Misdirected Idealism

The world is (and shall remain) as it is, not as we would wish it to be.

Kirsten Brydum, long time Food Not Bombs volunteer and SF Really Really Free Market organizer, was found dead this past Saturday in New Orleans. According to reports she was shot several times in the head.

Kirsten’s death comes on the heels of another tragedy for the activist community, the rape and murder of Eugene Food Not Bombs volunteer Marcella “Sali” Grace in Oaxaca Mexico.

Read it all here. Sad. Especially sad that these two lives were lost for nothing.

The Point of No Return?

Whites in state 'below the replacement' level

Justin Berton, Chronicle Staff Writer

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/05/MNSG1DQ1BL.DTL#ixzz0q5i8mcyV

Third-World Status is Now Unavoidable -- then we're well and truly fucked.

When I last lived in CA in the mid 90s, we had a neighbor who slaughtered goats in his front-yard (via throat-slitting) and barbecued them on a spit in the middle of his lawn. Is that what we have to look forward to?

Low-tax Texas Beats Big-Government California

(AP)

"Stop messing with Texas!" That was the message Gov. Rick Perry bellowed on election night as he celebrated his victory over Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary for governor. In his reference to Texas' anti-littering slogan, Perry was making a point applicable to national as well as Texas politics and addressed to Democratic politicians as well as Republicans.

His point was that the big-government policies of the Obama administration and Democratic congressional leaders are resented and fiercely opposed not just because of their dire fiscal effects but also as an intrusion on voters' independence and ability to make decisions for themselves.

No one would include Perry on a list of serious presidential candidates, including himself, even in the flush of victory. But in his 10 years as governor, the longest in the state's history, Texas has been teaching some lessons to which the rest of the nation should pay heed.

They are lessons that are particularly vivid when you contrast Texas, the nation's second most populous state, with the most populous, California.

Read the whole thing here.

9,500 Shuttered Stores In Sacramento Area

Before taking a closeup look at Sacramento, please consider a snapshot of commercial real estate in general. MarketWatch is reporting that commercial mortgage failures threaten system:

Over the next few years, a wave of commercial real-estate loan failures could threaten America's financial system, and in the worst case scenario, hundreds of additional community and midsize banks could face insolvency, a congressional watchdog group said Thursday.

According to a report by the Congressional Oversight Panel, a watchdog group for a $700 billion bank-bailout package, about $1.4 trillion in commercial real-estate loans will reach the end of their terms between 2010 and 2014, of which nearly half are now under water (that is, the borrower owes more than the underlying property is currently worth).

The report added that losses from commercial loans could range as high as $200 billion to $300 billion.

As a result, it said, banks that suffer from the losses or are discouraged by the economic future could become even more reluctant to lend, which could reduce access to credit for more businesses and families, accelerating a negative economic cycle.

"The Congressional Oversight Panel is deeply concerned that commercial loan losses could jeopardize the stability of many banks, particularly the nation's midsize and smaller banks, and that as the damage spreads beyond individual banks, that it will contribute to prolonged weakness throughout the economy," said the report, which was approved unanimously by the five-member COP.

Commercial real estate woes are everywhere you look, but Sacramento, California is ground zero of the ongoing bust. It will take years if not a decade to fill vacant businesses in greater Sacramento.

Paying for "Protection"

Tracy Residents Now Have To Pay For 911 Calls

Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.

See the video here.

I would almost certainly receive more value for my money if I was being shaken-down by the Mob via the protection racket.

Yep -- Just Another Data-Point

I used to pass through this area at least twice per work-day.

My sister still lives within 2 miles of here -- fortunately up-hill into the nicer part of Oaktown.



Very nice to see an old guy who, after apparently attempting to de-escalate by moving as far away as he could, is seen to dish-out a righteous and highly educational beat-down to a low-class jerk.

California = Greece

To think that Greece's troubles are an ocean and a sea away from where we stand in North America is to have your head in the Mediterranean sand. In Greece we have

• a near bankrupt, over-indebted, overspending nanny state, drowning in future liabilities;

• where civil servants are pampered and overpaid;

• in which unions are demanding a continuation of their inflated wages and entitlements; and
  

• productive individuals and businesses are leaving for more favorable climes.

Where have we heard all this before? Ah yes: California.

from American Thinker -- read it all here.

Another Gang Rape of Teenager in Calif. Community

Same Old Song -- Different Day

Saturday, January 16, 2010

RICHMOND, Calif. — Police in a city still coping with the recent gang rape of a teenager are reporting that another girl has been sexually assaulted by a group.

Richmond police Sgt. Bisa French said four males in a black Buick approached a 15-year-old girl around 5 p.m. Friday.

One suspect with a gun forced her into the car after she ignored them.

French said they drove around for several hours before stopping at an unknown location, where two of them raped her.

A police officer found her around midnight miles from the kidnapping spot.

French said police have few leads on the suspects, who were in their late teens to early 20s.

Earlier Friday, Richmond police announced a search for a seventh suspect in the October gang rape of a 16-year-old girl outside a homecoming dance.

Nothing here is gonna change until the remaining civilized people in CA society resume the function of the Vigilance Committees. It's far too late for the Neighborhood Watches to do any good.

Fiscal liberalism has tarnished California gold

By George F. Will -- Sunday, January 10, 2010

Dalton Trumbo (1905-76) was a hero to the American left, partly because of his 1939 antiwar novel "Johnny Got His Gun." Trumbo's title modified the lyric "Johnny, get your gun" from the World War I song "Over There." Trumbo's "Johnny" is horribly maimed in that war. Now we need a novel titled "Berkeley Got Its Liberalism." Pending that, we have Tad Friend's report, in the Jan. 4 New Yorker, on maimed Berkeley.

Read all of George Will's article here.

The abstract of the New Yorker article is here -- the full article is behind a paywall, but Will's article gives you all that you really need to know.