Soon after my first election to the Assembly in 1992, I was frustrated and lost. I felt like my activity in the Legislature was an exercise in futility. I had great ideas for change (or at least I thought they were great ideas), but I soon discovered that the Legislative Committees were structured for the specific purpose of killing popular ideas that did not serve the interests of the Democrat majority in the Legislature. Bills to put bad guys in jail? Poof, dead in a lopsided Democrat majority in the ironically named “Public Safety Committee.” Bills to make it easier to create jobs in California? Butchered in the misnamed “Labor and Employment” committee (it should have been named the Union and Unemployment Committee, since the committee was completely controlled by the union hacks that still dominate the California Legislature, who don’t care if you have a job, they only care enough to force the jobs on Californians that pay those hacks union dues). And so on…pick a committee, it was dominated by legislators whose only job was to protect the selfish interests of the Democrat constituency groups. What’s an idealistic young… Read More

A term few of us knew of a couple years ago has consumed a large part of the recent national debate. Critical Race Theory (CRT) has roiled America. To better understand where we are, I read simultaneously articles written by Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and the main advocate against CRT, and Ibram X. Kendi, a professor at Boston University, who is one of the main advocates in favor of CRT. These two columns provided significant clarity to where we are on this issue.

Rufo’s column is Disingenuous Defenses of Critical Race Theory and Kendi’s column is There is No Debate Over Critical Race Theory.

Rufo dissects a column in the New York Times. The authors of that article assert that question of CRT being used in classrooms is a matter of free speech. Rufo makes a persuasive argument that proposed laws against CRT are attempting to level the playing field because the First Amendment is there to protect citizens from government and not government from citizens. The people arguing to curb CRT teaching in schools are attempting to limit the things government is saying. After reading the column, there is no clear definition of what CRT… Read More

Hate crimes always seemed like a stupid idea to me. If you are a Jew and your family member is murdered, do you really care that the murderer is a Jew hater? It goes the same for Blacks, Gays, or any other group. Personally, I would not care what the murderer’s motivation was; I would want them dead regardless. It is not a stretch to understand that people would use the law to expand the notion of a hate crime. That has once again been proposed making it an even better idea to junk the statute.

Hate crime legislation was first proposed in the 99th Congress which lasted from 1985 through 1986. It finally passed overwhelmingly in the House of Representatives in the 101st Congress in 1989 and then did the same in the U.S. Senate that year. George Bush, the elder, signed it into law that year. Just because it was passed with such large numbers and signed by a Republican president did not make it a smart idea.

It was initially passed to collect and publish data on crimes of race, religion, or ethnicity. In 1997, the categories of sexual orientation, gender or disability were introduced as additional categories. They passed and became law in 2009.

The question… Read More

Our country has long known that our established medical oversight operations were a failure. The FDA suffers from bureaucratic inertness. We finally as a nation passed a Right-to-Try law, which returns control of medical decisions back to the doctor and patient instead of a spiritless administration. Faced with an international pandemic, we have now seen the costs associated with our disastrous medical oversight.

I previously published a column (see here) questioning the wisdom of our elected leaders regarding enforcement of vaccine mandates. The column addressed two issues: 1) Determining what punishment a public employee incurs from not getting vaccinated; and 2) Why is there no acknowledgement of natural immunity.

The day before that column published, I received a weekly update from a Los Angeles County Supervisor. Two supervisors were proposing the same policies as President Biden had for our national employees. Los Angeles County has been and continues to be on the forefront of enforcing strict mandates regarding COVID matters. You are required… Read More

We were told if we dumped the existing President and elected his opponent life would return to normalcy. The opponent was an experienced foreign policy person, and he would be a salve for the wounds of our angry allies. He would bring our domestic situation back to normal. This was all told to us by his friends in the MSM and his allies like Nancy, Chuck and Kammy, because he was holed up in his Delaware bunker emerging to utter a statement and slink back into darkness. Now we are paying the price for buying the proverbial “pig in a poke.” President Biden is a disaster of immense proportions.

Start with the utterly unbelievable realization that France — our oldest ally in the world and still a significant country in today’s world — withdrew their U.S. ambassador in protest of the Biden government’s actions. As pathetic as you may have thought the last President, he never had such a diplomatic failing. In fact, I cannot remember such a failing during my lifetime. How bad a screwup one must be to have France withdraw their ambassador to our country. And over something that could have easily been managed in a definitively better manner.

The… Read More

The press and our Democrat politicians are making a big deal about how expensive this recall election was. Estimates are that it cost state and local governments over $300 million. And that IS a lot of taxpayer money.

But as I like to put it, the unofficial progressive slogan is “Don’t Look Back.” Not being a progressive, I’ll ignore that admonition.

Here’s my (edited) response to a liberal critic of mine — after he cited the expensive cost of the failed Newsom recall election:

Why did this 2021 Gavin Newsom $300+ million recall election cost taxpayers five times more than the Gray Davis recall only 18… Read More

Even though we may all be thoroughly sick of discussing the Afghanistan situation, there is a subject worthy of analysis. It doesn’t involve the departure which was a disaster of epic proportions that was executed by our dullard of a President with obvious diminished capacity and rests entirely and completely on his shoulders and the inept team that surrounds him. The discussion that needs to be had is whether we should have left there in the first place.

During the effort over a prolonged period by two separate presidents, I maintained the same position concerning complete withdrawal from the hellhole known as Afghanistan. When someone addressed the issue to me, I asserted there were strong arguments on both sides. That is an unusual position for me to take because on its face it appears wishy-washy. Very occasionally, there are circumstances that have fine arguments on both sides.

My secondary reaction after the departure engineered by our current President, with the appearance he wanted to humiliate and diminish our country, was we would have to wait two to three years to be able to objectively conclude whether it was proper to pull all our troops from the… Read More

Gavin Newsom’s lopsided victory was NOT the result of voter fraud. There was no NEED for voter fraud, though some doubtless occurred.

Instead, the Democrats have stumbled across the LEGAL way to keep California voting Democrat — forever. It’s really simple:

1. Mail everyone a ballot. Previously one had to REQUEST a mail ballot. Automatic ballot mailings will become permanent in CA. Abill to send ALL registered CA voters a mail ballot EVERY election has already been passed by the CA state rubber stamp legislature. It is currently on Newsom’s desk. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/every-california-voter-would-get-a-mail-ballot-if-newsom-signs-this-bill/ar-AAO4xj0

2. The return postage on the ballot was paid by the taxpayers. Previously the voter had to put the stamp on the envelope — something that the young and low interest voters usually wouldn’t do.

3. Ballot harvesting is legal and encouraged in the Golden State.

The key to a functional democracy is an informed electorate. In this election, the average IQ of voters dropped 10 points or more. A more uninformed and MISinformed electorate is hard to… Read More