Archive for February, 2010
UCI Muslim Students Shame Themselves and Their Cause
Ambassador Michael Oren
Recently the Israeli Ambassador to the United States attempted to speak at the University of Irvine. Pathetically, students from the Muslim Student Union prevented the speaker from sharing his thoughts. This disgraceful display of rudeness is part of a decade long pattern exhibited by the UCI Muslim Student Union to intimidate and silence those they have political differences with…UCI’s Jewish students and the state of Israel. I believe that UCI’s Muslim students shamed themselves and hurt their cause by their actions.
Similar displays against speakers invited by conservative or Israeli groups have shown themselves at other college campuses. Sadly, it has become almost commonplace to have students “shoutdown” invited speakers on college campuses. Equally disturbing is the theft of college papers that articulate views that are opposed by certain groups on campus.
My Neighborhood often looks like a Police State
I live in Calabasas California. Often times, as I’m driving to the market, or bank, or taking my daughter to school I find myself thinking “this is what a police state must look like”. The reason I have these thoughts is because I see at least a dozen people a week receiving traffic tickets.
The traffic enforcers in my neighborhood are the Lost Hills Sheriff Dept. Finding an officer is easy. Just look behind a tree. Or lurking at a 4-way intersection. Or more likely, just standing on the street with a speed gun. I recently drove 400 miles upstate. I made a joke with myself prior to departing. I counted the number of police I saw during the 400 mile trip and compared it to the number of police I saw prior to getting on the freeway. The local cops won in a landslide.
The Filibuster Rule is Worth Talking About
Cato the Younger
Ever since 60BC when Roman Senator Cato the Younger used long winded speeches to obstruct legislation he vigorously opposed, the filibuster…or “talking out a bill” has been a parliamentary tool used by legislators. With the Massachusetts election of a “41st” Republican to the US Senate, there is talk in Democratic circles about changing the Senate’s rules so that a minority of 41 Senators can no longer use a filibuster to prevent the 59 Senators who make up the majority from passing a piece of legislation.
I am against changing the filibuster rule. While one might intuitively think a simple majority should always get their way….there are very good reasons that should not be the case.
Cracks in the PIIGS Trough Helps Tame the US Senate
Harry Reid scales back Senate Jobs bill
Something extraordinary happened this week in the US Senate. The size of a jobs creation bill was unexpectedly slashed from $85 billion to $15 billion after Senate finance leaders said they already had bipartisan support for the larger bill. The reason….fear that voters would look at some of the $70 billion that was subtracted out of the bill as pork-barrel nonemployment related spending. (An example is the money that was to have been directed to “disaster relief” for Arkansas)
Hmm, could political leaders finally be hearing the voices that have been shouting out since the first tea party in April 2009 and took full voice in the November 2009 Massachusetts Senate race?
The SEC and Himalayan Glaciers
Himalayan Glaciers
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued an “interpretive guidance” requirement for publicly traded companies to disclose their risk to Global Warming. I suspect that in order for corporations to avoid exposing themselves to theoretical liability, they will now be forced to include everything and the kitchen-sink into their already unreadable annual statements. Soon every company will have to speculate on what effects changes in water availability, or farm arability, or cyclone patterns might have on their business. This to me seems ridiculous.
For some reason, ever since my first conversation about global warming some 15 years ago, I have had an inordinate fear that those worried about the theoretical hazard caused by man-made rising temperatures will cause far more harm than good. I’ve also been concerned that environmentalists with a religious-like fervor about the righteousness of their cause would rationalize an “ends justify means” in pursuit of saving humanity from a globally warmed “hell on Earth”. (See 2010 Audi Super Bowl Commercial video below) Read the rest of this entry »
Balancing the Budget while Saving Calligraphers
This year, for the first time ever, union membership in the public sector exceeded the number of union members working in the private sector. As I noted in a previous post, since the Great Recession began, the only significant sector of the economy that continued to hire has been city, state and the federal governments.
I live in Los Angeles. My city’s government is dominated by the interests of the region’s unions. Not surprisingly, the city is facing a huge budget deficit. Sadly, but also not surprising, is the comedy as farce for how the city’s elected officials are trying to figure out what to do.
Email
RSS