Rarely have I been so delighted to see an era pass as the finality of the Biden Administration. It was borne from an international pandemic and a perverse hatred for the incumbent president. An ill-equipped person was drafted as a candidate to assure victory, if he could be called a “candidate.” He barely campaigned as his handlers thought he was better hidden from the public to disguise his severe weaknesses. For his V-P, he drafted a highly unpopular and incapable person who had two principal attributes – being female and black. From these facts how could anything but disastrous results have occurred? It was pre-ordained. Biden started his destruction quickly. He enacted 17 executive orders his first day and 42 more in the first one hundred days — the most by a president since Harry Truman. Largely they were to overturn anything Trump had done because everything he did was perceived as evil by nature. Except for the tariffs. Biden and his economic team badmouthed the tariffs but could not quit the estimated $80 billion in revenue they brought in every year. After all, Biden had big — very big — spending plans. They began… Read More

I begin this post by asking you to google and read the article on the web site of the Foundation for Economic Education called “Not Yours to Give.” It tells the story of Davy Crockett’s speech in Congress against aid for fire victims in the 1830s. Some have said it’s a made up story and not applicable in today’s world, but it was written in the 1880s, so it definitely was not influenced by today’s events. I read it when I joined the Legislature, and it helped me look at government spending in a new way. Based on the view, I came up with one of my rules of politics, that is, there is always a good excuse for bigger government.

But let’s get back to the point of this post, what should happen with federal aid to California for the fire disaster in Los Angeles? Who should pay for the damage? I will note that Governor Newsom has proposed that California allocate $2.5 billion to pay for the damage done by the fire, but that is not enough. Who should pay for the rest?

President Trump has proposed that the aid from the Federal Government be tied to new land management policies that minimize the damage that fires can… Read More

In May of 2003, I had a town hall meeting in the San Diego part of my district. At the end of the meeting, a park ranger from Anza Borrego came up to me and said “we have a problem, the fuel load in our state parks has reached dangerous levels.” After a discussion about what he meant, he said that the then Gray Davis administration appointees to the Department of State Parks would not allow the rangers (and others) clean up the parks to remove dead trees, vegetation and other flammables. He said “we are going to have a fire of epic proportions. People will be hurt and property will be damaged by the resulting fires.”

In September of 2003, a fire, bigger than the one in Los Angeles, hit Southern California, closing down Interstate 5 and 15 in San Diego, Interstate 15 in San Bernardino County, the Ontario Airport, and burning hundreds of homes in the more rural parts of San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. The only difference between the fire then, and the fire in Los Angeles now, is that the 2003 fire did not burn celebrities homes, so it wasn’t national news.

So why the title of this article, what does that… Read More

We elect leadersto keep our taxpayer-funded public utilities, roads, and related essential services running smoothly—and certainly not take action to prevent these functions.Yet, this once-proud state cannot even maintain its basic infrastructure. Fire hydrants mysteriously have no water during wildfires. Fire department budgets were slashed and funding reallocated. The electric grid cannot handle year-round demand. And now, thanks to burdensome, short-sighted regulations brought upon residents and businesses by its leadership, actual garbage is piling up with no practical disposal plan.

Perhaps public frustration regarding the crumbling amenities we expect to function well in a civilized society is partially responsible for people and businesses fleeing California for more stable states.

Inyetanotherinstanceof incomprehensibly poorpublic policy decisions, California and Los Angeles’governments have forced one of the biggest landfills in L.A.,Chiquita Canyon,to cease operations.Now, in the wake of devastating fires, the City will unexpectedly need to clear and… Read More

Cruising to Antarctica When we told people we were going to Antarctica they had some basic questions. Why is a guy who drives around with his top down all year and prefers 75 degrees and sunny going to a frozen zone? Better yet why are two people who have traveled all over the world but “don’t do” cruises going on a cruise? Well, there is really no other way to get there. This was the Beautiful Wife’s choice, so off we went. Antarctica was our final continent of the seven. It is one of the most remote parts of the planet. The Arctic is considered an ocean rather than a land mass; thus, it is not a continent. Surprisingly, Antarctica is the continent with the highest average altitude at 2,500 meters. You don’t think of it that way because the only real way to get there is by ship. Some cruises have recently started offering flights to Antarctica then boarding a ship. When you get onto land you think you are at sea level, but you are typically at about 8,000 feet. Considering the stories one hears about travel today, we were very blessed getting to our destination. We took two flights to Santiago, Chile, though we had a nonstop home. We… Read More

Orange County Classical Academy shines as a tuition-free educational alternative for OC families.

At a time when families across the state are struggling to find a satisfactory solution for the education of their children, a new, nationally popular alternative – classical education – has arrived in Orange County, California: Orange County Classical Academy. OCCA is a tuition-free public classical charter school that has, despite being only in its fifth year, grown to regularly attract a waiting list of over 1000 students, while garnering attention for its impressive student outcomes as a California Distinguished school. The irony is that OCCA’s “secret” is that it prioritizes virtue and the classical wisdom tradition over everything else.

At OCCA we understand what every parent knows in their heart, that their student’s future… Read More

Can you believe the people he is picking to be in his cabinet? There are so many billionaires. They have not worked for the departments or agencies for which they could possibly helm. Do they even have a college education? And if they have a college education, did they go to the right schools? Have you even heard of some of these colleges? Barbarians are storming us. He thinks they are going to overhaul the departments that they are appointed to oversee. How are they going to do that without having worked in them for years and have known all the players? You know if they are outsiders the people who run these departments will not listen to them and neither should they. They don’t understand how things operate in Washington. Can you believe this Musk guy wants to cut two trillion dollars out of the budget? He can’t do that. And he wants to demand that government employees work from their government offices instead of home. He is going to ruin their lives. If they make cuts, then my state will not get its promised allocation of funds. How will we exist? “I talked to and argued with groups from academia, from the media, from the financial… Read More

The beauty contest for whom to name the person of the year is always open to debate. Time Magazine, the most prominent publication to bestow this honor, named Donald Trump. Certainly, he is a logical and reasonable choice. Another might be Mr. Trump’s newest sidekick, Elon Musk, who could be chosen for many reasons including his energizing the Trump campaign to a new level. I have a different choice, and I feel quite confident mine is the best choice. That person is Daniel Penny. On May 1, 2023, Daniel Penny was taking the New York subway like he often did at that time in his life. He was a 24-year-old man who had already spent four years in the United States Marines which he left in good standing. He was currently seeking a degree in architecture from the New York City College of Technology. He was living in an apartment in the East Village section of New York City. He had two jobs — teaching swimming lessons at a gym and working at a restaurant in Brooklyn. When he entered the subway, he assumed his day would go along normally without anything more than the typical challenges of traversing New York City in 2023. Then a man who he later… Read More