I started thinking about this column on Friday, when I was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library to hear a speech by United States Senator Rand Paul. I was reminded of one of President Reagan’s favorite stories… I can picture my hero — ever the optimist and a horseman through and through – smiling as he tells a tale that concludes with a little optimistic boy who upon encountering a pile of horse manure, excitedly starts digging into the much, laughing and clapping. When asked how he could be so happy when all around was nothing but horse hocky, the little boy cries out, “With all this manure, there’s gotta be a pony in here somewhere!”

This column is not about the onslaught of terrible bills that passed out of the Assembly and Senate during the last week; much will be written about those as they advance through the process (Assemblyman Don Wagner actually penned a column that runs today highlight a few of them). In this column, I’d like to focus upon what I believe was an important moment that occurred, a… Read More

The other day in this space I showcased a number of bad Democrat bills that had recently made their way through legislative committees on the strength of the Democrat supermajority. Today, I thought I would highlight a number of bad bills that not only got through the committee process, but that were actually passed off the Assembly floor. That’s right, a majority of supposedly responsible legislators in the nation’s most populace state actually thought these were good ideas and voted for them:

AB 1266 (Ammiano) – this bill allows boys to change in the girls’ locker room, use the girls’ bathroom, and play on the girls’ sports teams, if the boy feels like a girl. Seriously. According to the author, “all students in K-12 schools must be permitted to participate in school programs, activities, and facilities in accordance with the student’s gender identity.” Now, “gender identity” means the gender with which the student “identifies,” not necessarily the gender into which the student was born, and “facilities” means bathrooms and … Read More

This Wednesday, the 6th of June, the Western democracies will commemorate the Normandy invasion that marked the beginning of the end of Fascist tyranny in Europe. On the same date, Californians will also celebrate a second liberation, the passage of Proposition 13 which 35 years ago reined in the onerous property tax system and made the passage of new taxes more democratic.

After three and a half decades, polls show Proposition 13 as popular now as it was the day it passed. Still, a divide on the issue remains, with the overwhelming majority of average folks supporting the tax limiting measure and a minority – primarily special interests that benefit from government spending, politicians who are in the pockets of those interests, a few leftist professors from taxpayers supported universities and, of course, editors at some of the state’s largest newspapers – remain dogged in their opposition.

For most Proposition 13 opponents, like the public employee union bosses, their opposition is all about money and getting more of it from taxpayers. Others, in the “chardonnay and brie set,” object to the bottom up origin of the 1978 tax revolt that… Read More