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  • California’s Ups and Downs

    George Rebane

    TaxIncreases 

    We can’t help but be out front, in whatever direction we’re heading.  As California dives for the mud, it is pushing harder than ever on the accelerator by raising taxes, fees, and regulations.   The disinformation on Prop23 to suspend the remainder of AB32 – California’s carbon cap n’ tax on steroids – is going through the roof with our formerly Republican governator leading the chorus.  Check out the national tax and debt scene here to see how California stacks up.

    The only thing that seems to be countering this as the election approaches is membership in the various tea party movements.  The WSJ reports that “The tea-party movement has emerged as a potent force in American politics and center of gravity within the Republican Party, with a large majority of Republicans showing an affinity for the small-government movement, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found.”  (more here)

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  • ‘Solutions for America’ and More Non-solutions

    George Rebane

    Contrary to what the leftwing has been telling us since 2008, the conservatives have submitted alternatives to socialism at every turn.  Following the Alinsky almanac to the letter, the administration and its congressional echo chamber have continued to air the same message for over two years now – ‘they are the party of NO and have nothing new to offer’.  Today with the approaching elections, this message is stronger than ever.

    The Republicans recently came out with their latest program of alternatives titled ‘Contract from America’.  While taking the country back into a sane direction, this collection of policies is trumped by the one just released by the Heritage Foundation titled ‘Solutions for America’.  I urge you to read what a sane approach from here looks like.

    In the meantime, here are some solutions that will NOT work.  There is nothing sustainable coming from Obama and his radical leftwing halo of organizers, union leaders and progressive academics – not one of them with an ounce of business sense or business experience.

    • The biggest secret of all is that it is the Left that has absolutely no new policies for promoting a sustainable beneficent society; theirs all go back to Marx and Engels circa 1850.  And none of these have yet worked anywhere.
    AndyStern • As an example, former SEIU boss Andy Stern (one of Alinsky’s lads) is on the President’s economic commission and promoting the expenditure of yet another $168B for creating 12 million jobs for 16 to 24-year-olds FOR ONE YEAR (you do the math).  Then what??
    • Bush got two tons of crap a day for setting up wire taps for suspected terrorists on international calls.  Today Obama has set up procedures to assassinate US citizens anywhere in the world without any court intervention.  Obama is setting up regulations that will allow the tapping of ALL internet communications, ALL cell phone calls, and tracking ALL cars inside the US without any court interventions.  Plus, he wants to modify all internet messaging with government access software ‘trap doors’ so that tracking will become seamless.  And this tracking will be available to any other government (and terrorists and cartels) that want to hack that ‘trap door’ protocol.
    • Here’s your Lucky Strike Extra – While in New York Ahmedinijad  had secret meetings with Louis Farrakhan and the Black Panthers whose video-taped voter intimidation case was dropped by the DOJ.  As the leading rogue nation supporting international Islamist terror, Iran and our American patriots no doubt talked about planting parkway flowers in front of black schools.
    • The lamestream media and their acolytes (national and local) have reported none of this.  Instead we get the sound of silence from our usually ever rabid Fourth Estate.

    And for the finale, the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College (download report) now projects that the real unfunded liability for Calpers managed pension accounts for California public service employees is not in the $700B range, but is actually in the vicinity of $2.2T (yep, that’s T like in trillion).  The lower number that we cannot live with is based on the la-la landers at Calpers expecting to average around 8% return annually.  The more realistic figure of 4.5-5% cited by the Center yields the trillions, the contemplation of which requires barf bags within reach of each taxpayer.  We “note that these are not like Social Security and Medicare liabilities. These are contractual liabilities that cannot be changed, even by state legislatures or Congress.”  California municipal bonds anyone?

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  • Singularity Signposts – Consciousness and Coprocessors and …

    George Rebane

    JJaynesBook In 1976 Julian Jaynes, the late Princeton psychologist, developed in three volumes his groundbreaking theory of consciousness.  Combined between one set of covers in 1990, it was called The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.  In this mouthful Dr Jaynes presented a definition of consciousness from which people comprised of renown philosophers to computer scientists have found hard to escape.

    In the The Origin he takes us through a fascinating journey of the early history of western civilization, theory of language in guiding/constraining thought (google Sapir-Whorf), to the operational definition of the bicameral mind.  Jaynes argues that the bicameral mind is all anyone had up to the beginning of the Dorian invasions around 1,200 BC.  These invasions originating from the Middle East (Persia et al) caused a fundamental change in the agrarian societies of the greater Near East that includes Greece, the Levantine, and Mesopotamia (today’s Iraq to the Mediterranean and up north through Turkey and Greece).  The book is a page turner, and its successful reading should conclude with the award of at least sixteen upper division unit credits at a first rate university.

    Scientists and philosophers have muddled for centuries about what consciousness really is.  Jaynes develops a meticulous case that consciousness is a sometime thing, a mental state in which a human actually practices the introspection of planning and simulating the real world in which the ‘I’ and ‘me’ are actors and objects of contemplation.  As such, it is quickly realized that during most of our day we are going through routines of behavior and dealing with the external world in a semi-autopilot mode which is really not conscious behavior.  Lower critters, and today machines, can be taught to replicate such interactions with their surroundings.

    (more…)

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  • To Pee or Not To Pee?

    George Rebane

    That is indeed the question.  A reader from the northwest reminded me of the following little essay which brings it all into focus.  The argument is succinctly made for a new government program that would apply to all people from the homeless to the honorables.  Normally I am not in favor of most government programs old or new.  But this is one I have personally participated in and would like to see expanded.

    UrineSample I have a job. I work, they pay me. I pay my taxes and the government distributes my taxes as it sees fit.   In order to get that paycheck, in my case, I am required to pass a random urine test (with which I have no problem).  What I do have a problem with is the distribution of my taxes to people who don’t have to pass a urine test.

    So, here is my question: Shouldn’t one have to pass a urine test to get a welfare check because I have to pass one to earn it for them?   Please understand, I have no problem with helping people get back on their feet.  I do, on the other hand, have a problem with helping someone sitting on their BUTT – doing drugs while I work.

    Can you imagine how much money each state would save if people had to pass a urine test to get a public assistance check?   I guess we could call the program “URINE OR YOU’RE OUT”!   And just an added thought, all politicians should have to pass a urine test too!

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  • Renovating Ruminations

    George Rebane

    The conservative blogosphere is growing by leaps and bounds.  Recent welcome additions are Todd Juvinall’s Sierra Dragon’s Breath and Mike Sherman RV Nut.  Adding these to the CABPRO Report, Inside NC Politics, NC Tea Party Patriots, and, of course, Russ Steele’s flagship NC Media Watch strikes me as quite an array of local conservative voices (see 'Our Links' on the right) going after essentially the same set of eyeballs every morning.  Contrary to popular opinion, we all should know that ‘electronic shelf space’, on which we bloggers wait for readers, is not unlimited.

    From the beginning I decided that RR was not going to be a venue for the breathless presentation of “scooplets” seeking primacy in announcing local shop openings/closings, various council and workshop meetings, events at the parks and the fairgrounds, and things generally local and of passing interest.  So many others could and would do that better than I, and that is not where my interests lay.

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  • From the Log of the Titanic

    George Rebane

    News is now coming in that the true national debt may actually have gone above $200T (google ‘$200T national debt’ for a snootfull).  Recall that the boobs in the Beltway are themselves fessing up to something over $16T which completely ignores the “off budget” obligations.  Even though they are off budget, they’re not ‘off taxes’ or ‘off hyper-inflation’ or ‘off payables’ – that ship of state is headed at full speed squarely into the looming iceberg.

    Economy2010 The lowest realistic national debt estimate (yes, this area is so purposefully murky that people have to ‘estimate’) that takes in some of these off budget and unfunded entitlement liabilities is about $60T.  When everything visible through the haze is added up, the number jumps to $130T, and the latest revision of that, with more stuff coming out of the closet, is over $200T.  The numbers simply boggle our minds.  And a boggled mind doesn’t work very well, so most of us just drink another sip of the infamous Uncle Joe kool-aid and go on with our lives.  You remember what Stalin said about large numbers numbing our brains – ‘kill a few and it’s a tragedy, kill a few million and it’s a statistic.’  Our national debt has simply become a sanity saving statistic.

    Meanwhile we have arguably functional idiots writing in the national media (see ‘A Simpler Social Security Fix’) that one of our biggest unfunded liabilities, Social Security, has a quick fix (well, at least a 40% fix), just tax the bejeezus out of the rich.  Ross Eisenbrey of the leftwing Economic Policy Institute (over 80% of its funding comes from liberal foundations and labor unions) is another firm believer in the SS Trust Fund that is full of IOUs aka Treasury bonds. 

    Somehow people like he don’t understand that the government will have to raise taxes or borrow more from China or print new money to redeem those bonds as they are used to make SS payments.  Such payments already exceed what current workers pay into that celebrated trust fund.  But Eisenberry continues to insist that the SS problem is “growing income inequality, not the fact that Americans are living longer.” (!!??)  And also that it’s “indisputable that SS does not and cannot contribute to the nation’s long-term debt”.  Well yes, but only if you raise SS taxes to unpayable levels (and don’t forget the rest of the national debt), or claim that the future cash lent by China will somehow not add to our national debt.

    That we will never pay it off in today’s dollars is just reality.  But in the interval, before that iceberg rips open our side, what will we as individuals do to ameliorate (love that word) the effects that the catastrophe will have on us.  Well, start with something immediate like AB32, California’s implementation of its manmade global warming law with its exploding regulations and costs that will kill hundreds of thousands of more jobs in this state.  Also read Russ Steele’s comment to ‘Skylon – there but not here’.  BTW, Russ has also done the heavy lifting on informing us all about the climate change travesty and AB32 – read him on NC Media Watch (see Our Links on right).  The bottom line here is that your vote for Prop23 will put a cork into AB32, and stop the rest of its toxicity from spreading across our formerly golden state.

    Also take a look at some of our insipient zombie banks to see where you keep your money.  An RR reader sent me this link so that you can check to see if “your bank is in immediate danger of failure”.  It’s a matter of record that banks continue to fail at a brisk rate, and over 400 nationwide are currently on the sick list.

    Finally, an out-of-state friend with a weird sense of humor (which I probably share) sent me the current list of taxpayer funded California bureaus, agencies, commissions, institutions, …, most of which contribute to the grit and friction in the state’s economy that is killing jobs and driving businesses to greener (pun intended) pastures.  The California Air Resources Board (CARB), charged with implementing AB32, is daily adding to this list to make sure that we will behave properly and pay more for the privilege.  The list is guaranteed to either cure insomnia or keep you awake all night, there is no middle ground.

    California Academic Performance Index (API) * California Access for Infants and Mothers * California Acupuncture Board * California Administrative Office of the Courts * California Adoptions Branch * California African American Museum * California Agricultural Export Program * California Agricultural Labor Relations Board * California Agricultural Statistics Service * California Air Resources Board (CARB) * California Allocation Board * California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority * California Animal Health and Food Safety Services * California Anti-Terrorism Information Center * California Apprenticeship Council * California Arbitration Certification Program * California Architects Board * California Area VI Developmental Disabilities Board * California Arts Council * California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus * California Assembly Democratic Caucus * California Assembly Republican Caucus * California Athletic Commission * California Attorney General * California Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California Bay-Delta Authority * California Bay-Delta Office * California Biodiversity Council * California Board for Geologists and Geophysicists * California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors * California Board of Accountancy * California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology * California Board of Behavioral Sciences * California Board of Chiropractic Examiners * California Board of Equalization (BOE) * California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection * California Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind * California Board of Occupational Therapy * California Board of Optometry * California Board of Pharmacy * California Board of Podiatric Medicine * California Board of Prison Terms * California Board of Psychology * California Board of Registered Nursing * California Board of Trustees * California Board of Vocational Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians * California Braille and Ta! lking Bo ok Library * California Building Standards Commission * California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education * California Bureau of Automotive Repair * California Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair * California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation * California Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine * California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services * California Bureau of State Audits * California Business Agency * California Business Investment Services (CalBIS) * California Business Permit Information (CalGOLD) * California Business Portal * California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency * California Cal Grants * California CalJOBS * California Cal-Learn Program * California CalVet Home Loan Program * California Career Resource Network * California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau * California Center for Analytical Chemistry * California Center for Distributed Learning * California Center for Teaching Careers (Teach California) * California Chancellor’s Office * California Charter Schools * California Children and Families Commission * California Children and Family Services Division * California Citizens Compensation Commission * California Civil Rights Bureau * California Coastal Commission * California Coastal Conservancy * California Code of Regulations * California Collaborative Projects with UC Davis * California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth * California Commission on Aging * California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers’ Compensation * California Commission on Judicial Performance * California Commission on State Mandates * California Commission on Status of Women * California Commission on Teacher Credentialing * California Commission on the Status of Women * California Committee on Dental Auxiliaries * California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Junior Colleges * California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office * California Complaint Mediation Program * California Conservation Corps * California Const! itution Revision Commission * California Consumer Hotline * California Consumer Information Center * California Consumer Information * California Consumer Services Division * California Consumers and Families Agency * California Contractors State License Board * California Corrections Standards Authority * California Council for the Humanities * California Council on Criminal Justice * California Council on Developmental Disabilities * California Court Reporters Board * California Courts of Appeal * California Crime and Violence Prevention Center * California Criminal Justice Statistics Center * California Criminalistic Institute Forensic Library * California CSGnet Network Management * California Cultural and Historical Endowment * California Cultural Resources Division * California Curriculum and Instructional Leadership Branch * California Data Exchange Center * California Data Management Division * California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission * California Delta Protection Commission * California Democratic Caucus * California Demographic Research Unit * California Dental Auxiliaries * California Department of Aging * California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control * California Department of Boating and Waterways (Cal Boating) * California Department of Child Support Services (CDCSS) * California Department of Community Services and Development * California Department of Conservation * California Department of Consumer Affairs * California Department of Corporations * California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation * California Department of Developmental Services * California Department of Education * California Department of Fair Employment and Housing * California Department of Finance * California Department of Financial Institutions * California Department of Fish and Game * California Department of Food and Agriculture * California Departmen! t of For estry and Fire Protection (CDF) * California Department of General Services * California Department of General Services, Office of State Publishing * California Department of Health Care Services * California Department of Housing and Community Development * California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) * California Department of Insurance * California Department of Justice Firearms Division * California Department of Justice Opinion Unit * California Department of Justice, Consumer Information, Public Inquiry Unit * California Department of Justice * California Department of Managed Health Care * California Department of Mental Health * California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) * California Department of Personnel Administration * California Department of Pesticide Regulation * California Department of Public Health * California Department of Real Estate * California Department of Rehabilitation * California Department of Social Services Adoptions Branch * California Department of Social Services * California Department of Technology Services Training Center (DTSTC) * California Department of Technology Services (DTS) * California Department of Toxic Substances Control * California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) * California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVets) * California Department of Water Resources * California Departmento de Vehiculos Motorizados * California Digital Library * California Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Division of Apprenticeship Standards * California Division of Codes and Standards * California Division of Communicable Disease Control * California Division of Engineering * California Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control * California Division of Gambling Control * California Division of Housing Policy Development * California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement * California Division of Labor Statistics and Research * California Division of Land and Right of Way * Cal! ifornia Division of Land Resource Protection * California Division of Law Enforcement General Library * California Division of Measure
    ment Standards * California Division of Mines and Geology * California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) * California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources * California Division of Planning and Local Assistance * California Division of Recycling * California Division of Safety of Dams * California Division of the State Architect * California Division of Tourism * California Division of Workers’ Compensation Medical Unit * California Division of Workers’ Compensation * California Economic Assistance, Business and Community Resources * California Economic Strategy Panel * California Education and Training Agency * California Education Audit Appeals Panel * California Educational Facilities Authority * California Elections Division * California Electricity Oversight Board * California Emergency Management Agency * California Emergency Medical Services Authority * California Employment Development Department (EDD) * California Employment Information State Jobs * California Employment Training Panel * California Energy Commission * California Environment and Natural Resources Agency * California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) * California Environmental Resources Evaluation System (CERES) * California Executive Office * California Export Laboratory Services * California Exposition and State Fair (Cal Expo) * California Fair Political Practices Commission * California Fairs and Expositions Division * California Film Commission * California Fire and Resource Assessment Program * California Firearms Division * California Fiscal Services * California Fish and Game Commission * California Fisheries Program Branch * California Floodplain Management * California Foster Youth Help * California Franchise Tax Board (FTB) * California Fraud Division * California Gambling Control Commission * California Geographic Information Systems! Council (GIS) * California Geological Survey * California Government Claims and Victim Compensation Board * California Governor’s Committee for Employment of Disabled Persons * California Governor’s Mentoring Partnership * California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services * California Governor’s Office of Homeland Security * California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research * California Governor’s Office * California Grant and Enterprise Zone Programs HCD Loan * California Health and Human Services Agency * California Health and Safety Agency * California Healthy Families Program * California Hearing Aid Dispensers Bureau * California High-Speed Rail Authority * California Highway Patrol (CHP) * California History and Culture Agency * California Horse Racing Board * California Housing Finance Agency * California Indoor Air Quality Program * California Industrial Development Financing Advisory Commission * California Industrial Welfare Commission * California InFoPeople * California Information Center for the Environment * California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (I-Bank) * California Inspection Services * California Institute for County Government * California Institute for Education Reform * California Integrated Waste Management Board * California Interagency Ecological Program * California Job Service * California Junta Estatal de Personal * California Labor and Employment Agency * California Labor and Workforce Development Agency * California Labor Market Information Division * California Land Use Planning Information Network (LUPIN) * California Lands Commission * California Landscape Architects Technical Committee * California Latino Legislative Caucus * California Law Enforcement Branch * California Law Enforcement General Library * California Law Revision Commission * California Legislative Analyst’s Office * California Legislative Black Caucus * California Legislative Counsel * California Legislative Division * California Legislative Information * Califo! rnia Leg islative Lesbian, Gay , Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Caucus * California Legislature Internet Caucus * California Library Development Services * California License and Revenue Branch * California Major Risk Medical Insurance Program * California Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board * California Maritime Academy * California Marketing Services * California Measurement Standards * California Medical Assistance Commission * California Medical Care Services * California Military Department * California Mining and Geology Board * California Museum for History, Women, and the Arts * California Museum Resource Center * California National Guard * California Native American Heritage Commission * California Natural Community Conservation Planning Program * California New Motor Vehicle Board * California Nursing Home Administrator Program * California Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board * California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board * California Ocean Resources Management Program * California Office of Administrative Hearings * California Office of Administrative Law * California Office of AIDS * California Office of Binational Border Health * California Office of Child Abuse Prevention * California Office of Deaf Access * California Office of Emergency Services (OES) * California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment * California Office of Fiscal Services * California Office of Fleet Administration * California Office of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Implementation (CalOHI) * California Office of Historic Preservation * California Office of Homeland Security * California Office of Human Resources * California Office of Legal Services * California Office of Legislation * California Office of Lieutenant Governor * California Office of Military and Aerospace Support * California Office of Mine Reclamation * California Office of Natural Resource Education * California Office of Privacy Protection * California Office of Publi! c School Construction * California Office of Real Estate Appraisers * California Office of Risk and Insurance Management * California Office of Services to the Blind * California Office of Spill Prevention and Response * California Office of State Publishing (OSP) * California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development * California Office of Systems Integration * California Office of the Inspector General * California Office of the Ombudsman * California Office of the Patient Advocate * California Office of the President * California Office of the Secretary for Education * California Office of the State Fire Marshal * California Office of the State Public Defender * California Office of Traffic Safety * California Office of Vital Records * California Online Directory * California Operations Control Office * California Opinion Unit * California Outreach and Technical Assistance Network (OTAN) * California Park and Recreation Commission * California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) * California Performance Review (CPR) * California Permit Information for Business (CalGOLD) * California Physical Therapy Board * California Physician Assistant Committee * California Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services * California Policy and Evaluation Division * California Political Reform Division * California Pollution Control Financing Authority * California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo * California Postsecondary Education Commission * California Prevention Services * California Primary Care and Family Health * California Prison Industry Authority * California Procurement Division * California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) * California Public Employment Relations Board (PERB) * California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) * California Real Estate Services Division * California Refugee Programs Branch * California Regional Water Quality Control Boards * California Registered Veterinary Technician Committee * California Registrar of Charitable Tru! sts * Ca lifornia Republican Caucus * California Research and Development Division * California Research Bureau * California Resources Agency * California Respiratory Care Board * California Rivers Assessment * Californ
    ia Rural Health Policy Council * California Safe Schools * California San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy * California San Joaquin River Conservancy * California School to Career * California Science Center * California Scripps Institution of Oceanography * California Secretary of State Business Portal * California Secretary of State * California Seismic Safety Commission * California Self Insurance Plans (SIP) * California Senate Office of Research * California Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise Certification Program * California Small Business Development Center Program * California Smart Growth Caucus * California Smog Check Information Center * California Spatial Information Library * California Special Education Division * California Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Board * California Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) * California Standards and Assessment Division * California State Administrative Manual (SAM) * California State Allocation Board * California State and Consumer Services Agency * California State Architect * California State Archives * California State Assembly * California State Association of Counties (CSAC) *0ACalifornia State Board of Education * California State Board of Food and Agriculture * California Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) * California State Children’s Trust Fund * California State Compensation Insurance Fund * California State Contracts Register Program * California State Contracts Register * California State Controller * California State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) * California State Disability Insurance (SDI) * California State Fair (Cal Expo) * California State Job! s Employ ment Information * California State Lands Commission * California State Legislative Portal * California State Legislature * California State Library Catalog * California State Library Services Bureau * California State Library * California State Lottery * California State Mediation and Conciliation Service * California State Mining and Geology Board * California State Park and Recreation Commission * California State Parks * California State Personnel Board * California State Polytechnic University, Pomona * California State Railroad Museum * California State Science Fair * California State Senate * California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) * California State Summer School for the Arts * California State Superintendent of Public Instruction * California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) * California State Treasurer * California State University Center for Distributed Learning * California State University, Bakersfield * California State University, Channel Islands * California State University, Chico * California State University, Dominguez Hills * California State University, East Bay * California State University, Fresno * California State University, Fullerton * California State University, Long Beach * California State University, Los Angeles * California State University, Monterey Bay * California State University, Northridge * California State University, Sacramento * California State University, San Bernardino * California State University, San Marcos * California State University, Stanislaus * California State University (CSU) * California State Water Project Analysis Office * California State Water Project * California State Water Resources Control Board * California Structural Pest Control Board * California Student Aid Commission * California Superintendent of Public Instruction * California Superior Courts * California Tahoe Conservancy * California Task Force on Culturally and Linguistically Competent Physicians and Dentists * C! aliforni a Tax Information Center * California Technology and Administration Branch Finance * California Telecommunications Division * California Telephone Medical Advice Services (TMAS) * California Transportation Commission * California Travel and Transportation Agency * California Unclaimed Property Program * California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board * California Unemployment Insurance Program * California Uniform Construction Cost Accounting Commission * California Veterans Board * California Veterans Memorial * California Veterinary Medical Board and Registered Veterinary Technician Examining Committee * California Veterinary Medical Board * California Victim Compensation and Government Claims Board * California Volunteers * California Voter Registration * California Water Commission * California Water Environment Association (CWEA) * California Water Resources Control Board * California Welfare to Work Division * California Wetlands Information System * California Wildlife and Habitat Data Analysis Branch * California Wildlife Conservation Board * California Wildlife Programs Branch * California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) * California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board * California Workforce and Labor Development Agency * California Workforce Investment Board * California Youth Authority (CYA) * Central Valley Flood Protection Board * Center for California Studies * Colorado River Board of California * Counting California * Dental Board of California * Health Insurance Plan of California (PacAdvantage) * Humboldt State University * Jobs with the State of California * Judicial Council of California * Learn California * Library of California * Lieutenant Governor’s Commission for One California * Little Hoover Commission (on California State Government Organization and Economy) * Medical Board of California * Medi-Cal * Osteopathic Medical Board of California * Physical Therapy Board of California * Regents of the University of California * San Die! go State University * San Francisco State University * San José Stat e University * Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy * State Bar of California * Supreme Court of California * Teach California * University of California * University of California, Berkeley * University of California, Davis * University of California, Hastings College of the Law * University of California, Irvine * University of California, Los Angeles * University of California, Merced * University of California, Riverside * University of California, San Diego * University of California, San Francisco * University of California, Santa Barbara * University of California, Santa Cruz * Veterans Home of California

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  • The Mahmoud and Barry Show

    George Rebane

    Sackhead Can’t we put a sack over this guy’s head before we let him out in public?  Barry, the eternally hopeless community organizer, goes to the UN and makes nice with Iran in a big speech, spelling out how the US is again/still ready to negotiate with Iran if it would only say ‘Mother may I’ and tell us once more about its peaceful nuclear ambitions.  In his talk Barry never mentions that Iran is the number one rogue state in the world that continues to fund Islamic terrorism against the US, threatens to wipe Israel off the map, and bankrolls the ragheads who kill Iraqis, Afghanis, and US forces day in and day out.  Did he forget about that, or is he as terminally debilitated as he sounds?

    Mahmoud comes to the same podium a couple of hours later, and tells us to go suck eggs (or other unmentionables) while accusing the US once more of perpetrating the 9/11 attacks on our own citizens.  At this, our UN delegates walked out and were later backed by the State Dept characterizing Mahmoud’s speech as “outrageous”.  Then later, after the White House had figured out what happened, they too issued a statement saying that Mahmoud was not as nice as he could have been.

    Ahmedinijad Meanwhile Barry still sounds confused as he is also told to be ‘outraged’.  Doesn’t this guy read history?  (One wonders who Harvard allows to teach there these days.)  After all this time he continues to mistake spit in his face for rain drops falling on his head.

    The solution is easy; instead of going back every couple of months and telling Mahmoud that the US is again ready to negotiate, and getting spittle on his face, here is what he should say – ‘Look, you sumbich, convince us first that you’re not making nuclear weapons, and then we’ll think about pulling back a few sanctions and taking a break from redrawing the strike plans on your nuclear facilities now that you’re not getting the new Russian S-300 anti-air missile system.’

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  • Skylon – there but not here

    George Rebane

    Skylon 

    Reaction Engines of Great Britain is developing Skylon – a new spaceplane to introduce the next generation of ships that will take humans outward from earth.  The machine will be able to take off like an airplane and again land like one.   The engineer.co.uk reports –

    In the quiet suburbs of Oxfordshire, a small team of engineers may be on the way to achieving what NASA scientists couldn’t – the development of a spaceplane that could reach far into the solar system.

    Abingdon-based Reaction Engines has designed the Skylon plane to take payloads – or even passengers – into space from a conventional airport and return them back down to the same runway. The design can carry a 12-tonne payload and could, according to the company, fundamentally change the way we view space travel.

    I am disturbed that this technology is being developed somewhere other than in the US of A.  The good part of the news is that its developer is a visionary private enterprise, the kind that we’re doing a good job of putting the kibosh on in our fundamentally transforming country.

    Actually, the kibosh part has already been applied here for the better part of forty years when you consider our government run system of schools.  My generation of teachers who graduated into the Great Society drank a full measure of the kool-aid then served, and went on to dismantle one of the greatest school systems the world has ever seen.  They devised every established liberal looney curriculum and ‘enhanced’ teaching approach you could think of.  These ranged from New Math to revised history to self-esteem über alles.  But their greatest contribution to the destruction of Johnny and Jane’s education was– wait for it – the all powerful, kids-be-damned teachers unions.

    The result was lots of socialist pap and legions of lawyers.  Fewer and fewer native sons and daughters studied science and math, primarily because there were no teachers who really knew the subject matter.  We kept our universities up to par in science, math, and engineering by importing students from overseas.  After making them smart, we made it hard for most of them to stay and shipped them back.  Luckily, we weren’t on a tear yet to destroy the environment in which you could build companies and wealth.  But be patient, it’s a’comin’.

    So now we read of Skylons being developed overseas while our conglomerate aerospace behemoths (GE, Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, …) are busy brown-nosing Washington and buying politicians to get government contracts to stay alive and dance the beltway boogie.  Who knows, maybe after November we’ll wake up and put a burr under our own blanket?

    In the meanwhile we are at least beginning to make noises as if we understand that something terrible has happened to our schools.  Here is a piece ‘A Teacher Quality Manifesto’ by Deborah Kenny, founder and CEO of Harlem Village Academies, talking about a new culture and generation of teachers.  The only problem with her presentation is that she doesn’t recognize the pre-requisite for teachers being respected as professionals and academics – they have to become one first.  Teachers’ schools have been turning out low-grade ore for almost two generations now.  You know the slogan, ‘Those who can, do; those who can’t, … .’

    Also take a look at the trailer to the new film Waiting for ‘Superman’ coming out this Friday that promises to be the cri de coeur of education (more here).  If there is hope for us in this land, it is through the complete revamping of how and what we teach our kids; and it can’t be more of the same political crap that we have been feeding the little darlings since the sixties.  Now, everyone hold your breath for that one.

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  • Green Ignorance

    George Rebane

    GreenEnergy It’s hard to tell whether those who tout tax-and-regulate AB32 are evil and betting on voter ignorance, or are themselves ignorant about the nature of California’s ‘lead in private sector investment in clean-tech industries’.  (Clean-tech is the progressive’s new hide-and-seek semantic with anything ‘green’.  Newspeak requires constant management.)  These pages have long pointed out that capitalism will always conspire with government if it sees larger and less risky profits in the union.  This by itself explains away the left’s celebrated statistic why California leads in such investments.  To the critical thinker news of such a ‘lead’ is bad indeed, and still the know-nothings dance in the streets.

    I am happy to report some support for these observations from none other than the 22sep10 WSJ in the following short editorial ‘Why They Go Green’ reproduced in its entirety.

    In a free energy market, companies succeed by producing cheaper, better products than competitors. In a “green” energy market, companies succeed by holding Beltway fundraisers. For more on the distinction, ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who will benefit today from a tony Washington money-raising breakfast hosted by top “renewable energy” industry groups.

    Democrats may be losing altitude with most of struggling corporate America, but it’s all about the love with the green sector, floating above economic realities thanks to stimulus handouts and other perks funneled them by the majority. Mr. Reid has been a strong advocate of this transfer, and the industry is showing it knows how to give back.
     
    That, and watching its back. The companies that belong to the American Wind Energy Association or the Solar Energy Industries Association (among the fundraiser’s hosts) produce costly products that can’t compete against traditional fuels. Their business plans are written around Washington subsidies and mandates. They’re obviously worried a Republican majority might pare back the grants, loans and tax credits, in the name of cutting government waste. One can hope.

    As the event invitation noted—in requesting $2,500 to attend—Mr. Reid’s Nevada Senate competition against Republican Sharron Angle is an “incredibly important race.” Indeed it is if your balance sheets depend on the Democrats’ special way with taxpayer money.

    Bonus Thought of the Week – Obama’s Economy Czar Larry Summers suddenly discovered that he hadn’t fed the goldfish in his Harvard office for some time now, and that he’d better hurry back.  He joins Christina Romer, Chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, who made a similar discovery last month and had to skedaddle back to UC Berkeley.  Look for more senior advisers getting ready to hit the silk, especially those having a role in prolonging the recession, designing the phantom economic recovery, and going ballistic on debt.  Summers’ and Romer’s obvious incompetence in anything economic would soil their resumes had they been in any other field in which performance is measured and remembered.  But economists belong to a charmed class of professionals where such catastrophes are merely bygones.  Nevertheless, the smelly mess they have created across the land is something to which they would rather have us forget their intimate connection.  Bye-bye Beltway.

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  • ‘Assessing the Terrorist Threat’

    George Rebane

    Terrorist That’s the title of the just released 10sep10 report of The Bipartisan Policy Center’s National Security Preparedness Group.  These are the people reporting to the Obama administration on what we should expect and be prepared for in terms of future terrorist attacks on America.  To illustrate the politically correct mindset this administration has demanded of its minions, consider this conclusion from the report’s Executive Summary –

    … A key shift in the past couple of years is the increasingly prominent role in planning and operations that U.S. citizens and residents have played in the leadership of al-Qaeda and aligned groups, and the higher numbers of Americans attaching themselves to these groups. Another development is the increasing diversification of the types of U.S.-based jihadist militants, and the groups with which those militants have affiliated. Indeed, these jihadists do not fit any particular ethnic, economic, educational, or social profile.  (emphasis mine)

    The 44-page report goes on to detail all kinds of terrorist threats from around the world and concludes with a list of Americans who have been either indicted or convicted of being or aiding terrorists.  Discussed individually, it is OK to mention their faith and call them “jihadists”, but this panel of worthies could not bring themselves to voice the most powerful and obvious generalization from the data.   It turns out, as anyone not politically blindered would notice, that they’re all devout Muslims.  Is that “particular” enough to get us started in focusing our domestic deterrent policies and procedures?

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