In a recent post, the one on the fire pits [which turned into a website and a Facebook page, I’m told] I used an eight letter b-word which pushed the Kennel Kode to the limit. I thought it justified in […]
Howard Ahmanson
Why Land Use is One of the First Liberties
[Note: This post is taken from a short address I made to legislators in Sacramento on April 16, 2012.] I was first politicized by this issue perhaps 33 years ago, when an attempt was made to run the Orange County […]
Sign the Petition and Save the Fire Rings!!
The latest local government outrage is the attempt of the Newport Beach City Council to tear out the fire rings at Big Corona and other places. Fortunately, they have to seek the approval of the Coastal Commission to do this. […]
Washington D.C.: The Center of the Universe: And Who to blame?
Joel Kotkin on Newgeography.com writes about the nearly recession-proof nature of Washington, D. C. and its metro area. It is a city of government and the mandarin classes, and they never go out of style. But it seems to me that […]
Three Californias? Integrating a Couple of Recent Proposals
It has often been proposed to split California into two states. In the past, these proposals generally agreed on dividing Northern California from Southern California; the cultural differential between the two was strong in the Kennedy years. The reader may […]
Global Warming Not a Bad Thing
Robert Zubrin, in this article from National Review, takes a different approach from most conservatives on global warming, and to my view the most sensible approach. Instead of denying that global warming is happening, or insisting that human activity has […]
The Migrations of California
We have been accustomed recently to think of California as a place people migrate out of to the rest of the United States and that receives immigrants from abroad. But apparently there are levels. The Bay Area is so much […]
SAUCE FOR THE CHRISTIAN GOOSE, SAUCE FOR THE MUSLIM GANDER?
Recently it was revealed in a column by Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish liberal Muslim, that Newt Gingrich is a fan of none other than Mustafa Kemal Atatuerk. Say what? Kemal Atatuerk was one of the most radical secularists of the […]
Observations on California’s Political Geography
A recent series of political maps from PPIC, Public Policy Institute of California, provides some fascinating information. One of the maps inflates or shrinks the various regions according to population; it makes clear why the Democratic Party dominates the state, […]
Adding to my Swede jokes
To add to my collection of Swede jokes, and of Ethnic Jokes that Really Happened, I heard this story: A gentleman of Swedish ancestry was being interviewed for the post of provost at an evangelical college. He was asked, “So […]