Corporatism, the New America.

The ruling by the Supremes allowing unfettered financial access to politicians and, therefore, legislation, will be the ruin of this country. Congrats to the conservatives for this final victory. See you on the bread lines.

The revolution begins shortly.

The Predicatble Court

Yesterday afternoon the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-conservative 4-liberal voted to ban cameras at the Proposition 8 trial currently underway in the 9th Circuit Court is San Francisco. This was a decision that may have a much greater impact on the lower court's finding. That ruling will undoubtedly end up in the hands of this Supreme Court, regardless of how the lower court rules. It is not a stretch to consider that if they are going to vote along politically ideological lines on a matter as silly as this one, then it's seems unlikely that a different outcome will occur when this case gets to them.

There's just one problem, and it's the same issue I brought up back when this was still on the ballot. There's one pesky phrase in both California's and the United States constitutions that cannot be ignored: Equal protection under the law for all citizens. You cannot legally bar one citizen or group of citizens from enjoying the same rights as any other citizen or group. No where in either document offers and exclusions to the equal protection guarantee. Prop 8 was illegal from its inception and cannot legally be enforced.

Of course, that minor detail was lost on the voters of California and apparently means nothing to the Supreme Court as well. There is another problem facing this court; the Supreme Court has already ruled that marriage is a constitutionally protected right. I don't really see how they can worm around those two issues, but I suspect they'll try to find a way.

Then again, they can avoid the whole thing by simply refusing to hear the case and let stand the federal court's decision...which is exactly the stand they will take if the anti-gay marriage people prevail.

I wish I had more faith in our judicial system, and I sincerely hope that both the judge in San Francisco and those nine people in Washington read the document that they are charged with upholding, regardless of their personal beliefs.

California Is Going Green

The next session of our legislature will be dealing with a proposal to legalize and regulate pot, ostensibly making your neighborhood convenience store truly a one-stop shop. Get your pot and munchies and slushie at the same time! Grab a case of beer, some chips, maybe a 1/4 pound hot dog, two packs of cigarettes and a liter of Mountain Dew then drive 10 miles an hour back to your apartment. There may be more accidents in motor vehicles because of this, but no one dies in a 20 mph crash, so the real winners are the insurance companies (as usual) who will continually raise your rates.

This is a measure devised for purely economic reasons, make no mistake. There's a bale-load of tax money just waiting to be collected on the sale of pot, something that the government has been missing out on for years. The amount of tax revenue to be collected is an unknown, and I don't suspect they will be taxing the medical marijuana stores that now outnumber Starbucks in LA. In fact, it may well put those places out of business entirely since they will become pretty much unnecessary. Whatever the number of dollars is, it far exceeds what they can collect on income tax, especially with unemployment at record highs, losses of jobs, no new industries coming in, and the crash of the real estate market. It's really a no-brainer.

There is one minor issue involving the fact that pot is still illegal under federal law, but what's the DEA going to do, arrest everyone in California? Raid every 7-11 and liquor store? Sheer numbers will prevent them from enforcing the law. Besides, this is a state's rights issue and we should be left alone on this one.

So, I say go for it. If it doesn't work, change it back. There's gold in the hills of Humboldt County, and it's about time we cashed it in.

HP

I Hate Underpants.

Calling the idiot who likely destroyed the only part of a man's body that he reeeally cares about the "Underpants Bomber" really annoys the hell out of me. I mean, the guy is a total loser, fortunately, and the media is creating this image of him as just a dumb and misguided kid. Aside from the fact that he tried to kill a few hundred people whom he had never met, he's actually a pretty sympathetic figure. Of course, the largest part of sympathetic is, after all, pathetic. Angry, confused, pampered kid who got caught up with the wrong crowd after school.

But back to the underpants. Not only is my hatred for the garment but for the very word underpants. It's so third grade. It's childish and evokes the kid's taunt, " I see London..." and you all know the rest of it. The spin on this story is startling. The pictures they show of him on all the pundit's shows portray a boy. Even his mug shot looks something like what you'd see in your kid's high school yearbook. He looks damn near virginal, which he likely is. If he was like most guys and following the lead from the brain in his little head, there's no way in any god's earth that it's gonna let him use it as a bomb.

The argument could also be made that he, like every nutbag before him, is just wired wrong. Did they really need to have a sanity trial for Jeffery Dahmer? Anyone who decides or just feels like killing people is an okay thing to do are just wired differently than those of us who don't. If you really look around, the overwhelming majority of the people who reside on this orb would rather not be terrified all the time. Really, we would. Unfortunately, it seems like the only way to get that message across to the underwhelming minority is to beat them to death, which sort of negates the whole idea.

Credit the excellent blog Fire Dog Lake with the best name for this moron: The Fruit of the Boom Bomber". Now that makes him sound every bit as dangerous as he is. It doesn't matter about where he came from or how he got to here. What matters is that he's a freaking terrorist and tried to murder a plane full of people. Let's call him what he is, shall we?

For the record, I am all for trying his ass in a federal court and parking his fried genitals in Colorado for the rest of his life, which likely wouldn't be long. There's still a lot more of us than them in prison. Okay, that's probably not a great thing to admit, but that doesn't make it any less true.

The practice of creating cute or meaningful monikers to our criminals was once a tool to invoke fear and to an extent awareness to be more vigilant for your own safety. The Boston Strangler. The Zodiac Killer. The Frankford Slasher. The Underpants Bomber. Which of these things is not like the others?

He's a terrorist, not a folk hero. Besides, it's not like his name is easy, like Dillinger.

That's my screed for today.

New Marketing Paradigm

We live in Southern California, or SoCal, and I have discovered the new marketing plan for the future. The backstory: My brother works in Indianapolis were it gets a bit cooler than here. He wanted a flannel shirt and so our Mom has been out searching for this shirt. She was actually told at one store that they were bringing in their spring line so they aren't replacing the winter stock. Mom quietly pointed out that it was still winter and was, in fact, the coldest day we had had so far (which is no comparison to the cold in Indy, as you can imagine). He then pointed out to her that he just worked there, and that's the way it was. Unable to argue his logic, she gave up. So the new marketing paradigm is this: If you don't have it by the time you need it, then you really didn't need it.

Makes perfect sense.

8.5 Minutes

That's how long it took into the new year before the first fire truck rolled out of the station up the street.

Just thought you ought to know.