Sadly, the first remedy that Governor Brown has proposed to California’s budget woes has been to raise taxes. A fellow Californian complains here that “California has a spending problem, not a tax-revenue problem.” That sounds right to me, but when… Continue Reading
Maybe you think Dick Cheney was a force for good, or at least for good government. Maybe you think the exact opposite. But hopefully even if you detested the man’s politics, and even if you think he was corrupt, you… Continue Reading
Constitutional law geeks like me, especially here in the Ninth Circuit, had a big day today. First, the Ninth Circuit gave a clear, if judiciously-worded, opinion — when the government posts big crosses, for whatever reason, that conveys a message… Continue Reading
This Saturday, it became legal to operate a vehicle equipped with a “video event recorder.” These have already been in use in some police vehicles, and are expected to be adopted first by public transportation agencies, and then gradually by… Continue Reading
A snowy night last night was completely wasted. There’s nothing like snowfall to dampen the sounds of the outside world — everything is quiet and peaceful, in a way that rainfall never is. We get so little rain, and even… Continue Reading
Well, it didn’t take very long after getting an online ordainment before word got out and some friends asked me to officiate over their wedding in a couple of months. Although I hadn’t really been thinking about these two when… Continue Reading
Completely undeterred by my decidedly spotty track record from last year, I’m forging ahead with bold predictions for 2011. A little different format this year, grouping my predictions by subject area: International Relations: No nuclear weapon for Iran, no overt… Continue Reading
Here were my predictions for 2010, and here’s how they did: Jon Huntsman will resign as ambassador to China and begin to lay the groundwork for a Presidential bid in 2012. Has not happened. In retrospect, I failed to credit… Continue Reading
To open a bottle of sparkling wine, the trick is to not let in too much oxygen all at once or else it froths out and spills everywhere, creating a sticky mess and wasting perfectly good bubbly. This is great… Continue Reading
…should be abolished. They cause more trouble than they’re worth, and a penny has become a trifling amount of money. If everything were priced in nickels, it would only be a few weeks before no one would notice the difference.