Being Pro-Life

For a person holding a pro-life stance, it is sometimes disconcerting to see how often and how positively the media reports the pro-abortion position. I sense that pro-life advocates are portrayed as crazy freaks who desire nothing but to control your life because of our religous fever: today abortion, tomorrow mandatory attendance at church and ankle length dresses for women.

It's very interesting, then, that Stuart Buck reports in his blog entry, "New Abortion Survey", on a poll that attempts to take the temperture of the pro-life stance in American consciousness. His conclusion:

The pro-life position is very much in the American mainstream.

Key observations from a poll of women:

On ranking the top legislative priorities Out of 12 items on the list, "keeping abortion legal" came in at 11th place, just above "increasing the number of girls who participate in organized sports."


On a poll of abortion itself: 51% of American women think that abortion should be legal only in cases of rape, incest, or where the woman's life is in danger. And a further 17% think that it should be available "but with stricter limits than it is now." I would read this as implying that 68% of women would probably be happy if Roe were overturned and the state legislatures were once again able to pass laws further restricting abortion.

51%. Wow.

Signs That the Apocalypse is Not Yet Upon Us

I like reading the Daily Bleat over at James Lileks' blog, he's pretty funny. Unfortunately, last week, his wife lost her job. In a heartwarming tale, he recounts how another blog setup an electronic "tip jar" for him and was able to collect enough money for them to pay their mortgage for a few months. Good stuff. Read and you'll be rewarded by his humerous account of the "robots" at Amazon trying to protect him by halting contributions after the tip jar was maxed out by the donations. Sometimes humanity surprises me.

California Budget woes increase

The Washington Post has an interesting article on the California budget mess.

Link here.

The best quote in the article to give perspective on how big the hole California has dug itself in is here:

"California's $38 billion deficit is larger than the entire annual budget of any other state except New York. It represents about one-third of the state's annual spending."

This is amazing, our DEFICIT is larget then any other states ENTIRE BUDGET, except New York. I haven't done a computation on how much the each state spends per person, but I'm willing to bet California spends the most or in the top tier of the states and we have to ask ourselves what do we get for our money???

Signs That the Apocolypse is Upon Us

If you want another indication just how sick man is, check out this bizarro case. Gregory Biggs is hit by a car, driven by Chante Mallard, and is thrown into and through the windshield. Chante gets out of the vehicle, looks at Biggs who is still alive but lodged; she then proceeds to drive away with Biggs still stuck and alive. It is in her garage that prosecutors charge that Biggs expired a slow death.

Mallard's defense attorney argues for a lenient sentence because her judgment was clouded by drugs. What kills me is this quote:

Authorities had no leads in Biggs' death until four months later, when one of Mallard's acquaintances called police and said Mallard talked about the incident at a party."

This former nurse's aid was talking about her killing a guy with a car? At a party? AT A PARTY? That must have been some cocktail conversation.

Honey, morality of your actions aside, I don't think you can blame the drugs for your lack of judgment.

A proposal to fix California’s Government - Part 1

As I was alluding too yesterday, California’s government is not working. Individual members of the legislature or executive branches claim they are innocent, its not their fault, yet our State’s finances are a mess and worse, people are apathetic because they know their local representative does not have any reason to listen to them unless they are in the majority political view point in their district (a conservative person need not bother their representative if they live in San Francisco and a liberal person need not bother their representative if they live in Orange County and third party members need not bother at all).

Now since the government is the Legislative and Executive branches acting in concert, how can we bring accountability to the system as a whole? I believe Europe holds the answer.

We need a system where people’s view point will count and they won’t feel they have to vote for the Democrats or Republicans, but a smaller party can also play a vital role in the State.

We should move the ENTIRE Executive branch of the government into the Assembly, make the assembly elected by proportional representation and change the districts in the Senate so they represent one county each.

Now the above is a very loaded statement and I need to explain how I think each should work and then answer some of the objections I’ve thought of or heard. Other concerns or objections that I haven’t thought of, hopefully the blog owner (Rob) will allow them to post or they can just flame me.

Tutorial on California’s current government:
For those of you who slept in Civics class, here is the basic structure of the current government.

Executive Branch: These offices are elected by a State-wide vote

Governor – Like the president, he’s supposed to lead the State
Lieutenant Governor – Like the vice-president, however he becomes acting Governor when the
Governor leaves California
Secretary of State – Responsible for fair elections and other admin functions.
Attorney General – Head law enforcement person in the State
State Treasurer – Responsible for state finances, issuing debt, etc.
State Controller – Head bean counter, paying checks, balancing the books etc.
Superintendent of Public Instruction – In charge of all the public schools
Insurance Commissioner – In charge of regulating insurance companies in the State.

Legislative Branch: These offices are elected by single member district

The Assembly

There are 80 members of the Assembly, which acts as the State version of the House of Representatives. The members are elected and represent their district which can be adjusted every 10 years based on the censes. Each Assembly member’s district is based on population and all are supposed to have a similar base. Most legislation is proposed here and the budget and tax increases must be passed here before the Senate can vote or look at them.

The Senate

Currently the Senate consists of 40 members, each member representing 846,000 people according to their web page (http://www.sen.ca.gov). However, since the Senate districts are based on population like the Assembly only with larger districts, and they can only usually only act on legislation after the Assembly has, they are not in the news as much.
Now that I’ve blathered on how the system is currently setup (not counting the Judicial) and because this has gotten so long, will wait until next time to write how I envision the new system being setup.

"Nobody's Clean..."

"...we're all dirty." Or so says Denzel Washington's soldier-slave in Glory. And as we begin to roll into Election '04, we'll see more and more of this. F'er instance, we are treated today to Dem candidate, John Kerry, having a 10 year old indirect link to Ken Lay, Enron scandalmaker. Essentially, Lay sat on the board of Kerry's wife's non-profit. This is the same John Kerry who is cited as a regular critic of the Enron management.

Ironic, no?

Look for more mud slinging in the future, but remember that oftentimes the slinger is using his own mud to smear the other guy.

Even the Restraunt Review is Biased

Bruce Feirstein over at DuckSeason.org comments that even the restraunt reviews aren't immune to liberal bias at the LA Times. Feirstein takes issue that even stories on Maitre D's are infused by the Timers with leftist leanings. Key graf from the Martin Booe article that sparked it all:

Above all, as opposed to the vibrating pager of P.F. Chang's, the maitre d' knew who you were and whom you were married to and, perhaps more importantly, whom you were not married to. "If a guy had an older wife, you stroke her more" than younger women in the room, the Legend says. "If he comes with a cutie, though, you seat him somewhere else." Pure Rat Pack, to be sure, but there is a lesson here: An old-school maitre d' has enough on you to get you strung up by your thumbs, yet you trust him with the information. Or at least a previous generation did.

Then along came Clinton special prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who maybe did as much to change American dining culture as Alice Waters and Jeremiah Tower. Cuddle with a cutie in a darkened back booth? Sounds like a subpoena waiting to happen. If I were a misbehaving captain of industry, I'd seriously consider trading Larry the Legend for the vibrating pager, even though he's the last person I could imagine wearing a wire...

I never knew that Ken Starr was responsible for the demise of Maitre d's. The argument doesn't hold water and, clearly, Booe has an ax to grind. What next, are we to blame Bill Clinton's departure from office for the closing of McDonald's??

I thought I was reading the "new, gentler" LA Times. The more they blather about change, the more things stay the same.

California has a problem

No the problem is not Davis or even the current deficit. The problem is the lack of accountability and the disenfranchisement of many of the voters in California under our current State government system.

Term limits, the magic pill to fix all the woes in politics, can’t fix the problem because it treats a symptom, the disease goes merrily on.

The problem is lack of accountability for the mess we find ourselves in from our Assembly and Senate members as well as our statewide office holders (Governor, Lt. Governor, et. al.).

The Assembly members claim they are responsible and hold down wasteful spending and wants to lessen the tax burden on the lower income people but the Assembly as a whole is responsible for the mess we are in. The Senate members say the same thing and our state wide office holders say its the legislators who approve the budget. Everyone is responsible and careful with the public money and its not their fault the State is in a mess, but here we are.

Also, with the way the districts are drawn every ten years, many people have no reason to show up and vote. If a person is a conservative living in West LA, it makes no sense for them to bother to vote for the Assembly or Senate seats because the majority of voters in the district are liberal who will decide which liberal they want to represent them. Likewise, a liberal living in Orange County has no say in who will be elected in their districts because the majority of voters are conservative and they will decide which conservative they want to represent them.

Also, third party members (Libertarian, Green, Peace & Freedom, American Independent) have no reason to show up because their candidates cannot win except in the most unusual circumstances.

So we have voter apathy because many people believe (correctly) their vote does not matter in the Assembly and Senate races and so do not have a voice how that branch works. Also the people who are elected to these houses know who they represent and can safely ignore those who’s votes won’t count or who won’t vote for them anyway.

What we end up with is a system where voters are apathetic and ignored or very active and showered with goodies from their representatives. The representatives know who they are beholden too and instead of caring what is good for the State and all its citizens only care for their little group of supporters. The end result is a budget mess and no one is responsible.

How to fix this type of mess? I’ll talk about that next time.

Recalling Davis may feel good but be a poor policy for Republicans

Currently, there is a drive in California to recall Gov Davis and toss him from office a year after he got reelected. A number of Republicans are hoping they can unseat him and replace a Democrat with a Republican before the 2004 election.

I think they are nuts.

The Republicans are fools to want any person in state wide office in California at this time. At this moment, the Democrats control the Executive and Legislative branches of the government and cannot blame anyone for their mistakes. If the Republicans do recall Davis and replace him with anyone (even Arnold S), then the new Governor gets all the bad press about cutting education and health care and since it would be a Republican making the cuts, he would become a rallying cry for the Democrats to use and increase their majorities in the Assembly and Senate as well as win the US Senate seat and hand the Democratic nomination California’s electoral votes in the Presidential election. That would be bad.

However, if Davis is kept as the Governor, HE can cut the programs he started and try raising taxes and the Democrats will have to run on that record in 2004.

Having said that, I did sign the petition to recall Davis and would be tempted to vote him out of office. However, I don’t know if I would vote for a Republican to replace Davis because he/she won’t be able to get any meaningful reforms or spending cuts through the Legislator and yet will get all the bad press letting the Assembly and Senate off the hook. Let the Dems have all the fun of fixing the problem.

Big Brother is Aunt Emma

It appears that in Cinci, citizens are volunteering to monitor video feeds as a cyber crime watch. So now it's not just the police we have to worry about, it's Phil and Phyllis from down the street. I'm all for surveillance at some level, if it increases public safety, but don't the possible abuses of the system at the hands of your next door neighbor frighten anybody? Chilly.

Welcome, Andy!

Welcome to a fellow co-conspirator, fellow 1990 Honda Civic LX owner and general all around Nice Guy. Oh by the way, send me email if you have comments on this blog, e.g., suggest new links, mistakes, request different format, useful stuffs, whatever.

Well Rob wanted more commentary on this blog for "serious stuff" so he invited me to blather on about all sorts of stuff. Lots I could comment on today, given the latest Supreme Court rulings from Texas and Michigan, but will have to get to that later.

California Vehicle License Fees to Triple

In an effort to bolster the already dry tax revenues, the Davis Administration is triggering an increase of your VLF:

"[Department of Motor Vehicles from Department of Finance Director Steve Peace] said the state is running entirely on borrowed money as legislators struggle to reach agreement on a spending plan by the beginning of the new fiscal year, July 1. Lawmakers appear nowhere close to a deal as the state hovers dangerously close to being assigned a "junk bond" credit rating that would raise the cost of future borrowing substantially. California already has the lowest credit rating of any state.

"The state has never been in this position before," Peace said. "We are managing this state the same way you would manage a company that is on the brink."

Maybe the DMV Finance Director is right, but last I checked, United Airlines doesn't require me to buy a ticken on threat of imprisonment. The administration has mismanaged the state's finances and bungled the power "crisis", so now Davis to dip into your pockets.

"I Majored in Whiteness at UCSB"

And, no, I'm not being as crass as you think. Washington Post looks at whitness studies coming to a campus near you.

The Leopard Changes His Spots

Funny what five years will do. Sen. John Kerry, Dem presidential candidate, has been beating the drum that President Bush has "misled America" into the Iraqi war by lying about WMDs. Drudge has the goods [update: Hugh Hewitt has archived some this to a more permanent page in case Drudge cleans up]:

"In my judgment, the Security Council should authorize a strong U.N. military response that will materially damage, if not totally destroy, as much as possible of the suspected infrastructure for developing and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction, as well as key military command and control nodes. Saddam Hussein should pay a grave price, in a currency that he understands and values, for his unacceptable behavior. This should not be a strike consisting only of a handful of cruise missiles hitting isolated targets primarily of presumed symbolic value."

(Sen. John Kerry, Congressional Record, 11/9/97, pp. S12254 -S12255)

Were the UN arms inspectors really SO effective in 2002 that military action was no longer necessary? Methinks Election 2004 has already begun.

The Danger of Academic Freedom

Volokh Conspiracy reports a bruhaha over academic freedom with an ironic twist. It appears that the University of Adelaide's employment of a pro-gun professor who favors handgun proliferation is providing the impetus for a gun control group to call for the University's termination:

You probably have heard enough - so for the sake of public safety in Australia, let's insist that the Adelaide University relocates to Alaska or, maybe Alabama. One thing is for sure, the University is becoming a curse to Australia.

Putting aside the issues of gun control for a moment, which are considerable, taking such a stance means that the only academic speech allowed is that speech deemed to be non-violent and within the public's interests. Let's also put aside the issues of determining what is within the public's interests, which are considerable. Such a stance creates a problem for those who disagree with the University of Southern Florida's firing of Sami Al-Arian, who is under a 50 count indictment for terrorism. If the firing of a man who advocates death to Israel is not protecting the public safety, what is?

Supply Side Economics

It looks like those of us with kids will soon be getting a tax credit. All that is left is reconciling the amount of the cut (not trivial) and resolving how much low income families will receive as a tax credit. With the potential that there will be a $400 retroactive credit for tax year 2002 coming our way very soon, as well as a few extra dollars in our paychecks (lower taxes lead to lower withholding) the question becomes, "Do we spend the extra money?"

Frankly, the answer is yes. Not that smart in an economy like this.

Or is it? An avowed non-economist begs to differ…

The intent of the tax cut is to stimulate our economy; if everybody were to sock it away in a mattress, then nobody benefits. Currency in motion is an economy in action. Currency at rest is an economy in stagnation. Right now everybody is freezing in place because nobody else is moving. It's a vicious circle, really.

Buy some CDs, get a good book, maybe some software or clothes. Perhaps the Salvation Army can put it to use or maybe you can go out for dinner a few times a week, buy some stock. Treat your pastor and his wife to dinner, buy some MacDonald's for a homeless person.

If my government wants us to spend the money, then perhaps we should see it as our civic duty, as it were, to put that money to use.

Just don't sit on it.

Blog Brutality

Rutten of the LA Times opins that it is the power of the Internet that brought down the rulers at the NYT. He concludes:

And, in the end, it was the new world of Web sites, blogs, online editions and e-mails — not Raines — that set the pace of his exit.

So it looks like Hewitt is right on this account.

Blog Me, Baby

Hugh Hewitt waxes on the influence and dynamics of blogs on public opinion and, consequently, on public policy. According to Hewitt, blogs are responsible for the meltdown at the NY Times and even for Trent Lott's job. For an encore, the upcoming presidential elections will be the next watershed event for the blogging community.

I'm not sure how much of this to bite off and swallow.

I have to trust that Hewitt, Sullivan, et al have been blogging much longer than I and must have some grounds to stand on to own such opinions. One big advantage, their sense of the pulse of politics is much greater than mine--after all, it's their jobs. However, I do know what I know. blogs such as Sullivan's, Shark and Hewitt have reopened my eyes to politics after a long slumber that began since entering college. If this has been multiplied over for even .33% of the general population (~1 million people), then you have just created a sizeable and more knowledgable populance, almost overnight.

Read my Lips, "Retraction"

Sacto Bee posted a correction concerning an earlier quote made by Maureen Dowd. Once in a while people notice it when you misquote the president.

LA Times Now Unbiased?

laobserved gives some proof that the resignation of Howard Raines isn't lost on editor John Carroll. An internal Los Angeles Times memorandum shows action.

"I'm concerned about the perception---and the occasional reality---that the Times is a liberal, "politically correct" newspaper. Generally speaking, this is an inaccurate view, but occasionally we prove our critics right."

(snip)

The reason I'm sending this note to all section editors is that I want everyone to understand how serious I am about purging all political bias from our coverage. We may happen to live in a political atmosphere that is suffused with liberal values (and is unreflective of the nation as a whole), but we are not going to push a liberal agenda in the news pages of the Times.

Within the memo, Carroll takes to task an article (requires registration) concerning a Texas abortion law. The focus should not be on the law that is being commenting on, but on how on the law was reported. Journalism should place the merits of both sides of a case clearly before the readers for them to decide. Although it is nearly impossible to be completely unbiased, the striving for neutrality shouldn't be surrendered. And it shouldn’t be surrendered in the name of one’s own opinion of right.

If, perhaps, Carroll is serious and if, perhaps, the changes could be made, then the most important paper on the left coast would suffer dramatic changes. Can the reporters become unbiased in their writing? Can their editors keep close reign on their charges? More importantly, will the choice of what is covered and what is not also be unbiased? I have my doubts, but this is promising—at least I can probably keep my sub to the Times for now.

OK, I've updated the skin and added some things that I like. One thing that I sure like Blogger over Xanga for is for the ability to control the look and feel.