Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Those of you reading about Governor-elect Brown and returning-Senator Boxer might be observing, correctly, that if you’re a democrat looking for a place to survive, this is your shelter. You may not be aware of the passage of Proposition 25, which is just California’s icing on the cake: Weary of the absurd summertime ritual of our legislature failing to pass a budget, voters have lowered the threshold from two-thirds to a simple majority.
The conclusion is inescapable: California, like no other state in the union, is ripe for a Tax Me More fund. Obviously, the prevailing sensibility here is that individuals don’t own money, it’s the government that owns money and we need to elect people who possess experience and skill in the fine art of taking it away from us. Californians who feel this way need a place to send their money.
We stink on ice as a local business climate. We absolutely, positively suck. We are the second-worst in the union, down one slot from being third-worst last year. We do everything we possibly can to keep businesses from moving in here, and to the businesses that are already here we give the Ferris Bueller treatment: Hello? What are you still doing here? Movie’s over. Get out! Leave!
But things are not going to stay the same. We’ve got Governor Brown coming in.
Prop 24, which would have repealed corporate tax breaks, did go down in defeat…
Proposition 24, also known as the “Tax Fairness Act”, was defeated Tuesday as voters decided to allow corporate tax break legislature to stay in place.
The legislature, passed in 2009, permits businesses to choose whether they would like their income tax based on sales, payroll or property in addition to tax credit sharing amongst their affiliated businesses.
If it had passed, Prop 24 would have created approximately $1.3 million in state revenue by 2012-2013. But opponents say that California’s budget woes should and will not be fixed by increasing taxes on businesses.
That’s a ray of hope.
But all that says is, as we careen wildly toward the brink with the throttle wide open, there is a perceptible gap between the gas pedal and the floorboard. We’re not doing everything we possibly can to make it impossible to make a dollar…just almost everything.
A Tax Me More fund would offer an outlet for all this guilt Californians apparently feel about having too much money (which, just to make sure the record is absolutely clear on this point, I’m not nearly decent of enough person to share in this — send me as much lucre as you want). And, it’s not enough for Californians to not have any money, apparently they’re all torn up with guilt about not having to look around long enough for a job, it’s too easy to find one.
Set up the special account, set up the Post Office box, and spread the word far and wide. Give Californians a way to get rid of that money burning holes in their wallets. There’s guilt that has to be relieved here, and it’s just inhuman and unproductive to allow fellow human beings to keep on stewing in it.
Something must be done.
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We here in flyover country are really, REALLY worried now that California will now finish impolding and demand, and GET, a Federal bailout.
The worst part not being the actual footing of the Golden State’s ginormous bill — but the prescedent. The concept of state soveriegnty would pretty much be squarely on the railroad tracks to hell … a railroad car that looks suspiciously like a handbasket on wheels.
- philmon | 11/03/2010 @ 08:05Texas.
Start making your plans NOW, Morgan. Don’t wait.
- bpenni | 11/03/2010 @ 08:12Texas. And here’s the perfect soundtrack for the UHaul road trip.
- philmon | 11/03/2010 @ 08:17“We stink on ice as a local business climate. We absolutely, positively suck. We are the second-worst in the union…”
Hey, we’re, NY, the worst! Awesome, glad I don’t own a…business…oh shit…
But wait we just elected another Governor. At least he’s not a democrat…oh shit…
But we just (re)elected two senators who are…not democrats…oh shit…
Right behind ya’, Morgan. Tax me more please. (FUUUUCCCKKKK!!!!)
- tim | 11/03/2010 @ 09:16This is the type of crap that makes me think political philosophies are largely congenital. There are people who just can’t help but see the world in “progressive” ways, and no amount of facts, reason, logic, etc. will ever change their minds. These types of folks flock to places like academia, the Peace Corps, and… California. Sorry, dude.
- Severian | 11/03/2010 @ 17:06If you yourself do not leave California, you are an idiot. Stop whining, wake up and leave.
- Bob Sykes | 11/04/2010 @ 06:19Thinking more seriously about it than I ever have before. Kid’s gone, girlfriend’s not from around here in the first place…my continuing employment is the last tie to the ground.
Since I’m mumbling about it rather seriously, does that qualify me as not-an-idiot? Or does the parking brake have to actually come off the rented U-Haul?
- mkfreeberg | 11/04/2010 @ 09:29Have also thought about leaving California. Still hope to do so at some point in my life.
I’m stuck, however. The job’s here, the extended family are all here, and to really top things off, my family owns property that I’d hate to leave behind.
Believe me, nobody is more tired than I am of the piss-poor decisions that my fellow citizens make. Someone made the observation awhile back – maybe it was here, I don’t know – that the job-killing policies of this state are chasing away everyone who’d be inclined to vote for a conservative gubernatorial ticket or send conservative senators to the US Senate. (We do actually have some conservative House members, who hail from the red parts of the state.)
Those productive people are being replaced by unskilled immigrants, legal and otherwise, pouring across the border into Los Angeles. They, in turn, vote socialist, just like they did in Honduras or Ecuador or whatever other Latin country they came from. Net result – the state gets bluer and bluer, socialist and more socialist. It is hard to believe today that Ronald Reagan was once governor here. I won’t even get started on the positively asinine gun-control laws here…most of which are on a par with a state like New York or Connecticut or Massachusetts, not Nevada or Arizona or even Oregon.
Most of the rest of the West Coast is “blue,” though in fairness to our neighbors to the north, the blueness per se is concentrated around Portland, Seattle, and other big cities of the Pacific Northwest. Like us, the rural areas are conservative but the respective states are led around by the nose by the preferences of the city-dwellers…few of whom seem to be in touch with the land or how the real world works. A commenter on Facebook put it nicely: “Maybe we should split California in two so that the northern part of the state could actually have some representation.”
And this gets me to my point – the other major reason I haven’t left California. Where would I go? I hate the desert, so Arizona and Nevada are pretty much out….not to mention that both of those states have the same problems we do w/ illegals (and then some). Texas is too muggy and there are no forests or mountains like I’m used to…plus there’s that whole “tornado” thing I want no part of. Idaho and Montana are nice but have brutal winters compared to here. Washington….see above.
About all that leaves is Oregon, and it’s nearly as liberal as we are….so I hope that answers the question.
- cylarz | 11/04/2010 @ 18:56I’m stuck in California too and all I can do is close my wallet. Nothing drastic, just cut back a little bit more on the fringe and frill.
…and pray that my company doesn’t pack up without me.
- Jason | 11/04/2010 @ 20:59“Something must be done.”
“Light fuse and get away.”
- vanderleun | 11/04/2010 @ 22:03Cylarz,
Where on the west coast?
Simplicity itself.
You live in Vancouver Washington. (Not state income tax. We just defeated that one.)
It’s just across the river, a river with many bridges, from Portland Oregon. (No sales taxes)
Live in Vancouver. Shop in Portland.
- vanderleun | 11/04/2010 @ 22:05Well, Jason, just so you don’t have to cut back on the fridge and the grill 😉
- philmon | 11/05/2010 @ 05:40