United Nations needs more power, H Clinton

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the U.N. nuclear watchdog, The International Atomic Energy Agency, must have the authority to probe for possible military nuclear work at sites where no nuclear materials exist.

Clinton wants more power for the United Nations. Government bodies always have, and always will, want more power.

The U.S. Military is the largest in the world, outspending more than the other top 21 nations combined. The U.S. Navy has 10 aircraft carriers, with 3 more ordered, that costs more than the total military budget of most countries. The U.S. wants more power! Will they ever have enough?

The government wants the power to spy on its citizens. The U.S. government wants the power to confiscate some of your production. Oh, heck, they already have that power.

It's not just governments that want power, we all do. All relationships are based on the power to get more than one gives, or at least avoid giving more than one receives. The California State Employees Union certainly receives more than they put into the relationship with the taxpayers. Read this column about some CA state employees doubling their pay with overtime.

Other unions like the American Chamber of Commerce, The American Bar Association, The American Medical Association, and The American Association of University Women, all are trying to gain power over others.

The differences in power obtained by the State and power by private individuals or groups is one of force and concentration. It is much easier to resist the power of unions and groups, especially if their power is not backed by the State, than it is to resist the power of the State. The largest union and the largest corporation cannot put you in jail, the smallest State can. The State operates only with force. The use of force is what distinguishes the State. Still most people think it is appropriate to use force in order to do what the State says is good. This is the lure that allows the State to gain more and more power. The State's excuse each time it asks for more power is that the State is doing good, and the people who want to feel safe and good about themselves will always relinquish power, power they will not get back. The State never gives up power.

"Not necessity, not desire - no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything - health, food, a place to live, entertainment - they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied". Friedrich Nietzsche

Bilbo Baggins

PBS, The National Parks, Lizards, etc.

PBS aired a popular program about our national parks, and another program about lizards.

Dr. Eric Pianka University Texas Austin, has been studying lizards for 40 years! And is still studying lizards. One would think the professor would know all there is to know about lizards after 40 years, but, the taxpayer grants just keep pouring in. The professor has to spend those taxpayer grants on something, so he counts lizards.

PBS produces nature shows using words like spectacular to describe the violence in nature. I often wonder if the producers of these violent nature shows, like showing the cannibalistic lizards eating their own kind, enjoy the spectacular scenes, or do the violent scenes satisfy the vicarious sadism of the producers.

And PBS always has the subtle but ubiquitous message that climate change is a crisis and is affecting the habitat, even as they show the lizards have lived since before the dinosaurs died out and have survived many climate changes.

I avoided most of the recent PBS airing of the Ken Burns special about the National Parks. I glanced at it for a few minutes to confirm what I expected, that it would be a tribute to the God, State, not the parks.

The reviews gave the show high marks. Inspirational and other edifying adjectives were used to stamp an approval of the government run National Park System.

I think that a private company can buy beautiful land and preserve it as an attraction that will pay for itself by fees. Has anyone ever heard of the Walt Disney Corp or Kampgrounds of America, KOA?

Certainly millions of people want the natural beautiful landscape preserved, so why do you have to force them to do so? These millions of people would gladly pay, voluntarily, to preserve those wonderful scenes of nature. At least one would think they would voluntarily pay since they place so much importance on the parks. Maybe they just want to use force on others to get others to pay for what the environmentalists think is important.

The socialists and environmentalists insist that only the government, with its ability to confiscate property, can do good things.

"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule." – H.L. Mencken

I think the urge to save the environment is the urge to rule others. Those with this urge to control others cannot control themselves.

Charles Tolleson

700 bills per year for the governor to sign!

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger had 700 bills to sign or veto.  How many of those bills did he actually read before signing or vetoing?

So many bills in only one year, by one state.At least the legislature did not pass all the bills, 2600, that were brought up.     How many bills in a year by all branches of government?  

Do we really think we are free when we have over 14 million arrests each year in the U.S.? About two thirds of the population is between the ages of 15 and 64, so this demographic has about a 7 out of 100 chance of being arrested in the U.S. The U.S. also has the highest incarceration rate in the developed world?   Did you know it is illegal to go to another country with the "intent" to have sex with a minor?

One bill, AB 119, prohibits insurances companies from charging women higher premiums for health coverage even though women use health services more and live longer.

How about AB 1116, which prohibits elective cosmetic surgery without "an appropriate physical examination and written clearance for the procedure" by a state-licensed physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner? AB 1116 will guarantee income for "licensed" physicians and raise the cost of cosmetic surgery. It is legal plunder for the physicians.

Useless laws weaken the necessary laws. – Montesquieu

A new book by Harvey Silverglate, "Three Felonies a Day,"  shows how unfree Americans really are.   Yet we ridicule Shira Law, as if to say how oppressed they are and praise how unoppressed we are.   In Orwellian speak, the more laws we have the more freedoms we have, or so the public thinks.

Bilbo Baggins
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Governor signs hundreds of bills
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

Monday, October 12, 2009

Making deadline calls on hundreds of bills Sunday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave Santa Clara a boost in its bid to lure the 49ers south, permitted the killing of birds at airports, and put motorists in Alameda County on notice: Drive drunk just once and face a breath test every time you take the wheel.

Working late into the night Sunday through a pile of about 700 bills, Schwarzenegger signed at least 230. He also vetoed at least 221, including a closely watched measure that would have barred California State University executives from receiving pay raises or bonuses in years when the state cuts their funding.

The actions were announced as the governor and legislative leaders continued tense negotiations on a package to overhaul the state's water system. Lawmakers ended talks without a deal, but the governor said much progress was made and that he would call the Legislature into a special session to discuss water proposals.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he anticipates holding public hearings on water proposals sometime this week.

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said the governor would not enact a mass veto on legislation, as he had threatened earlier in the week, because of the level of success of the water discussions. The governor was announcing his actions on bills late into the night in order to meet a midnight deadline to sign or veto the measures.

Measures signed into law include:

-- Senate Bill 43 by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-San Jose, allowing Santa Clara to award a contract to design and build a proposed 49ers stadium to a firm of the team's choice - rather than to the lowest bidder as normally required under city law.

-- SB792 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, which allows the state to pursue the sale of up to 23 acres of the Candlestick Point Recreation Area to Lennar Corp. and dedicate the money from the sale to park improvements.

-- SB481 by Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks (Sacramento County), which allows for the killing of birds at airports to protect public safety. The measure was inspired by US Airways Flight 1549, which made an emergency landing in the Hudson River in New York in January after striking birds during takeoff.

-- Assembly Bill 42 by Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, increasing the penalty for being a spectator at a dogfight - another response to the dogfighting conviction of professional football star Michael Vick.

-- AB91 by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, creating a five-year pilot program in Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare counties in which an ignition interlock device would be installed on vehicles owned or operated by first-time drunken driving offenders. The devices prevent vehicles from being started if the driver is intoxicated.

While announcing his approval of the program, which goes into effect in January, Schwarzenegger said state leaders "must do everything we can to ensure the public's safety on the road."

Measures the governor vetoed include:

-- SB86 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, which would have prohibited California State University executives from getting raises or bonuses in years when their state funding is cut. Schwarzenegger's veto message called the bill "micromanaging" by the state and said its provisions were not entirely clear.

-- SB218, also by Yee, which would have made auxiliary organizations at UC and CSU, along with community colleges, come under the state's public records laws.

-- AB241, by Nava, which would have placed limits on the number of unsterilized cats and dogs that a business or person that buys and sells the animals can have.

-- AB1512 by Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), which would have imposed a $10-per-day fine on retailers for each package of baby formula and food offered for sale beyond the expiration date. Schwarzenegger said current law already has strong provisions and penalties for tainted food and drug products.

-- SB84 by Steinberg, which would have guaranteed $400 million in funding to 500 low-performing schools. In his veto message, the governor said that the bill is unnecessary and that his administration has found federal funds to provide the money.

The governor also vetoed Yee's measure to protect the freedom of a person to speak any language he or she chooses in a business establishment. The measure would have made it a violation of the Unruh Civil Rights Act, the state's highest civil rights law, if a business "requires, limits or prohibits" the use of any language, except if doing so is a business necessity.

"Thank God the Unruh Civil Rights Act happened before this governor," Yee said. "If it were on his desk, he would veto it."

Schwarzenegger also vetoed Leno's SB585, which would have phased out gun shows at the Cow Palace, with a total ban beginning in 2013. In his veto statement, the governor said it would set a "confusing precedent" and reduce state and local tax revenues.

Schwarzenegger had considerably fewer bills to consider this year than last. Lawmakers approved fewer measures with an eye on the state's enormous budget deficit. Last year, the governor vetoed 35 percent of bills, the largest percentage of rejections in the past four decades.

The governor was on pace Sunday night to surpass that mark, as he had vetoed nearly half of the first 451 bills that he acted on. If the governor takes no action, bills become law without his signature. But Schwarzenegger has rarely, if ever, done that.

Staff writer John Coté contributed to this report. E-mail Wyatt Buchanan at wbuchanan@sfchronicle.com.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/10/12/MNGP1A49ST.DTL

Columbus Day

There is much talk about the evils of the sailor and explorer, Christopher Columbus. Many people want to denigrate him for his abuse of indigenous people. Others want to eliminate the Columbus holiday.

One kindergarten teacher was teaching history about Columbus. I wonder why he was teaching that to 6 year olds. It is a fertile time to indoctrinate the young minds.

Some even put Columbus on trial, in absentia, charging him with crimes, in 1492! I wonder how these people would like to be put on trial 500 years from now, without being able to defend themselves. Much of what humans did to each other in 1492 would be considered a crime today. Maybe what we do today in our ordinary lives will be considered a crime 500 years from now.

Columbus may have been a tyrant, but he was a hell of a sailor. Most people do not know he made four voyages to America. One should read the four volumes of Columbus, by Samuel Eliot Morrison.

People accuse Columbus of killing native people by infecting them with smallpox. They say this as if Columbus deliberately set out to do this.

It was not just Columbus who oppressed. The indigenous people oppressed each other. They would ally themselves with the European explores to fight their enemy tribes.

If the Native Americans had the ability to sail to Europe and dominate the Europeans, the Europeans would have been oppressed by the superior culture. That is the way of human history.

The resentment of Columbus is about race. Columbus was white, the indigenous people were not.

Charles Tolleson, whitey