Whatever Happened to the Golden State?

Whatever Happened to the Golden State?

One of Hollywood’s better thrillers in the 1960′s was “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” In the sixties, despite that flick, the state of California could still lay claim to a relative degree of sanity.

Even into the mid-seventies, the Golden State elected and re-elected Ronald Reagan as its governor so it obviously was then functionally sane. Something happened in and to California after that, however and, long before 2010, California began devolving into a laid-back cesspool.

It still has plenty of nice weather but Mother Nature tends to that. Balmy weather in a broke and broken state, however, doesn’t cut it, unless you’re a nouveau hippy pothead in which case nothing much bothers you.

As for the rest of Californians, who sometimes seem straight and normal when they reject gay marriage, as they did in 2008, and reject pot for all, as they did on Election Day, 2010, they just don’t seem able to see those woods with all those damned trees and all that foul pot smoke casting a haze over the view.

California and Californians have changed significantly over the last 3 decades principally in demographics. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=2498)

America, the Money Tree

America, the Money Tree

Advertisers know that certain key words attract attention. One of those words is “FREE!” since everyone loves a freebie.

Under the auspices of President Gotrocks, who shovels money out of the United States Treasury as if it were worth nothing, which it soon may be, Uncle Sam has become the very generous old uncle who used to throw quarters or a dollar bill our way when we were kids. The primary difference between Obama and that old unc is that Obama doesn’t toss his own bucks around, he dispenses the taxpayers’ bucks.

Barack Hussein Obama, having now joined the heady ranks of the newly rich himself thanks to his book sales, like others in that nouveau riche classless class such as the Clintons, has no respect for hard-earned money, especially when it’s not his.

Bailouts on top of bailouts, stimuli on top of stimuli, with government bureaucrats handing out stimulus funds as if it were candy, as if it were Marie Antoinette doling out cake to the bourgeosie and hoi polloi, as if it is a useful tool to purchase votes, have caused an unprecedented explosion of American greed.

Where’s my cut of all those trillions, people are thinking and saying, when do we get our share? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1843)

Ice Cream Men and Other Perverts

Ice Cream Men and Other Perverts

You can thank IOwntheWorld.com for publicizing this local story out of Memphis.

It relates to that iconic summer noise and treat, those ice cream trucks that meander through America’s streets and byways during the warm months with their mind-numbing, repetitive cacophonies blaring from their speakers luring kids with their seductive music like the rat catcher, the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

In the Memphis instance, the pied piper was a guy named Onuoha Agba who operated an ice cream truck in Shelby County and who may have sold some banana nut crunchy cones or chocolate peanut surprise cups but whose business plan was far less wholesome. Agba, it is alleged, would also engage in barter, offering ice cream to little girls in exchange for their flashing him, lifting up their shirts for his perverted entertainment.

Some months ago, WSHN television had confronted Agba and accused him of employing “sex offenders and murderers” to peddle his wares. See the video of that confrontation here–and be mindful that Mr. Agba was not pleased with being confronted and the video includes some very unsavory language: http://tiny.cc/iyrsb

That report led to a new Tennessee law barring sex offenders from selling ice cream from trucks although the statute doesn’t require background checks, a measure which bona fide drivers support.

Agba’s employment practices became more transparent recently when he was arrested practicing his pedo-scam, as described in the above WSHN video. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1831)

Homosexuals Win a Battle But Not the War

Homosexuals Win a Battle But not the War

Once again, a federal court has overturned, if not spat upon, the will of the people.

As in Massachusetts last month where another federal judge threw out key provisions of DOMA, the Defense of Marriage Act, saying “that it is unconstitutional to define marriage only as a union between a man and a woman,” California’s Proposition 8 was struck down by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Vaughan Walker on the same grounds.

Prop 8, passed on November 4th, 2008 by a vote of 52.5% to 47.5% in one of the most liberal states in the nation, read simply, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

That date, of course, will live in infamy as the date on which Barack Hussein Obama was elected president of the United States. Californians helped elect him, apparently oblivious of the fact he forcefully opposed DOMA, the federal version of Prop 8.

Inconsistently, the pro-gay president has also said he does not support same-sex marriage.

So, the battle lines have been re-drawn just as they were before and after the Proposition 8 vote, and battle lines are not an exaggeration.

Back in 2008, the campaign by homosexuals to defeat the ballot measure was marked by threats of violence against its backers and, following passage, homosexuals launched a nationwide, virtual rampage in protest.

Their targets were primarily Catholics and Catholic churches and Mormons and their Church Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When those efforts at intimidation and calls for a reversal failed, gays took to the courts as they always do to nullify the majority opinion.

(For more details on the events before and after November 4th, 2008, see “The Gay Battle against the Will of the People Parts One and Two,” http://tiny.cc/fvcwu and http://tiny.cc/6kgns)

That battle was re-joined before and during the California case, Perry vs. Schwarzenegger, and the decision was a foregone conclusion.

Governor Arnold refused to defend his own state’s law, the suit was filed in San Francisco which voted down the proposition 3 to 1, and Judge Walker agreed to have the proceedings put on YouTube against the recommendation of the U.S. Supreme Court. . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1828)

American Grafitti, aka the American Flag

American Grafitti, aka the American Flag

Shortly after 9/11, Eric Noda roller-painted a 35 foot mural of the American flag on a retaining wall overlooking busy Route 680 in Alameda County, near Silicon Valley, California.

Over the nearly nine years since the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, that flag became an inspiration to drivers on 680, a reminder of the events of that day and an inspirational display of patriotism during a dark period in America’s history.

Days before the 234th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, some schlep in the employ of the California Department of Transportation, CALTRANS, decided it was time to remove it and it was painted over with gray paint so as not to offend motorists on Route 680.

Said schlep apparently decided the American flag was just another piece of grafitti in a class with “Joanie Loves Chachi” or an obscene expression of anti-societal vulgarity.

Austrian-born, naturalized American and governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger “called the flag patriotic and meaningful. He said that to remove the flag, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1767)

Nervy News #1

Nervy News #1

We’ve all heard that dog bites man isn’t newsworthy but that man bites dog is. Likewise, we’ve heard of other stories which are so banal we wonder why the editor publishes them and stories which strike a chord as classic examples of overreaching and obnoxiousness.

One of the latter comes to us from the benighted state of Mexifornia, from the bi-lingual city of Los Angeles.

California Cardinal Condemns Arizona Immigration Law: Cardinal Roger Mahony of the Los Angeles archdiocese has ripped the content of the bill just sent to Governor Jan Brewer as encouraging “German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques” since it requires suspected illegal aliens to provide identification papers showing they have a right to be in our country.

Reasoning that illegal immigrants are really nice people . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1639)

The Great States of Taxes

The Great States of Taxes

Let’s have a nice round of applause for Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Those are the only 9 states without a personal income tax and where citizens don’t have to wait for their state governments to send them their annual refunds for overpaid taxes.

And, let’s have a rousing Bronx cheer for those taxpaying dolts expecting a hefty refund from their respective state governments for giving those governments, as well as the feds, an interest free loan for a year or more.

You usually only get a big refund if you have your employer over-withhold taxes from your wages so you’re effectively giving the federal treasury as well as your state and local governments that tax free loan.

I must say that’s very generous of all you hefty refunders out there. It’s also very stupid.

Even dumber are taxpayers who agree to over-withholding in states having the greatest troubles balancing their budgets. Those are the states–including California and New York–which have announced that they will be glomming even more money from their hapless denizens by not issuing refunds on time.

Try taking one of Governor Arnold’s IOU’s to the bank or grocery store or to that travel agency that was booking your trip to the Bahamas with that refund “windfall.” You may have to settle for a trip to the backyard until your governor gets around to returning your money.

You should receive interest on that extended, forced loan but don’t bet on it.

As Tax Freedom Day, the day on which working Americans will have paid up all their federal, state and local tax levies, approacheth, . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1569)

Prop 8: R.I.P.?

Prop 8: R.I.P.?

Notwithstanding an impassioned defense of the defenders of California’s Proposition 8 by the Family Research Institute, the plaintiffs are set to eventually win Perry vs Scharzenegger if not in federal district court in San Francisco then in the Supreme Court of the United States.

To get readers up to snuff on the trial in question, please see “The Gay Battle against the Will of the People,” Parts One and Two.

At issue is whether Prop 8, a part of California’s constitution since it was passed by voters on November 4th, 2008, is constitutional. More fundamental is the question of whether citizens of any state in the union are entitled to amend the document that defines the “nature, functions and limits” of a governing body.

In California they are so legally entitled and a majority of Californians decided that what constitutes a marriage in that state can be reduced to 14 words, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Surprised that the measure had passed in one of the most liberal states in the nation, the gay lobby first demonstrated in protest then mobilized its formidable forces to attempt to get a court to override the will of the people, alleging that the people had unfairly infringed on homosexual rights.

David Boie, co-principal counsel for the homosexual plaintiffs with Ted Olson, has linked that infringement to the Catholic Church specifically and generally to Christianity which made this just-concluded trial one in which basic precepts of Christianity are called into question: http://bit.ly/9eT4F7 . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1476)

The Gay Battle against the Will of the People, Part Two

The Gay Battle against the Will of the People, Part Two

Part One of this series cited courtroom testimony of two “expert” plaintiff witnesses in the San Francisco civil action brought by two gay couples in federal court who were miffed that Californians had seen fit to amend the state’s constitution by adding the words, “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.”

Shocking both the gay and normal worlds, voters in the very liberal Left Coast state approved Proposition 8 by a healthy margin of 52.5% to 47.5% in November 2008 and the matter should have been resolved, the people had spoken.

Not quite.

The next electoral quake of such magnitude wouldn’t occur until January 19th, 2010 when residents of liberal Massachusetts transferred the Ted Kennedy Memorial Senate Seat to a Republican in the person of Scott Brown.

The trial’s poster gays, lesbians Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier of Berkeley and homosexuals Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarillo of L.A., “were recruited to represent California couples who say they would get married were it not for Proposition 8 because they lead lives indistinguishable from those of other couples, gay or straight, who have jobs, children and a desire for the social stamp of approval that matrimony affords.”

That, of course, is a matter of opinion that the court must decide and may be the crux of the entire push for same-sex marriage.

The bestowal of “the social stamp of approval” effectively would mean society’s official approbation of homosexual relationships, the last rung on the ladder of normality for which gays have been striving for forty years.

Up until 1969 . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1433)

The Gay Battle against the Will of the People, Part One

The Gay Battle Against the Will of the People, Part One
Reporting from San Francisco - A federal trial on same-sex marriage focused last Wednesday on the similarities and differences between homosexual and heterosexual couples, with a psychology professor citing “remarkable similarities.”

The purpose of that “federal trial” isn’t mentioned until the 3rd paragraph of Maura Dolan’s story about the psycholgist’s testimony, namely ”attorneys for two same-sex couples who are trying to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 voter initiative that reinstated a state ban on same-sex marriage.”

Prop 8 is referred to twice more, including the last paragraph: “Earlier in the day, a Proposition 8 attorney got Yale historian George Chauncey to say that gays and lesbians have become politically and socially more powerful in recent years. But Chauncey also said that discrimination persists and described writings by a Proposition 8 proponent as evidence of long-held and inaccurate negative stereotypes:” http://bit.ly/5L3h85

Case closed? Not even close. The trial continues.

Aside from the question of why a constitutional proposition democratically passed by Californians would be an issue in contention a year later, what’s missing in such testimony is some clarification of the objectivity of the psychologist, “Letitia Peplau, an expert on couple relationships” and UCLA professor of social psychology and Mr. Chauncey, “a Yale historian.”

Of what use is testmony by biased witnesses?

Put more bluntly, are Letitia and Chauncey homosexuals? . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1431)

The Wicked Weed of the West

The Wicked Weed of the West
It goes by many names–cannabis, weed, pot, joints, ganja, marijuana, maryjane. Those who regularly smoke it are called many things as well, including potheads, stoners, and pot freaks.

Call it what you will, it’s time as a legal high is fast approaching and in a growing number of areas it has already arrived in all its smoky glory. After all, since our president smoked it in his misguided youth, can it be all bad?

Technically not a narcotic since it’s not a synthetic opiate, pot is almost as addictive as heroin and its use among America’s young is as common as the weekend beer blast despite its current classification as an illicit substance.

The arguments against its use are almost as old as marijuana itself. In addition to its addictive qualities, it sucks dry ambition and motivation, it gives you the munchies, its effects on the human psyche are worse than booze, it’s a gateway drug to heroin, cocaine, etc. And, it’s illegal, sort of in some places.

No matter. Pot is gradually making its way toward social, and governmental, acceptability.

Once used for medicinal purposes–Queen Victoria is said . . .

(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1424)

California Dreamin'

CALIFORNIA DREAMIN'

. . . Cases in point are future mamas and papas assiduously studying in the excellent and very reasonably-priced California university system. They have been advised they will face a 32% tuition increase next year and they’re livid.

The students reacted as if they had been told that free condoms would no longer be available at the student center or that free treatment for STD’s would be denied them.

As UCLA grad student Sonja Diaz said of the tuition hikes, ”We are bailing out the banks, we are bailing out Wall Street. Where is the bailout for public education?”

A less educated and presumably less-mature U.C. Irvine freshman economics major, Sara Bana, employed a more apocalyptic warning to the world, “You are jeopardizing California’s future:” http://bit.ly/tnp8U

Give me a break, girls! . . .

(Read the rest at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=1339)

Ironies On Top of Ironies

Ironies On Top of Ironies

“The essential feature of irony is the indirect presentation of a contradiction between an action or expression and the context in which it occurs,” according to Dictionary.com. Put more simply, it’s ironic when things happen that are the precise antitheses of what we would expect or wish to happen.

The world and the nation are awash in ironies today, some salutary, most depressing. A few examples:

Wartime Irony: Our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing their damnedest to repel and defeat a ragtag bunch of turbaned psychopaths intent on mindless jihad and salivating for those 72 virgins promised by Allah. All they are asked to do is make the ultimate sacrifice and surrender their lives for Islam in the process of killing the infidel enemy.

Yet, though many live in the same primitive squalor in which their forebears lived hundreds of years ago, our troops have been contending with their modern weapons of limited but deadly destruction such as rpg’s, ied’s and other weapons of guerilla warfare furnished by Syria and Iran.

Now, lo and behold, they are upgrading, thanks to the United States. High-tech inclinometers, gyro chips, field-programmable gate arrays and GPS systems developed by our own military to battle their foes are being employed to more effectively cause havoc and kill our soldiers: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49354.

And why is that? “Technology that is legal to buy and sell within the U.S. but is illegal to export because of its potential military applications has been used to build weapons deployed against U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan because of loose export controls,” according to a GAO report.

So, because of lax enforcement of our laws and greedy exporters, the United States painstakingly and expensively develops technologies which are then illegally sent to our enemies to enable them to prolong the conflict and exact more punishment on America’s military.

Clintonesque Irony: Virginia State Senator Creigh Deeds, campaigning on a relative shoestring when contrasted with his chief opponent, Terry MacAuliffe, trounced the former Democratic National Committee Chairman and Clinton confidante in Virginia’s gubernatorial primary contest.

Despite his meager funding, a mere $3.7 million, half of fundraiser-extraordinaire McAuliffe’s haul, Deeds was able to whup the former Clintonite and an extreme leftist, Brian J. Moran. He scored almost 50% of the vote in a primary in which only 6% of registered voters bothered to make their voice heard. Deeds was so strapped for cash that he drove himself to campaign appearances in order to save money for television spots.

The wealthy late-starter McAuliffe was considered a shoo-in earlier in the race and stumped the state with his ace in the hole, former President Bill Clinton, hoping that some of Bubba’s charisma would rub off. Instead, some of Bubba’s dirt may have rubbed off as Dems showed once again that they have no loyalty to the past and especially to the Clintons and their henchmen.

Deeds, a middle of the roader, will face conservative Republican Bob McDonnell in 2010, to whom he had lost in 2005 in a run for Virginia attorney general: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=49377.

His win over McAuliffe and Moran this time around is testimony to the fact that money and contacts count for little when it comes to Virgina voters. Those voters will have another shot at returning the state to the Republican column after 8 years of wild spending and wilder tax increases under Democrat Governors Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

More ironically relevant, the Clintonistas have been handed their walking papers at the top of which it reads, “Your era and charisma have come and gone.”

Israeli Irony: The Jewish website Haaretz.com was almost giddy in its report on November 5th, 2008 that about 77% of American Jews had voted for Barack Obama over John McCain, according to exit polling. Alleging two years of smears, Jeremy Ben-Ami of the J Street lobby group said, “Surrogates and right-wing political operatives in our community stopped at nothing in their efforts to sway Jewish voters against Obama.” http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034574.html

Well, obviously, any swaying was ineffective at best and Jeremy got his wish in the election of Obama with the help of a near-record number of American Jews. Jewish voters . . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)

Some Are Finding It Rough in California

As if budget cuts, possible state bankruptcy by July, teacher layoffs, pay cuts of 10%, now comes what may be the most unkindest cut of all, a move back to two-ply from four-ply toilet tissue in the Riverside County section of the once-great State of California.

It’s sad but true. It must be true since the story was reported by the Old Gray Lady, the imminently-defunct New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08toilet.html?_r=1.

Last year, the county laid out $270,000 just for that lavatory essential and finally decided, No mas! That third of a penny extra per sheet for the four-ply extravagance for the hundred or so execs out of the 18,500 county employees must now cope with the rough life endured by the other 18,400 county workers.

In a statement explaining why the Elite 100 had unilaterally upgraded from two to four-ply, county spokesman Tom Freeman said, “There was a texture test, and then the Facilities Management Department decided that Angel Soft would be utilized for elected officials and their guests. The remainder of the county facilities would be using two-ply.”

It’s unreported whether Freeman smirked when he made his statement.

You got a problem with that? After all, all civil servants are created equal but surely some are more equal than others when it comes to “texture tests” conducted by the Facilities Management Department.

The focus on the nether regions is not unprecedented for Californians. A few years back, environmental zealots, songstress Sheryl Crow and buddy Laurie David, had a terrific solution for the blight of global warming and it too centered on toilet paper.

In what I referred to in my book as “The One Square Rule” to save the planet, a variation on the “Two Ply Rule” to save Riverside County, Crow and David devised our salvation.

An excerpt from pages 31-32 of An Immodest Proposal for Ending and Winning the War on Terror:

“A little comic relief is always welcome, especially amid all the global warming gloom. To the rescue, armed with the most ridiculous suggestion yet for saving Planet Earth, comes Laurie Lennard David. Former talent scout, estranged wife of Seinfeld’s Larry David, jet setter, owner of sprawling estates on both coasts, producer of Gore’s documentary, global warming activist, and Savior of the Planet, she proposed a brilliant scheme. Teaming with a fellow unheralded enviro-expert, pop singer Sheryl Crow, they recently unveiled their well thought out plan to slow down the warming of the globe. Their proposal: a limitation of one square of toilet paper each time we have to skip to the loo.

(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheryl-crow/laurie-and-sheryl-go-tos_b_46320.html)


Seriously, folks, you cannot make this stuff up.

Neither Laurie nor Sheryl said whether they endorsed a Corps of Potty Police to insure adherence to the One Square Rule. There is no need anyway. When that which could not be cleaned up by one square of Charmin hit the fan, Ms. Crow had to eat some of her namesake bird. Following widespread mockery, she passed it off as a joke.

Her joke was forthwith forgiven, unlike Don Imus’ ‘nappy-headed ho’s’ witticism.

Sheryl is in the same league as Babs Streisand, an empty-head warbler . . .”

(http://genelalor.com)