Category: Conservative

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Why excessive regulation is a bad thing.

We’ve all experienced them one way or another.

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Regulations

You know those natty little issues that prevent you for pursuing happiness YOUR WAY.

Obviously, some regulations are good. I personally think it’s a great thing that in general folks aren’t allowed to store their excrement in a big pile in the back yard.

In this extreme example, it really is about public health and safety.

But what happens when the regulations become so all encompassing and pervasive that they retard innovation and growth?

Then you have California…

…where the light at the end of the tunnel is actually an oncoming train of smothering laws… all implemented “For the public good“.

Here are some short examples of regulation gone wild.

Gas Prices

California gas prices recently made national news because they were the highest in the nation. Heck they even beat Hawaii!

How is that possible? Hawaii is an island in the middle of the Pacific and has to import everything by ship. WTF?

Well the simplest answer is that California has regulations that make it different from all the other states in the country. California is not unique in this, there are a number of states that have “Boutique” gas blends they’re also in as risky a position as California.

California gas is “special” due to AQMD regulations, EPA, and no doubt tons of extraneous laws that help to drive the legal system. For the sake of  argument California Gas is refined only in California therefore making it sole sourced.

That’s the problem with insisting on being different and then tying your wagon to a single source of anything. I’d bet that since the auto industry has pretty much standardized on emission control devices… these “boutique blends” are relics of a time long past and no longer necessary.

VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds)

Have you tried to find a small mom & pop independent auto body shop lately? Guess what? There are a lot fewer of them in California than there once were. Why? because regulations came into effect that forced these folk to either work with paints that are a lot more delicate and far more difficult to apply or get out of the body shop business.

I wonder, how many small independent shops have closed since the VOC regulations took effect? How many people ended up unemployed? How many people took their businesses and tax revenue out of the state?

This affects everyone here in California, because excessive regulation has limited competition. A door scrape that used to cost $125 to fix, now costs $550. Why?

Because in addition to there being less competition you now have to sand and repaint the ENTIRE Door, not just the area surrounding the scrape.

It seems you can’t mix water based paints with oil based paints (No Shit Sherlock) and since many auto manufacturers are still using oil based paints to initially paint their vehicles YOU,  the consumer get stuck with higher repair bills. That translates to higher insurance costs too.

Independent Offset Printers, have exactly the same problem. There was an article in the Orange County register that discussed a business owner who moved to Nevada. He was able to assist his employees in the move, and was also able to provide them with fully paid healthcare due to savings he realized once he was out of California. By the way… The business owner was still able to make a profit because is was after all an evil capitalistic pig.

The funniest part of it was that his company had switched over to inks that were water based and he only very rarely used anything with any kind of VOC.

Like most of us would, when the quality of water based inks was equal to the older VOC based inks he switched.

It was better for him, his employees, his equipment, and made for a more pleasant working environment. 

However,  because he was an offset printer in California he still had to pay all the fees as if he was using the older inks.

Even if he never used anything containing a VOC again and turned away some jobs, His designation as an Offset Printer demanded that he paid for the privilege of running his business.

Essentially, this small business owner was regulated right out of the state.

Building Codes

I’ve touched on building codes several times in this blog. I agree fundamentally that a certain level of building regulation is a good thing. After all you do want your house falling apart in a few years?

OH Wait… My house IS falling apart after just a few years… and it passed all the inspections. 

Honestly, I’d have rather had the building code less concerned with how many damn lights were in the ceiling and MORE concerned with the materials in the house and the way those materials were being used. That’s another story entirely, so I’m not going into it here.

Just as an aside… If you’re looking at buying a house in California, buy something that’s older. The quality is going to be better and you’ll get to duck a lot of the stupid regulations unless of course you decide to remodel. Word to the wise… DON’T REMODEL.

My original house built in 1992 was far superior to my rebuilt house built in 2009. I’m reminded of that each and every Winter as I freeze my ass off.

Automobiles

This is one of those things that I simply can’t wrap my head around.

California has different regulations for cars. There are bolt on improvements today, that can make your car run more efficiently. I’m not talking about some lame ass “As seen on TV” hunk of junk. I’m talking about manufacturer approved modifications.

Take my car for example… I could change the air intakes, add a larger oil cooler, change the exhaust (Keeping the catalytic converter mind you) and increase my horsepower by 10HP. That translates to the engine running more efficiently and increases my MPG by a minimum of 2 MPG, estimates are it would be closer to 5MPG. That’s not even changing the computer programs that control the engine.

All of those modifications are illegal in California

Why? Because the California regulators haven’t been paid to test and approve these modifications and therefore these modifications are by definition bad.

I’d push my base EPA milage to 30MPG, Save money, the environment, and use less fuel. How the hell is that BAD?

I could go get these improvements in neighboring states. But then I’d risk the possibility that when I needed to get smog certificates and other California regulatory inspections I’d have to put everything back to “Factory” (read California inefficiency) specifications.

It’s probably easier to just move to a state that doesn’t have the same restrictive regulations.

Apparently the SmartCar gets something close to 100MPG in Europe.

Here in the United States, it gets a paltry 38MPG Why is that???

Regulations! In this case it’s probably something to do with protectionism of the American auto industry. But that kind of regulation flies directly in the face of good ‘ol capitalism.

Isn’t it supposed to be that the guy who builds a better mouse trap gets more business? And by building the better mouse trap, the guys competition begins to innovate and in their turn build an even better mousetrap?

In the age of over regulation that doesn’t happen. If your’e in a protectionist market why compete or innovate?

Then you have Proposition 39

The California legislature has realized that businesses are in fact leaving, and putting their manufacturing in other states. The California Lawmakers in a tacit acknowledgement of this fact have decided to add yet more regulation to the companies who have already moved the majority of their businesses out of the state.

I can’t seem to locate the actual text of proposition 39. Here is the closest link I could find.

This proposition is about imposing taxes on companies for the privilege of having any of their corporation based in California.

WTF???

I can pretty much guarantee that companies affected by this proposition if it’s approved, will move the rest of their corporate holdings out of the state and with them go untold numbers of jobs.

This is how a regulatory mentality destroys an economy. The people making the regulations just don’t get cause and effect.

As I’ve watched California over the past 30 years, there has been a definite trend towards a more controlling state government.

I find now that I can’t really blame businesses for leaving places that are excessively regulated, highly taxed, and whose infrastructure is crumbling.

Proposition 39 is a prime example of what’s wrong with our state and what may be wrong on a broader national basis.

Instead of reviewing the underlying reasoning behind why corporations chose to shutter their operations here  and then addressing those factors. Our politicians are saying they’re going to “Close the tax loopholes” (Crapspeak) and impose taxes on corporations that still maintain a presence in California.

I think I see myself moving out of California in the very near future.

Hey, you have to go where the jobs are…

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Again???!

The news out of Benghazi is that yet another American has lost his life to ISLAM!

Yes, I fucking said it. 

ISLAM

I don’t care how “Peaceful” the educated followers of Islam claim their religion is. The actual man in the street practitioners of this “Peaceful” religion are anything but seekers of God, Wisdom, Understanding, or Peace.

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These “average people” are a rabble… a mob… whose so called “Peaceful” beliefs are tossed to the wind for any perceived slight.

In this case a movie called “The Innocence of Muslims” that was perceived as (and frankly is), an overt insult to Islam.

There’s no way around it, the clips on YouTube are really bad, if you’re interested go take a look. This is however an expression of Freedom of speech no matter how bad the acting or the content.

Sadly this movie has been blamed for the burning of an Embassy, the murder of an Ambassador and 3 other staff members… Violence in Egypt, OH and by the way a declaration of war on the United States.

Yeah, In Old School terms… the murder of any countries Ambassador was considered a declaration of war against that country.

As it turns out, reports from other sources are saying that the protests and violence were days in the making and the movie angle is nothing more than an excuse to go do shit that true believers in God know better than to do.

So I assume this means a state of war exists between Libya and the United States. Regardless of our current diplomatic ties? It this why the current president of Libya is shitting himself trying to round up the perpetrators?

Or more properly does a state of war exist between Islam and the United States?

If that’s the case then I suppose it’s time to deport every single follower of Islam, or we could fire up Manzinar again, just interring the Islam folks until the end of hostilities. Or we could simply start killing the warriors of Islam wherever and whenever we find them. If that means firebombing entire cities and villages so be it. These people only seem to understand terrorism… Lets show them terrorism done right!

God! That’s not at all a nice picture is it? It’s sure as hell not something I’m comfortable with.

I should point out many of the followers of Islam would think this would be a great fucking idea if they could do it to the infidel Western Countries.

So what’s the alternative?

Sanctions? Don’t fucking work.

Condemnation? The mob doesn’t give a shit. These people blow themselves up to prove a point.

War? Wouldn’t work, also that option would probably end up in genocide and none of the civilized world wants that.

Education? Nope, the funds just get channeled into a madras that preaches radical Islam with a side order of terrorism against the West.

Aid? Nope, the money goes to a madras, and the food gets sent only to the males in the madrases or the army so that essentially we’re feeding our enemies and making them stronger to attack us.

How about this?

Terminate all relations, No aid, No Embassies, No Visas, No Students, No immigrants, No purchases, No Anything.

We currently don’t import that much Libyan oil (at least as of 2010). So while there’s no denying it would hurt us a bit… We could do without them.

We would be harder pressed to ween ourselves off the rest of our dependance on the Islamic Middle East.

Although, according to the US Energy Information Administration we’re only importing 14% of our crude oil from Saudi Arabia. Overall in 2011 we imported approximately 22% of our crude from the Persian Gulf.

Most of our oil comes from the Western Hemisphere. (52%) We do have the natty little problem of the 20% comes from Africa which is becoming more Islamic all the time. 

My point is that if we decided not to deal with Islamic nations and I mean any Islamic nations we would also demonstrate that we’re not interested in their politics or anything else, other than them and their religion leaving us the hell alone.

Granted the Chinese and EU will easily make up the difference in oil consumption so the financial impact of the US positioning itself to do without Middle Eastern oil would be negligible, but then it’s the Chinese and the EUs responsibility to stabilize the region NOT US.

Fighting Islam is a no-win proposition. The only choice that seems remotely viable is to remove ourselves from the equation.

Imagine the savings. No more military spending to stabilize some shit hole country that hates us anyway. No more food shipments, we turn that excess corn into methanol. No more money wasted educating the next generations of terrorists.

I’ve said this before. Personally I’d be a lot happier if our technology wasn’t being shared via higher education with every hostile foreign nations children. That’s a mistake we have historical precedence to avoid. (See Arminius, or the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. )

It’s pretty accepted that Arminius was educated in Rome, become a Roman commander and citizen and then used his knowledge of Roman tactics against ROME. It’s a pity we so often refuse to learn from history.

In my opinion, educating the children of your enemies is planting seeds to your own destruction.

If we as a country plowed all that saved cash and resource back into our own educational system and really concentrated on our own people we could probably come up with a safe alternate energy technology in short order, so that we wouldn’t need crude oil for fuel. (I think we’ll likely be using oil for plastics and lubricants well into the foreseeable future.)

That would be the best way to win the battle. Render Islamic voices irrelevant by utterly destroying their economic hold on the world.

It’s time for us to stop trying to reason with Islamic nations. We shouldn’t be trying to bring them into the 21st century and we sure as hell shouldn’t be supporting them in any way. We should leave them all to their 15th century beliefs and leave them to live or die as they wish… 

…By the will of Allah.

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Was reading my 9/11 blog from last year… Not much has changed.

Really as I think about it, not much has changed at all.

Our politicians are as ineffective and self absorbed as ever. 

We still are at war.

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That progress is in “Winning Hearts & minds”American lives are still being lost. Although according to some people, progress is being made in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

Perhaps…

I’m not convinced that our troops or politicians are seeing anything more than the smiling mask of duplicity.

Culturally the peoples of Afghanistan and Iraq are so far from us I question whether they see our form of government or the reasons we are in their countries as any “Better” than we see theirs.

Most Americans can’t conceive of a life without running water, indoor plumbing, the 24 hour news cycle, and electricity 24 / 7. I’m not even going to try to discuss what an American would think about not having a telephone, 500 channels of Cable TV, or internet.

How many Americans could accept Total Religious control of their lives?

Can you see someone telling an American that they couldn’t listen to “The Who” or Elvis, or “Nine Inch Nails”.

How about not being able to see a movie because that movie contained music from one of the “Forbidden Bands”?

Women of afghanistan

Can you see an American woman submitting to wearing a garment that allowed them to show only their eyes? How about being whipped with a switch or slapped in the face because she mouthed off to her husband?

Can you imagine what an American woman would do to someone that said “Get in the kitchen bitch and make my dinner“? I guess there are some women here that would take that. But the majority wouldn’t.

I shudder to think what my Mother would do.

If you look at our culture from the perspective of the folks in Afghanistan or Iraq what would you see?

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A culture of excess, with too many religions, most perceived as polytheistic idolaters?

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Women and children allowed to running amok because they’re not allowed to be disciplined?

How about a place were the temptations to sin are so prevalent that even the most pious cannot avoid sinning?

I think we’re, at best winning cooperation in hopes that soon we’ll be gone and things in their countries can return to normal.I don’t think we’re winning hearts & minds…

It doesn’t matter to these people if America, the Taliban, or al-Qaeda are winning, or even in control.

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The only thing that matters is cash. One of these players paying the bills is good, two or all three pumping money into their country is fanfuckingtastic! 

We have made previously poor tribal leaders wealthy. I believe that as soon as we leave, “Normal” will mean those leaders purchasing  the best weapons they can afford and settling old scores.

The tribal leader from the next valley over who used to demand unfair tribute will suddenly end up looking up the barrel of a brand new AK-47 while his daughters are being raped. Then he’ll meet Allah.

No matter what, when we leave these countries will return to the “Old Order… The one that’s about the point of a sword”.

So why not leave now? Get it over with, let them settle old scores and when the dust clears whatever is left of al-Qaeda or the Taliban we can take out with a few well placed daisy cutters. 

It sounds brutal and cold.

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But it’s a cost effective solution.

Yeah, I guess I’m still hostile. Last year I asked the question “How do we move forward?”

I think the answer is getting the fuck out of those shit hole countries and leaving them to their own devices. I guess I’m just sick of hearing about the latest fucked up bombing or shooting carried out by a “Friendly”.

“Friendly” is a matter of who’s paying better.

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While I’m not meaning to defend the wealthy… I have to ask.

Lately, there have been tonFeng shui wealths of politicians and Über Liberals doing a lot of talking about the Wealthy.

I really don’t get it on a number of levels.

1) Why is it wrong to single out certain Other groups for special treatment or discussion but not the wealthy?

2) Why do politicians or the general populace think it’s OK to levy higher taxes on this small group?  (Sounds like discrimination to me. You’d never get away with it if instead of wealthy you said Muslims, or Mexicans. )

3) What happened to that concept of “Equally distributing the burden“? Why is it apparently OK to force the wealthy to pay more?

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Don’t get me wrong, the wealthy have done nothing to warrant my love or concern. Like most Americans I’ve suffered, and continue to suffer at their hands.

Here are some examples the Politicians and Occupy Whatever cite. You’ll get no argument from me about the abuses. Although most politicians avoid the H1B1 issue. Democratic politicians usually won’t comment on Offshoring but some Republicans and the Teaparty will.

Offshoring / Downsizing / H1B1 Abuses (It’s bullshit to import someone from India or offshore when you’ve got unemployed American workers with the same training and who speak, read, write the language well & who understand the culture. The ONLY difference between the H1B1 Visa worker / Offshore workers, and the American worker is that the H1B1 worker will work like a slave, kiss ass, suck cock, and generally do ANYTHING to bolster his bosses ego to stay in this country or keep their jobs. Including but not limited to implementing “Solutions” that are wrong on their face, just because they’re too scared of deportation or being fired to point out that the proposed “Solution” isn’t going to work. I can’t count how many millions I’ve personally seen wasted this way)

Oil prices (Lets be real here… The wind blowing from the West doesn’t justify a speculative panic that drives up crude prices.)

Banking abuses / Bad Mortgages / Housing implosion

Pension / 401k devaluation

However, as abusive of the system and people as the wealthy are, (THIS INCLUDES HOLLYWOOD ACTORS AND The KARDASHIANS), it’s still no reason to single them out for special taxation.

Let’s look at the pure math of the situation.

If I make $95,000 and I pay 20% in taxes then I pay $19,000

If a wealthy person makes $250,000 and pays 20% in taxes they pay $50,000 

SO obviously the wealthy are already paying more into the system.

Isn’t it unfair to say the wealthy have to pay 40%? Isn’t that just pure greed on the part of the politicians?

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I know that the poor would pitch a bitch fit if THEY were called upon to pay higher taxes. This would be especially true if someone constructed a case that went something like this.

The poor are more of a burden on the society. They require more government services, offices, and assistance. The poor also require a disproportionate level of emergency medical care per capita. Therefore the tax on all people below the poverty line will be 25% in an effort to cover their disproportionate burden on the society at large.

Of course you could make the same case for the elderly paying higher taxes too.

Can you even imagine? There’d be riots in the streets. The elderly from the old folks homes would be tossing molotov cocktails from their motorized chairs and golf carts.

“Harold… Harold… stop the cart! I just tossed my catheter bag at that Bentley! We’ve got to go back those things are $15 a piece.”

“Aww screw it Betty just hang the hose at the side of the cart, you can piss on Beverly Hills as we head back to the home! Now throw the burning bottle at the Kardashian house!”

We see the obvious wrongness of disproportionately taxing the poor or the elderly.

Why is it that we choose not to see that same unfairness in disproportionately taxing the wealthy? (I could however get behind a “SPECIAL” tax on the big mouths in the entertainment industry.)

There are those that would rightly point out, the wealthy often use all kinds of tricks to avoid paying their full measure of taxes.

While this is entirely true, I have to ask how many of us look for those same exact loopholes and deductions? The difference is the wealthy simply have better accountants and lawyers.

I’ve long wanted a simple flat tax. I think that would stop the wealthy, politicians, industry, & everyone else from playing games.

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Here’s my wish list for tax reform.

15% flat tax across the board right off the top for everyone! No exceptions!

No more IRS filing, No more April 15th, No more IRS at all.

I’ve thought that if we eliminated the IRS and stopped changing tax laws yearly the country could save a fortune in office supplies alone. We’d also save money because Congress wouldn’t be debating new tax codes and would get on with other business.

There would of course be corporations who might require additional assistance calculating their tax burden but I suspect that the Government Accounting Office could handle those audits.

If you’re unemployed, you get to raid your 401k or pension with NO penalties and tax free. Raiding your retirement is NEVER a good idea, but if it keeps you from becoming a burden or loosing your house you shouldn’t be penalized for doing it.

We should make sure that our Government felt the pinch of a poor economy just as keenly as the people.

Since the politicians salaries are funded from tax dollars, their salaries should be indexed to the GDP, Government Debt, and Stock Market.

As it is now, they get paid either way. Why not change their pay structure to give them some incentive?

Make it something like As the GDP and stock markets fall, and Debt increases the salaries for our politicians decline proportionately. Hopefully something like that would focus our politicians attention on actually tending to the country instead of grandstanding and not working together.

If you wrote the equation as simply as possible you could have the politicians seeing their salaries increase and decrease directly coupled to the financial heartbeat of the country.

It’s possible that the politicians could even see negative cash-flow, meaning that in addition to the FLAT tax they and everyone else pay, politicians could conceivably have to write a check and pay for the privilege of really crappy governance.

I bet, we’d see fewer dishonest politicians and more that were genuinely interested in the country doing well under this kind of pay schedule.

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I know that my wish list will never be fulfilled. I also realize that some of my ideas aren’t possible and are too simplistic.

I do think that every single one of us, rich, poor, or middle class realizes it’s time for some serious changes to the way our government collects and uses money.

I don’t think that setting a special tax rate for a specific group of people is the right or fair way to go.

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Texas Voter ID Poo Pooed by the Supreme Court

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I’m not sure that I get this.

Texas, wants to reduce voter fraud so they reduce the valid forms of ID down to 5.

No longer can you bring a utility bill to prove you’re authorized to vote. It looks like Texas wanted the ID to be something with a photo. Something like a Drivers License, State Issued ID card, Passport, you know something that was state issued and verifiable.

Instead the Court found that requiring a tangible form of ID was too arduous and unfairly targeted certain segments of the population, in particular the poor who could not afford to obtain ID. What?????

$26 to obtain ID in California. Of course California has a reduced fee ID for $7. Are you fucking kidding me?

Why not make every ID cost $7 and then you wouldn’t be discriminating against the middle class? Oh RIGHT… The middle class gets to pay full pop for everything and they also get to pay via taxes for the reduced fee folks too.

Assuming that California is one of the most expensive states to get an ID then how the hell is it possible for “The Poor” in Texas to NOT be able to afford proper ID which everyone is supposed to produce upon request. 

I’m confused as hell. 

Why is it “Racist” or somehow economic discrimination to ask for a piece of identity documentation? Does this mean that I’m no longer required to carry ID? can I shred my passport? Can I call someone racist if they ask me for one of those documents?

How about this…

On those lovely little forms that new employers make you fill out where you have to produce 2 forms of ID or your passport to prove that you’re eligible to work in the US… can I now legitimately refuse to produce any of these forms of ID on the grounds that it’s clearly discriminatory? I somehow doubt it.

I thought that voting was a privilege reserved for citizens. If that’s still true then providing documentation about identity is  simply the price for admission to the voting place.  For goodness sake you have to show a ticket to get into a theater. Why is something as important as voting treated with less respect?

Moreover, why didn’t the Supreme Court see it this way?