my townhouse renovation is complete

In a previous posting, I talked about my planned renovation of a townhouse in Santa Cruz where I used to live.

I've put up some stunning before and after photos of all the rooms in the house. It's currently available for rent, so contact me if interested!

vote NO on everything by default

Every election cycle, California and other states put propositions on the ballot. The best rule of thumb, in my opinion, is to vote NO by default unless you have read and analyzed the entire text of the proposition and all the arguments FOR and AGAINST. As with almost everything associated with government, the primary goal is to take money from taxpayers and to funnel it to those who funded their campaigns, as well as their friends, family, and business associates. So your best bet is to vote NO by default, since most of them involve spending huge amounts of money over decades (mostly interest). Here's how I plan to vote:

• Proposition 1A - High Speed Rail: NO. Mass transit is great and we need more of it, but regional transit is significantly more important and our money is much better spent getting people to and from work every day than on transporting people across greater distances. Even if the proposition were focused on our severely lacking regional transit, the proposition is an open-ended spending of money with no actual plans, timetable, or promise of completion. There is no mention of an open bidding process, which is a red flag that the money will be funneled to companies chosen by legislators not based on merit.
• Proposition 2 - Standards for Confining Farm Animals: YES. I'd much rather see a proposition that required companies to fully disclose everything about their operations and allow public visitation of all their facilities at any time, because that would quickly bankrupt the inhumane companies and the problem would solve itself. In the absence of that, I would support this because it allows farmers to compete on a level playing field, and I think that's one area that government can serve a useful and positive purpose without spending ridiculous amounts of money.
• Proposition 3 - Children's Hospital Bond Act: NO. Adding to an already huge mountain of debt so that morally corrupt corporations can get another windfall of money (like with the recent federal prescription drug bill) is something we can't stand for. The fact that the proposition authors use children as bait so they can line their pockets more is pretty twisted.
• Proposition 4 - Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor's Pregnancy: NO. Government and abortion should have nothing to do with each other. The nation will always be deeply divided on the issue, which means the government should stay out of it.
• Proposition 5 - Non-violent Drug Offenses: YES. People should never be incarcerated for victimless 'crimes' and this is a modest step in the right direction.
• Proposition 6 - Police and Law Enforcement Funding: NO. We don't need to waste taxpayer money throwing more people in jail for victimless 'crimes'. This proposition has some of the most asinine shit in it, like requiring gang members to register with local law enforcement. If you want to reduce crime, legalize drugs and all other victimless crimes. When someone harms someone ELSE or their property, that's a crime.
  
• Proposition 7 - Renewable Energy Generation: NO. We'd all be using renewable energy for everything by now if not for government involvement. If we stop subsidizing oil and stop subsidizing government-selected replacements which all suck (ethanol, hydrogen, etc), there will be a level playing field and renewable energy will win because it's better, cleaner, and cheaper (when it's not competing against subsidized alternatives).
• Proposition 8 - Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry: NO. Government can't take away human rights unless another person is harmed.
• Proposition 9 - Criminal Justice System. Victims' Rights. Parole: NO. This is completely unnecessary. We have a court system and it's imperfect and you just have to accept that, no matter how horrific the crimes are that people sometimes commit.
• Proposition 10 - Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy: NO. Same reasoning as voting NO on Proposition 7. We'll have an amazing future of alternative fuel and renewable energy if the government stays out of it.
• Proposition 11 - Redistricting: NO. Redistricting should not be intertwined with politics.
  
• Proposition 12 - Veterans Bond Act of 2008: NO. Life sucks for many people, regardless of whether they served in the military or not. If I get shot as an innocent bystander in a drug-related shooting, where's my low-interest loan? Government shouldn't be involved in slippery slopes.

So, for the first time in many years, I'm actually voting YES on some of the propositions. One day maybe we'll have a proposition that mandates a balanced budget and a fixed timetable for paying off all state debts. Then, we can create an endowment with the budget surplus and know that future generations will have a better life rather than a mountain of debt and nothing to show for it.

both parties are to blame

Yet more evidence that both major parties are the same and both are to blame for everything that's a major screwup in the last century is this article from the New York Times from 1999, which explains the origins of the subprime crisis:

Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending

The key point here are that it was under pressure from the Clinton administration that this took place, which flies in the face of the typical knee-jerk Democrat response that everything in the last 8 years in Bush's fault. Freddie Mac was created during FDR's presidency with a strongly Democratic congress. Fannie Mae was created under Nixon with a Democratic congress. The takeover of them recently as well as the bailouts of various banks and investment firms were supported by both parties. Both Presidential candidates support the bailout. The Bush administration supports the bailout. The Democratic congress supports the bailout.

Both parties are to blame and it's the unholy alliance of government and private corporations (or pseudo-private corporations) that is the cause of the problem and their solution is a stronger unholy alliance between government and selected giant corporations. How fair is that to companies that play by the rules and don't risk the loss of their customers' assets and homes in the relentless pursuit of profits? Companies that make stupid, selfish decisions should go bankrupt, not be propped up. Then they get bought up by smarter companies and life goes on. The scare tactics of saying there will be a global economic meltdown will only lead to a self-fulfilling prophecy as the media parrots this in every article about the bailout as if it's fact. If everyone panics, we WILL have a global economic meltdown.

A very telling event during the debate in the House this past week was the shouting out of how far the Dow was dropping as dissenters were airing their opinions on the House floor. Further proof that the bailout is about Wall Street and juicing up the stock market and not about preventing an imagined global economic meltdown.

The bailout will pass, it will cost far more than projected, it will never pay for itself, and we'll need another unholy alliance in the next decade to fix the mess it created. Lather, rinse, repeat. Yet another reason to completely reject both parties (who have melded into one) and vote third party in this and future elections.