Bookworm Room

A friend sent me a link to a post at Whatever, a blog that John Scalzi runs.  Scalzi, who describes himself as a “pinko commie socialist,” is interested — truly, not snarkily, interested — in the views Republicans/conservatives/libertarians currently hold when looking at the Republican primary field.  Having the luxury of my own blog, I [...]

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UPDATED: We’ve been pwned by a very clever satirist. You will not believe this video.  Or, looking at our bankrupt states and federal government, you will believe this video: Hat tip:  Caped Crusader and Earl Aagaard, both of whom sent it to me

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If you’re in California, it’s easy to figure out which people should get your vote:  Fiorina over Boxer, Whitman over Brown (and yes, that’s something of a nose-holder), anyone over Pelosi, etc. It gets much more confusing when you get to the numbered items on the ballot.  Prop. 23 is easy:  Vote for that unless [...]

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My friend Sally Zelikovsky says it in the clearest words possible:  Unless conservatives in California vote for the Republicans, we will have a Sacramento government made up entirely of San Francisco Democrats.  If that horrible outcome sounds painfully obvious to you, you don’t know California. There are two dynamics in California that are a problem.  [...]

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Funny, funny David Zucker video challenging Boxer’s arrogance and cavalier approach to American money: Call Me Senator from RightChange on Vimeo. If you’re in California, this year you have a real choice: vote for Carly Fiorina. She’s a true conservative and a dynamic, effective individual. My mom, who can’t quite let the MSM go, has [...]

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My friend Laer, who started blogging at Cheat-Seeking Missiles (which is now on hiatus), has created a new website devoted to the insanity that is California.  It is called, appropriately enough Crazifornia, and is part of his ongoing project to document (ultimately, in best-selling book form) what happened in California.  This matters, not just because [...]

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[To keep things clear, unless I explicitly preface a statement by saying "Bob said" or "Bob pointed out," or something similar, the opinions expressed in this post are mine, and reflect my understanding of Bob Stephen's approach to governance, as well as my view about California's myriad problems.] I went to a party last night [...]

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I met Mickey Kaus a few years ago at a blogger’s gathering.  He is precisely as Jonah Goldberg describes him:  middle aged, a little disheveled (albeit quite attractive), and hostile to BS.  I don’t agree with his political views, but he is smart, honest with himself and others, and he’s not an axe-grinder.  Democrats, Californians [...]

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In the movie Wall-E, the little robot had a task, and it did the task, long after the task’s necessity had passed.  Like a funded bureaucrat, Wall-E just kept going and going and going. In California, the Department of Transportation was given a mandate and a task, and now, long after the money has gone [...]

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One of the things the last few elections has revealed is escalating voter fraud in America, fraud of the type that aligns us more closely with a banana republic than with a traditional Western nation.  Thus, we know that groups such as ACORN have registered thousands of non-existent people.  And because America has traditionally had [...]

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Bruce Kesler spoke with Tom Campbell directly about Israel, and the responses are more nuanced and less hostile than other reports indicate (see my earlier post, for example).  Please check it out.  The best voter is a fully informed voter.

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A friend emailed me with a question about an initiative poised for California’s November ballot, called the “Simple Majority” initiative.  I’ll let the Wall Street Journal explain: Two groups are pushing ballot initiatives they say would purge that chaos from Sacramento’s budget process. A bipartisan group, California Forward, is pushing a reform to let legislators [...]

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One of the things I’ve been watching is the trial attacking Prop. 8 in California.  As you know, in November 2008, California voters, by a solid majority, passed Prop. 8, which states affirmatively that, in California, marriage is between a man and a woman.  Two gay couples sued in federal court, alleging discriminatory intent.  To [...]

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This is a portmanteau post, filled with interesting things I read today, some of which come in neatly matched sets. Opening today’s San Francisco Moronicle, the first thing I saw was that an illegal teen’s arrest is causing a stir in San Francisco’s halls of power.  You see, San Francisco is a sanctuary city, and [...]

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The UC regents voted for a steep increase in tuition.   Some have pointed to the unedifying spectacle of whining middle class students taking to the streets to protest the tuition increase, since they prefer to have California’s working class, most of whom will not attend the school, bear the financial burden.  Although I agree in [...]

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Side by side headlines on the SF Comical’s online front page today: Rage at UC fee hike in L.A., Berkeley protests – Nanette Asimov,Jill Tucker State budget drowning in red ink for next year – Wyatt Buchanan

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Really, for California, this is bizarre:  a competent, personable Republican running for the governorship.  Be still my beating heart.   I’ve already got my feelers out for any behind the scenes work I can do.

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This could be sour grapes or it could be something much more serious. Amusingly, the NAACP hopes the charges are true, even if that means the State and Feds acted illegally: An association of contractors accused Caltrans in a lawsuit Thursday of colluding with the Obama administration to flout California’s ban on race and sex [...]

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[David Foster has again been kind enough to take seriously my request for guest blogger content. I wish more of you would. There's so much going on out there that, even if it weren't for my time constraints, I couldn't handle it all.] A FOUNDRY SAYS FAREWELL …to California. For 60 years, Gregg Industries, a [...]

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The San Francisco Chronicle ran an article today touting the demise of the GOP in California: With their registrations sinking and their political clout withering, California Republicans have come out of the November election in danger of slipping into political irrelevance across much of the state. [snip] Since 2004, Republican registration has dropped by more [...]

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In the old days, when work dried up in one geographic area, unemployed people migrated, often with tremendous difficulty, to another area.  Think of the great Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s, or the enormous Black movement from South to North during the Jim Crow years.  People, being adaptable, followed the jobs. What strikes me [...]

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I suspect that, once Obama starts raising taxes, buyer’s remorse is going to set in with incredible speed.  This article focuses on the local economy, but is a harbinger of what will happen when taxes go up on a larger, national scale: A temporary 1.5 percentage point sales tax increase proposed Thursday by Gov. Arnold [...]

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There is a reason why it’s periodically useful for hyper-inflated real estate markets to correct: A pair of reports released Tuesday highlighted the upside of the real estate downturn: Housing is becoming more affordable for more people across California and the Bay Area. The percentage of households able to buy an entry-level residence in the [...]

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Democrats have one attitude towards taxes:  raise ‘em.  The higher they are, they think, the more money that government will have to redistribute to those the Democrats deem worth. They never seem to grasp that low, stable taxes are infinitely more beneficial to the economy, in both boom times and bust. Obama, of course, is [...]

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