As I’ve said before, the famous part of Proposition 13 – the part that protected existing homeowners from being gouged by their own rising home values – should be kept. Large cash taxes, when cash or liquid assets are not […]
Howard Ahmanson
Obama’s Dilemma, High Speed Rail, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and Other Miscellaneous Observations
Joel Kotkin, director of one of our favorite sites, Newgeography.com, has exposed how Obama has alienated people on all sides, even though he will probably win the election. I notice, now that I think about it, that while the Occupy […]
Help the Environment with Cactus Sucking Selenium
It has been discovered that the prickly pear cactus sucks up selenium, regarded as a pollutant in the West San Joaquin Valley, slowly enough to not be toxic but enough to be of benefit to selenium-deficient diets. In small quantities, […]
The Salinas Gang Problem and Restricted Housing
Is there any connection between the fact that Salinas has the gang problem that it does, and the fact that Monterey County’s restrictions on the building of housing are very strict? I can see why the inhabitants of the Monterey […]
On the Whole Postmodern in Law and Economics Thing
Victor Davis Hanson, in this attached essay, claims that President Obama has a postmodern vision of law. I am not necessarily going to argue that point. I have maintained, already, that President Obama has what I call an allergy to […]
The Suburban Paradox
The attached article criticizes the effect of ‘greenbelts’ in Britain, and calls for ‘green patches’ instead of ‘green belts.’ The paradox is that a lot of what people move out to the suburbs for is precisely what these anti-suburban NIMBYs […]
The Continuing Presumption of Airlines
I am prepared to admit that the California Bullet Train may prove to be a failure, even though France, Spain, Germany, and China have them! I voted for the train originally, not so much to eliminate automobiles, but as an […]
Popular Music: The Ancients and the Moderns
In eighteenth century Europe, one of the favorite intellectual debates was the Debate of the Ancients and the Moderns, whether Europe had now exceeded the greatness of the Greco-Roman era or had not yet done so. There is a similar […]
Comments on the Film “The Descendants”
I recently saw a film called The Descendants, about a large family of landed aristocratic background in Hawaii. Though the Hawaiian setting is interesting, it is a story that could happen in many cultures – California is not without a […]
Who is the Santa Claus Party?
After the 2004 election, in which the states that went for Bush formed a relatively neat geographical unity and in all the states that went for Kerry maps and T-shirts were circulating labeling the Republican states as ‘Jesusland,’ I thought, […]