California Crack-up

• THE PERFECT STORM
• CALIFORNIA BEGETS A NATIONAL LOSS OF INNOCENCE
• ONE-PARTY RULE IN CALIFORNIA
• THE DISHONESTY OF SOCIALIST ONE PARTY-RULE
• MUCH OF OBAMA’S AGENDA IS ALREADY IN PLACE IN CALIFORNIA
• THERE’S HOPE FOR A SECOND GREAT CALIFORNIA TAX REVOLT

Although I am not so sure about there being “hope” for a tax revolt.

“For years I would tell news people about the fact that every single multiple victim public shooting in the US involving more than three people killed took place in one of these gun-free zones.”

Every time I see a “no guns allowed” sign, I think of other really cool ideas for posted slogans, like perhaps “no home alarms allowed” at the entrance to a housing tract or maybe “locked doors prohibited” in a public parking lot. Better yet, how about one of those nice “KICK ME” signs on your back.

It is only common sense that banning the carrying of guns in any given area means that only criminals will carry guns there — and assuming they can read, they can do so with the confidence that there probably won’t be anyone there capable of stopping them.

Here’s an easy mental excersize: put yourself in the shoes of a burgler, driving down the street, trying to decide which house to break in to.  One house has a car in the driveway with a bumper sticker that says “Gun Control Means Using Both Hands.”  The next house has a car in the driveway that says “There is no room for guns in a civil society.”  Which house do you break in to?

If people having guns with them is such a big problem, when was the last time you heard of a “crazed gunman” going on a rampage at a gun show?

• The former “Assault Weapons” ban did not lower violent crime, and when it expired, violent crime did not increase.
• There is no such thing as an “Assault Weapon.”  It is a figment of a politician’s imagination; a term invented to squelch debate on a subject. Most of the guns banned by the former law were not functionally different from “hunting weapons.” Also, ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds are illegal under the ban. Somehow, according to politicians, having 11 bullets in your hand gun to defend yourself is considered “too much,” but 10 is okay. (Arbitrary and illogical.)

But this has all been said before. Left wingers have an irrational fear of firearms, and now they are in a position of power to implement policy that appeals to their base. It doesn’t matter that the policy is emotional and infringes on the Constitutional rights of Americans.

So here’s the “funny” part, if this can ever be considered “funny.”

Holder (the Obama administration mouthpeice for infringment of Constitutional liberties) said:

“I think that will have a positive impact in Mexico, at a minimum.”

So, get this straight: Our president wants our Second Amendment rights infringed and one of the rationales is that it will help Mexico — a country where gun laws are doing nothing to stem rampant crime and corruption. Got that?

On a related note, I’m reading John Lott’s book Straight Shooting. A nice easy read, it’s a collection of a bunch of articles he’s written over the last few years on gun control topics.

Oklahoma tied for “last place” scoring a whopping 2 out of 100.

This only goes to show that there is always room for improvement.

Hopefully in 2010, OK will get a nice fat goose-egg.

Let me start by saying that I am not happy about Obama being elected President. Not happy at all. But I’ve managed to turn my unhappiness with the election into the same feeling you get right before you sneeze — you know, that resignation that this is simply out of your control and it will happen regardless of your approval, and all protestations to the contrary will matter nary a wit.

And let’s insert the obligatory “Omaba is bad” stuff: He knows nothing about business.  He has no real-world experience in anything. His ideas are bad. He supports the killing of infants recently born because, you know, saving their lives would be too much of a burden on a woman who has chosen to kill her child. And he wants to take guns away from law abiding citizens.  Check. Check. Check. Yadda yadda.

But here’s the thing: He’s president. I’m not going to act like some pipsqueek liberal holding a sign that says “Bush is not my president.”  Because he is.

And you know why?

Because God wants him there.

Chew on that. Chew on that real good. (Don’t swallow as you might choke, but chew for a little while.)

It doesn’t matter how much you dislike Obama.  It doesn’t matter how good your reasons are for disliking him.

Romans 13:1-2  Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

There is just no getting around this. Paul lived under a nation that had both just and unjust laws. The sins of the leadership of the United States aren’t any worse than those of the Roman government. And yet Paul didn’t dwell on his government.  He didn’t intermingle the Gospel with warnings about Caesar. Even when Paul was accused of crimes that would have resulted in his execution, he didn’t set out on a campaign of reform against his government.

Now back to the first thing I said: Politics can bring out the worst in anybody. I have heard people say the worst of curses against their new President. And it bugs me. Here’s why:

1 Timothy 2:1-2  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Here Paul tells us what our attitude about our leaders must be. We are to pray for them and even give thanks for them.

Ouch. That’s hard. I think living up to Old Testament standards might even be easier than giving thanks for Obama.

But there it is, nonetheless. And Paul told us why. “That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.” This is God’s will for us. This is what we should be striving for — not to get ABC, NBC, or CBS to air the right news. But to live a peacable life. And there is a flip side. Ignoring this exhortation means getting the opposite of “peaceable life.”

Yes, it’s nice to be right. Of course Obama is going to be one of the worst presidents this country has ever had. And, no, of course you don’t have to be happy about it. And in four years, you will get to vote against him again. Maybe in four years enough of the people in the country will see what’s right to prevent his re-election.

What do we do in the meantime?

Proverbs 29:2  When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn.

Notice the key here: mourn. No rebellion, no railing. Mourning.

I’m thankful I live in a country where I have freedom of speech and can blog about things that interest me, like economics and the insanity of environmentalism. I am thankful I get a “say” in who my governors are. But in the end I know that nothing I do is going to change the fact that it is going to take Christ returning and establishing his own rule in Earth for anything to get better.

So I’ll deal with the fact that Obama is president.

I hope you will, too.

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2008/09/in_times_of_crisis_trust_capit.html

It’s clear to me that our pathological aversion to personal responsibility has worked itself so far upward that our entire economy has become based on “no consequences for bad choices.”

2. Repeal Sarbanes Oxley.

3. Drop Capital Gains tax to 0.5% and use all of the revenue to pay off whatever “bailout” plan Congress approves.

4. Freeze the federal budget — no new spending, no budget increases, except maybe defense.

Why:

1. Corp taxes in the USA are the second highest in the world.  Drop them to the lowest, and watch the foreign investment soar.  Bring money and jobs back to our own country without having to pass more regulation that won’t work.  Obama bemoans jobs moving off-shore. Duh!  His plan to raise taxes on corporations will only make the problem worse.  McCain’s plan doesn’t go far enough.  We want to be the best place for companies to come to and set up shop, not the second or third best.

2. SOX is a disaster, not accomplishing its goal and preventing thousands of companies from going public.  Like it or not, we have a public market economy; most of us rely on new and profitable companies entering the public exchange for our retirement plans.  SOX is a massive hindrance.

3. Removing the punishment of capital gains tax means people will be more likely to invest their earnings, spurning growth, instead of hiding their money away in other areas that aren’t taxed so high but don’t benefit the public on a whole, or sending their money overseas where it doesn’t benefit our economy.  Remember, we need growth and investment to raise the value of our currency and make jobs.

4. Obviously, we spend too much.

The answer to getting out of debt; to rising unemployment; to revenue shortfalls (not that we have that), is growth — not more government interference.

Feel free to write my name in for President come November 4.

The senator said she didn’t think all responsibility for solving these problems should be vested in the Treasury Department, suggesting that “once we get through this immediate crisis,” the country should look at some Great Depression-era type of governmental entity to deal with it. -Article

Liberal politicians love these problems, because when things get rough, people turn to “security” in the government.  Rather than take the risk that they might have a rough patch, they will listen to the promise of “government entities” set up to protect and provide for them.

It doesn’t matter that the policies of the 90s are directly responsible for financial woes of today (the media will ignore that), and it doesn’t matter that the country still isn’t in a recession (the media will report that people are “worried about possible recession” to give the same emotional effect).  What matters is that people will turn to government and vest even more control over their lives in politicians promising to make things easier.

The Great Depression is the perfect example.  A downturn in the economy was turned into a disastrous depression by FDR’s policies (extending the depression far beyond it’s natural length) and the scope and power of the federal government was expanded into the private sector like never before.

I don’t worry about recession or depression so much as I worry about the loss of liberty and freedom they will bring as people turn more and more of their lives over to the government for safe keeping.

So today we had a “duh” ruling. This is so obvious that one has to wonder when the four dissenting judges are going to be impeached by Congress for blatantly denying Constitutional rights.

What should worry people who care about the Constitution is that this was a 5-4 ruling. That means that there was actually a “swing vote” over such an obvious and clear right protected by the Bill of Rights. That means that it would only take one Constitutionalist judge being replaced by a liberal to erase this obvious, clear right from existence.

I won’t bore people with more punditry — it’s all been said. I’m glad that the Supreme Court has affirmed an obvious fact, and struck down an obviously unconstitutional law. I’ll be happy about that and shut up now.

This post is about me — and other people doing things that just don’t benefit from a college education.

I fully realize this is non-conformist thinking. Most people will dismiss what I’m saying as crackpot stuff. But let me tell you what I think is truly crazy: going into debt before you even get your life started. With college debt for even the most simple of degrees starting at $30,000, one has to ask who’s crazy — the people assuming that debt for the sake of a college degree or the people who decide to skip the debt and go to work?

First, some foundation: College is really expensive and people pay for it for a long, long time. It sounds obvious, but people don’t seem to really understand it, so read it, and let it sink in. Is it any wonder that our nation is getting deeper and deeper into debt? People are starting their life in the hole. One salient paragraph from the article linked above:

A 22-year old student graduating this year who consolidates their $40,000 loan at 6.125 percent will need to pay $243 a month…until they’re 52. By that time, they will have paid $47,494 in interest alone.

So, is this necessary? Rarely.

Let’s dispense right now with that myth that says College = More Money. Wrong. College may be necessary for certain, specific lines of work, but College does not cause increased earning over a lifetime although it correlates with it. (Sad aside: I bet half of the college graduates from last year couldn’t explain to you what the difference between causation and correlation actually is. Those are the same people who think big profits equal big profit margins and vote for candidates who promise to take on Big Oil. But I digress.)

Check this out: Five reasons to skip college. An excerpt:

In fact, there is plenty of evidence that what really matters is how smart you are, not where–or even if–you went to school. According to a number of studies, small differences in SAT scores, which you take before going to college, correlate with measurably higher incomes. And, according to a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research, the lifetime income of high-school dropouts is directly associated with their scores on a battery of intelligence tests.

Those correlations contradict the notion of a causal relationship between college degrees and increased earnings over a lifetime.

Let’s get on to another simple fact: College doesn’t teach you all that much. Another excerpt from the above linked article:

For, in truth, most professions–journalism, software engineering, sales, and trading stocks to name but a few–depend far more on “on-the-job” education than on classroom learning. Until relatively recently, lawyers, architects and pharmacists learned their trade through apprenticeship, not through higher education.

Let’s take software engineering, a subject I happen to know a bit about. I can say with absolute, unequivocal certainty that there is nothing about computer science college can teach you that you can not learn on your own. I know this because I: 1. Spent the summer between my last year of high school and first year of college learning all sorts of computer science-y things on my own, and 2. Spent the first year of my time in college bored out of my mind in my computer science classes. Every now and then I would wake from my stupor to help a fellow pupil or correct an error on the dry erase board.

What’s the difference between a computer programmer with a college degree and a computer programmer without one? The guy without the degree has a four year head-start on the guy with the degree.

But there’s more — colleges don’t even teach real programming skill in the first place. (Seriously — as a programmer, I find the notion of someone holding a computer science degree who has never used pointers a complete absurdity.)

My first undeniable truism of college:

Going to college to “learn” is like taking a one month vacation to Mexico for a taco. And putting it all on a credit card. With no job. Fact 1: Tacos taste better in Southern California. Fact 2: Tacos in Mexico may or may not be made out of what you expect a taco to be made out of. Fact 3: Any idiot can fly to Mexico for a taco: it takes a smart person to realize that money is better spent eating at an upscale Mexican restaurant in Southern California. Fact 4: Taking vacations when you don’t have a job or money just isn’t wise.

A big lie our culture has embraced is the notion that learning only occurs in institutions. We are all collectively taking a vacation from a job we don’t even have just to fly to a foreign country to eat a taco.

Lost? Okay: the guy who stays in his own country to eat a taco and has a job is the guy who reads books to learn instead of mortgaging his future for a college eduction with the same goal.

Going to college because one “loves to learn” is just crazy. I love to learn. I can spend $100 on books and learn more than a college student does in an entire semester — unless you count all that nonsense about “socialization” where one “socializes” with tons of other people who know just as little as they do about the real world and spend weekends chugging beer to prove it (or, if they’re a little more mentally developed, maybe they chug lattes). What’s more, I can actually live my life while I read the book. You know, like working. I suppose the guy who reads books does miss out on the “Psych 101″ factor — that college thing were one semester of Psychology (even when you are majoring in computer science) suddenly makes the college student an expert in human behavior. I guess there are trade-offs.

Here’s my second truism of college: If you go to college and yet don’t know exactly how it will benefit you in your specific career, you are wasting time and money. Here’s a little-realized fact: College will still be there in another couple of years. If you haven’t decided what you need to learn yet, you should not be spending your money (or your parents’ money) — especially not debt — on college. So don’t go to college without a plan. If you can’t make a plan, then go do something real for a while first. (Hint: going to college is as far from real life as you can get.) This country is full of opportunity, and you don’t need to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to explore your options. And if you butt up against someone who says you’re nothing without a college degree — forget ‘em. Move on. Make your own life.

Here’s a third truism: People who go into debt for tens of thousands of dollars and come out of college with a degree they will never use are not running on all thrusters. There exists no rational, justifiable reason to spend so much money on something that is not going to directly enhance your life in a tangible way.

You think saying most people don’t need college is crazy? I say going to college and only coming out with a piece of paper, warm and fuzzy feelings about “learning,” and over $30,000 in debt and no job is crazy.

The fact is, education has become a multi-headed monster our culture worships. Money and time is burned on the altar of institutionalized education, when real life — character, honesty, tenacity, hard work, and independence — is only learned through experience.

If you’re a college grad (and kudos to you for reading this far!), don’t be insulted. Take stock of your accomplishments in life. I think you’ll find that the gains you’ve achieved in your life are not due to time you spent in college, but what you did with your life. And if you haven’t got their yet? Don’t worry — it’s only four years.

PS: Before anyone says “what about heart surgeons,” please read the first sentence of this post before embarrassing yourself.