Say Anything Blog

As I said before San Francisco’s refusal to enforce federal immigration laws has taught the next generation that law breaking is just another form of political protest:

A band of demonstrators, many wearing black masks, stormed a bustling San Francisco mall Saturday evening, upending garbage cans and foliage and damaging crystal merchandise at one kiosk.

An estimated 50 to 75 people were involved in the disruption at Westfield San Francisco Centre, police said…

…Some protesters threw food, police said. Others tried to toss a large planter onto the food court below.

According to mall management, the protesters were part of a “Solidarity with Greek Uprising” demonstration, which began in the Mission District earlier in the afternoon. An international day of action was called on Saturday to protest the death of a young man in Greece in early December. [emphasis added]

SF failed to learn a most basic lesson - when those in authority break the law “for the greater good” they open the door for those who just “break the law.”

No, it has nothing to do with Obama being elected or the control of Congress by the Dems. It’s something my husband and I have been discussing for a couple of years now and just hadn’t done.

I bought a gun.

Hubby already has several - a rifle, a shotgun and a handgun. He’s ex-military so is completely comfortable with firearms. Me - I have a vague memory of firing a rifle at tin cans as a child (once) and firing a handgun into a river as a college student (also once). As a college student and good little liberal I was all for strict gun laws, the shooting into the river event notwithstanding. As I matured I gained a new respect for the second amendment but gun ownership still was not for me. When my children were young I was staunchly against having a gun in the house for fear of their safety, but also because I wasn’t sure I could ever actually shoot someone.

But as the horror stories of kidnapped and tortured children multiplied I came to know that I could shoot someone under certain circumstances, and protecting my children was one of them. But I had no money, no one to tell me what kind of firearm to get, how to care for it or how to use it.

Then 9/11 happened, and school shootings happened - at least one of which would have been worse if not for students who carried handguns in their cars - and I knew it was past time, but still I waited…More…

San Francisco is rolling in green. But it is also bleeding red.

Monday is Mayor Gavin Newsom’s deadline to submit a budget that erases a $338 million deficit, and he has warned that the city’s fiscal forecast is so bleak that hundreds of city workers could be laid off and services slashed. But it’s not because the money isn’t coming in, even despite poor economic times nationwide….

…Last year, city officials approved a series of new labor deals with unions, giving workers like nurses, police and firefighters hefty pay boosts. Next year, those labor contracts are expected to cost the city $118 million more than they currently do.

Voters over the years have generously approved ballot measures that require the city to spend a fixed dollar amount on everything from public schools to public safety. This year, the so-called set-asides added up to $883 million, a figure that is expected to jump by $57 million more next year.

Add to that the millions in state cuts and the fact that the city can’t tap its rainy day fund unless revenues are dropping, and what’s left is a huge budget shortfall.

Now don’t say we didn’t predict this [emhasis added]:

Over the years, voters have mandated that the city spend a certain amount annually on Muni, children’s services, library preservation, public education, parks, police, firehouses, city services auditing, homeless services and the Symphony.

“We put everything on the ballot here, and then we get stuck in that we’re forced to allocate those funds accordingly,” Zmuda said. “Therefore, there’s less discretion in the money the mayor and Board of Supervisors have to provide funds for other services.”

Zmuda, who calls it “budgeting by ballot,” said other municipalities don’t do nearly as much of it as San Francisco. And none of the set-asides can be revoked without voter approval.

But but - it’s the thought that counts! And it’s for the CHILDREN!!

N’Tanya Lee, executive director of Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, which lobbies City Hall on budget and housing issues, said forcing the municipal government to spend money on issues that are important to voters makes sense in such an expensive city.

“Set-asides reflect the best of San Francisco,” she said. “The voters have said we support public health, we support public safety, we support kids. We want to make sure there’s a basic safety net in the city, and we should be proud of that.”

The Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence has released its report called “Students First, Renewing Hope for California’s Future”.  Governor Schwarzenegger “asked 18 of California’s top minds in education to examine our system see what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong and to make recommendations for the future.”

I was stunned by the report. It shines an all too rare (especially in California’s educational system) harsh spotlight on the institutional failure of California’s school system:

California’s current system turns common sense on its head. Too often, students are an afterthought. How else to explain a 100,000-section Education Code in which the words “student achievement” rarely appear? How else to explain how such a system can survive and, in fact, grow when less than one-quarter of students statewide are mastering reading, math, and other subjects? How else to explain our tolerating some high schools where, year after year, less than half of 9th-graders ultimately earn a diploma, and even fewer actually are prepared to succeed in college or on the job?

…It is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. It is time to say “enough” and to fundamentally rethink how we have organized ourselves to educate the 6.3 million children whose future depends on our effectiveness. It is time to replace a system that gets in the way of effective teaching and successful learning with one that supports our best educators and their students. Specifically, the Committee recommends action on four inter-related priorities and a fifth key foundation. (See Four Inter-Related Priorities on next page.) Taken together, this systemic overhaul will reduce the achievement gap and create a constantly escalating cycle of continuous improvement in our education system. Therefore, it is essential that our proposed reforms be considered as a coherent, comprehensive package. Cherry-picking proposals could make the current intolerable situation even worse. For instance, simply spending more money on ineffective programs without measuring results and rewarding success will exacerbate inefficiencies. Giving principals and teachers more authority without first ensuring they are well-prepared to wield it effectively would be irresponsible. This is where our political leaders will have to demonstrate uncommon courage. Everyone professes to put students first. But collectively, the results suggest otherwise.

Continued…

A view held by most conservatives (and many others) is that charity should not be the work of government, but of the people - families, neighbors, communities, and, yes, churches.  An argument often made in opposition to adding new government entitlement programs or expanding existing programs is that the additional tax burden leaves the people with fewer resources with which to support their local charities.

This is an argument with which I wholeheartedly agree.  This year we will have a rare opportunity to demonstrate in a very concrete and tangible way that this argument is sound.  Congress and the President have passed a bill that will give more than 130 million taxpayers a tax rebate in 2008, anywhere from $300 to $600 per taxpayer, plus $300 per qualifying child.

This is money we weren’t expecting and that wasn’t part of our budgets.  Many of us don’t NEED it to keep a roof over our heads, or food in our families’ mouths.  Likewise, most of us feel the responsibility to help the needy.

So here is my suggestion, my challenge, if you will, to everyone who doesn’t NEED this money: Put your money where your mouth is.  Give your tax rebate to charity.  That’s what I’m doing. 

Will you join me?

If there is enough interest in this challenge, I will find a way to track the amount of the rebates given to charity, probably by dedicating a post on my blog where you can add that info in the comments, and I’ll put a ticker on the blog to count it.  If we want to make it more interesting, we can count conservatives, liberals and decline-to-states separately, or count it all together.  Whatever.  The point is to show that we, the people, care about, and can care for, the needy among us.

Let’s show America what we, the people, can do!

JOIN THE CHALLENGE!

An inside look at what goes on in the People’s Republic of Berkeley (regarding Berkeley’s war against the Marines):

“This isn’t about the Marine recruiters’ free speech; they have billions of dollars with which to lie to youth.” – World Can’t Wait youth organizer Giovanni Jackson, 26, of Berkeley.

“The citizens’ speech has already been repressed when the Marines moved into Berkeley without asking us.” – attorney Sharon Adams, author of a zoning-code amendment initiative that would restrict the location of military recruitment centers

More on Berkeley High School’s participation in the protests from the San Jose Mercury News:

Some Berkeley High students have been suspended for skipping school for the protests, but he shrugged that off. “I would have come here no matter what,” he said and preferred to be at the protest instead of in class. “Most of my teachers are here too…”

Go here for more.

This is excerpted from Tom McClintock’s blog.  Go here for the full post.

Finally, there’s a dirty little secret that conservatives need to understand clearly: why the compacts are on the ballot at all.  Under federal law, every California Indian tribe engaged in gaming has to negotiate a compact with the state to share revenues.  These agreements are routinely negotiated with the governor and approved by the legislature without going to voters.

This time however, the hotel and restaurant union, UNITE-HERE, wanted a piece of the action.  The union bosses pressed to have a provision inserted in these four compacts that would have denied workers at the Indian casinos the right to a secret ballot in union elections – a despotic arrangement euphemistically called “card-check neutrality.”  Instead of casting a secret ballot in the sanctity of a voting booth, workers could be intimidated into casting ballots while surrounded by union organizers. 

The legislature balked and approved the compacts without taking away workers’ rights to a secret ballot.  In response, the union qualified a referendum to force a statewide vote on these particular agreements (with Las Vegas casinos gleefully joining them).  If they succeed in defeating the compacts, it will be a powerful message that all future agreements must include the “card check” provisions that deny Indian casino workers the protection of the secret ballot.  Sadly and ironically, many conservatives are unwittingly standing with one of the most corrupt unions in California and against Indian entrepreneurs who finally figured out a way to prosper on the flinty land of their reservations.

My Way News reports:

With water becoming increasingly precious in California, a rising number of farmers figure they can make more money by selling their water than by actually growing something.

Because farmers get their water at subsidized rates, some of them see financial opportunity this year in selling their allotments to Los Angeles and other desperately thirsty cities across Southern California, as well as to other farms.

“It just makes dollars and sense right now,” said Bruce Rolen, a third-generation farmer who grows rice, wheat and other crops in Northern California’s lush Sacramento Valley.

Instead of sowing in April, Rolen plans to let 100 of his 250 acres of white rice lie fallow and sell his irrigation water on the open market, where it could fetch up to three times the normal price.  [Emphasis added]

Farmers receive subsidized water rates in order to keep the price of food down.  Why should we, the taxpayers, subsidize their water so they can NOT use it to grow food, but use it purely to make profit???

And speaking of subsidies, if Rolen doesn’t plant rice this year will he give up his farm subsidy?  I don’t know, but I suspect not.  Also, you would think that someone who, for years, served on the Colusa Groundwater Management Commission and the Glenn Colusa Irrigation District would be more committed to using the water for “valuable, productive agricultural land.”  However, Rolen can hardly be blamed for the fact that Southern California has allowed its population to grow well beyond its water supply.

As I read through my daily round of blogs I am struck yet again by the stark differences in liberal vs. conservative views of the world.  Not just differences of opinion about what SHOULD be, but differences of opinion about what IS, each side being convinced that the other is delusional.

I learned long ago (so long ago that I no longer remember where I learned it) that where there is disagreement about what is, the best test is the ability of each side to accurately predict the results of any action.  Applying that test was what made me switch, years ago, from registered Democrat to registered Republican - my personal review of the policies of each party showed that, overall, Democrat policies all too often produced long-term undesirable consequences.  As a for-instance, the liberal love of welfare of all kinds, instead of producing successful individuals by giving a hand-up to the needy, has produced entire generations of welfare dependants, many unwilling to work for what they can get for free, but many more unable to escape the trap of dependency.

Another for-instance is one of the main reasons I switched from liberal agnosticism to Christianity: the ability to predict human behavior.  From personal experience with non-religious liberals, from review of public policy that is contrary to Christian belief, and from study of modern psychology I found a pattern among those sources of the inability to accurately predict human behavior in specific situations, while I found great accuracy where such behavior was based upon a thorough understanding of the Bible and Christian principles.  I would say the best example of that is the typical reaction to the taking away of incentive.  Welfare recipients lose the incentive to work, union members who get the same pay as everyone else regardless of their actual job performance lose incentive to work any harder than necessary or than anyone else does, and the most stark example - socialism, which has failed for this reason (among others) everywhere it has ever been tried.

Currently the most stark example of accurate vs. inaccurate predictions is the troop surge in Iraq.  Liberals across the country saw no hope in it and therefore no point in sending more troops.  Liberal lawmakers were declaring it a failure before it even started - and now are left dumbfounded and speechless over the positive results it has achieved (dramatically lower civilian casualties, dramatically lower troop casualties, and the significant change of positions among Iraqi insurgents from anti-American and pro-Al Queda to the exact opposite).  The end of the troop surge story isn’t written yet, so look at the predictions then watch and see who was closer to predicting reality.

I’m no scientist and this is all based on my personal observations and conclusions, but here is my challenge to you: Compare liberal vs. conservative policies, beliefs and worldviews and see which has a better track record of accurately predicting the future.  For sure it’s not all one or the other, but look at the overall pattern.  If you agree, LEARN FROM IT.  If you disagree, then by all means, CALL BS!

Cross-posted at I Call BS!