Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
I have to disagree with you, Lex. I think Newsom pulling out is less due to a swing in California (keep in mind the far left ex-Gov. Moonbeam is the likely Democratic nominee) than something personal. Newsom claimed he was pulling out because of time constraints and responsibilities to his young family. This usually is code for scandal. He’s already had one or two. It could also be this Washington Times article: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/07/piracy-on-treasure-island/ that seemed to receive little notice on several fronts.
Eh. Newsome has great name recognition here in California for some social stands that served his San Francisco constituency quite well, but which are either “controversial” or “courageous” in the rest of the state. The fact that he couldn’t raise the scratch to push himself further in the race likely means that he hasn’t a prayer of winning that rest of California that isn’t SF. “Time constraints” and family sound like face-savers to me.
Anyone can read the chicken bones and end with a result to their liking.
Results matter. VA, NJ and NY race IMTUO (in my totally uninformed opinion) are serious, meaningful, objective indicators for 2010. Hang on QM, it CAN happen.
Course, I’m going to pick up an 870 today with 00 and #8 just in case.
V/R
“just in case”
Ron, I didn’t know you were an “always be prepared” Boy Scout. They must have raised the age limit.
I assume you’ve qualified for your marksmanship badge. Do they make you an Eagle if you “bag your limit?” Or IS there a limit on Congress critters?
Well, Virgil, I’ve been thinking that perhaps my Ruger 10/22, Marlin lever action .44 carbine, Chinese SKS (with bayonet) and the .38 pistol was cutting it a bit close in being prepared.
Kinda wish I had not given my Browning bow to a friend that wanted to try bow hunting. Was a beautiful bow; synthetics may be more functional, but the wood on that Browning was just nice to look at. Was effective also.
Regards,
VX, Congresscritters are considered vermin and may shot at anytime, on sight. Kinda like Coyotes and Ground Hogs. Such critters also share many characteristics with the latter two species. There are too many of them, and they are destructive, even though they provide many hours of entertainment for us hoplophiles.
Ron, I’ve made a prediction based on what I’ve seen and what I know of human nature. It is a prediction I truly hope I am very wrong about.
Instead of #00 buck, buy #4 instead. For man type target the SEALs used #4 in ‘nam, and the SAS used SSG, which is between 3 and 4 buck. There are too few pellets in #00. Slugs will also nicely penetrate lite body armor. If the target is wearing a trauma plate, the target will still succumb.
I recommend the Federal H 132 Tactical Buck.
Pogue, have to confess that I am a bit, umm, thrifty. The 870 is on sale today, so look at the money that I am saving!
Dems are about to loose the Viginia Gov. seat by double digits, a traditionally blue seat. The White House has already been insisting it’s not a referendum on Obama, a sure sign that it is. Theres also a chance that they’ll lose the very blue NJ race … too close to call right now.
While Virginia will most likely return a Republican to the Governor’s mansion it is hard to call The Old Dominion a “traditionally blue seat”. The Commonwealth has traditionally been conservative and voted Republican in every Presidential election since Johnson in ’64 – until Obama.
With the growth in Northern Virginia and Tidewater the state has been trending more Democratic but has hardly been a liberal enclave. The Democratic Governors of late have been more the result of the GOP nominating candidates too far to the right and the Democrats largely nominating centrists. Same goes for the two current Senators.
The significance of Tuesday’s likely result will be that Obama thought they have finally moved the Commonwealth into the Blue column for good but, despite large influxes of immigrants and efforts of organizations like ACORN to sign up voters in the increasingly liberal enclave of Fairfax County, Virginians are very traditional and view the current national scene with increasing vocal disgust.
At least that’s my take on it….
OldT6, I think you are spot on with regards to Virginia. Any idea of replacing Larry Sabito as the professor of politics at UVA? I’ll be working the polls on Tuesday and look forward to seeing the printouts, even here in Deeds country, go in McDonnel’s favor.
Well I grew up not all that far from you (Lynchburg) and lived in Fairfax for 25 years before I moved to Texas three years ago. Always followed politics with interest and know a few folks neck deep in it.
I love Texas but miss the Shenandoah in the fall. Not many places in the country that can top its beauty in my opinion.
Dr. Sabato has built himself quite a brand over the years but as a Va Tech graduate I’m not sure I could take living that close to so many Wahoos. But then, Charlottesville is a nice town, otherwise.
A Democrat candidate who manages to turn the Northern Va independent vote to the Republican the way Deeds has, who has managed to turn moderate women to McDonnell the way Deeds has and who goes on air with little in the way of specificity to solving one of the biggest issues faced in the $$/vote rich enclaves of Va (NoVa and Hampton Roads), transportation, the way Deeds has can only be labeled incompetent. Deeds hails from SW Va and fancies himself the prototypical “get the big guy” populist-liberal. Plays well in coal country, not so the rest of the state.
- SJS
The republicans must return to their roots and not be democrat lite if they want to make a good showing in 2010. The NY incident is one the republicans should take very seriously. Newt shot himself in the foot by siding with Party over Principles.
Kinda funny that Palin was the first one to support the conservative instead of being concerned about the D or the R.
Then, after licking their fingers and putting them into the wind (or doing polls), came Huck, Romney, Pawlenty and the usual suspects. Leadership, doing what you believe to be right; or, what does the polling tell me to do? Just saying.
You know, her being a quitter and not of serious national political stature and all. After all, the Pundits are the wise men/ladies, even the good Ms. Noonan.
Ed, most people don’t realize what the origin of the Republican party is. They were no conservatives in the 1850s when they began, they were quite leftist, just not as bad as they are now. Lincoln was the great centralizer and gave us the imperial FedGov we have now. The Reps started the problems we now have, so we don’t want them returning to their roots. Their roots are just as deadly now as they were in the 1850s. We want constitutional government, and that is what being a conservative means.
The Republican Eastern Establishment that gave us both Bush presidencies are the problem these days. McCain is a member in good standing, as is Lindsey Graham, Lugar, McConnell and a number of others. Those sleazebags need to be purged forthwith. If they want to stay on the path they are on, let them join the Democrats. They’ll fit right in as long as they put a “D” behind their name, just like their buddy Specter.
QM/
I would go easy on McConnell if I were you. He was the Jefferson County Judge (i.e., Mayor of half the metroplex) in Louisville when I lived there, and then my Senator along with Bunning. Was VERY conservative as Jeff. Co. Judge and I think his “moderation” (such as it is) as a Senator is only by dint of his position of Minority Leader and having to herd cats like Susan Collins and Olympia Snow to keep the GOP together on key procedural votes, IMHO–you may read it differently. The Dems hate him with a passion in Ky and went all out with a popular candidate this last time to defeat him. The rural vote is always the key. 94% of all blacks in Ky live in two cities–Louisville & Lex.–and probably 99.9% of the white “limousine liberals.” White blue-collar vote in all cities is usually split these days in nat. elections–lots of white yellow dog blue-collar dems who vote GOP in nat. elections. Just as we left there began to be big influx of migrants (legal & illegal) from south of the border into Ky–mainly in tobacco harvesting, etc.–so don’t know how they shake out voting wise…
VX, the problem I see is how McConnell has acted in the District of Corruption. He’s been a very week reed in the immigration battle, and has caved on a number of issues. What he was back in KY doesn’t make much difference if he acts left of center. Alas, like so many RINOs he’s “grown” after he got to the district of corruption.
I’m aware of the breakdown of KY, as I lived next door in northern middle Tennessee for years and my wife has family in the eastern KY area (Ashland and Carter Caves area), and in the Lexington area (Harrodsburg). I don’t see any excuse for the way he’s acted based on that however. Either you stand for what is right, or you don’t. He’s been squishy, at best, for a very long time.
QM/
I’m wondering if part of Mitch’s problem might be his new wife, Elaine Chao, whom he married in 93–sort of like the way Don Imus fell under the more liberal spell of his young wife
on many things..
I think she is a good bit of the trouble. That and the fact the Reps can’t abide being called racists, even when they know it’s just a ploy to divert attention from the issues.
I personally don’t care what they call me, as long as it isn’t late for chow. I’ll press on with what I’m doing and let the lying left rave and rage.
McConnell needs to rediscover himself, and come to his senses, or he should go home and stay.
QM,
Good point. And folks do seem to have forgotten just what party it was that stood against slavery (and to which Lincoln belonged).
Given the political drift to the left over the last 70 years, I think I’d find a liberal 1850s republican a bit closer to my ‘druthers’ than today’s DINO/RINO. At least the former were building the republic rather than dismantling it.
You find them more to your liking, but only if you liked handing the FedGov over to the northeastern money men. It was those same money men that allowed FedGov to survive financially so Lincoln could conquer the south.
There was a reason that Lincoln and his handlers wanted a strong FedGov, and you can see that reason out in the open these days. What we have today is the final result of Lincoln’s mendacity.
I think part of the problem is there’s been brand dilution in both parties for decades. Ever since the idea of coalition parties took hold we’ve been seeing people with R (or D) behind their names taking pretty much every position possible.
What does it mean to be a Republican? Does it mean fiscal conservatism? Does it mean social conservatism? Pro-business? Pro-defence? Pro-life? Not-the-Democrat?
For every one of those questions I could point to someone who calls themselves a Republican whose answer is “No”. To paraphrase the poet, will the real Republicans please stand up?
Hard to tell, even from a viewpoint just to the north.
Almost time for a couple of party splits, no? Dems into crazy hippy socialists and left-of-centre moderates, Republicans into fiscally-conservative right-of-centre moderates who like their guns and the crazed, socially conservative, redneck-pandering loons that, I think, frighten a great number of people away from the GOP.
If I remember correctly, it’s happened before.
Except that with the first past the post system we have in the US you’re going to end up with two parties. Perot and Nader are both examples of a third party pulling just enough votes away from one of the big two to give the election to the other guy.
You might have a chance if you can get a party that draws equally from both D and R. And if you place it exactly on its apex you can balance an egg.
Still… whether or not you end up with two parties, you’ll still have cleaned the loonies out, this round.
What you would actually see is the threatened party would adjust its stance to incorperate the new party’s position, then once the new party was dead start moving back to its previous position. Similar to prices in a monopolistic market.
Perot’s run in ’92 led to the Contract with America, and once the Reform Party was dead and buried (generously aided by Perot using it as a vanity project and going nucking futs) the Republican Party resumed it’s position as the party growing government slower than the Democrats.
The solution is to kill the political class (not literally, well for most of them) and return to the days of citizen-legislators. Except those days never existed, we’ve been fighting the same battle since Adams and Jefferson, just with more zeros.
And on that depressing note I must say good night. Start a 3 week underway next week. Cap’n I’ll be in your neck of the woods in a few days. Looking forward to grilling myself a steak at the Strip Club (Best. Restaurant. Ever) and doing my part to reduce your fair city’s surplus of Murphy’s Stout.
Dirty, human nature isn’t very plastic. The political situation is the result of sinful human nature seeing an opportunity enrich himself. Government has long been a good way to do so, particularly when you can get government to hand you a monopoly of some sort. It has been said that two businessmen will get together to prevent others from entering the business. We see that in the licensed professions, for which there is good reason to ensure the practitioners are competent, but the licensing laws are normally used to raise blocks to entry. My own professions of Engineering and Surveying are excellent examples of this.
Civil Engineering is dependent on the Government for much of its work. The private sector is boom and bust, but the government sector is much more steady because they can tax.
I don’t believe that. I can’t belive that, because if you’re right then we’re screwed harder than a sailor in Pattaya wearing a suit of C-notes. There are examples of people foregoing immediate reward for long-term return, it just takes leadership. I can’t provide that but others (Lex, I’m looking at you sir) can.
The problem is assembling a critical mass of people that can and will rally around a leader. As I’ve said before, I hope to be very wrong, but I don’t think I will be.
Many here have been exhorting Lex to pull up stakes, and decamp about 1,300 miles easterly, because Cali is basically one screwed pooch. In today’s LATimes (not a reliably wing nut outlet, I must say), William Voegeli opines on the parties responsible for the screwing, and what it means on a national basis.
I thought about that today, as little Timmy Geithner avoided every attempt by David Gregory to pin him down on just what the DC political class was doing to get our economy restored. He was talking about all of the jobs “saved”. Well, according to the WaPo 1/2 of the 500K jobs saved were teacher jobs, which have almost a zero multiplier effect — no supplier jobs to support them as you would have with manufacturing or construction jobs. What you have, is a payoff to a favored political support group. Which is exactly the behavior Voegeli says got Cali headed down the poop chute.
A good read, thanks for linking it. I’ve got 2 and 3/4 years left of high school here in Cali, and then we’re free to up stakes.
I can hold on for that long.
Having moved during a school year when my father retired from the Air Force, I can certainly understand wanting to stay and let here finish not just the year, but HS entirely.
I just hope there is a way out for you in three years, Lex. I understand too well the pain of moving and selling a house. Hope things turn out well for you.
Scott said: – “…jobs saved were teacher jobs, which have almost a zero multiplier effect…”
Not true. Unless the teachers stuff their paychecks under a mattress or bury it in the back yard (something poorly paid teachers are not likely to do), the multiplier effect of their pay is indeed operative, and contributes to the economy, rather than their becoming the economic drag of unemployment.
The multiplier operates on the principle that one individual’s expenditure is another individual’s income, expanding through many iterations over time and the velocity of money, thus boosting the economy. And it is far more effective if the teacher spends locally, isn’t it?
Re Voegeli’s LATimes Op-ed – That he conveniently omits any mention of one of the major causes of California’s economic misfortune – The Taxpayers Revolt that led to Prop. 13 – seriously damages the credibility of his editorial.
flit,
I lived through that period of time in California. I had bought a home and was struggling to pay mortgage/insurance/taxes … and suddenly my property tax was doubled.
Scrimp, save, put off various things like furnishing the home…and two years later I was scheduled for another DOUBLING of property tax.
Then we all got angry and passed Prop 13.
The misfortune is an assembly that has a blank checkbook and cannot control its spending. The CA fiscal catastrophe was not due to Prop 13, since only those who remained in their same homes as of its passage still benefit. Those who bought new homes or bought later must pay according to their assessment of property of the time of purchase.
Since Prop 13, the CA budget and tax base has grown astronomically. You blame the result on Prop 13, which saved those on fixed incomes from being taxed out of their homes? Come on …
And I have relatives in the LAUSD who have told me of unbelievable waste in that system. We have a very high per pupil cost, and just look at the miserable result.
One wonders how Prop 13 passage explains the fact cited that Texas students are one to two years ahead of California students even as California spends 12% more per student than Texas. Both states have high immigrant populations to educate as well.
The argument that more money is needed for education gets stale if you consider these results or, should you need another data point consider Washington, DC, which ranks first in per student spending with frankly, dismal results.
What evidence can be cited to support the notion that if Prop 13 hadn’t passed and the state was therefore flush with cash (a dubious argument in itself but one that gets made by inference) that it wouldn’t just get wasted with similar results?
California doesn’t have a tax problem it has a spend problem that, in a recession, becomes a crisis. Why it should be my crisis when I don’t even live there is something not even Obama is willing to try to sell. Yet anyway.
Ole’ T6 — that’s what happens when you allow your ideology occlude your reading for comprehension.
And Flit’s economic blinders extend to his view of the multiplier effect of fiscal policy. Funding teacher salaries rates well down the scale of fiscal impact, and in fact the only impact is to shield an administration political ally from pain. I would point to the testimony of Mark Zandi, Moodys.com’s chief economist before Congress last year. Increased infrastructure spending, increasing Medicaid reimbursements to states, payroll tax holidays, all have higher stimulative effects than shoveling money to the members of the NEA. Marginal propensity to consume, and all that pointy headed economist stuff. Once you shovel it out, there is no predicting what is done with it. It may mean that it all gets saved, or allows a couple to fully fund both 401Ks. That’s why the multiplier is so low, compared to other initiatives that have a higher propensity to consume.
Only in Obamaland is all spending equal. Again, listening to Geithner this AM, I wonder if these guys really believe this stuff, or are they just spinning?
flit..you can whine all you want about the Jarvis Initiative..but the fact is..the liberal legislature continues to spend more than they can afford..
when the property values fell..did they cut their budget..no… they increased it..
Flit is just another mindless leftist that can’t see anything they don’t want to see. Facts don’t matter. Nothing matters except having their heart in the right place. Too bad the universe doesn’t agree with them. Eventually reality has the intention to smack them up side the head with the proverbial 2×4 to get their attention. Most of the time that doesn’t work either. Historically, the penalty for stupidity is death. The left knows nothing else.
QM, those who are permitted to comment here are considered guests of the host, who hopes and expects that even those guest we disagree with will be treated with mutual courtesy and respect. To call a guest “mindless” is to engage in ad hominem, which needlessly antagonizes, charges the atmosphere and adds little to the exchange.
Much of the left, and no doubt some undetermined numbers on the right may indeed be “mindless,” but fliterman is not, I believe, one of them.
MY apologies Lex. I could have phrased it better.
Never to fret, and thanks for being understanding.
Interesting how everyone wants to talk only about CA spending and waste… but never the other equally important part of the equation: REVENUE.
Can’t have one without the other (for very long).
Like very many Californians – and many in my neighborhood – I still live in the same house as I did when Prop. 13 cut my old property taxes in half! Although I have made many major improvements, and though our house, even in these hard times has still appreciated 1,300% (down from 1,600% I think), I pay little more in property taxes than I did in 1978 when my tax was cut in half. But my new neighbor pays 8-10 times what I pay in property taxes! That is not right. And there are very many like me paying miniscule property taxes that do indeed make a major negative impact on CA’ financial difficulties.
But perhaps of even more importance is the two-thirds majority rule that was part of Prop. 13. Requiring such a majority makes passage of any needed, major budget, tax, and spending change nearly impossible. Couple that with the term limits for CA legislatures and the recent re-districting. It has all combined to create a legislature grid-lock and resulting financial disaster.
The state has a $42 billion shortfall. Other reasons for that are former profligate borrowing, the housing bust, massive unemployment, a reduced credit rating, reduced revenue from sales, property, business and income tax, etc. as much state government spending.
Yes QM. Facts do matter, even for this “mindless leftist that [allegedly] can’t see anything I don’t want to see.’ I just wonder why Voegeli’s article missed all the above facts. Why can’t he see? And facts always do trump ad hominens, don’t you agree?
The failure of Prop 13 then seems to be that, having enacted 2/3 majority requirement to raise taxes, the assumption was made that the state would be run by grownups who would know you can’t keep raising spending. Since this obviously was a bad assumption perhaps a 2/3 majority on spending might be the cure?
Since all that spending hasn’t seemed to actually helped the state improve basic services all that much its almost comical to see the spending be defended as if it was actually getting you something. Seems the only thing its getting is votes for the ones authorizing the spending.
Yeah I’d leave, too. Weather ain’t everything.
The word, Flit, is “discipline.” That’s a word the mindless left can’t abide, including you.
The left is made up of people that refuse to grow up. So if you think the facts are something fingible, that you can wipe off the board simply because you don’t like them (e.g. the law, the constitution, the reality of human nature, etc.) then they will come back and smack you something terrible down the road.
Cali is already getting a ton of revenue. The leftist morons in Sacramento simply refuse to live within it. Just like a teenager who thinks she should have plenty of money simply because she has checks left.
Requiring such a majority makes passage of any needed, major budget, tax, and spending change nearly impossible.
Proposition 13 requires a 2/3 majority vote to eliminate programs and cut spending in those left?
flit..ok..i’ll bite…what do you see as the solution?..more taxes?..so more producers will leave the state?..
Also..how can your property taxes be the same..when Prop 13 was passed..I believe it included an automatic 2% increase annually..so for the past 36 years..iirc..you have to be paying some small pittance more..
I want to thank you for your P.O.V…it makes me appreciate mine..all the more.. : ))
Didn’t say they were the same. . . said they were “little more.”
Moreover, a 2% limit of a small amount still results in a very small amount, relative to 2% of a large amount. Furthermore, since the Prop. 13 limit is less than the average inflation rate, I probably pay less in real, inflation-adjusted dollars in property taxes, than I did thirty years ago. Great for me; bad for my state.
The solutions are a rebounding US economy, an increase in revenue and decrease in spending, a more logical tax plan, eliminate term limits, and rid the legislature from its required 2/3 majority to pass legislation.
Interesting neighborhood you live in, Flit. My property taxes — and more so, FEES (sewer, trash, telephone, etc), have gone up again and again since Prop 13. By the way, what has the city of LA done to improve my phone service and thus can dig into my wallet to tax that service?
But if you think it unfair that you pay less property tax on your home than your neighbor — you can gift CA with more $$ any time. Just write the check.
All these multimillionaires who tell us we should pay more taxes should immediately pony up a pile of contributions to the various taxing authorities. There is no law that says you cannot pay more than what you owe.
Lex and friends … Frankly, I fail to see how “jobs saved” can ever be accurately tallied. Personally, I think it’s another Administration ‘con game.’ The only person who can be accurately sure that his job was ‘saved’ is the person who holds that job. The rest is just more smoke and mirrors.
And we mave a belly-full of that already.
Marianne
Y’all that don’t understand our dear Flit, these guys can explain it all to you.
More good news for CA residents..
California Takes Extra 10% from Paychecks
from Drudge Retort by JaySherman
Starting Sunday, cash-strapped California will withhold 10% more than it already does in state income taxes — a move that’s not paired with an income tax increase. “Think of it as a forced, interest-free loan,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
Another wierd thing happened on the way to the ballot box. A Sunday development in the New York Congressional race: Scozzascuzza, or however her name is spelled, has endorsed her previous opponent… not the conservative independent in the race. (Having seen an interview with him, I wish he were just a bit more passionate about his convictions.
Yep, the two-days-ago Republican candidate in the contest, who is pro-choice, pro-public option and very liberal, has endoresed her previous adversary, the Democrat nominee for the House seat.
It turns out she is truer to her political ideals than to those who would have her occupy a seat in Congress just two days ago. Politics does make strange bed-fellows… and loyalties.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/01/politics/main5486589.shtml .
Scott/
You beat me to the point I was going to make in reply to flit. I would only add that, in addition to the fact that our infrastructure problems are very real (approx 90% of all tunnels, bridges, sewer & water systems and dams east of the Mississippi were built between 1890 & 1920 and are rapidly approaching bloc obsolesce)
spending on such projects induces a far more powerful multiplyer effect than spending on teachers for reasons which are intuitively obvious to most save flit. The demand for the sort of costly industrial goods and services and the high-paying jobs that go to produce/procure them are far more powerful than the multiplyer effect HS teachers have when they buy groceries and clothes and the occasional new car.
Flit…more information re: Prop 13 for you…as I am now well into my 7th decade..I certainly appreciate the sentiment..
A large contributor to Proposition 13 was the sentiment that older Californians should not be priced out of their homes through high taxes.[3] The proposition has been called the “third rail” (meaning “untouchable subject”) of California politics and it is not politically popular for Sacramento lawmakers to attempt to change it.[3]