California
April 25, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Modern liberalism is all about “rights”—rights to health care, right to a job, right to food, the right to more rights, and so forth. You know the drill. Of course, these kind of liberal “rights” aren’t rights at all properly understood; they are benefits that require the state to tax or expropriate someone’s property to provide the “right” to someone else. Right now the California state legislature is poised to
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April 16, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Beating up on California these days is easier than snatching lunch money from the pocket protector of a skinny near-sighted kid. But why should Victor Davis Hanson have all the fun? And besides, now that I’m back in my home state after a decade away, the decay is palpable, like roads suffering from obvious “deferred maintenance” to unfinished housing tracts, etc. So what are the main problems facing California right
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January 18, 2013 — Steven Hayward
All the leaves are brown, and the budget is still red, even with Jerry Brown’s big income and sales tax hike the voters foolishly approved back in November. The latest entirely predictable piece of news was reported yesterday. The Wall Street Journal headline tells the story succinctly: “California Budget Hit By Facebook’s IPO.” Wait a moment: how exactly is a budget “hit” by the creation of massive new liquid wealth?
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November 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Last spring, my wife and youngest daughter and I spent a week in California. We were reminded of the extraordinary natural wealth and beauty that were showered on that uniquely blessed state. For a century or so, guided by brilliant private sector leadership, California was a beacon to the world, a land of opportunity such as never had existed in human history. Unimaginable wealth was created. Yet it required only
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November 12, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Romney campaign had a governing thesis. The thesis that Obama would be judged on the basis of his administration’s economic record, specifically including the dire unemployment that has come to characterize Obama’s tenure in office so far. It was a reasonable thesis, but in the event it misfired. The thesis wasn’t entirely mistaken. It was partially correct. The national exit poll reported by the AP showed the economy was
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September 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I recall clearly back in my graduate school days in southern California in the late 1980s/early 1990s when the South Coast Air Quality Management District—the smog police—was kicking its regulatory program into warp speed and proposing regulations for just about everything imaginable. This might even have included regulating landscaping, since biogenic emissions from certain kinds of trees (Ronald Reagan was right about this!) can contribute to ozone formation, if cooler
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September 3, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I occasionally click through to Willie Brown’s rambling column in the San Francisco Chronicle–he’s obviously trying to channel or emulate the format of the legendary Herb Caen–in large part because I always regarded Brown as the smartest and most able politician in America during his heyday as Speaker of the California State Assembly. He flummoxed Republicans at every turn (and several ethics investigations, too, if you believe the rumors). Today
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September 2, 2012 — Steven Hayward
For this installment I take time out from observing California’s socialist-utopian dysfunctionality to observe a few of those “exploitable asymmetries” mentioned previously that make it possible for California to get away with so much of its nonsense. The other day a pod of whales frolicked on the water just offshore from me, and I managed to catch a great blues act, Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers, at one of
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August 27, 2012 — Steven Hayward
. . . has to be the one for the California delegation that includes a copy of a really good book. From the Sacramento Bee: The Buzz: California swag bags for GOP conventioneers valued at $700 By Bee staff ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — California delegates attending the Republican National Convention this week will take home a goodie bag filled with GOP gear, gift cards and some Golden State-grown staples
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August 26, 2012 — Steven Hayward
It’s been a picture postcard perfect day out here on the central coast of California, with a large pod of humpback whales frolicking out in the ocean right in front of me (video coming shortly), so I’ve neglected the keyboard most of the day. California enjoys what economists call “exploitable asymmetries,” which means California’s climate and topography enable liberals to get away with more idiotic stuff than interior states, because
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