Maggie's Farm

"VDH: The Other California"

Good article by Mr. Hanson. As a native Northern Californian, I can relate. Because San Fran was originally a 'boom town' resulting from the Gold Rush and its ties to the Mother Lode in the Sierra Madre, we always felt a connection to the valley towns. You get the decided feeling, however, that Southern Californians could give a shit. Every year since something like 1879 someone in the CA legislature has proposed a bill to cut the state in half, if not thirds. Always sounded good to me. Cut the state in half, move the asshat liberals in Sackamenna down to L.A. and make Stockton the new capital of the north.

"The Great Global Warming Fizzle"

I sent this link to BD yesterday. I thought it was one of the best anti-AGW articles I'd read in quite a while. Even living in Hurricane Heaven I didn't know this:


And even the ones we've had recently, like Irene and Don, were cupcakes by hurricane standards. Both totally fizzled when they hit land and became nothing more than tropical storms. The only reason Irene caused $9b in damage was simply because they were inadequately prepared for big rains. If Irene had blown through southern Florida, nobody would have blinked an eye. A tropical storm in the tropics? How unexpected!

I noticed the same thing. After going through four hurricanes the first year I was here, I was real 'up' on hurricane specs. When Cupcake Irene came along, one article would be calling it a Cat 3 ("gusts"), the next would say it was bordering on a tropical storm ("sustained"). Good reporting there, MSM.

As far as this goes:

"Certainly was curious."

Whenever I see something that's 'curious'; that is, defies common sense or convention, I always look to the Big Three; Power, Money and Sex as the prime motivator. In this case, best guess says they wanted to call Irene a Cat 3 to provide more substantiation for the AGW crowd. If we dug up the "Irene Proves Global Warming Exists!" articles that came out afterward, I imagine they all refer to it as a Cat 3, even providing citation by linking to the MSM articles that labeled it so.

I know this sounds crazy, Tom, but it's almost as if science is somehow being connected to politics, but obviously that can't be true. How curious!

Mike - Well, I like the idea of cutting the state in half if only to disassociate the 'real' California from the fake L.A. scene, but on the other hand I'd hate to give up being the equivalent of the 7th largest nation in the world when it comes to GDP. Mighty fine feather in one's cap, one must admit. And that's not to mention having the most electoral votes and most delegates in Congress -- which is probably why the thing has never been broken up. Nobody gives up that kind of power voluntarily.

But as far as this goes:

"If the rest of you could only understand how bad things are in California..."

I gather you're new to Maggie's? This site has a long and honorable history of pointing out every tiny flaw in the Golden State that makes the news, and whenever Bird Dog slips up and doesn't link to one for a few days, I feel kind of lonely and left out. So this crowd is about as 'up' on the latest CA dirt as any site in the universe.

The reasons for this honorable tradition are twofold:

1. Sheer, raw, unabated jealousy

2. The tradition was started by News Junkie, who used to do the morning links, and he's a New Yorker, which means he's been taught from birth to hate California because:

A. We stole the Dodgers from them in 1957
B. We passed them as the most populated state in the early 60's.

And that'd be enough to gall anybody.

So have no fear, good friend. If you want some of that good old-fashioned, down-home California bashing, you've come to the right place!

Mike - I knew you were an old regular, I just felt like tweaking you for the comment. Loved the 'Revered' part, capital 'R' and all. :)

The one fun difference between the Sunshine State and the Golden State, politically, is that we're an official 'swing state' so people pay lots of attention to us. I was just now reading an article about Florida on Hot Air that noted (as all articles do) that Obama "can't afford to lose Florida", whereas you don't hear anyone saying that about CA. Although Obama took FL in 2008, you'd have to search every crick and holler to find an Obama supporter outside of the big cities.

ProTip:

"yo hablo d'espanol"

Hold down the left Alt key, then punch in '0241' on the numeric keypad over to the right, then release the Alt key:

"yo hablo d'español"

¿Perfecto, no?