Re: [SLUG-POL] The lunatic state of california

From: Paul M Foster (paulf@quillandmouse.com)
Date: Thu Jun 14 2001 - 22:34:21 EDT


On Thu, Jun 14, 2001 at 09:24:26PM -0400, Isaiah Weiner wrote:

> On Thu, Jun 14, 2001 at 07:01:18PM -0400, Smitty wrote:
> > Yes. Being psychotic seems to be the highest virtue there. My own
> > observations on their mentality is that if you point out to many of them
> > the dire situations around them and that they should handle them, you
> > become a target for persecution and alienation. Their attitudes could be
> > summed up as: "Going down the tubes is the right thing to do and you stay
> > out of our way."
> > Smitty
>
> Have you even *been* to California? I live there now. You're
> describing a very small percentage of the population, AGAIN, and branding
> everyone.
>

Been there, done that. I lived for several years in LA. I loved it.
Buzzing with life, yet still laid back. Saw "Return of the Jedi" at
Mann's Chinese the day it opened. I saw a lot of LA and surrounding
areas, working as an electrician from Calabasas to Long Beach. Working
on houses overlooking Sunset Blvd was terrific. You could (sometimes)
see downtown LA and the Wilshire district. And I loved California.
Beautiful place, with scores of interesting and breathtaking places to
visit. I found people there generally not much different from anyone
else in their everyday lives.

_However_, while Californians are asleep at the wheel when it comes to
their political representatives. The origin of this thread mentioned a
California rep who actually got a law through the California legislature
which regulated the length of hairstyles, based on some junk scientific
study about accidents and hair styles. The only reason it's not a law is
that the governor realized he couldn't get re-elected if he signed it
into law (not, BTW, because it was a bad idea). And that was only one
piece of the original story.

Californians are justifiably proud of their state, but politically they
are clueless. (Not that they're alone in this.) They elect the most
liberal of representatives and reap the rewards, such as they are. And
they look upon the scene and wonder how this happened. The power crisis
is a prime example of political ineptitude foisted off on the people of
California.

> California has always been at _least_ 20 years ahead of the rest of the
> country. In 20 years, you'll be complaining again.
>

California's more like 6 months to 2 years "ahead" of the rest of the
nation. I lived there and moved here, and I saw the trends move outward.
And if California's political/social trends move here, you'll hear me
complaining long before 20 years is up.

Paul



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:09:50 EDT