California - Occasionally 100% Right

I CAN'T STAND LEAF BLOWERS.

They've been torturing me ever since I moved out of cities some 6 years ago.

Outside of the winter, all day long I suffer rickety gas-powered blowers around my house.

What kills me is that they are wielded by illegal immigrants AND that they aren't necessary at all.

It's not one guy either, when the landscaping gang of 'cans hits each house invariably 3-5 of them whip out the blowers in unison and sweep the entire property. Again, it's NOT NECESSARY.  Furthermore the ones around here also utilize a huge gas blower on wheels that's even louder.

I even proposed to some local official a new ordinance saying they couldn't blow each property every week - just cutting them down to *ever other week* would reduce the noise by a significant 50%.

Make the law so only homeowners themselves can use gas-powered blowers. Make the law so that landscapers can only use the quieter electric ones. Whatever....do ANYTHING to cut the noise down.

Everyone thought California was crazy when they cracked down on public smoking. But guess what, who among y'all wants to return to smoky restaurants and airlines?

The blind squirrel State has found another rare nut.

Cavemen And Their Cheat-Sheets

This is definitely not worth *9 minutes* of your precious time.

So skip ahead; start at the 3 or 4 minute mark and feel free to hit the FF button.



The guy at 6:38 is hilarious - with his freakin' cue card!

What the heck did he say anyway?

Inflating The Cost Of Ignorance

These Moronic college *students* are right, even if their outrage is woefully misdirected.

Learning nothing should indeed cost a whole lot less!

Perhaps the people they and their parents voted for can fix things?

A Fine Catch!

Powerline says she's an *argument for teaching economics in public schools*....

But that's 100% incorrect.

She's an argument AGAINST public schools - not one for giving them more mandates.

Federal Slavery

Schwarzenegger's office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

I actually had to read that article to be convinced of the headline. The State of California, in an effort to stave off fiscal bankruptcy has cut the pay of its *unionized home healthcare workers*, among many other trimmed expenses.

But that's not going to fly with the Obama administration. They are going to withhold Federal monies from California if Arnold doesn't spare that sacred cow. Thou shall not reduce thy budget. Stay bloated and in debt to the Federal government!

It's ridiculous how the states let the Feds confiscate income tax and then, if they're lucky, if they *play ball*, Washington will magnanimously give the dough back. Remember those *kids* arguing not long ago how the so-called blue states paid more in Federal taxes (than they got back)?

Well how smart is that?

Meanwhile, this is the situation in the land of fruits and nuts:

Reporting from Sacramento -- California could run out of money as soon as July, the Legislature's chief budget analyst warned Thursday, as a new poll showed voters poised to reject five budget-related measures on the May 19 ballot.

If the propositions do not pass, the state could find itself as much as $23 billion short of the money it needs to pay its bills over the next year, according to a new forecast by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor.

link

Whole states are bankrupt. Pensions are leagues under water. Unemployment is soaring. A new foreclosure wave is about to come crashing from shore to shore, the Feds are drunk printing and borrowing around the clock....

And yet the Dow Jones has rallied from 6,600 to about 8,600 in the past two months - a bounce of 30%. Even the prudent bears are getting wiped out. Now they'll be absolutely nobody with cash to buy homes, stocks, and bonds when they start their inevitable crash.

The USA - Frayed At The Edges

Ann Coulter's column on the so-called Tea Parties this week posited a foreboding Californian analogy:

In June 2002, the liberal American Prospect magazine called California a "laboratory" for Democratic policies, noting that "California is the only one of the nation's 10 largest states that is uniformly under Democratic control."

They said this, mind you, as if it were a good thing. In California, the article proclaimed, "the next new deal is in tryouts." As they say in show biz: "Thanks, we'll call you. Next!"

In just a few years, Democrats had turned California into a state -- or as it's now known, a "job-free zone" -- with a $41 billion deficit, a credit rating that was slashed to junk-bond status and a middle class now located in Arizona.

Democrats governed California the way Democrats always govern. They bought the votes of government workers with taxpayer-funded jobs, salaries and benefits -- and then turned around and accused the productive class of "greed" for wanting not to have their taxes raised through the roof.

Having run out of things to tax, now the California legislature is considering a tax on taxes. Seriously. The only way out now for California is a tax on Botox and steroids. Sure, the governor will protest, but it is the best solution ...

California was, in fact, a laboratory of Democratic policies. The rabbit died, so now Obama is trying it on a national level.

That's what the tea parties are about.

Now I haven't been to California that much so all I can go on is what I read - which isn't too good.

The sense that many have is that California is on many levels already a Third World nation.

Could that happen on a national level? Dear God let's hope not.

Incidentally, Californians have always represented this blog's largest readership - so the state can't be all bad.

(I did read Mexifornia three years ago. See my take here.)