[AzCal Retred]

We have the right to vote, so disappearing down a singularity of despair is reserved for the Alt-Right folks. Now, way before y'all go committing suicide or the like, be aware that there is a thing called the "sunset clause":
California, like most other states, uses sunset dates or sunset clauses in their legislation. It has the effect of making the law, what’s enacted, to expire on a specified date unless the Legislature enacts another bill to either extend or eliminate the sunset date.
Generally, we see sunset dates running from one to three years to as long as a decade or more. The sunset, or sometimes called expiration or expiry clauses in other jurisdictions, are generally used to allow the legislative branch to revisit a statute.
Sunset clauses are primarily used by state legislatures. The U.S. Congress uses them sparingly. One example is the federal PATRIOT Act, where several of its provisions have sunset provisions.
There are other instances when the Legislature may want a statute to be temporary in its application. For example, legislation that’s often viewed as experimental or being tried for the first time may be subjected to a sunset clause. The Legislature may want to check on how the law has worked for a few years before they decide to make it permanent.
Another example might be controversial legislation, which may be established with a sunset date as a possible compromise. Here, the Legislature may choose to give a contested bill an opportunity to prove itself.
A sunset clause may also be appropriate when a law is necessary to address a temporary situation or perhaps fulfill a short-term need, such as a state of emergency or a disruption in the economy. The Legislature may impose a sunset date to ensure that a review is automatically triggered before the statute will be extended or made permanent.
In California, we usually see the sunset or repeal clauses in one of two forms. It usually reads, “This section shall remain in effect only until December 1st, 2020. And as of that date is repealed.” or “This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2020, unless a later enacted statute, which becomes operative on or before July 1, 2020, deletes or extends the date on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.”

https://www.capimpactca.com/2021/01/sunset-dates-in-legislation/#:~:text=California%2C%20like%20most%20other%20states,or%20eliminate%20the%20sunset%20date.

Things really aren't that bad.

[Karl Childers]

#464
Stories like this make me glad to live in a sparsely populated state which for the time being is not over regulated and what seems like half the laws that are on the books aren't taken too seriously (that can be good and bad) the more people you have the greater the need to regulate all the little details of daily life. I love to visit California but don't think I would want to live there, I probably could not afford to anyway.

[Richard230]

Here is the latest news from California: There is a very destructive fire that started a couple of weeks ago called the Fawn Fire. So far it has burned over 8,537 acres, 41 homes and 90 other structures in Northern California, just north of Redding. It is still active and is currently 35% contained.

The woman,  Alexandra Souverneva, who started the fire is a 30-year-old graduate of the California Institute of Technology. While there she obtained two chemistry degrees and at one time worked in medicinal chemistry as a research associate at the biotech companies Gilead Sciences in Foster City and Nanosyn in Santa Clara, California. In her LinkedIn profile she describes herself as a "shaman" and is a registered member of the Green Party.

Here is the punchline: This morning the news reported that she claims to have started the fire while boiling a pot of bear urine. She told investigators that she was hiking in the forest and became thirsty. She saw a large pool of liquid, which she assumed was bear urine. She decided to collect it and then boil it so that it would be safe to drink. During the boiling process (the report did not say what she was using as a pot to boil the urine) her fire got out of control and quickly started the Fawn Fire. If convicted of starting the fire she faces up to 9 years in state prison.

[Karl Childers]

I hope she gets the whole nine years with no chance of parole. It doesn't take much to start a wild fire when the woods are tinder dry. I live in the woods in the Sangre de Christo Mountains, stories like that send shivers up my spine! All it takes is one lame brained person to create all that damage.

[AzCal Retred]

That's pretty funny, as the bear urine was likely sterile enough to drink directly, as the bear would have been dead otherwise. Maybe she carries a still around? Living proof that "booksmart" isn't necessarily a survival trait. Apparently she didn't know about canteens or water bottles...but she's got free room & board now.

https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/09/28/woman-accused-starting-fawn-fire-boiling-bear-urine-to-drink/
The Cal Fire officer who arrested her also said he believes there is a high possibility that she additionally started a separate vegetation fire the night before the Fawn Fire broke out in the city of Shasta Lake.
Souverneva faces a felony arson charge with an enhancement of committing arson during a state of emergency, according to Shasta County District Attorney Stephanie Bridgett. She could face up to nine years in state prison.
On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency for Shasta County to support the response to the destructive Fawn Fire burning north of Redding.
The fire — which started on Wednesday, possibly at the hands of Souverneva — has so far consumed approximately 8,577 acres and was 60% contained as of the latest Cal Fire update Monday evening at 7 p.m..
So far the Fawn Fire has destroyed 144 homes and other structures, causing thousands of residents to be evacuated from the area. However, improving weather conditions and cooler temperatures allowed fire crews to make progress over the weekend, raising containment to 35% as of Sunday morning.
The fire at one point threatened 9,000 buildings but the number dropped to 2,340 on Sunday. The light rain that fell periodically over parts of Northern California on Monday was also helping the efforts to contain the fire.



https://nypost.com/2021/09/26/alexandra-souverneva-arrested-on-suspicion-of-starting-california-wildfire-known-as-fawn-fire/

https://www.sfgate.com/california-wildfires/article/Fawn-Fire-destroys-100-buildings-winds-expected-16487075.php

[Richard230]

Finally some good news from California: In a moment of political weakness, late Friday night, the Governor vetoed the bill that would have made Jay-walking legal. He also vetoed a bill that would have made it legal for bicycles to roll through stop signs.

On the other hand, he signed into law a bill that allows cities to lower speed limits without performing an engineering study to see if it is warranted to do so. So all cities need to do now is to get a law passed that would allow speed-enforcement ticket-dispensing cameras to be legal and then just sit back and let the money roll in. 

[AzCal Retred]

All my life I've seen the speed limits on city streets, street for street, higher in wealthy neighborhoods and lower in poor neighborhoods. Apparently the wealthy can "squeak harder" when limitations on their behavior are introduced and get things changed.

My favorite speed induced accident I saw was in the affluent Tucson foothills off of Skyline Drive, some aged playboy managed to launch his restored 1966 Mustang off of a straight section of road and lodge it upright, 4 wheels suspended off the ground, in a Palo Verde tree. Possession doesn't connote proficiency, it just means you have the hardware.

[GlennF]

I believe bear urine is an aphrodisiac, cures cancer, malaria and covid and is an excellent octane booster when added to low octane gasoline for high compression engines. It is also a great hair tonic and wards off annoying pests like dropbears (see below) and rattle snakes.

https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/drop-bear/

[AzCal Retred]

...and don't leave out the famous Arizona Stick Lizard and the deadly Hoop Snake...

https://tucson.com/news/blogs/big-jim/big-jim-the-sonoran-desert-stick-lizard/article_19cbfa70-c984-11e2-8eda-001a4bcf887a.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoop_snake
https://www.al.com/strange-alabama/2012/04/hoop_snakes_are_no_hula_hoops.html

[Richard230]

California school districts can get pretty creative when it comes to taking paid holidays. Yesterday I noticed that both of the elementary and high schools in my city were closed for Columbus Day.  I thought that was odd, as Columbus is now hated by all Progressives in California and it was my understanding that celebrating the arrival of Columbus to the New World is very much no longer PC, especially in public schools.   

About 20 years ago South San Francisco gave up Columbus Day as a paid holiday and moved the holiday to the day after Thanksgiving without a name - although now it is called Black Friday, I believe.  (Frankly, I am surprised that day hasn't had its name changed. There is something about it that doesn't sound quite PC to me. It really should be called Buy Stuff From Amazon Day.  )

Anyway, after a little research I discovered that the local schools found a way to continue to celebrate the holiday. They just renamed the day to designate it as "Indigenous Peoples Day". Problem solved.  The teachers, staff and students still get the day off, they just pretend to be celebrating the people that were invaded by the Spanish, instead of the Spanish invaders. Either way, it is still a holiday and the school districts didn't have to renegotiate their union contracts to find a new holiday somewhere else in the year to celebrate.

BTW, my mail wasn't delivered yesterday and I bet the banks were closed, too. So now we can thank our Indigenous Peoples, instead of Columbus, for retaining the day as a paid-for-not-doing-anything holiday. 

[Karl Childers]

California school districts can get pretty creative when it comes to taking paid holidays. Yesterday I noticed that both of the elementary and high schools in my city were closed for Columbus Day.  I thought that was odd, as Columbus is now hated by all Progressives in California and it was my understanding that celebrating the arrival of Columbus to the New World is very much no longer PC, especially in public schools.   

About 20 years ago South San Francisco gave up Columbus Day as a paid holiday and moved the holiday to the day after Thanksgiving without a name - although now it is called Black Friday, I believe.  (Frankly, I am surprised that day hasn't had its name changed. There is something about it that doesn't sound quite PC to me. It really should be called Buy Stuff From Amazon Day.  )

Anyway, after a little research I discovered that the local schools found a way to continue to celebrate the holiday. They just renamed the day to designate it as "Indigenous Peoples Day". Problem solved.  The teachers, staff and students still get the day off, they just pretend to be celebrating the people that were invaded by the Spanish, instead of the Spanish invaders. Either way, it is still a holiday and the school districts didn't have to renegotiate their union contracts to find a new holiday somewhere else in the year to celebrate.

BTW, my mail wasn't delivered yesterday and I bet the banks were closed, too. So now we can thank our Indigenous Peoples, instead of Columbus, for retaining the day as a paid-for-not-doing-anything holiday. 

Being self employed I never had the luxury of taking Columbus Day off, no work, no pay. Also it never meant anything to me other than the day my first serious girlfriend dumped me. Columbus didn't discover Jack and it was just another myth we were taught in school as children. For years while a holiday in New Mexico it was never celebrated  as we have a large native population and the only thing it represented to them was the beginning of the theft of their land and destruction of their way of life. Fortunately NM has now changed the holiday officially to Indigenous Peoples Day and everywhere there is a more festive atmosphere. I was working in my workshop yesterday listening to the radio and the DJ was playing a lot of Native music both Pow Wow and contemporary which brought a smile to my face and made me feel good that our state got its priorities straight

[Richard230]

Here is another piece of history for you: When I was in elementary school we celebrated May Day by going down to the city park and parading around a tall "Maypole" while holding long ribbons of colored streamers as two groups of children walked around the pole in different directions while music played. That would form a pattern around the pole when we reached the end of our rope (so to speak). I never really understood why we were doing that, but it did get us out of class and seemed kind of an adventure at the time. At some point it became no longer PC to celebrate May Day when the USSR started to celebrate May Day by rolling tanks through Eastern Europe. 

[Stanley]

Being self employed I never had the luxury of taking Columbus Day off, no work, no pay. Also it never meant anything to me other than the day my first serious girlfriend dumped me. Columbus didn't discover Jack and it was just another myth we were taught in school as children. For years while a holiday in New Mexico it was never celebrated  as we have a large native population and the only thing it represented to them was the beginning of the theft of their land and destruction of their way of life. Fortunately NM has now changed the holiday officially to Indigenous Peoples Day and everywhere there is a more festive atmosphere. I was working in my workshop yesterday listening to the radio and the DJ was playing a lot of Native music both Pow Wow and contemporary which brought a smile to my face and made me feel good that our state got its priorities straight

As far as attacking Columbus Day, I found the translated diaries of Cristobol Colombo quite damning. He wiped out whole villages in his greed for gold and power. These are the thoughts of the man himself with no media spin. He was eventually returned to Spain as a prisoner.

[AzCal Retred]

I'm with Karl here, history as taught is pretty myopic. The Canadian term "First Peoples" seems way more appropriate to me when referring to indigenous peoples. I have to laugh when local folk proudly refer to themselves as 3rd or 5th generation, when right down the road a bit from me is a whole village of "35th Generation (or way more)" people that were the previous "landowners". 

The program below illustrates the absurdity of the US's Northern-Eurocentric view of history. The below program documents Spanish colonization of Florida many moons before the English set foot on this continent, much to the chagrin of the Mayflower Society. None of this info was actually "secret", but none of it showed up in my schools history books. In my history texts, the English pilgrims appeared and the Indian First Peoples existence was apparently inconsequential. The reality is considerably more complex. As far as Columbus being a monster, he had no hammerlock on using brutality or cruelty as a means to material gain, history is chock full of similar examples. Who we decide to elevate to significant historical status says a lot about us. It'd be good to look at our "heroes" objectively, with a bit of latitude for historical context, and not necessarily through the lens of current political correctness. Rampant brutality or cruelty in a leader has never been widely popular, regardless of whom it was directed against. We all know those traits aren't discriminatory and will be applied to the next group that crosses that leader. "To the man with a hammer, every problem is a nail" 

https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/secrets-spanish-florida-synopsis/3626/
The first permanent European settlement in the United States was founded in 1565–two generations before the settlements in Jamestown and Plymouth–not by English Protestants, but by the Spanish and a melting pot of people they brought with them from Africa, Italy, Germany, Ireland and even converted Jews, who integrated almost immediately with the indigenous tribes. Secrets of Spanish Florida – A Secrets of the Dead Special uncovers one story of America’s past that never made it into textbooks. Follow some of America’s leading archaeologists, maritime scientists, and historians as they share the story of Florida’s earliest settlers. It’s a story that has taken more than 450 years to reveal.

[Richard230]

Don't forget the Vikings. They beat out all of the other Europeans to North America.