It made me snorkle my Guinness up my nose...
A bit belated, of course, but great nevertheless.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
California is About to be Terminated
Wow. Just wow.
"With no end in sight to the budget impasse, Governor Schwarzenegger has announced that layoff notices will be put in the mail today for the first group of up to 10,000 state employees to be laid off. He has also suspended the last 275 state-funded public works projects still in operation since he has no way to pay for them."
To imagine that the Golden State" where I was born and raised has gone so far down the toilet is hard to believe. Yet everything that I've seen, heard or experienced about CA in the last ~15 years has pointed steadily in this direction -- downwards.
It's not nearly hit the bottom yet -- the state is not yet at the status of a Third World Shithole yet, but we can see it from here.
This accelerating decline has been incredibly fast. The state built the aviation industry in WWII, gave us Governor Ron Reagan in the 1960s, Howard Jarvis' tax revolt in the 1970s, President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, and George Deukmejian's billion-dollar surplus in 1985. Since the mid-1980s, this has all been squandered, leaving a depressing residue of entitlement and greed.
The proximity to Mexico (whose impending catastrophic failure will be discussed in a later post) and the 1986 immigration act are only parts of CA's failure. The root cause is ultimately in an electorate that has grown fat and lazy -- this is true of most failed societies since ancient times.
But why and how did this society fail so rapidly? Thoughts?
"With no end in sight to the budget impasse, Governor Schwarzenegger has announced that layoff notices will be put in the mail today for the first group of up to 10,000 state employees to be laid off. He has also suspended the last 275 state-funded public works projects still in operation since he has no way to pay for them."
To imagine that the Golden State" where I was born and raised has gone so far down the toilet is hard to believe. Yet everything that I've seen, heard or experienced about CA in the last ~15 years has pointed steadily in this direction -- downwards.
It's not nearly hit the bottom yet -- the state is not yet at the status of a Third World Shithole yet, but we can see it from here.
This accelerating decline has been incredibly fast. The state built the aviation industry in WWII, gave us Governor Ron Reagan in the 1960s, Howard Jarvis' tax revolt in the 1970s, President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s, and George Deukmejian's billion-dollar surplus in 1985. Since the mid-1980s, this has all been squandered, leaving a depressing residue of entitlement and greed.
The Future? -- I need a drink!
The proximity to Mexico (whose impending catastrophic failure will be discussed in a later post) and the 1986 immigration act are only parts of CA's failure. The root cause is ultimately in an electorate that has grown fat and lazy -- this is true of most failed societies since ancient times.
But why and how did this society fail so rapidly? Thoughts?
Lessons-Learned -- from the Former USSR. WTH?!?
Some interesting perspective on how best to survive in a post- (economic) apocalypse America.
Post-Collapse Survival -- That's me on the right.
Perspective is from someone who rode-out the USSR's melt-down in the 1990s.
Some bullshit here, of course. But, like picking-out corn from shit, there are valuable kernals of wisdom here as well.
h/t to Ace and Instapundit
Post-Collapse Survival -- That's me on the right.
Perspective is from someone who rode-out the USSR's melt-down in the 1990s.
Some bullshit here, of course. But, like picking-out corn from shit, there are valuable kernals of wisdom here as well.
h/t to Ace and Instapundit
Economic Model for Transition from Republic to Feudalism?
Paul Craig Roberts is always intelligent and articulate.
But he usually leaves me depressed.
Obama—President Of Special Interests
By Paul Craig Roberts
h/t to Peter Brimelow at vDare.com
But he usually leaves me depressed.
Obama—President Of Special Interests
By Paul Craig Roberts
The Bush/Obama bailout/stimulus plans are not going to work. Both are schemes hatched by a clique of financial insiders. The schemes will redistribute income and wealth from American taxpayers to the shyster banksters, who have destroyed American jobs, ruined the retirement plans of tens of millions of Americans, and worsened the situation of millions of people worldwide who naively trusted American financial institutions. The ongoing theft has simply been recast. Instead of using fraudulent financial instruments, the banksters are using government policy.
Read the whole thing here.
Monday, February 16, 2009
How Democracies Become Tyrannies
Written far better than I ever could have. That Plato was one sharp dude.
Note especially his support of the 2nd Amendment:
Adeimantus asks Socrates incredulously: "What do you mean? Will the tyrant dare to use violence against [the people] or to hit [them] if [they] don't obey? Socrates answers:
h/t to The American Thinker
Note especially his support of the 2nd Amendment:
Adeimantus asks Socrates incredulously: "What do you mean? Will the tyrant dare to use violence against [the people] or to hit [them] if [they] don't obey? Socrates answers:
Read the whole of Plato's "Republic" here."Yes - once he's taken away [the people's] weapons."
h/t to The American Thinker
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