I’m not talking about Thomas Jefferson. I just read about the Defend Rural America conference that took place last week up in Siskiyou County. I didn’t attend so I can’t give a first-hand account of the meeting, but from what I can glean off the Internet, the conference was very California-focused. In a nutshell, the problem is that the federal and state government is making it impossible to make a living in rural California. What I find most interesting though is the attendance of the “Constitution Sheriffs” who will speak about their concerns with the growing tangle of regulations coming from the capitols.

And I bother to note this because its pretty significant to get the local government to actively speak out against another part of the government. It shows there’s a lot of frustration in those parts. I’m a little disappointed the idea wasn’t tossed out there already, but there is a catchy solution. Resurrect the State of Jefferson! This will give these rural counties freedom from an oppressive Sacramento government, and their own voice in Washington DC.

I hope more of these folks remember the State of Jefferson can be more than just a state of mind.

Chateau Heartiste had a wonderful post crucifying Bill Bennett’s insistence that today’s twenty-something men need to “man up”. I’m going to quote the last paragraph here, but read the whole thing. It’s worth it to see a real analysis of today’s extended adolescence phenomena.

Yes, men, man up. That’s the ticket. When she cuckolds you, man up. When she rejects your gentlemanly kindness for an aloof badboy, man up. When she unceremoniously files for divorce because she got bored of your beta personality after she went off the pill, man up. When she takes the house, car, dog and half to fund her live-in boyfriend’s porn habit, man up. When she writes love letters to terrorists and serial killers on death row because her honorable hubby doesn’t amuse her anymore, man up. When she boffs the first douchebag DJ who comes along but makes a courteous accountant wait three months for sex, man up. When she devours pulp romance novels and vacuous feminized trash that desensitizes her to the value of real life men she can reasonably hope to attract, man up. When she gets aroused by a backhanded compliment but remains unmoved by a sincere compliment, man up. When she cries to HR about what she thinks was an inappropriate flirtation, man up. When she “forgets” to take the Pill and puts you on the hook for the 18 year enslavement, man up. When she gets multiple degrees that price her out of the mating market, man up. When she gets legal protections and favors that aren’t given to men, man up. When her every misdeed and misbehavior and poor choice is excused, man the fuck up.

Wow. What man wouldn’t want to sign up for this program?

Heartiste sounds bitter, but I get where that’s coming from. How frustrating is it to see all these examples where men acting decently get stomped upon? Then to have Bill Bennett saunter in with the sage wisdom that the answer to this cultural problem is for guys to “man up”. You can read it in Bennett’s words here. He says today’s young man is “pathetic”, too interested in playing video games, unwilling to take responsibility for anything.

This has to be a generational disconnect. Bennett’s generation took to heart the ideals behind the simple phrase: man up. For some reason though, they decided manning up means taking shit, turning it into a shit sandwich and then smiling while you eat it. Silence in the face of misery is what it means to be a man.

This insistence that today’s young men must “man up” is just an example of their stoic stubbornness. Even in the face of women who don’t appreciate kindness and a divorce and family court system stacked against them, men are supposed to shut up, find a wife, have some kids, and drag themselves to work day after day. Why? Just because you’re supposed to, if you listen to Bennett and his peers. His essay says nothing about what’s in it for men. I didn’t see one line in that essay explaining why I should sublimate my own desires to live out this lifestyle. I am just astonished at how Bennett’s generation are such lemmings; so incurious about life. Bennett has decided how men should all behave, simply because that’s the way it’s always been. No need to examine if a changed culture would have necessitated a change in men’s behavior. Why question if a change in women’s behavior led to a reaction in men? They should just shut up and do what they’re supposed to. Man up!

I can’t think of anything more cowardly than Bill Bennett’s beliefs. A man shouldn’t go through his life doing things because he’s supposed to. Be in charge of your own destiny! If women are going to take advantage of you, there’s no reason you should put up with it. Let those women fight over the dirtbag guitarist they met at a bar at 3 am. I don’t need to risk my future and my finances on a woman who sees me as expendable.

The Bill Bennett’s of the world should retire to Boca and shut up. Their culture is over. Today’s men are getting by in a woman’s world. We’re the ones who have to navigate a dating world where two women would rather fight over one jerk, rather than date a guy who cares to ask how their day went. In our world it’s assumed when divorce comes, women have the right to the house, the assets, alimony and child support always. Our courts say a mother’s bond with a child is sacred. A father’s bond is easily replaced with a monthly check. It’s a fools bet to “man up” in this world. It doesn’t have to be this way of course. It just is. If women want to keep this new-found power, than they will have to live with men who won’t bother to play their games.

I’ve heard of Tom McClintock before, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to him. He’s held various state offices and is now in the US Congress. That was the extent of my knowledge of this guy.

Well I just read a fantastic speech from him. If you’re the type to think government makes dumb decisions, then you’re going to fall in love with Tom McClintock when you read this. It’s all just delicious, sarcastic, clever, erudite red meat.

He actually explains the real reason California has wrecked itself. It comes down to bad public policy.

1. Insatiable Spending

California may not have invented deficit spending but we certainly refined it into a science…Federal spending increased 26 percent in the last three years literally consuming and squandering the wealth of the nation at the worst possible time. Yet consider this: from July of 2005 to July of 2008, California increased its spending by 31 percent, under a Republican governor elected on the pledge to “stop the crazy deficit spending”.

2. Hatred for Industry

Our regulatory burdens are also years ahead of the rest of the nation. We’ve had our own version of Cap and Trade on the books for five years now…We now have the most stringent renewable energy requirements in the nation. Which helps explain why California is the home to such stunning green energy success stories as Solyndra. We have among the highest electricity prices in the continental United States.

3. Dysfunctional Government (and not the media’s pablum about the need for moderates to start compromising)

We have reached this point not because of a failure of our republican institutions, but because of a failure to respect those institutions…The humility that kept Sacramento from sticking its nose into the business of local governments gave way to the hubris that the state knew better what was important to local communities than those communities themselves.

This speech should be turned into the California Republican Party’s platform. It identifies the key drags on this state’s economy and provides obvious fixes. I would love to see a candidate for governor giving this speech.

Read every word of it. It is that damn good.

Vanity Fair likes to smell its own farts. That is to say, the magazine has a writing culture that encourages fluff. Why use two words when ten will do the job?

Even with the fluff, Vanity Fair put out a pretty good article on how California dug its own grave. It’s worth reading, if anything, just as a chronicle of why this state is set to fail. It’s a cautionary tale for other states. Unfortunately the article doesn’t offer any real solutions. It ends with mindless optimism but before it gets there, it falls back on the same political trope I’ve heard for years – California needs moderation. This is of course, bullbutter. The media myth is that California has hyper-partisan Democrats and hyper-partisan Republicans who refuse to speak to each other. And therefore the state is going to hell in a handbasket. The first half is entirely true, but California isn’t going to hell in a handbasket because of extremism. Compromising moderates would just get us to the same point more politely.

California’s problems boil down to bribery. The legislators figured out they can keep getting elected by doling out free money. State money gushes forth to influential special interest groups – employees get fat pensions, unions get ever more members from an expanding bureaucracy, and NGOs who know how to talk the talk get grant checks. And when election time comes, they know whose back to scratch. A moderate can bribe just as well as any partisan.

I’m pretty sure California will again the lead nation. This time it will be in the uncharted waters of state bankruptcy. Right now there is no set of laws to initiate the bankruptcy of a state government. I am confident California will create that because the alternative solution is to put fiscal hawks in charge in the legislature. The state has a spending problem. You can’t solve it without spending less. But that will never happen.

I like Poland… A LOT.

This is top notch campaigning. I vote for Katarzyna Lenart to get in my pants.

Lawrence O’Donnell is insufferable in just about everything he does. However he is in rare form in this interview where he takes it upon himself to lecture Herman Cain about cowardice.

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But this kind of hypocrisy is par for the course for Progressives. I’m disappointed in Herman Cain. Cain is being attacked for not living up to a phony standard of bravery where every black person with wrinkles is supposed to have a story about marching on Selma. Attack back Herman. It sounds so weak to just tell someone their insinuation or their proposition is wrong. You know what’s a good response? “Yeah Lawrence, in ’63 I was studying in college. Where were you, the front of the bus?” Turn the attack around. Lawrence is saying you’re not a real black man. So come back and call him an evil, white racist. Make him outraged. You don’t win until he’s choking on his own fury.

This is the first time I watched Cain in action. I’m not impressed, but maybe he’ll turn it around. Unless this is really just a book tour of course.

“We do not consider Perry a factor… We know who will be our nominee.”

- The Bride of Wildenstein Georgette Mosbacher, RNC Finance Co-Chair

‘Distasteful’ is the polite way to express myself. How do I really feel? This has me disgusted enough to spit. I didn’t like Mitt Romney before. He’s a shameless flip-flopper who will say anything to get elected. He has no beliefs; just ambition. But Mosbacher’s remarks shows who his company is. They are “our moneyed betters”. They’re the rich people who know what’s best for us plebs. We should shut up and do what we’re told. Everything will be fine that way. When people say there are no real differences between Democrats and Republicans, its these people they are referring to. They have no ideology. They just want to control the commoners with handouts. Mitt Romney is part of this group. Now Mitt will get pushed on Republicans as “inevitable” or the only “responsible candidate”. Only nutjob extremists would disagree.

I didn’t think much about Rick Perry before today. I’m a lot more interested in him now.