I have asked to become a member of Club Wagner. I cannot be both that and a California Republican, that has been made abundantly clear. Related: “Club Wagner” by Douglas Holtz-Eakin at NYTimes.com Blogs Related: “Conservatives for Higher Taxes” by […]
News
Taxes and the Schadenfreude of the Rich
It is unwise for a state to be too dependent on the fluctuating incomes of the rich – or, for that matter, in my view, any organization. Instead of this being made an argument for “lower taxes on the rich,” […]
Dear Urban Cyclists: Go Play in Traffic
P. J. O’Rourke has taken off on the absurdity of bicycles. However, there are some people that really need and use them, and I’m thinking of “Los Midnight Riders” from my earlier post. There does need to be some safe […]
The Courage Factor
The Economist on Obama’s general lack of courage. He campaigned on ‘audacity’ and ‘we can’ but it looks like we don’t. Remember you heard it first here on Blue Kennel. I hadn’t quite thought of ‘allergy to antithesis’ in terms of […]
Dan Morain: One Town’s Enterprise Zone Steals Another Town’s Lunch
Apparently enterprise zones have turned out to be the same sort of corporate welfare and beggar-thy-neighbor deal that redevelopment has been. I don’t know much about Business Improvement Districts, but I think they’re kind of like residential homeowmers associations and […]
Herdt: On taxes, redevelopment and teamwork
Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star does an excellent column on how redevelopment cuts across traditional partisan lines. I still say we have the social justice opportunity of the century! Related “Herdt: On Taxes, Redevelopment and Teamwork” by Timm Herdt […]
Chinese Parenting, Part II: Why Chinese Mothers are Superior
Here is David Brooks defending the upper middle class American approach to parenting. He declares that Amy Chua sheltered her daughters from the kind of social interactions that teach us how to deal with people in the real world. In […]
In a Rather Interesting Magazine Called “The American Conservative”
In a rather interesting magazine called The American Conservative, which is not conservative necessarily as we understand it in Orange County, but actually represents pacifist conservatives of all kinds (and yes there is such a thing as pacifist conservatives) Stephen […]
In my youth, people knew that the only way to stop arbitrary exercises…
It is a pity that, apparently, no one got arrested. In my youth, people knew that the only way to stop arbitrary exercises of government authority like this one was to force them to arrest you or give you your […]
Schrag on Voters’ Muddled Thinking
Peter Schrag is a man of the left, but he is strikingly honest here on the desire of Californians for well funded education in the face of lower taxes. Even more interesting is his theory that after Proposition 13, “fiscal […]