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...
In the future, historians may likely mark the 2010 midterm elections as the end of the California era and the beginning of the Texas one. In one stunning stroke, amid a national conservative tide, California voters essentially ratified a political and regulatory regime that has left much of the state unemployed and many others looking for the exits.
California has drifted far away from the place that John Gunther described in 1946 as “the most spectacular and most diversified American state … so ripe, golden.” Instead of a role model, California has become a cautionary tale of mismanagement of what by all rights should be the country’s most prosperous big state. Its poverty rate is at least two points above the national average; its unemployment rate nearly three points above the national average. On Friday Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced yet again to call an emergency session in order to deal with the state’s enormous budget problems.
This state of crisis is likely to become the norm for the Golden State. In contrast to other hard-hit states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada, which all opted for pro-business, fiscally responsible candidates, California voters decisively handed virtually total power to a motley coalition of Democratic-machine politicians, public employee unions, green activists and rent-seeking special interests.
In the new year, the once and again Gov. Jerry Brown, who has some conservative fiscal instincts, will be hard-pressed to convince Democratic legislators who get much of their funding from public-sector unions to trim spending. Perhaps more troubling, Brown’s own extremism on climate change policy–backed by rent-seeking Silicon Valley investors with big bets on renewable fuels–virtually assures a further tightening of a regulatory regime that will slow an economic recovery in every industry from manufacturing and agriculture to home-building.
I recall finding out blue-blogger-in-a-red-state Ed Darrell was in the tank for Bill White’s campaign for Governor of Texas. I looked into it a little bit and discovered White was a former Clinton crony who was being hailed by all sides as some kind of a centrist, and the most popular reason for voting against incumbent Republican Rick Perry had something to do with his being in the office for a long time. Ain’t that a kicker? Republicans manage to stay in an office awhile, it’s some kind of scandal; a democrat does exactly the same thing and the seat becomes his. Other reasons had something to do with “improving education,” which of course means paying for it for strangers out of the taxpayer’s billfold. That, plus unionizing, is how California got where it is.
Anyway, this Californian was heaving something of a sigh of relief seeing that Texas was not going to follow our lead. When you’re sailing over a cliff, it’s a little bit reassuring to see the rest of the crowd stopping at the busted guardrail and not following you. A very, very little bit reassuring.
Last weekend I rode my mountain bike eighty miles in a day. I usually come back from such journeys with some pictures of “house for sale” signs. Not so this time. Blogger friend Duffy caught up with me on the hello-kitty-of-blogging chat window, and we talked for awhile before some weird cyberspace hiccup severed the connection. The upshot: I have a thorough renter’s mindset now. Seriously, what is the point of buying up a plot? Why do it? The folks in charge are just going to declare themselves to be wonderful people by discovering and inventing some brand new entitlements, the productive people like me will continue to leave the state and we’ll be right back to the same ol’ Madoff style Ponzi scheme of fewer people paying for more. Everyone with a house will be recognized as a “millionaire or billionaire” and I will continue to be plied with more rhetoric about “need a tax increase the money’s got to come from somewhere.”
I’m from Washington, the girlfriend is from New York. The kid is living with his mother over in Nevada. The awesome full-time job is the only tent peg left in the ground.
It hurts to see a nice, livable, reasonably-priced, reasonably-located two-story with a realty-sign stuck in front…and just keep right on riding. But such a major investment is all about planning for the future. And if you have to close your eyes to the future to even consider it, then what’s the point?
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I don’t think things are as rosy in Texas as the Tokyo Rose Global Propaganda Group would have you think
http://keepamericaatwork.com/?p=10919
For myself, I have been looking for an affordable shop for a few years now so that I could transition from software to focusing on the electronics and cars in computers.
Not what I wanted to do at this point in my life, but it beats stocking shelves at wal-mart.
But like you and all those houses out there that are suddenly available and affordable, I can’t bring myself to do anything because I think things are fixing to get much worse.
http://keepamericaatwork.com/?cat=278
Regards,
Virgil
- vbierschwale | 11/22/2010 @ 07:51http://www.KeepAmericaAtWork.com