, to tell you that you are a genius!
Very good.
Doctor,
Thanks. Compared to the beltway elite writers like Krauthammer, you are refreshing. The eastern elite have no clue what is going on in California, and worse even if they knew they would do nothing and say nothing.
I strongly agree. And the eastern elites, including pseudo-conservatives like Krauthammer, are often pretty clueless about other parts of the country and the world also.
How dare you call Mr. Krauthammer a “pseudo-conservative”?
Hmmm. Wait a minute – I may have just figured it out.
Maybe you dare say it because it’s true?
Yeah, that’s probably it.
Conservative? Mondale’s former speechwriter?
I like his viewpoints because he backs up his arguments with very little emotion and lot of horse sense. In five years, if the conservative movement fails, he’ll be all over us as he is all over Obama and Pelosi now.
This is largely why our southern border is open. The Democrats racially demagogue the issue and so do the Beltway Republicans. In fact, it gives east coast Republicans a chance to get their politically correct groove on so they can win points with their Democrat colleagues and friends in the media. “I’m not like those ‘nativist’ rubes in the West. I just love dropping by Juan’s Cantina for some truly authentic chipotle then driving back to my gated community. I even speak a little Spanish with the busboy! See! Not racist!” I hate the isolated, elitist leeches in both parties.
If they did know, you might be overstating the effort they’d apply and what they’d do.
(meant as a reply to ‘Rotus’)
We are told that democrat party represents the little guy, and is the go-to party to schtick it to the rich, those rich who don’t pay taxes. So much for that-
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h_lsGu-CZemZAKDvXZTHp_2pVrQg?docId=198b9a7d2b8744c4b38fb3832bb4026a
The only thing that seems to advance is the gay agenda in public or corporate life.
A friend of mine works for a defense contractor in another large state, and the company policy is to provide company benefits to both same-sex partners who work there, and yet, mysteriously, deny them to the partners who are hetero, but are not formally married.
Seeing as how much business is done with the federal government, this defense contractor feels the need to comply with national government custom in this area, due to the political pressure involved. Same sex marriage is pitched to us as a “civil rights” issue, but it’s all about the benefits.
Add to that that the company had all it’s employees sign a statement saying they agreed with the company’s policy regarding same sex benefits policy. A loyalty oath, if you will. To double team them pre-emptively if by chance the issue ever comes up in some “legal” format in future.
If the Delta Smelt ever is “proven” to co-habitate in same-sex partnerships, I take it their partners will be eligible for government benefits as well.
Dr. Hanson,
Your love for California is obvious but enough is enough. Come live with us in the mid-west (except IL) and plains where the end is not so close.
Yes, these are merely dismissible “non-violent property crimes” or negligence, with much luck nothing worse happened. If it were a young woman alone at your property, the outcome might have been different, and one strike achieved toward that draconian-yet-rarely-invoked “three, violent or severe for the first two, and then only if the prosecutor chooses to apply the law, which he need not and usually doesn’t.”
Consider the man arrested for beating a sports fan into a state of severe brain damage: he has at least (they’re still counting) three priors, felonies, including gun crime and robberies and yet apparently was not subjected to recidivist sentencing.
The 45,000 soon-to-be wrongfully-released offenders will now join the hundreds of thousands of offenders who never had to serve adequate time in the first place. Yet conservatives are joining the empty-the-prisons mantra.
Here is a set of studies detailing the cost savings achieved by locking offenders up, savings that accrue not only through avoiding property damage but because recidivists are prolific. There is a toxic, hateful, un-reformable criminal class, and the only thing that keeps them out of trouble is growing into middle age behind bars. That is why a little enhancement goes such a long way to reducing the quantity of serious crime — http://www.threestrikes.org/studies.html#GMU
I have a solution for you – buy a gun.
I think you may want to consider the source.
Professor Hanson, why not simply move up here to Canada. You would surely have no problem coming in under either as a “self-employed” class or “investor” class immigrant. The Citizenship & Immigration Canada website (www.cic.gc.ca) specifically targets people who have “experience in farm management” and “the intention and ability to purchase a manage a farm in Canada.” Or you could immigrate under the investor class requirements which require a “net worth of $1,600,000 obtained legally” and the ability to “make an $800,000 investment.” Your farming neighbors or fellow investors will tend to drive BMWs and Mercedes rather than Hondas, but will nonetheless also sport tan skins like your current neighbors (they’ll be East Indian, Chinese, or Korean), so you’ll still feel quite at home here.
Our schools’ scores in math and science aren’t too bad either–the province I live in ranked 5 and 6th in the world on those international scores for tests in grades 4 and 8 (a slight drop from previous international assessments). Nor does anyone here apologize to the world for any flaws–the British Columbia slogan happens to be “the most beautiful place on earth.” It’s a bit embarrassing to utter, but does happen to be true–apologies to California.
Canada has a different problem, even more ominous.
Mark Steyn and Ezra Levant can fill you in on the details.
Whatever problems we have in Canada, they are miniscule when compared to the USA. Canada is a blessed country. I would suggest the Queen Charlotte Islands, Viktor. Small and isolated, rainy fog-covered in winter but clean and utterly beautiful in summer, sparsely populated and the land is still relatively cheap.
Yes, and as long as the words you are using are approved by the government, it is all very POSH.
Your sarcasm proves you really do not know much (very little) about Canada. Seems that you speak from a stellar “liberal” perspective, always out-to-lunch.
You are absolutely right. Read Ezra Levant’s book, “Shakedown,” to get the real story on Canada. And read about Mark Steyn’s and McClean’s fight with the Human Rights Commissions. I am living here not by choice, but by marriage, and hope I can get back to the U.S. at some point. Everywhere I go in Canada, I feel the nanny state breathing down my neck. It seems that people here are too stupid to manage their own lives and need the behemoth federal and provincial governments to tell them what to do and how to do it. Health care? It took two and a half years to find a doctor who was taking new patients. Of course, by the time I get back to America, Obama will probably have out-socialized Canada so it might not make any difference which socialist country I’m living in.
Hanson’s Last Stand. Read his Mexifornia. Saw Vallejo implode and the Napa Valley begin to become like the Central Valley. Invested in protection, but saw greater wisdom in moving to colder climes of the area sometimes known as the State of Jefferson. Applied for Canadian citizenship and passports. Ottawa bureaucracy said it would take a year or more, but took only months. Know what has been said about its socialism, but change is coming to Canada, especially the Western Provinces and so we are headed to Alberta, whereas Obama, Brown and his successors have their own refuges.
The Doctor is rightly proud of what is carved in the fireplace mantle of his grandfather’s homestead, but if he moved to Canada, he could build again and carve anew.
See you on the other side of the border.
Agree with Gloria – come up to Canada! We needs you here! PS – Please check 2011/2010
Holy smokes where in the world are all these fellow Canadians. Can we start a VDH Canadian fan club. Possibly we can set him up in Niagara Wine Country. We can all work his harvest, wherein we chat politics from row on row. A Bar /restaurant called “Hansons” and us gals can chat up the handsome professor, we’ll do all the work and he can sit at the bar. Once a month we can host “dinner guests like Sowell, Breitbart, Long, and find more creative way’s of fighting the growing “state”
Like my local “heritage committee” who find clever ways of taking any and all property rights in the name of preserving “history”.
Start chilling the “ice wine” for us!
Not being there, but having spent a lot of time in the Third World, it sounds to me like what I have worried about for so long is coming to pass. In Third World countries, law is simply overwhelmed by the insistence and sheer numbers of those who want to engage in certain things: illegal occupation of land, crime, piracy, etc.
In America, we have never appreciated until now, that we are a nation which by and large agrees to play by certain rules and we are aided in this by what can only be called sheer individual competence and love of order; it is our cultural birthright – I don’t know why it’s there, only that it is. It why America has always looked so much better than older civilizations in Latin America which is a culture generally speaking which is addicted to chaos where ever there are a lot of people and doing just enough to get by where there are not.
That is what America is, not a place of unfinished things, roads, sidewalks, homes, but a country that goes all the way and with a flourish. You don’t see homes never finished in American because of taxes laws like in Greece and Egypt.
In the case of the prisoners being released, you have political correctness, which is an ideology devoid of either a sense of survival or common sense but with a modern hyper-sense of playing by the rules. Combined with that PC you have that Third World insistence in doing whatever it wants to do once a crack is opened and the resolve of authority overwhelmed by numbers.
Immigrants illegal and otherwise who simply refuse to play by any but Third World dog-eat-dog rules are overwhelming California by sheer numbers and the rest of the U.S. will follow with insistence both legal and illegal. Muslims will soon have the numbers to insist on call-to-prayer sound systems set up in the downtown areas of major cities, you are already describing the first bare bones of shanty towns and I’m not talking about tent cities but about the side of the road enclaves stealing electricity and squatting.
Crime is up in your area and from your description there is a lot of cash which means drugs. Soon that area will be fought over for turf or just rivalry. People who have not spent a lot of time in the Third World might have a hard time understanding what I am talking about but it is a mentality that is a very real thing. There are 700 illegal shanty towns in Rio de Janeiro alone and multiply that by 10,000 across Latin America and they are coming here to use us and abuse us – it’s just their way, the way of the least of them who just don’t know any better and will not stop having children. America is the nice house on the hill that for some reason has stopped keeping out intruders but even invites them in by their millions – 1 million in the U.S. every year, legal and illegal year in and year out.
There is only one answer: end all immigration and crack down hard on illegal immigration and boot them out – otherwise we will lose this country to sheer numbers, dog-eat-dog insistence and our own hyper-legal political correctness.
The problem is: how do you describe this phenomenon to politicians and well-meaning liberals who just don’t know it even exists and think land and our treasure in America is infinite.
I don’t think you can “describe the phenomenon” in a way that would penetrate their thick skulls. You have to make them experience it firsthand. The type of people that make up the liberal political class in Calif. (and probably any other city) are so physically isolated from the effects of their stupidity that they just don’t see it. The only thing that might counteract this is if we were to erect “undocumented worker dormitories or sanctuaries” located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of S.F., Atherton in Marin Country and Malibu.
The type of people that make up the liberal political class in Calif. (and probably any other city) are so physically isolated from the effects of their stupidity that they just don’t see it.
Which means that the consequences of their very bad ideas will hit them like a ton of bricks. They’ll never see it coming. And most of them certainly won’t survive it.
Brilliant!
It takes leadership. But, one needs to get elected to become a leader. Then, when the tough decisions are made, people hold the leader responsible, and have little to no tolerance, and boot them out.
It’s very difficult to see that difficult decisions getting done, before a point at which it’s a must – that said, it’s about believing, and hope that most share the ideals and aspirations for what is a better place. That’s so tough to do right now, but this discussion thread, and these ideas maybe get more and more, closer to those ideals.
This is the anti-Israel strategy with the “Right of Return” that supposedly applies to 4th generation “refugees”. Overwhelm the civil society with sheer numbers.
We had this problem in Virginia (I’m a CA native and left the insanity in 95). Our suburbs were being infiltrated by the the illegals and entire neighborhoods (historic neighborhoods) were being sytematically destroyed by these people. They didn’t even seem to understand the concept of a garbage can! Corey Stewart started the charge (and was even challenged by Calderon – Stewart responded by saying, “Bring it!” Calderon declined the challenge!) and the entire state responded by declaring a “war against gangs” (read: war against illegals – period). We now have our state back. The garbage is gone. The graffetti is gone (it actually starts again midspan on the 14th street bridge). The illegals are gone. The hospitals are cleared! I just recently took my mother to the emergency room and there was not a spanish speaker there! It CAN be done if the people vote in the right people who have the WILL to clean the place out!
Maryland – on the other hand – is having some real problems and their stinkin liberals are now flooding our state and that’s a whole other can of worms!
California leads the nation : illegals, alienating businesses, PC police, inept socialist politicians, rewarding sloth, pot growers/smokers, child molestors, and lockstep Obama supporters. Perhaps the state could be improved by releasing the prison population. After all they will just be going from one “gated community” into another – perhaps Napa would be a good place for them to start where anyone with an Obama sticker on their house or Limo would be unlikely to own a gun. Lets just keep them in California ! Share the wealth.
“perhaps Napa would be a good place for them to start where anyone with an Obama sticker on their house or Limo would be unlikely to own a gun.”
I wouldn’t be so sure about that. We need to protect ourselves from the encroaching red district hoards who have fallen on hard times as a result of their own irresponsible voting patterns. Many parts of the state are doing just fine. If a few residents of, say, Turlock or Lodi, lack food and shelter they should go know at on the door of the guy they voted for.
“…encroaching red district hoards…”
Wow, what a parody of sense and reason. Let me guess…by profession, you’re a Community Organizer?
I have visited, and been stationed in California several times. LA, I remember particularly well: a huge, sprawling, dirty place, filled with the self absorbed, the shallow and superficial, and overrun with gang-bangers and third-world Latinos gawking at the city around them, neither appreciating nor caring about the skill and effort it took to build it – only caring what they could take and screw you, Gringo.
If this is your idea of “Paradise,” you are clinically insane.
Oh, by the way, it’s spelled “Hordes>/em>.”
If you’re going to insult us, at least you might consult a dictionary.
” the encroaching red district hoards who have fallen on hard times as a result of their own irresponsible voting patterns ”
but …………….
didn’t they lose?
How can it be “THEIR” irresponsible voting patterns?
That was not even REMOTELY connected to reality.
Clearly, you are a product of the public education system. Or the UC system.
Your choosing the screen name Praetorian certainly is indicative of your mindset: sworn protector of the Emperor; i.e. the ruling political class.
Nevertheless I wish you would elaborate on your assertion that “many parts of the state are doing just fine.” Which parts would those be?
This person doesn’t own 2 guns…he’s just preening. I do hope he has a large “This Is A Gun Free Zone” sign on his house.
Mine says “You Are Now In Range”
We don’t have much in the way of signs in our neck of the woods. We do, however, have a well-trained and highly motivated neighborhood un-welcoming committee of which I am a member.
I moved to California in 1978, transferred there by the USAF. I lived there 10 years before being transferred to the East coast. I last visited Calif in 2001, driving around far too much to visit my many close friends there It was remarkable how much it had changed, not just in apperance but in character.
When I got there in 1978 across the street was the remains of a farm; it still had the old farmhouse and a large vegetable garden. In true Calif fashion they tore it down to build a place that did fabrication of large scale integrated circuits. Now the building is a Big 5 Sporting Goods Store.
Next to the airport where I got my pilot’s license there were many oil storage tanks. They have been replaced by big box department stores.
And this goes on and on. In the other place I lived, a small town on the central coast, many fields that grew beans and flowers have been replaced by new housing developments.
Calif used to be a place where they built things, made things, grew things. Now it simply is a place where people live, and do … what?
Victor, as much as I enjoy reading your harrowing accounts living in Cali, I think you should honestly consider moving your family for safety purposes up to Canada or joining us here in Texas. You had four incidents in May 2011 and we’re not even done with the month yet. Seems like a feature of Cali now, not a bug.
Likewise, Mexico is both a metaphor for and an example of the failure of libertarianism.
Indeed. Because French speakers like…say, independents…just know that “PRI” is Spanish for “Libertarian Party”.
Akatsukami,
¡Cómo te amo los tontos equivocados de la izquierda y la derecha!
Actually, PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) translates to ‘Institutional Revolutionary Party’.
Since you’re obviously ignorant of the issues being discussed here, I would suggest that you research what is being discussed. Specifically, you should inquire into the Mexican Government’s regulation (or more importantly, it’s lack) of their economy. If that still is not simple enough for you; you should be looking for number of regulations and regulators in Mexico.
Perhaps then you can offer something more to this discussion then your childish sarcasm.
Actually, the Mexican government, despite its authoritarianism and lack of democracy, has a significant libertarian element. The lack of a strong rule of law there does allow for overwhelming corruption, a lack of stability for investment, and in recent years, violence on our border that is a near a guerilla war. On the brighter side, the lack of a solid rule of law prevents all of the extensive regulations there from being enforced. There is a huge underground market where the economy gets by better than most of the third world. The only tax is having to pay a bribe to make the government look the other way if they notice you, and that is on a sliding scale depending on your wealth. A lot of this underground economy is not a black market. It includes all types of otherwise honest services and goods. It is truly a free market where people buy and sell according to supply, demand, trial and error. Also, hardly anybody pays their income taxes and the government can’t enforce this law. They fund their country from PEMEX.
Of course, the economy in Mexico also depends on remittances from the US. And to get anything done on a large scale you may need Obama-style connections with the federal government. It is a pretty wild ride, and not what I want for our country. But we are married to them with a long border. Mexico, generally, has a population with strong family values, solid religious values, better tolerance for others than most parts of the world, and a culture with similar Enlightment bases for their understanding the world.
They have a lot of cynicism from a terrible government, from having lost wars, from a revolution that went crazy, and from having to make personal compromises to get by. But most people there have solid values and get along with their neighbors. While the worst elements of society are not kept in check, many people bind together without the help of the government to prevent crime or to help victims of crime, or to recover from natural disasters like the 1984 earthquake or the hurricanes that hit the gulf coast.
There are far worse places to share a border with. Mexico gives us great challenges, but picture a border with Iran, Nigeria, China, Nazi Germany, or the former USSR. Think of how Israel has to survive.
Compare California with Texas. Texas incorporates Mexican culture as part of its own in a melting pot style while, generally, not suffering too much from the problems rooted in Mexico. California, unfortunately, is far too much like the worst of both Mexico and our country.
Witha all due respect – the illegal Mexicans I came into contact with here in Virginia were here only for opportunism – money. They freely explained that they rotated in and out of the country for a period of about two years. Not for economic freedom – but for the “easy” life. They depress the economy here and their work is substandard. I find nothing redemable about these people.
LOL: I have know hundreds, perhaps over a thousand Mexican people, and simply met many more, both here and in Mexico. I have also studied their history and literature with interest. Yes there are slackers and losers from Mexico. Our welfare state encourages this behavior. I stand by my statement.
You sir, are either a bigot or someone with a very limited perspective. Either way, you present yourself no better than the bigoted liberal trolls who sometimes make comments in this medium.
Barza,
Well said. I do respectfully disagree with a few of your points:
First, the drug war in Mexico is not “near a guerilla war”; it is a full blow insurgency.
Second, excluding its energy sector, Mexico doesn’t have “extensive regulations”; it has little to no regulations of its economy.
Third, Mexico only receives about 1.5 billion dollars in remittances a year. Last year Mexico had a 1.3 Trillion dollar economy.
Overall though, great post.
LOL,
Barza nailed your nonsense right on the head. If you’re not interested in intelligent debate perhaps you would be more comfortable commenting on the Daily Kos.
Mr. Independent,
On the violence on the Mexican border. It is bad. I used to live there, and when I return (not so much now) the area is clearly very different. However, I also spent over a year in Iraq. There are similarities, but overall there is no real comparison. It is bad on the border, but not what I call war. They have survived problems in the past. As you probably know, President Wilson sent 75,000 troops there.
On Mexican law, they have lots of regulations and a sophisticated Napoleonic legal system. They have thick guides and lawyers who know them well. Often law goes unenforced, avoided or simply bribed away.
On remittances, thanks for the numbers. My understanding is that after oil, remittances are the largest part of the economy. Overall, unlike most of the developing world, I would agree that Mexico has a large, diversified, economy. It is not the complete basket case that so many (hopefully not strawman) would make it out to be.
Barza,
Thank you for your post. Concerning the violence on the border, it is really much worse than is shown on TV. Over the past four and half years, over 35,000 people have been murdered by the Nacro-Terrorists. Juarez Mexico last year had a higher murder rate than Bagdad or Kabul. I respect that you have a first person perspective on what an insurgency looks like but I’ll remind you that our own military puts Mexico as the second most dangerous country to us after Pakistan.
On Mexican law, I continue to disagree. Yes, their criminal laws are still based on a Napoleonic legal system but their regulation of their economy (excluding their energy sector) is either non-existent or a joke. I know this because until three years ago my transportation business had offices in Mexico. Consider this: there are over 1.5 million regulators at the local, state, and federal level in the U.S. In Mexico there is less than 40 thousand. Bribery is a way of life in Mexico but most of the time I didn’t even have to bother with it because of Mexico’s libertarian economy.
The Mexican economy, is primarily service based; with manufacturing and tourism being the next largest sectors. The energy sector (including oil) accounts for less than 7%. Remittances account for a little more than one-tenth of 1% of their economy.
Finally, you stated in your last post that you spent over a year in Iraq. If that was in government service, I’d like to thank you for that service.
Mr. Independent,
Thanks for the interesting posts.
I have studied the Mexican legal system in some detail and learned about the Iraqi legal system more recently while working for our government in Iraq. Both have good law written down. Iraq is much more of a train wreck in terms of applying the law effectively. The Iraqi criminal system has more influences than the much more strictly Napoleonic Mexican system, and yes, Mexico has a wildly expansive regulatory state where the larger part of the economy is underground and unregulated. (Iraq, of course, lost the last 40 years, but is making some reforms that provide a bit more stability).
As for the comparisons in violence and guerilla war, Mexico is comparable but far tamer. In Iraq, there was a complete breakdown of civil society and just a shell of an administrative infrastructure residue left from neglect and destruction during the last few decades. As well, physical infrastructure was far worse than Mexico. Add to that buildings blown to pieces regularly, ethnic cleansings of neighborhoods, mass killing, and higher fear and distrust in the population. Things are way better now, so much better that comparisons can be made to Mexico.
Lots of cities in Texas have thousands of people (with enough money for an entrepreneurs visa) who have come here from Mexico City to prevent kidnapping. Thousands more are killed or directly effected. However, most of the educated people in Iraq got out and are only coming back slowly, if at all.
The reaction to the instability in the border region is more visible. I happened to have been passing through Nuevo Laredo a few months ago on the day their police chief was assassinated. I know this happens a lot in Mexico, but I was amazed at the way the city was shut down. In Baghdad, people stoically went on with their daily lives as awful things happen.
Cheers / Best regards.
Oops. Affected, not effected.
Try “the perennial failure of a hidalgo-style caste system inherited from Spain”, and you would be much nearer the mark.
And please note, Spain’s track record of domestic turbulence(beginning with the Wars of the Spanish Succession, and culminating in the civil war that brought Franco’s Fascists to power) and its record of being a “bad neighbor” to the rest of Europe (see “Spanish Armada”, “Thirty Years’ War”, etc.) shows that Mexico’s inability to “work and play well with others” has a precedent in the “old country”, as well.
clear ether
eon
eon,
Your reasoning is not just flawed, it seems to be based on nonsense. Nonsense that sounds as if you heard it on Fox “News” or MSNBC.
Excluding it’s energy sector, Mexico has one of the most libertarian economies in the world. So theoretically, Mexican citizens should enjoy a very strong economy. After all didn’t Regan say “government is not the solution to our problems, government is the problem”. Mexico embraced idea of ‘getting government out of the way of business’ and look what the end result has been. 90% of it’s citizens are poor. Hundreds of thousands of them illegally immigrate to the U.S. not because libertarianism is secretly awesome but because (just like communism/socialism) libertarianism is nothing but a false religion for fools. It’s never worked anywhere it’s been tried. While governments must NOT own or manage the economy, it must regulate it. If a government does not regulate it’s economy, poverty and corruption will become rampant and the majority of it’s citizens will not be able to enjoy the wealth that they are creating. Mexico proves that. Q.E.D.
Actually, I don’t watch Fox News, MSNBC, or CNN- I don’t have cable or satellite.
As for my opinions on Mexico’s sociopolitical structure, they are based on the country’s history, going back to pre-Columbian times. It says a great deal about Mexico’s native culture that when the Spanish conquistadors showed up, the local peasantry saw them not merely as gods but as less brutal than their own rulers. (They weren’t into human sacrifice, among other things.)
As for Mexico’s present travails, their “laissez-faire” economy is based on the principle of not “libertarianism” (a theoretical construct that its own advocates cannot even adequately define), but of the old Spanish system, in which both government and the means of production are owned by “the right people”- a hereditary elite’ largely based on family connections. This has not changed in all of Mexico’s post-Columbian history.
In such a system, corruption in government and business is inevitably rampant. And those at the lower end of the social spectrum see only three ways of “getting ahead”;
1. Corruption (bribery, extortion, black marketeering, etc.)
2. Preying on those weaker than themselves (open criminal activity)
3. Overthrowing the existing system by force.
Which succinctly describes Mexico’s domestic economy and politics from colonial times to the present day.
The usual result of such a stew of antisocial behavior disguised as “business as usual” is an unending cycle of violence- which is exactly what Mexico has experienced under a succession of monarchs (Maximilian), dictators (Diaz, Huerta, et al), and even the rare “democratic” government (few would describe Mexico’s de facto “one party” PRI government from the 1930s to the 1980s as genuinely pluralistic).
And through all of it, the economic base always ends up in the hands of a small elite’- usually self-anointed. Which results in everyone not a part of it resenting the fact.
To put it bluntly, Mexico has a culture which encourages breaking the rules as the only way to not just “get ahead in life”, but survive at anything above a village level.
You may call it libertarian if you like. It looks more like a sociopathic kleptocracy to me.
cheers
eon
Excellent!
eon,
Your understanding of Mexican history appears to be ignorant of the past 40 years. Referencing century’s old history, while completely ignoring the economic changes that the Mexican “government” has undertaken in past few decades, does not allow you to understand its current problems. Your argument is a version of the one black Americans use on slavery. That argument is absurd and so is yours.
Concerning your belief that Mexico’s ‘laissez-faire’ economy is not based on libertarianism; I find it interesting (and laughable) that you cannot even define the concept of libertarianism. Libertarianism in general is defined as, “the belief that people should be allowed to do and say what they want without any interference from the government”. Economic libertarianism is best defined by the late Milton Friedman as ‘the only good regulation, is no regulation’.
The problems with Mexico that you describe are a direct result of libertarianism. When government rejects governance, the inevitable consequence is anarchy. Perhaps you should study U.S. history during the 1920’s.
You may not like to admit that Mexico proves that libertarianism does not work but don’t feel too embarrassed. If you have any friends who still believe in communism, ask them how they dealt with the embarrassment of the failure of the Soviet Union.
“Excluding it’s energy sector, Mexico has one of the most libertarian economies in the world.”
Pemex is a perfect example of socialism gone wild. It operates without any oversight by the government because the oil giant generates so much revenue. It’s owned by the government and is one of the biggest environmental polluters in the world. And in a society based on corruption, that revenue is spread around to all the ruling elite, their friends and relatives.
jarmo,
Actually, eon’s comment s and yours are absurd.
Are you aware that your own statements contradict each other? You said “Pemex is a perfect example of socialism gone wild. It operates without any oversight by the government”. PEMEX is a state owned company. It is not just overseen by the government, its run by the government. The Mexican society is actually based on the family. The Mexican economy (excluding its energy sector) is based on libertarianism. Corruption is just a consequence.
Mexico: The confluence of the culture that produced 400 years of the inquisition (Spain) and the culture that produced the 400 foot tall pyramid of skulls (Aztecs) so GIANT SURPRISE!
I’ve been going to Mexico for over 4 decades and it is changing for the worse, it is slipping into darkness. That darkness is schlepping over the border by the millions.
Read stratfor’s recent report on Mexico?
It pretty much stated that they are culturally doomed by their own bad habits, endemic, pervasive cultural corruption.
GIANT SURPRISE. Not.
Riverburg,
Actually, Mexico could be doomed by their embrace of economic libertarianism.
Oh, Really?
Well, let’s see now. Throughout it’s turbulent and tragic history, Mexico – like the rest of latin america – has been dominated by the top 5%, who control 95% of the land, industry and government ministries, while the remaining 95% of the populace scrounges its living under a licentious police force, profound corruption, favoritism, elitism and nepotism in government and industry, and are left with no outlet except flight or revolution.
Is that libertarianism, or oligarchical authoritarianism – whose operating principles and policies match up 100% with the progressive creed?
Yes, son. You’ve been S C H O O L E D .
stallion,
Actually, Mexico is and has been dominated by the top 1% of its population, not the top 5% as you stated.
The 90% of the population that is poor, is unable to change that situation because of Mexico’s embrace of economic libertarianism. Oligarchical authoritarianism is an inevitable result of government rejecting governance. If you want to worship at the trinity of Regan, Friedman, and Limbaugh, the end result will be Mexico.
If think the problem that you and the far-right have (as well as the far-left), is that you do not understand the concepts that are being discussed. I would suggest young man that you should return to school before you try and “school” anyone else.
Sorry, son. Libertarianism built this country from a couple of farmers on the east coast and a few wild guys running around in the woods wearing buckskins and carrying muskets into a nation that, 200 years later, had split the atom and walked on the moon.
If you define libertarianism as a centuries-old dictatorship of a small, land owning and industry controlling elite that controls the military and the police, lording it over the campesinos and constantly suppressing the middle class while throwing them the bone of socialist governance to chew on, then your grip on reality has been severed without hope of recovery.
Perhaps you’ll be happier in a place where governance is strong and pervasive – such as North Korea.
LOLZ! PWNAGE!
stallion,
No young man, I define libertarianism as it is defined by the Webster’s dictionary. Libertarianism is “the belief that people should be allowed to do and say what they want without any interference from the government”. So economic libertarianism can be understood by the words of the late Milton Friedman as being: ‘the only good regulation is no regulation’. That’s Mexico.
The endemic corruption and poverty of libertarian economies is not a part of the definition of libertarianism but is the inevitable consequence of government rejecting governance.
Look, you sound like a Fox “News” and MSNBC viewer; and I appreciate that it must be embarrassing to learn that the false religion you believe in is just a fantasy. But look at the bright side; now that you know you don’t know everything, now perhaps you can learn something.
What makes anyone think that all those soon-to-be-released prisoners are going to settle in California? What’s to prevent them from moving to – say – Ohio or New Mexico or Wyoming or even Canada?
why leave a state where everything is free for the taking and you dont go to jail
Canada. Heaven forbid! We have the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), Big Foot and Sergeant Preston of the Yukon to protect us.
Well, scory, they tried shipping the Nawlins ghetto over to Houston after Katrina. The crime rate took a huge jump…. and then receded. Why? Because even in Democrat run Houston, the police actually enforce the law (much to the surprise of the hoodlums, as articles in the paper attest).
The other reason is that Texas has sane gun laws that allow you to use deadly force to defend your life and property. Home invaders kicked down granny’s door and ran into numerous lead projectiles headed the other way. Living proof that evolution does improve the gene pool, when the stupid are culled properly. Funny how Leftards claim to believe in evolution but don’t like the things that make it a working proposition.
So, no, the criminals won’t be coming to Texas…. for very long.
There are not that many gated communities in Texas. Instead, there are a lot of guns.
Doc, I have to wonder if the Orange County RINOs who bankrolled Arnie knew about the child? Tom McClintock (who in my opinion would have been a far superior governor) couldn’t be bought, had an ego that couldn’t be manipulated and wasn’t compromised, so of course he got pushed aside for the Austrian, who they could control. Dumping on him after was a two-fer.
Victor, I have admired your writing, simplicity and wisdom for many years. In fact, I hope to someday join you on your annual mountain climb and my wife (a Classics and Latin major) hope to someday join one of your Greek Isle cruises.
However, I have never read an aimless Ben Stein type of article from you before.
Maybe you are having that uncertain, disgruntled gut feeling that so many of us are having that our loved Republic, and your beloved state, are spiralling down, maybe never to come back up.
We know that things aren’t right, maybe that we are losing control of our future. But…..we are not quitters. We have all watched Rudy, some of us tens of times. We don’t give up easily, we will vote in 2012 to make the change we actually do believe in. We are a patient people.
But….if the election in 2012 goes the wrong way because of an ingorant populace or downright cheating, you will see a change in our attitude, our belief in fairness and we will begin to take care of our own, move to areas that promise individual freedom. It won’t be fun but. like I said, we don’t quit, we don’t run from a fight and I’ll be darned if the country of my forefathers is going to be co-opted by a bunch of Communist Progressives who don’t know their behinds from a power take off on the back of an old McCormick tractor.
Be well, my friend>
“He [Brown] has the opportunity to be either a savior and renaissance figure, or both the youngest and the oldest failed governor of a failed state.”
I’m betting the farm on “fail.”
As a Buckeye who has observed California from a (reasonably safe) distance since “Governor Moonbeam’s” father was in charge out there, I’m putting my money where yours is.
Brown is one of the architects of California’s present disaster, going back to his first go-round in Sacramento. I suspect he is back now for one last hurrah in the name of “Peace, Love, And Eternal Bong Hits”.
Which means he will most likely double down on the policies that he helped create- and which helped create the present mess in the (formerly) Golden State. His dogma, and his own sense of his “place in history”, demand it.
When the lights go out the last time, I hope Brown is the one who has to flip the switch- and face the ordinary people whose lives he has helped destroy.
He deserves no better.
cheers
eon
Eon, I always enjoyed your posts.
I will reveal something about my current family, as a waif from NW Ohio, living in Europe. My wife is from Moscow, she lived through the ruble collapse in the 90′s. Her parents were party members ages before that, but in Russia it really has become the wild East. Has been for years.
When we speak of America, regarding Obama and the democrat party, my wife says, “America is suffering its Yetlins years.”
From her perspective, as experience teaches us, I understand.
Dr Hanson, I am, I think, a little older than you, having graduated from high school in 1960. Back then, I believe that California schools were nearly the best in the country, as were the colleges and universities. Smog was a problem, but education much less so. Now if parents want well-educated children they have to do a good deal of the job themselves. In 1989 our family moved to Washington (no better politically than California, but enough smaller that one maintains some control of one’s own life.) My daughter home-schools her kids. Truly, I think the only choice one has is to look clearly at the world as it is, and try to build a decent life as best one can. Good luck — driving a tank is the way to go. And perhaps a carry-permit would be a good idea too…
I’m not sure I buy the idea that California schools were great in 1960. When I was going to elementary school in an Arizona mining town in the early 1960s (my classes were about two thirds Mexican-American and working class, not middle class) if a student transferred in from California they were automatically set back a grade. I asked my father why–he was the high school principal. He said that California schools used progressive education much more than our schools did. My parents were lifetime New Deal Democrats. that might have been my first indication that the word progressive could have negative connotations.
I’m sure California universities were great; I went to one, but I sometimes think that rapidly growing states find it easier to import an educated population rather than to do the educating themselves.
After I graduated from college, I moved to Ca in ’83. Caught the end of the high tech boom. Bought a house in San Jose. After starting a family, we moved to Santa Cruz to avoid the pollution, crime, traffic and high density illegal immigrants. This was in 1996. Of course, we got the nutsy left college crowd. But, the neighborhoods and schools were clean.
Since then alot has changed… Experiencing the PC life in the grade schools. first year kindergarten teacher trying to convince us our boy had Asperger’s syndrome. After a couple thousand dollar psych eval later, we had the report for the school showing he wasn’t Aspergers. Of course, that did not stop the school the following year from asking for him to be medicated. Next, we were told he could not bring his skateboard to school because it made the other children feel bad whose parents could not afford one for their child. Finally, after seeing free full breakfast trays thrown in to the garbage day after day from the illegals busing their kids in, we pulled both of our kids out. Everyday walking my kids to school, I’d see the garbage cans stacked up with those full free food trays AND get the appeals from the teachers to buy more pencils, more paper, more notebooks because of how under funded the schools are… Of course, the school opened up a free food pantry and clothing exchange for the new immigrants. Not too worry about education though.
In SCZ, I no longer go to the main branch of the public library. It has become a camping ground and cess pit for the “homeless”. I literally could not walk around the outside of the building because of the homeless folks toking up on weed. Who wants to expose your kids to that crud.
Jobs? Good jobs? I worked in semiconductor manufacturing for 15 years. I have been very blessed to have worked in about the only remaining high tech company left in Santa Cruz. Of course, all the products are built in China and Mexico… but, that is another story.
Now all the nice nighborhood houses that had stable families are now rentals for illegal immigrants with 20 people and 18 cars up on the “lawn”.
Once my kids are out of school, my wife and I are out of CA for good.
I had a lady friend who worked in Santa Cruz as a nurse. Her job was handing out the daily methadone doses to the addicts, all paid for by the state.
We’d walk by the public library in downtown SC and her clients would hail her as we walked by. It was sobering.
It is also rather shcoking to talk to white middle class liberals here, our typical voters. They seem so oblivious to the facts of civic life around them, one wants to shake them “Can’t you see?”
But they don’t see and don’t want to see since that means going into the no-go areas. Ignoring the obvious social problems means that they are “nice.” to point out the moral failings of others is to be “mean.”
Reality has a tendency to mug even liberals. I’m waiting it out, so long as I have a job. I’ll fight and I think Professor Hanson will continue to fight for California too.
You would rather these people stole to support their habit, then bought their fix on the illegal market, yes?
The Founders had a better idea. Leave opium freely and legally available for sale, without government interference. That way, the person using the drug bears responsibility for their own actions, rather than pushing it off onto society by way of government alphabet agencies like the DEA or HHS.
The war on (some) drugs is nothing more than a transvestite version of the war on poverty.
Why wait until then? There is no time like the present for positive change.
Don’t wait for the kids to be out of school. Move NOW! That way the kids will be close to you when they go to college, marry and the grandkids will be close.
As a California native my family is always whining at me to come home. I miss them (sorta – they make me come out there every year!) but I will never go back to that cesspool! Save yourself the headache – move now and keep your family close!
VDH,
GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!!!
Before my professional career I was a pest control man in San Antonio. Some of the properties I had to service were so-called section 8 housing where the “poor” were highly subsidized and could live virtually rent free. I recall there was a very nice apartment complex that had recently been remodeled so that the owners could qualify for that federal and state subsidy. Sadly, within a couple of years, the place was destroyed by its tenants. The appliances were ripped out and stolen and there was filth everywhere from tenants who were too lazy to take the trash to the dumpster. There were even several units which holes were hacked in the walls to use as a passageway so the tenants would not have to go outside to complete their commerce.
The problem with the Free State of California is that it is “free”. Gratis. And when you give your state away to those who have not earned the right to be there, they will steal your appliances, dump their trash, and knock holes in your walls.
I lived in an apartment complex about ten years ago. It had a lot of Section 8 tenants. While I paid full rent, my neighbors left piles of garbage outside their entrances and dropped trash everywhere. I broke the lease, paid the cost of leaving early and found a nicer place to live. I volunteered in a school where the free meals were thrown away and large numbers of children who threw out their food would then buy junk food with cash. I would sometimes comment but mostly tried to simply model normal behavior.
In the apartment complex, I also saw poor immigrant families living honest lives (and not littering). I am now married and own a home in a nice neighborhood. I have neighbors of many ethnicities and religions, doing well in the world, raising families and holding decent jobs. There are relatively few foreclosures. This is in Texas. There is freeloading, nanny state, poor parenting, shifty lowlife behavior, but here, where the demographics are similar to California, society is not collapsing.
Come to Texas, just don’t mess it up.
I’ve had similar experiences in Stockton. It’s getting worse all the time. We’re having a rash of kids backpacks being snatched. I guess it’s the electronics. But they pull up by the school where the kids are getting picked up, yank a backpack off a kid and drive off.
The police are helpless, of course.
That corrupt socialist is making $450,000 a year tax free courtesy of the little people infesting America and the developed countries.
Professor,
After six generations in California and ancestors who fought in the Bear Flag Revolt (1846) for California independence, my family in 2006, migrated to Northern Nevada. The California we grew up with is now gone. It might be time to rethink your safety; it is equivalent to living near Athens (415 BC/BCE) and the Spartans keep stealing your stuff and causing havoc.
How much does it cost per day to incarcerate a prisoner in California, and aren’t there any prisons in other less populous states where we could ship our assorted gangbangers to live in *their* jails if we paid the rent?
I would love to see a bunch of Spanish-speaking bad guys housed in Fairbanks, for example, and don’t believe that it would cost as much in Ms. Palin’s lovely state to house them as it does here in progressive liberal warm and understanding California.
State tried to do that a few years ago and the prison guard union stopped the effort.
Dr. Hanson,
I can see from the comments there is a lot of competition for you. Unfortunately, I can’t in good conscience invite you to move to my state, the People’s Republic of Vermont. I am afraid it is going to out-CA CA. Perhaps New Hampshire? You’re a US national treasure, so don’t be lured away by all those Canadian fans. And for the same selfish reason, please stay safe.
Dang! That’s heartbraking to hear! I drove to your lovely state the first week of October 2001. Drove by NYC and saw the smoldering ruins of the towers – still smoldering. Went to see the “leaves.” Calfifornians just don’t “get” the concept of four seasons. Your state was breathtaking!!!! I will never forget it!
Perhaps, like California, the physical beauty inspires the social utopians.
Sorry Pal, you and your buds in California are going under, down the tubes, into default, kaput, bye bye, the end, room temp, and it ain’t gonna be pretty. After America sees your state’s white flag flying, the next part of the game (rehab) begins. There will be winners and of course losers; perhaps more losers than winner, but the winners will win big time!
It’s an old game, played before, with rules, don’t ya know!
Sorry, cry into the sunset all you want, but the fini is comin’ sooner, rather than later.
We told you so some time back, but your friends, those other in California refused to listen, much like the wife who hates her husband and only keeps him around for the monies he brings into the home. Suckers you have been, and sucker you will be!
I grew up there, but the California I once knew is “gone with the wind,” like a tumbleweed tossed by a Santa Ana over a withered landscape.
I packed up and left in 1993. Whenever I feel a feverish bout of that “California Dreaming” coming over me, to be cured of it I just go and read one of your articles about the grim reality and the real state of affairs there.
California abides.
Robinson Jeffers:
NOVEMBER SURF
Some lucky day each November great waves awake and are drawn
Like smoking mountains bright from the west
And come and cover the cliff with white violent cleanness: then suddenly
The old granite forgets half a year’s filth:
The orange-peel, eggshells, papers, pieces of clothing, the clots
Of dung in corners of the rock, and used
Sheaths that make light love safe in the evenings: all the droppings of the summer
Idlers washed off in a winter ecstasy:
I think this cumbered continent envies its cliff then . . . . But all seasons
The earth, in her childlike prophetic sleep,
Keeps dreaming of the bath of a storm that prepares up the long coast
Of the future to scour more than her sea-lines:
The cities gone down, the people fewer and the hawks more numerous,
The rivers mouth to source pure; when the two-footed
Mammal, being someways one of the nobler animals, regains
The dignity of room, the value of rareness.
Robinson Jeffers, perhaps the greatest American poet of all. But what would he think of Carmel now and is Tor House still standing. Who resides in it, the ghosts of Robinson and Una Jeffers, their twin boys perhaps. It is not the same California when he first moved there in the early part of the twentieth century. Maybe that is what his poem is all about, the benefit of a mighty storm which will come and cleanse the earth.
I live in the Central Valley and once in a while we all need to be reminded that it is really beautiful. The rivers and the fields and the vineyards and the sunsets are the equal of Eastern Italy around Ravenna. The opportunity I had to work in a company that began by supporting agriculture and finished by exporting quality wood products all over the world was something my European friends marvel at. But the wiser people who destroyed the industrial infrastructure are at it with the farmers now. I can’t imagine who these bozos think is goingto pay the bills they are running up.
Two of the problems with the Los Angeles Unified School District, one of the worst performing in the nation, are that one third of the budget is needed to pay retired teachers’ benefits and about a third of the district’s enrollment is non-English speaking (and about 30 percent of those students never achieve English proficiency).
We all know the reasons why California has become what it’s become. The question is, what do we about it (presuming, of course, that something can be done). At the rate things are going now, we’ll be lucky to retain third world status. Oh well, at least our state employees and their unions are well-tended. And our illegal “guests” seem to be able to do pretty much as they please.
Just asked the spouse how we’re fixed for ammo. This mandated release of prisoners is not going to be pretty nor will it end well.
Dear Californicans,
California has no money. The people of California are producing less wealth. The State is consuming most of the wealth that the people do produce. Now all the dang criminals are running loose. It is beginning to smell bad for you. Well, at least your last penny will be spent on a fast choo choo train that I’m sure you will all need. My heart is bleeding. By the way, how is Governor Moonbeam working out so far?
Regards,
Concerned Flyover American
Believe me, my wealth will be leaving this hollow shell of a state very soon, along with my wife, my unborn son, and my dog.
Just haven’t decided between northern Nevada or Boise. Both are much prettier, within driving distance of family left behind here, affordable homes on actual PROPERTY, and a level of taxation that doesn’t feel like an aggressive colonoscopy.
Buh, bye. I feel sorry for the dog though.
What kind of dogs you have Spanky, poodles? Here’s a song for you when your delusions wear off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6ipL7ECoHQ
Don’t be. That dog is treated better than the layabouts in this state that get paid two years not to work.
He gets free food, free medical care and doesn’t pay taxes. He’s got no documentation and occasionally smells bad. It’s like having an illegal immigrant living in my house.
Come join us in Idaho! It is the most unscrewed up state in the Union. I’m happy to pay taxes for a community that doesn’t squander them.
I am currently with one foot still in CA, Valencia area. While OK by SOCAL standards, CA has decayed so much since I moved out here for Aerospace work in 1980.
We’re going full Galt. Sold the business, just paid the big slug of taxes (CA got almost as much as Fed’s did due to no Capital Gains treatment). I will be well under Democrat’s standard of ‘rich’ now, and will wait for a real Government of the People, before I venture into any further businesses. In Idaho.
Fashion a Castle Doctrine for the state and get it passed.
Thank G-d Texas has one.
I lived for years in California and saw the decline first hand. The state has been invaded, conquered, and colonized by the third world, and not just the Mexican reconquista, but the whole spectrum of third world barbarians, all with the blessings of the smug Liberal elite. Now they must bolt themselves into their houses at night. eventually they must flee, often moving to other states where they immediatly try to assume political power and begin the madness all over again. Case in point is Telluride, Colorado, near where I live. The now Californicated Liberal city council routinely publishes self rightious world proclaimations in leu of the more mundain tasks like fixing potholes. For a Liberal, all that petty “work” is below them, suitable only for those ape like conservatives. Liberals (in their own minds) are just born to lead. They are just too special to do menial tasks. When thier policies end in disaster, no problem, just blame the conservatives and move on…
Well said. I was in Las Vegas for a convention a couple years back and I was talking to a cab driver who was complaining bitterly about the Californians who were coming to Las Vegas, buying houses and then trying to pass a bunch of legislation to stop Nevadans from doing what they’d been doing for decades. Their communist like ant hill mentality knows no bounds. As you say, they flee the mess they make and go on to make another mess, all in the name of their narcissistic belief in their own grandiose ideals.
We had a bunch of Calif and Michigan libs try moving here to escape their own feces and of course, tried to pull their idiocy. Happy to say it didn’t work too well for them when their neighbors shunned them and the kids weren’t too happy in school, so being cowards they moved along quickly.
I grew up in CA and left in 1974. I could already sense the decline.
…from an undisclosed location in Dixie…
Praetorian, you’re an incredible jerk. My dog will lift his leg on you.
I came to California(San Diego) as a teenager in 1956. I went through the State College system for undergrad–and UC Berkeley for Grad School. Life was different then. We didn’t have so many jerks in West Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area. We had decent Republican and Democrat leaders in state government–some of each. Things worked–and to the extent that they didn’t, we built new things.
These days–sneering assholes in West Los Angeles and San Francisco-and decrepit roads and institutions throughout the state. Time to skedaddle.
It’s like a planned demolition:
Leftist policies set the rot going, then to forestall the political backlash that would normally occur, import third world immigrants to overwhelm the polity.
It’s done. I imagine VDH is only hanging on with the hope of one day becoming undocumented.
Although I do not want to see anyone harmed by this unfortunate Supreme Court decision to release tens of thousands of criminals onto the streets, I do expect to see the headline “Crime is Up — Despite Prison Population Decline”. Again, the liberals writing the article will have no idea that their logic is reversed. I don’t know what the timing of the release will be, but with a sizable number of them illegal immigrants, this will be a tough political football for the Democrats as to whether to deport them. And with a tough economy, I found it doubtful that a sizeable percentage of them will find honest work. The result is….chaos?
California is a cancer? How far east will Americans let it spread? Lot’s of optimism about Texas, a place I’ve lived for 56 years. I worry about it’s decline too. I don’t see any immunity anywhere.
Like you, Dr Hanson, I recently bought a 4×4 Toyota Tundra.
It was built right here in my own city, San Antonio. Last year Toyota shut down its Tacoma plant in Fremont, CA, and moved Tacoma production to San Antonio, hiring 1000 more people here.
I’m very sorry for what the lefties have wrought in your beautiful California.
In case I wasn’t clear, the CA Tacoma production line was moved to the already existing Tundra plant in TX last year.
Yep. Texas does not have Armies of Berkley trained state officials. Toyota makes billions in CA every year but our Green-Marxists are to much for them.
There are different kinds of places that call themselves democracies. There’s the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Canada. Most people are not confused as to which one is really a democracy. There are also different kinds of places called Socialist, such as France, as the author of this article seems to think, and Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Unlike with my democracy example, the author of this article does seem to be confused about which countries are really good examples of social democratic (socialist) countries. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are simply the most advanced countries in the world by almost any measure ((happiness, disposable income, employment, average education level (Finland has the best education system in the world, followed by Canada) etc.) and are socialist. France is not in the same league as the Scandinavian countries, and is not really socialist (don’t confuse having a socialist party with a country being socialist).
Back in the 1950s or 1960s, when Swedish socialism was first established, the Swedes had the 4th highest incomes in the world. Today, the 14th highest. They have problems with immigration and labor. They have high rates of workplace absenteeism. Many young workers routinely take Mondays off because they have no incentive to work. Some locales in Sweden have a 65% immigrant unemployment rate. Some immigrants re-immigrate to countries like Britain and Germany to find work. In the U.S. today, Swedish immigrants, under capitalism, are better off than Swedes living in Sweden. And don’t forget that the Swedes, and all European nations, don’t have to worry about national defense, as long as stupid U.S. is around. All socialism fails sooner or later. It cannot be sustained. Counties such as Norway, that have substantial oil revenues, will take longer.
Goody for you Albert. Stay there. I think the weather froze your brain.
Say – isn’t that where ya’ll have rape gangs going around raping women who don’t wear the hajib? Isn’t that where ya’ll have hate-crime legislation criminalising any mention of islam being a barbaric, woman-hating, gay-hating, anti-semitic, anti-western ideology? Isn’t that the place where ya’ll have prosecuted Geert Wilders for hate crimes for just publishing verses that are actually in the koran?
Oh yeah! We sure do want a part of your enlightenment!
Albert: In your glowing list of attributes attained by the Socialist countries, you left out one important one: FREEDOM. Freedom from Hate-Speech councils, freedom from honor killings, freedom from rampant anti-Semitism. I could go on but the point is that while the nanny-state countries have rolled over and embraced the fetal position, we in this country are still battling against all that “niceness”.
Don’t give up the fight, Dr. Hanson.
(Channeling Praetorian)
“All you hicks really, REALLY need to understand that I, and those like me, are special, sensitive people! I live in a lovely little area near San Diego! Ahh, nothing but yoga, meditation and idyllic romps through tastefully organized vinyards, sipping an elegant Merlot, as I watch the illegal aliens, who take such good care of very special people like me work away, in the hot sun! We need illegal aliens here. We need lots of them. Otherwise, who would take care of such very special people, like me, and my precious doggies? You horrid, ugly Republicans wouldn’t do it! That’s why I keep a dainty revolver, in the beside table beside my elegantly appointed bedroom (which my hispanic maid takes such very good care of!) It’s to take care of people like you, who want to break into my house and steal my wine collection and Mapplethorpe photographs, and maybe scare my doggies, and my maid, too! Oh, I’m onto people like you!
If you want to live in good communities, you should do it the American way—raise everybody’s taxes! Taxes are, after all, inexhaustible; really, they’re kind’ve magic! Tax money just falls from a money tree, or from the sky, like rain. You can never run out of tax money, so just vote yourselves some more! (I’m very clever, as you can tell! I know all about economy.) If you don’t like that, you can just move to Lodi, or eat cake or something. I don’t care! I have to go walk my darling doggies now.”
Praetorian, and those like him, are what’s wrong with California—and the world.
With regard to the decline of education in the state, it’s the change in the student population more than anything else. In schools with a high percentage of illegal immigrants or children of illegal immigrants, scores are low. In schools without, scores are high.
The education establishment is pretty much controlled by liberals. Their mantra is and has always been that they need more money. (Well, duh, who doesn’t?) Yet more money has not translated into anything but higher paychecks and better benefits for those in the education establishment.
Bilingual education was seen as the way to raise scores, yet that proved an abject failure and did nothing to raise scores – particularly most recently, as it seems a good number of our illegal immigrants don’t even speak Spanish.
30 years ago, an elementary schoolteacher in the Central Valley complained to me about how illegal immigration was dragging down the schools. She claimed that those coming were from a peasant class, who were uneducated and further failed to appreciate the value of an education. Living on the Central Coast, I’ve been seeing the same thing happen here the past decade.
With the looming bankruptcy of the state, it will be interesting to see how the liberals end up duking it out over who gets what. Public employee pensions over social service benefits?
Worth remembering what Winston Churchill said about beautiful women:
“It is impossible to snub a beautiful woman, for she remains beautiful and the rebuke recoils”
California has unparalled natural beauty. The problem is the people who live here. But if I have my choice between ugly populated with dumb ace lefty and beautiful with the same dumbaces I’ll take beautiful every time
And don’t forget. If we don’t have any of those ugly girls, none of us would know who the pretty girls are. I’m just saying…
This date has not arrived yet is this a typeo?
December 2011:
rear-ended by a texting driver; I called 9/11 and the police; she called “relatives” who arrived in two carloads. You get the picture. Luckily the police got there before her “family” did, and cited her. Still waiting to fix the dented truck.
Praetorian said:
“I live along the coast North of San Diego. Nothing but yoga and meditation centers, organic restaurants, etc., you get the picture. Paradise, plain and simple.”
“… we hate fascist Republicans like you, which is why you can’t win an election.”
A proud Centurion interrupted his yoga practice, turned away the barbarian hordes at the gates and is off again to the meditation center.
Gratias, Praefectus Praetorio. No other commenter provided better evidence than you. Exhibit A.
Thankfully, states are passing AZ style laws to deal with illegal immigration. For CA, I think it’s too late. The decent, hard-working contributors to society that are actually left there will be leaving before long, and all that will be left is a state full of white liberal snobby aristocrats, and their voting base made up of freeloading union members, illegal immigrants and their supporters, and the naive, idiotic “young people” on campuses. And I hope the snots like Brown, Pelosi, etc, enjoy it when they run out of goodies to hand these people, and they turn on them. It won’t be pretty. As others have stated, the illegal hispanic population here is is made up largely of freeloading barbarians with a completely different set of values that the average American.
Viva La Raza!
In Ca now we are seeing the ultimate fruits of leftist gov. When Ca was a conservative state, dominated by western pioneers and military bases, it was one of the most prosperous states in the nation, with the best public services. But after 30-40 yrs of leftist gov it is a basket case, with huge taxes, failing schools, failing basic law enfircement, and now failing prisons that have to let all the criminals back on the streets. Any state that is now on the cusp between conservative and leftist gov should consider the fate of CA.
Just keep feeding the troll…
I lived in California from 1958 to 2008, but left just before my fiftieth birthday so I wouldn’t have to spend my last few decades fighting for survival. Dr. Hanson is dead on in his descriptions of California’s unearthly natural beauty, and Praetorian has illustrated why even natives like me could no longer live in the state. It’s the people, stupid–or it’s the stupid people who have made paradise uninhabitable.
I am a native Californian, born in Fresno in 1951. Sadly, I am leaving the state to retire in New Mexico, where my father’s family has lived since 1894.
New Mexico has its own problems, but nothing like California’s. The sad part is that I am forced to leave my home due to massive government incompetence and corruption. Califorian simply does not work anymore.
Several people here have stated that socialist governments in Canada and Scandinavia seem to work reasonable well. But it is also pretty clear that socialist govs in the rest of the world are failing miserably. I have a theory on that, socialism can only work in countries with really cold climates. Cold climates tend to attract hardy hard working people, while lazy people prefer sunnier climes. Thus in cold countries socialism has a chance to work, because the hordes of freeloaders that destroy most socialist governments dont like the cold and wont move there.
Read F.A. Hayek’s book, “The Road to Serfdom.” Whether they are soft socialist countries, like Canada, or hard socialist countries, like the Soviet Union, they all fail in the end because they are built on fantasies of utopia and they all ignore human nature. They also all run out of other people’s money eventually. Sweden has an abysmal birth rate, way below replacement rate. Fewer babies mean fewer workers to support the nanny state. You can bet your life that they will run out of money. Same for Canada, England, and all the other socialist countries in the world that also have low birth rates. It’s a fact.
“… because the hordes of freeloaders that destroy most socialist governments dont like the cold and wont move there.”
Your theory has been around for a while. It’s one of several attempts to rationally account for some current differences but practice and trends tell us otherwise. The cold has not to be able to offset the attraction of easy living without work. A very temporary attraction, given the prevailing birthrates. It’s not just “the hordes”. There are plenty of non-contributors among the native offspring to pull the whole edifice down. It’s human nature, genes notwithstanding.
Demographics is destiny and if something cannot go forever, it won’t.
You might look to Norway to test your theory. After WWII, the Labour Party took over its Parliament introducing Keynesian economics and extending government controls of industry and labor established during the war. Then oil was discovered in the North Sea which enabled every wet dream social program a Socialist could possibly dream up. In two generations, Norwegians went from being hard-working and independent to slothful and dependent, especially younger Norwegians. Unemployment and “disability” benefits were so generous, people could live almost as well not working as they could working.
There was a crises in the government early in the last decade because the North Sea wells were due to run dry and they realized the Norwegian work ethic had been rubbed out by decades of government hand-outs. As far as I know, it was still as cold there as it had ever been so apparently people who live in really cold climates can become every bit as lazy as the people who gravitate to warm climates. (More oil was subsequently discovered in the North Sea fields, so government was able to kick that can on down the road and allow Norwegians to remain dependent and indolent.)
“Just keep feeding the troll…”
Some are useful. Make them work for you.
Praetorian and ilk are likely gambling that the federal government will bail us out. Unfortunately, I think that the best thing for the nation as a whole will be for California to fail.
Amen. It would also be the best thing for California. Maybe then they would wake up and smell the coffee. The liberal legacy in California and many other places in the country is a financial and social mess. Time to clean it up.
If the federal government even hints that it would bail out California, there will be outrage all across the country.
Dr. Hanson, there are a few commenters urging you to move to Canada. Don’t do it. You would not like it. These commenters write so glowingly of Canada because they have never lived in a really free country. There are some old-timers who remember what it was like to live in a free Canada, but they are dying off. The rest of the Canadian people have always known only socialism, so they have nothing to compare Canada to. The federal and provincial governments here poke their fingers into almost every aspect of life. The cost of living is exhorbitantly high, with goods and services costing two to three times what they cost in the U.S. They have to pay for all the socialist entitlement programs, including health care and, believe me, we Canadians pay for it all every time we go to a checkout. I’ve read that Obamacare is modeled on the Canadian system. If so, God help you Americans. We are also very politically correct here, which is why the authorities in Toronto and other cities turn a blind eye to the polygamy that goes on within the Muslim communities. We in Canada actively encourage the undermining of the values that made us a good and strong country. I could go on and on about the nonsensical, intrusive, and freedom-robbing policies in Canada, but you get the picture. We had our Obama over 40 years ago (Trudeau), and I sincerely hope that America can get rid of its Obama before it’s too late.
You must live in the limousine liberal heartland of Rosedale – lol.
It seems most Canadians have spoken, with the message being to keep government to a minimum, and put the individual at the forefront. I hear you with how it’s been for past decades!, but I do wonder if what got to an extreme in the most recent municipal and federal situation was just thrown out, to get back to the very approach to which you refer.
I’m hoping so – and with that, Dr. H. would be one more voice we could use to get off the “obama/trudeau” path, and back on track.
God help you for wanting to put pot smokers, growers, and dealers in jail in the first place. Maybe we should go after wine drinkers instead Victor. Oh. wait. We tried that. It didn’t work. Bummer.
The conservative thing to do Victor is leave people alone. Not many conservatives left in America these days, eh?
And with the enthusiastic support of the RINOs that control the California Republican Party. They never met a Democrat they didn’t like, as long as he puts an R behind his name.
And they never met a conservative they didn’t despise, except the ones that might actually win public office. These they do not despise, they fear. And, they attack. They sabotage. They fight tooth and nail to keep any real conservative out of office.
They are the enemy.
And Victor,
Alcohol Prohibition caused an unaffordable explosion in the prison population. Producers defending their production and distribution. Thieves attempting to steal the production. So there are ancillary crimes as well. Leading to extralegal “law” enforcement. So a LOT of violence is induced. Sure you will be letting out some violent criminals. But you know what? The vast majority of that went away over time. It took 20 years. Look at the murder stats post prohibition.
Murder Inc. went public (so to speak) when there were no longer criminals who needed whacking. Now a days the criminals prefer milder violence. So the criminals went into the union business. Mostly. And garbage hauling. etc.
Just as in post Alcohol Prohibition there will be a hangover. But we are going to have to start some time.
“Yes, a man would have to be mad — or quite rational — to leave paradise lost.”
Rational it is than. Well, in my case. I was born in the Central Valley six decades ago, and remember when it was as beautiful as you describe, even in the long hot summer months. You could see Shasta and Lassen and the snow peaks of the high Sierra’s most times, even from our small-ish agricultural town (north of Sacramento).
Not now. Brown sludge obscures it all, except for the day after a cleansing rain.
We’re leaving Cali’ in September/October (no definite date, as the logistics of the move are complex, as we’re “taking our jobs with us”, and we have to juggle life around that, and the packing and moving of an entire household and a decade plus of accumulating “stuff” a distance of some 1500 plus miles).
…but it’s stupid – non-rational, as you noted – to stay [grow old] here.
…and apparently about to grow even more dangerous
…and dunno if I’ll even miss it at this point
…tho’ I wish my “baby” brother wasn’t staying (I understand his reasons: new house, a paying job, and economic uncertainty …it wears on a man).
Back in the 1980′s in Texas, judges ordered massive releases of convicts on the grounds of prison overcrowding. All across the state violent crime rates skyrocketed upwards. One victim happened to be a friend of my family’s, a very pretty woman who was kidnapped and repeatedly raped over the span of a few days.
When the dust settled on this early release business years later, after various studies had been inked, it was pretty much agreed that the overwhelming factor behind our massive spike in violent crime were the early release mandates. So questions regarding the wisdom of these mandates were settled. Or so I thought.
Now in California this lesson will have to be re-learned all over again. The cost of this will be measured in tears, loss, and blood. And, if history’s patterns prove to be a guide, in the years to come when the pain of it all has faded sufficiently from community memory, then liberal judges will issue rounds of these mandates again.
Would it have been ok if she were ugly? Just asking….
Feh. The whole state, excluding a few coastal deciduous rain forests, is fugly. The trees are too dry to achieve the color green on their scanty branches; the golden hills are golden because they’re covered by dehydrated scorched grass; the moment you get within fifteen miles of an urban center the houses are crammed shoulder-to-shoulder with yards the size of window-boxes, and the streets are littered with trash.
An attractive state has lush foliage on the trees, which are themselves so old and dense that they lean over the roads forming tree-tunnels where the light is a silver-green dusk. An attractive state has lawns and fields of such a saturated green color that you think it’s been digitally enhanced, houses that sit on acres at a time without requiring millionaire owners, deep blue skies, and clean streets. And an attractive state is full of young women who can fondly name their favorite Sunday School teachers, who’re attractive without surgery, and who’re of sufficiently good character that you want to take them home to meet Mom.
California doesn’t qualify.
Really well-written, R.C., practically a poem in prose. Thanks for reminding us about what real health would look like.
RC, you need to expand your vision of beauty to include more colors than green. I live in a desert and there is so much beauty out here that I could never live in the confinement of tree covered avenues. I can see mountains 70 miles away from my back yard, 15 miles away from my side yard, and Pikes Peak 30 miles from my front porch. I have wildlife all around me and I can see so many stars that the milky way is like a warm blanket. I get your point about California, but we all have our own ideas when it comes to beautiful places.
RC . . I’m heading there this weekend. As Robert said – your description of an ‘attractive state” was poetic. I’ve linked to our webcam in Loudonville, Ohio. Those are only hills in the distance. But they are green and fertile. Our neighbors on one side are precious family, on the other side – good, hard-working Americans who are getting their gardens ready for planting over Memorial Day weekend.
And Jim, you are right to love Colorado beauty. I lived there 10 years and go back for visits, but . . . water, water, water. Gentle rain, not deluge and hail shredding the new seedlings and then water restrictions later in the year. . . Guess I’ve lost my frontier spirit.
I’ll be on that deck this weekend, admiring the baby cows across the road and then drifting down to the town for the parade. I’ll be fighting back tears as the veteran file past on the way to fire a salute over the cemetery where some of my family and a few friends have been laid to rest. It’s a good place. Still safe. Flags fly freely and there are enough guns and ammo to maintain that freedom for quite a while.
http://outback.hodar.com/index.html
Victor Davis Hanson, Like all in the People’s Republic of California look to the Fearless Leader to solve your difficulties! May I remind you that can only SUGGEST laws or VETO bad laws. It is those you (collectively) sent to the legislature that has precipitated most if not all of your state unhappiness. How exactly did your legislature get to its current state of dysfunction? I know the governors sent the guard in with fixed bayonets! Brown is encountering the same Jackasses Arnold contended with. Whose fault is that? If California is to be saved it will be done by those who caused the disaster, look in the mirror.
rear-ended by a texting driver; I called 9/11 and the police; she called “relatives” who arrived in two carloads. You get the picture. Luckily the police got there before her “family” did, and cited her. Still waiting to fix the dented truck.
–In Sacramento, they won’t send out any police to a crash unless someone is injured or 3rd party property was damaged.
A Rant – but an accurate one!
Praetorian, re: “California will be just fine. The only problem you seem to have with California is that we hate fascist Republicans like you, which is why you can’t win an election.” Sorry, Praetorian, but take some history and try again… fascism is a phenomenon of the political left. Example: The Nazi Party was actually a German acronym for National Socialist Worker’s Party. Fascism and communism are in fact ideological neighbors on the left, in that both require nearly complete government control over every aspect of life. Mussolini, one of the inventors of fascism, stated that it should have been called corporatism, because it is a perfect merger of the corporation and the state. One of Il Duce’s heroes was leftist Democrat and progressive Woodrow Wilson, the nearest thing America has seen to a fascist.
Albert, re: “Unlike with my democracy example, the author of this article does seem to be confused about which countries are really good examples of social democratic (socialist) countries. Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are simply the most advanced countries in the world by almost any measure ((happiness, disposable income, employment, average education level (Finland has the best education system in the world, followed by Canada) etc.) and are socialist.”
Albert, a nice try but not quite on the mark. It is quite arguable that the Scandinavian nations are the most “advanced” as you put it; statistics can be made to say many things, especially when leftists with a political axe to grind get ahold of them. I and my family have lived in Denmark. It is a very pleasant nation, but hardly paradise. Taxes are very high, there’s tons of red tape and government bureaucracy, and lots of petty rules that govern everything. The cost of living is high. Many Danes are beginning to chafe under numerous restrictions on their freedom, including politically-correct pro-Islamist measures by Muslim emigres. The nation functions well, but bear in mind that your comparison isn’t an “apples to apples” one. Denmark has a population of about 5.5 million people, roughly the same number found in greater Chicagoland. Norway and Finland are similar in size, and like Denmark, relatively homogenous. Sweden is somewhat bigger but still far smaller than the USA.
Socialism, however well it works or does not, isn’t going to be applied in the USA in the same manner. It cannot be. We are too huge, too diverse, too saddled with debt, and our constitutional tradition allows each state to govern itself sem–autonomously. Don’t holds your breath… the USA isn’t turning into Sweden or Norway, though undoubtedly Obama would like it if it happened.
You missed something, GeorgiaBoy, and so did the oblivious Praetorian.
All those scandinavian countries have monstruous taxation, gigantic public debt, and crippling private debt.
In other words, they can’t pay for their Socialist Paradise. They’re living on borrowed time.
Socialism is bankrupt – philosphically, politically, socially and economically. But it seems every population and generation needs to learn that the hard way, including us.
Oh, and Praetorian – remember Marie Antoinette.
Dr. Hanson;
I truly feel sorry for you. It has to be heart wrenching to have to face the fact that you might have to sell the family farm in order to survive the onslaught of a wave of wanton criminals.
But, If I were you I would seriously consider this move.
You may not get the price your property is valued at, but, peace of mind and the safety of your family is paramount.
I can see no other solution.
Hey, Doc; Here’s a response to your situation from Mark Steyn over at National Review Online:
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/268188/betting-farm-mark-steyn
This essay by VDH is to our society what the lamentations of the prophets of Israel and Judah are to the Old Testament. Just as Hosea, Joel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah could see clearly the nexus between moral decay and poltical decay in the centuries after David and Solomon were long gone, so Hanson, a wonderful historian, writes about our own catastrophe.
Actually no. Whatever you can say about ancient Israel, the kings – even the idolotrous ones – clearly cared about the people and tried to help them. For example, look at the political aspects of Ahab’s line. The problem was that they would not accept the prophet’s solutions. (There were some issues on the level of the nobility, however.)
You are like Charlton Heston in Omega man
a man of the wheel, lost in time.
Decades of Liberal rule have left California as a highly regulated, socialist version of Detroit with good weather. It’s a peek at the future if our elected representatives keep spending like drunken sailors and are held hostage to state employees and people who break into the state illegally. Just throw money at every problem, but don’t address the real issues. The current State of California is why there is a fleeing, disappearing middle class and what is left is the ultra-wealthy living west of the Santa Monica mountains and on the Peninsula south of SF, enjoying life and saying what’s the big deal, paying their Mexican house help, with most of the rest of Californians as the struggling middle class or the working poor. Could Reagan be elected today? No way, as Liberals are all in favor of lawless immigration and we continue to import socialists. California is one big reason why there will be a secession movement among a number of states–they don’t want to head down California’s road or be responsible for the failed Liberal policies. Enjoy the nice weather.
Can we FORCE California to secede?
It won’t be long before someone says, “Dang, we need a white guy around here!”
Tijuafornia.
Victor:
The land of your ancestors is a goner. It is time to move on.
We in Texas will welcome you.
Preferably at the University of Texas – Austin.
It is not that you are wanted, you are needed.
Texas: The last bastion of American freedom…
Victor, before you go and do something foolish like move to Texas, take a look at http://www.city-data.com/
Texas has nothing on California. Canada is for draft dodgers.
The below forecasts speak for themselves. Enjoy your summer home in the Sierra Nevada.
San Antonio High: 100°
Low: 76°
Austin High: 100°
Low: 77°
Houston High: 94°
Low: 75°
Palo Alto High: 71°
Low: 48°
Sacramento High: 75°
Low: 48°
Los Angeles High: 71°
Low: 55°
One final comment, To everything there is a season. I agree with what Victor says about the Central Valley having it’s own forn of beauty. We share the same problems as the rest of this nation. But I prefer to think of Califonia as a place were dreams are fulfilled, not where they die. If those Hanson farm house walls could talk I bet that is what they would say.
Are you suggesting CA won’t notice another 30,000 morons in their midst?
That was good!LOL!!