The nation has a complaint. Me.

The president of my fan club calls into Washington Journal. To complain about a threat greater than the war or national security or the economy or the health care bill -- me!

Explaining what health care reform really means

In 1961, before he was governor of California and president of the United States, Ronald Reagan gave a speech about socialized medicine in response to a bill in congress to reform health care. If you want to really understand what nationalized healthcare will mean to all of us, please listen to this (there is no video). His words from almost 50 years ago are relevant today more than ever.

I'm always inspired by Ronald Reagan, who was a true patriot, and I think you might be too if you listen. It contains his famous line "what it was once like in America when men were free." (It's 10 minutes long but if you want to skip to the best part, it starts at 5 minutes into the speech.)

Plunder! Dissects Government Unions

This might help the Manteca Bulletin readers sort things out. 

Do policemen die early?  Is being a cop a “dangerous job?”  Do government unions “protect the worker?”  I suggest the answers are no, not really, and no!  You can read why in this well researched article.

Plunder! Dissects Government Unions by John Seiler

The War on Kids - Trailer

This is some kind of movie that looks interesting.

The Giant Pool of Money

I was reading the Manteca Bulletin this morning and there was a letter to the editor that talked about which political party was responsible for the "economic meltdown" and the "mortgage crisis." It reminded me of an entertaining and informative radio program I listened to earlier this year on NPR's "This American Life" called "The Giant Pool of Money" (produced by Chicago Public Radio, originally aired May 9, 2008, #355).

This program is a fascinating report on how the global economy was driving mortgage lending in the US and how "the global pool of money" that exists drives the world's economies. It illustrates how intertwined our money is with the rest of the world's. It also illustrates how greed and basic incompetence in interpreting financial data on the probability of foreclosures fueled the housing market collapse.

You can access the program for listening or read the transcript (I recommend listening) at http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=1242

Thanksgiving in Manteca

 
Man, Manteca, Calif. Nov 2009.

The trick to “hide the decline.”

I thought this was an interesting development.  Some “hackers” (or more likely some insider) exposed the files and emails from some preeminent scientific institution being funded to “find evidence of Global Warming®.”

I wonder if the whole thing could be the greatest scandal of modern science. 

I note that in a Manteca city council meeting the state forced us to comply with some sort of measures in our “housing element” that would “reduce greenhouse gases.”  Whatever they are.

But you know, the great minds in the State of California often want to be “the first” – to lead the world.  And in the process they tell us what kind of houses we can build and where and what sort of roads to have and were the bus routes should go.  No matter what this does to our economy. 

So while the rest of the world cancels the Copenhagen summit and is glad they didn’t fall for this Global Warming® thing, we in California rushed to saddle ourselves with regulation that will help make us poor poorer and won’t do a thing for “the earth.”  But we’re leading the way!

Climategate: the final nail in the coffin of ‘Anthropogenic Global Warming’? – Telegraph Blogs