The following might be called a racist joke over in Europistan.  I was just inspired by a sermon this am by a fellow named Wally Mandangal.  This guy pastored secret home churches in Saudi Arabia - deep in the heart of Wahabism.  He found the people there starving for faith and freedom.  He was eventually caught by Islamic fanatics, who beat the heck out of him, threatened to kill him many times, tried beating him into submitting to Islam, and finally brought him up before the Saudi Supreme Court who sentenced him to death. 

He was beaten and tortured for six hours once to gain the names of his brethern in Saudi.  He wrote down: John the Baptist, Billy Graham, Paul of Tarsus, filled a whole page with names from the Bible and people of faith.  When Mandangal's jailers found they had been duped, they came back and started beating him some more.  Finally out came the gun to his temple (so to speak), with the mafia (aka thuggish) threat that either his renouncement of Christ or his brains were going to be on the paper.  He refused to renounce that which gave him freedom from this earth and how blessed was the cross that bought that freedom.  His captors screamed at him to "shut up" about the cross.  They asked if he thought Islam would fall.  He said yes, which earned him more screaming and beatings.  Figuring he was about to die, Mandangal began to profess his love of Christ.  The gun holder stiffened his grip as if to pull the trigger.  But then terrified for "some strange reason" his hand began to shake and he dropped the pistol.  His torturers left him and never returned.  Hours before he was to be executed by the Saudi government, Mandangal was freed to tell his tale of freedom to all those with ears to hear.

The "Religion of Peace."  The best never intended joke I've ever heard.  As Mandangal said in closing, "We Americans need to wake up.  We have a nation to defend and nations to reach."  Amen to that Brudda!

Wow!  What a convoluted bit of reading.  Proposition 92 attempts to fix a problem with California's community college system when it doesn't apppear to be broken.   The agenda of the proposition is make college more accessible to all Californians by lowering cost to students.  This, when it has the lowest tuition fees in the country and yet this proposition seeks to lower and essentially fix them at $15/unit.  The mechanism to ever raise the fees is rare in requiring a growth in per capita income of 6.7% which happened once in the past twenty years according to the Legislative Analyst.  The proposition simultaneously mandates more General Fund monies and reduces community college fees to the hefty estimated annual price tag of $370 million to us ($300 million and $70 million, respectively). 

To us.   The proponents claim Proposition 92 doesn't raise taxes by saying it lowers tuition fees.  True enough, however someone's going to get stuck with the check eventually, no doubt us.  The opponents rightly claim taxes will be raised to cover the annual $370 million shortfall or cutting some other "critical programs."  What constitutes a "critical program" would be an interesting discussion when we have a community college system that offers classes in golf, cooking, and probably some other "critical" education needs, all for the current whopping sum of $20/unit.  Again, what's broke here???  For a state already in the middle of a fiscal emergency with a $14 billion deficit (Indian casinos to the rescue will be (R)nold's next TV ad!!).  Now I'm all for everyone getting the education they need, but the current personal cost of $600 a year is hardly a hardship especially when a student from a family of 4 with an annual income of $65k qualifies for a fee waiver.  That's $50 dollars a month for a gross income of $5,400 a month.  No tuition costs at that income is pretty generous.

The measure also will codify the community college into the state constitution and increase the Board of Governers from 16 voting members to 19 (why?).  The extra members will of course require support staff to to perform all the new administrative functions and the measure gives the board full control over its administrative expenses theoretically to "free" it from politics by increasing the power of the current bureaucracy.  Even our mighty Govinator would be effectively neutered from doing much of anything to control this board. 

The one logical thing I see in here is tying the flow of K-14 funding to enrollment figures.  K-12 enrollment is projected to drop over the next two years and then begin to climb again while college enrollment will generally increase with some flucuation here and there.  The measure would calculate funding levels based on enrollments.  Okay.

Oh, now they're trying to make me feel like Scrooge.  I just read the rebuttal to the argument against the proposition.  Get out your hankies as it's written by three community college students.  No analysis of the opponent's arguments, just don't make us pay more to go the JC.  I can almost hear Marie Barone screeching "How COULD you!?!!?" trying to get her pathetically wimpy son Raymond to cower in submission.  That ticks me off.  Give a valid reason to support this measure rather than tug at my heartstrings and wallet.  I'm putting two students through state universities with no help from the guv-mint thank you very much to the extent their nearly $3,000/semester for tutition/books/etc. isn't subsidized by the state.

Do as you will on this ballot measure.  I was a fence sitter at first, but not anymore.

California's Prop 93 claims to reduce term limits per its proponents.  Not so fast, exclaim the opponents.  The opponents claim the propisition would actually increase service time for current Assemblymen and State Senators.  They have a point.  In rebuttal, the proponents start by shooting the messenger which sets off my radar.  The same happened with the Indian gaming propisitions (earlier post).  The proponents start off pointing out the opponents are funded by Nevada casinos that don't want the competition.  Yeah, damn straight!  Keep the huge casinos in Nevada, let Nevadans deal with that mess.  As Michael Medved was saying on Thursday, having the state promote gambling is just plain wrong and immoral.

Anyway, the opponents of Prop 93 have a point that the proponents ignore and appear to hope you will not pay attention to. 

The last sentence of Section 2, Article IV, Paragraph (b) of the State Constitution has this added language:

1. (b) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (a), a Member of the Senate or the Assembly who is in office on the effective date of this subdivision may serve 12 years in the house in which he or she is currently serving. The 12-year limit in this subdivision shall include those years already served in the house in which the Member is currently serving and any additional years served in that house must be served consecutively.

At face value, that doesn't sound too bad, except, that someone who just termed out in the Senate and is now in their first year in the Legislature will now be eligible for another 12 years in the Assembly versus the 6 currently in the Constitution.  The last sentence of Section 7, Art. XX adds another twist:

Those limitations on terms and years of service shall not apply to any unexpired term to which a person is elected or appointed, or to any years served as part of an unexpired term, if the remainder of the term is less than half of the full term.

The new language (italics) gives senators a clean slate on their time in the Legislature back to 2006 and earlier perhaps.  Say they are brand new to the senate having completed a 6-year term in the assembly.  They were elected to the senate in 2006, so have only served a little over a year (current term commenced in December 2006) of a 4-year term.  Passage of 93 will allow them to stay in the senate another twelve years past December 2008 it could be argued, plus the two years already served (less than half their term as of the effective date of 93), plus the 6 years in the assembly....  Hey!  That's 20 years like the opponents were saying!!  Well I'll be danged!!

Likewise, someone who just completed a 8 year cycle in the senate, was elected in 2006 to the assembly will get another 10 years in the assembly for a total of....  hmmmm, let me see know, 8 + 2 + 10 is.....  (sigh), where's my calculator for crying out loud.!?!?!  Hey wait a minute...  THAT"S 20 ALSO!!!! 

The opponents are right in claiming current legislators in California will get job security for the next 10-12 years for a total of 20 years trying to tax the daylights out of us and MORE for those pre-term limit politicos. 

Not that this may make a lick of difference in how guvmint heir ins Ze Peeples Republik zum Cullyforjna operates but the opponents of Prop 93 make a legitimate argument.  The proponents immediate ad hominen rebuttal and completely ignoring the argument made explains much about their agenda.

Heir ins Cullyforjna, our Govinator is trying to raise funds without raising taxes.  Great!  Swell idea. no?  Actually no is it.  (R)nold signed 4 compact amendments with 4 indian tribes in socal.  According to him, it'll provide "nuen billyun" dollars for Cully fornja education, emergency services by allowing these tribes to significantly expand their casinos.  That's just plain corrupt.  The compacts ban all other gambling businesses thus create a monopoly for the tribes.  This places alot of political influence in a business that does no good for anybody except make guilty feeling (why?!?!?!) white people feel better.  It redistributes wealth mainly from middle class players (who don't have that much wealth to begin with) to a protected class in the state.  A couple folks I'm familar with have gambling problems; can't make rent, are borrowing huge sums to pay for gambling, etc, etc.  But this sure has helped out those poor suppressed "Native Americans."  Liberalism at its best!

While Cullyforjna's total budget is more like 100 billion thus the tribes' nuen billyun dollars over the next 5 years is a drop in the bucket so no influence on guv-mint as the claim will no doubt be made.  But imagine the influence these tribes will have in local politics.  Infrastructure dollars re-aimed at supporting the casinos and surrounding businesses - probably a significant share owned by tribe members.  This re-orients way too much political power towards a business line that serves no human benefit except for a select few.  It's corrupt. 

Cullyforjnians, vote no on Propositions 94-97

The Colonel received this tripe from his corporate office on Friday

"Did you know that the next two Tuesdays coincide with company holidays?  Just like most of you, I’ll be taking those days to spend time with friends and family, and will not be sending out Did You Know.  To tide you over to the first Did You Know of 2008, here’s some fun and interesting holiday trivia:  

• Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabees or Israelites over the Greek-Syrian ruler, Antiochus, about 2200 years ago.
• Kwanzaa is celebrated daily from December 26 to January 1.
• Electric lights for Christmas trees were first used in 1895. Kwanzaa (Swahili for "fresh fruits") is based on an African harvest festival.
• "Jingle Bells" was first written for Thanksgiving and then became one of the most popular Christmas songs.  
• Each night of Hanukkah, an additional candle is placed in the Menorah from right to left, and then lit from left to right. On the last night, all the candles are lit.
• If you received all of the gifts in the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas," you would receive 364 presents.  
• During Hanukkah, families eat latkes (potato pancakes) and sufganiot (jelly donuts), or other foods which are fried in oil, to celebrate and commemorate the miracle of the Festival of Lights.  
• Kwanzaa was created by Maulana Karenga, a professor of black studies at California State University at Long Beach, in 1966. It is a non-religious celebration of family and social values for African American families.  
• Have a safe and joyous holiday season!"

Oye Vey!  Not one mention of Christmas in the above.  Not one.  Being a fair-minded person, the Colonel adds to this list below:

Did you know...?

The word Christmas originates from "Christes Mass"  which means The Mass of the Christ.  It was typically held near midnight. 

The Christmas tree was a German pagan tradition honoring the pagan god Odin.  Germanic people were terrified of Odin as he would fly across the sky at night observing his people and deciding who would perish or prosper.  Sacrifices to Odin were made on an oak tree.  A fir tree adorned with colorful ornaments and light (candles) slowly replaced the oak in tribute to the Christ child.

The Yule log is of Scandinavian origin.  It literally was a gigantic log, probably a sappy tree, that would burn for days.  Much feasting would go on as the log burned.

Christmas time feasting tended to be a result of livestock slaughters that would occur as grazing land feed diminished in winter.  The prime animals would be preserved by slaughtering the less than prime.  What do with all that meat of course but gourge on it in the finest pagan and Roman tradition.

Wassail, beer and other alcoholic beverages would have completed their fermentations by Christmas time hence adding to the festive nature by providing liquid refreshment for washing down that meat.

Pagan Winter Solstice, such as for Mithras, celebrations marked the end of the longest nights of winter and lengthening days leading to next year's harvest.

Christ was most likely born in the springtime since the sheperds were tending their flocks at night in Luke's account.

The 3 Magi visited and honored Christ not on the night of His birth in the manger but more likely almost two years later in a "house" as Herod ordered the slaughter of boys two years and under in Bethelem after learning the Magi ditched him with their previous information as to who the Christ was.

Christmas was slowly introduced on December 25 to pagan people and sometimes ordered upon them not in a case of spiritual hegemony but as an attempt to reduce the debauchery and drunkeness that usually accompanied Mithric and other pagan god celebrations due to all that booze and meat that was so freely available at the time.  It was an attempt to allow peacable celebrations without the usual alcohol induced brawling, raping, and pillaging that normally occurred at the time.

Isn't it amazing our "enlightened" culture believes we should return to pagan traditions about Christmas?

We finally figured out this posting stuff here.  Not as easy as leaving comments on Hewitt's weblog.  On who we are and why we chose the monikers we did, they are after a couple of our favorite movies from the college days (or daze on some days):  "Dr. Strangelove" and "Repo Man."  Our favorite characters are the two more misfit or bizarre characters in those flicks which tends to compare with us accordding to some of those who know us.  Anyway, the title, "Eroding Mind" sounded like a perfect description of culture today which we will tend to rant on more than anything else.  Rant back if you will