We're getting close to that June 6th election day, guys. I trust you've all calculated the shortest possible route to your nearest polling station? I slay myself.
Aside from gubernatorial primaries and local elections, we've also got a coupla educatorial-type propositions: 81, which would let the state borrow money for library support; and 82, the so-called Reiner Initiative, which would provide voluntary half-day preschool to all children in California. It only costs the rich 1.7 percent of their income, and only if they make $400,000/year for an individual, $800,000 for a couple.
Comparison: 1.7% of a $30,000 income comes to a whopping $510. If the rich don't feel like ponying up a bit of spare cash to support California's kids and improve our state, perhaps the less rich might use a comparable amount of cash on handgun supressors, then kill and eat the rich (or feed them to their children. Always look to the children).
Then there's the county-wide Measure A, designed to prevent eminent-domain seizures of private property in order that it be handed over to other private concerns - in other words, no more taking mom/pop stores for mall conversions. Wait - you mean stealing, dealing in stolen property, and receiving stolen property weren't crimes already? Hot damn, what else could I be getting away with?
Best of all is Yorba Linda's Measure B. The Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment want to force the city to require voter input on zoning decisions in the downtown area. A splinter group of radicals has even announced plans to circulate a petition demanding a recall of Councilmembers Ken Ryan, Allen Castellano, Keri Lynn Wilson and Jim Winder. The Weekly has already documented Councilmember (emphasis on member) Ken Ryan and his close friendship/working relationship with developers.
Ryan's ilk claim to be "environmental planners", but they just plan how to develop the environment. All environments. Urban environments even! Liberals are so close-minded in the way they limit their use of 'environment' to the context of environmentalism:
en·vi·ron·men·tal·ism
P Pronunciation Key (
n-v
r
n-m
tl-
z
n.
- Advocacy for or work toward protecting the natural environment from destruction or pollution.
- The theory that environment rather than heredity is the primary influence on intellectual growth and cultural development.
At first that second definition seemed totally irrelevant, but now I'm not so sure...
Note: Thanks to Ed Rakochy of Yorba Linda Residents for Responsible Redevelopment for correcting an earlier misconception of Measure B, describing it as an issue on population density
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el comandante says:
Don't be fooled. Environmentalism is merely Stalinism in disguise.
Posted on Thursday, Jun. 1 2006 @ 7:06AM
richard rumble says:
Alex...
YOUR AMAZING!! Prop 82.. are you REALLY going to tell me that I must spend MY income on children that I do not have, raise or control the education therof? Are you really going to tell me that I can afford 1.7% of MY income to provide FREE child care to people who did not think to have a good income PRIOR to getting pregnent? Lets get right down to the nitty gritty here... You have advocated that people KILL me because I do not embrace your brand of Socialism and re-distrabution of weatlh from what you call the "rich" to the "poor". Tell you what.. when YOU give up YOUR wealth to those that are less wealthy than YOU... ( families living in mud huts in Zambia for instance.. or perhaps that poor family in New Orleans that lost their home ) and you give it up not by choice.. but by threat of force or death.. then you will know how what you call the "rich" view your ideas...
There once was a time when taking $510 out of MY income was the difference between eating or not... Humm.. pay my Mandatory auto insurance... pay my rent.. or eat... what to give up... and then I discovered the value of working hard and providing VALUE to the economy and I was compensated for it. Let me ask you this.. How many days off do you get a week? How many weeks a year do you get for a vacation? How long has your life been like this? Because I get NO days off.. I work 7 days a week... I have taken a total of TWO weeks off for vacation in the last 15 years... and I work my BUTT to the bone doing a job that I created. I provide a VALUE to the community and I am justly compensated for it. Who are YOU to tell me that I MUST part with income that I have worked so hard for just because others have failed to plan or failed to work as had as I have? Yes yes yes.. I have heard it all before.. "its only 1.7% of your income... fine.. and its only 2.5 cents on a can of soda.. and only $2.50 on a pack of ciggeretts and only a few cents here and a small percent there... and soon.. the liberal re-distribution of wealth is complete because your little bit here and there had taken all of my income for this and that... It ALL ADDS UP! Why should I bother to work and create value AT ALL if I am going to just have to GIVE IT UP to some government program that coddles those who have failed to create value in society or life? I might as well just become a bum on the street on the dole because people like YOU will always be trying to get OTHER PEOPLES money to hand out so YOU can feel like you have done something good.. How about this.. why don't YOU put your nose to the grindstone and create some real VALUE for society out of your own hard work and blood, sweat and tears.. NOT by taking it from those that it belongs to.
Posted on Thursday, Jun. 1 2006 @ 9:06PM
Ade says:
Richard: Did you read something in this that I didn't? Because I understood Alex's writing to mean that he seems to be in agreement with you that this proposition is a bad thing. I don't think he ever said that it was a good idea and he used the tenets of what the proposition was going to be funded by to show you JUST HOW BAD OF AN IDEA THIS PROPOSITION IS! He's not taking anything from you. . .the preschool system is. Lighten up. . .and vote no if you feel this adamantly opposed to it. You will vote won't you? I know I will.
Posted on Friday, Jun. 2 2006 @ 9:06AM
Alex B-Z says:
Richard:
You correctly identify the main point of Prop. 82 - it would be big dent in your income to go from $30K to $29.5K just for one particular tax. But say you make $400K. The govt. is asking you for $6,800 a year. That only leaves you a piddling $393,200 a year, of course, but think of the benefits: with more children in better schools, you'll have less hooligans playing hookey to battle through at the malls; less juvenile crime and better young drivers (or at least fewer of them on the roads, more in after-school programs), and an overall better workforce and smarter state - you're saying you don't think this is a good (if somewhat idealized) investment?
Posted on Friday, Jun. 2 2006 @ 3:06PM
Jim says:
Or perhaps all of us who make good money will pack up and leave California because we are tired of the redistribution of wealth. I employ a very small handful of people, but if I leave their jobs go away. Ah, yes, another small handful of people to put on the public dole. A few here, a few there ... what's the big deal?
Those with children need to pay the bill. I already pay enough in taxes and have raised my children. My property tax helps to fund the schools, that's enough.
For those who think this is not a bad idea, you don't need Prop 82 ... On the tax form CA 540 there are line items where you can make donations to the state for this purpose. I suggest 1.7%. Thank you.
Posted on Wednesday, Jun. 7 2006 @ 9:06AM
Alex Brant-Zawadzki says:
Oh, you make GOOD money, do you? What do you think about people who don't? What about the teachers and school administrators who KNEW they wouldn't make much money yet still work to educate your children? What about vintage clothing store owners and secondhand bookstore clerks, or public defenders?
All I'm sayin is, just because you make more money doesn't mean you're smarter or better. Some people are slackass bastards, mooching off the system, sure. But lots of people are just trying to function and maintain their ideals in a system which has come to worship the almighty dollar above all else.
Posted on Wednesday, Jun. 7 2006 @ 10:06AM