Monthly Archives: October 2008

Those funny Californians

Posted on by
1

I really hope San Francisco passes Proposition H. It would would amend the city charter to require that San Francisco get 51% of its electricity from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar by 2017, 75% by 2030 and 100% by 2040.

This is absolute silliness and therefore I hope it passes so the silliness plays out in the real world. California is supposed ot get 20% of its electricity from renewables by 2010, but they aren’t going to make that target. So instead of setting achievable targets San Fran wants to triple down an set a target that is utterly unachievable.

Go for it  San Francisco! Increase electricity prices. Screw the poor and middle class.

Did I mention that California already ranks 48th in unemployment? This isn’t a surprise. It is a consequence of all of the silly laws in California that increase the cost of doing business there. Please California keep showing us how not to ruin an economy.

How to read the Constitution

Posted on by
Reply

Someday I need to meet Justice Clarence Thomas. I frequently see his wife in meetings, but I’ve met him. It’s too bad because he is my favorite Supreme Court Justice. His writing isn’t as entertaining as Scalia’s, but Thomas never compromises his views. Here’s Thomas on how to read the Constitution:

Let me put it this way; there are really only two ways to interpret the Constitution — try to discern as best we can what the framers intended or make it up. No matter how ingenious, imaginative or artfully put, unless interpretive methodologies are tied to the original intent of the framers, they have no more basis in the Constitution than the latest football scores. To be sure, even the most conscientious effort to adhere to the original intent of the framers of our Constitution is flawed, as all methodologies and human institutions are; but at least originalism has the advantage of being legitimate and, I might add, impartial.

I wish more people understood this. If you want to change policy, the correct way to do so is through the legislature. If you want to legalize gay marriage, or abortion, or whatever, the legisature or the people should approve those changes through the legislative or referendum process-not by getting judges to make stuff up.

The Futility of the Baltimore Police Department

Posted on by
Reply

On Saturday, my wife and I went to a wedding in Baltimore. We parked across the street from the Basilica, just a few blocks from the Inner Harbor. When we got back to our car, we found the following card on our windshield, compliments of the Baltimore Police Department:

For me, this flyer had had two messages:

  1. Baltimore is a dangerous city–even a few blocks from the most poplar part of the city.
  2. The Baltimore Police Department is powerless to do anything about it–hence the flyer.

I’m sure that’s not the message Baltimore wants to send, but it is the obvious message from the flyers.