The Conservative Closet...

"It's difficult being a conservative here with so many liberals around, they don't want to hear or engage in any discussion," she said. "It's like name-calling, like calling the Tea Party people racist or not knowing much about someone like Sarah Palin and trashing her in front of me. Liberals don't really engage in two-way discussion. It's easy to be a liberal — it's more difficult, more intellectually challenging being a conservative."

From this Santa Monica Daily Press article on the shocking news that there are a few non-liberals scattered throughout our fair city.

Above, Beverly Hills resident, Diana Ross (I can not vouch for her political status, but you never know, maybe this song was about her 'coming out' as a GOP supporter...)

Your Daily Photo (20th Anniversary Edition)

The Third Street Promenade celebrates its 20th year this week.

Our local commies make it difficult for any but the biggest chains to take advantage of the prime location (that was an unintended consequence of their anti-business policies), plus they make getting in and out of the area as much of a chore as possible (somehow, they think that if it's hard to drive to a place, more will take public transport or bike into the area, instead it just means fewer people with real money to spend come).

It's successful, but it could be so much better if we had better leadership in this town.

Your Daily Photo (A Visible Sign of the Effects of the State and Local Regulatory Environment with Regards to Manufacturing Edition)

Used to be a plastics supplier and manufacturer, but plastics aren't green enough for Santa Monica, I guess.

Your Daily Photo (Just In Case You Weren't Sure Where I Was Shooting From, This Photo Is Conveniently Labeled Edition)

The rest of the set of shots taken yesterday afternoon around Yahoo Center can be found here.

I Know Our City Is Run By Some Pretty Squirrelly People, But This Is Ridiculous

Afraid that a population explosion among squirrels in a city park could pose a public health risk, Santa Monica officials are ready to try a proven method of dealing with the problem: birth control shots.

Plans call for squirrels in Palisades Park to be injected with an immuno-contraceptive vaccine to stunt sexual development. Breeding season runs from February to April, but the inoculations will take place this summer when the squirrels are most active outdoors and easier to trap.

Santa Monica would be only the second city in the state, besides Berkeley, to try the immunization program.

From today's LA Times. Seriously folks, if you can capture the critters for birth control shots, you can kill them just as easily.

Squirrels hereabouts don't just have the potential to carry any old disease, they are potential carriers for the Bubonic Effin Plague for godsakes.

I really don't think a risk of having an outbreak of the Black Death is acceptable because some folks in this city think they have to be more humane in their efforts to control the population of these bushy tailed vermin.

Anyone surprised the only other city to be this stupid in California was Berkeley?

Also, the idea that birth control truly has been a 'proven method' seems doubtful. If it's such a 'proven method' why has the only city to try it been Berkeley? Most likely it's just a method 'proven' to appease the crazier of the craziest lefties within cities that are heavily infested with active lefties. My hunch is that the UC Davis 'study' cited in support of this wasn't done by an expert in the field of pest control, but instead by some animal activist masquerading as a scientist.

This part of the article gets to the heart of why they feel it's necessary to be so stupid

Squirrel overpopulation in Palisades Park has been an issue for the last 20 years. But the debate over what to do with the estimated 1,000 squirrels in the coastal park reached a boiling point in 2005, when the city set out poison-filled traps. Joining with other activists, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals complained to City Hall that the method was painful and illegal.

"Poisons cause immeasurable suffering and prolonged deaths for the animals who ingest them," the group contended.

In February 2006, when cited again, the city tried pumping poison gas into the deep burrows where the squirrels live.

After more public criticism, City Manager P. Lamont Ewell denounced the action, saying, "as a person who loves animals, my goal is to avoid having to reduce the population of squirrels in this manner ever again."

I prefer the approach in Riverside County, it's legal to shoot the squirrels outside of city limits, so long as it's with .22 or less caliber rifle. That's probably not practical here in densely populated Santa Monica, but at least it recognizes that these vermin are just rats with a better press agent. And really, I'd love to see a group like the Riverside Varmint Callers here, but that's also impossible.

Many assume that all of California is as 'blue state' as Santa Monica and Berkeley, but the truth is, there are plenty of folks in the non-coastal counties living the reddest of 'red state' lives right here in the Golden State.

The closing quote from the article says it all, what the journalist doesn't convey is whether the jogger quoted was being derisive or admiring of our city's 'progressive edge'

Resident Mike Sheldon, who was jogging in Palisades Park recently, said he for one was not surprised by the city's action.

"Only in a city like Santa Monica would you expect this kind of behavior," Sheldon said. "Even our squirrels are living on the progressive edge."

86 Degrees

That would be the current temp where I sit, about 2000m from the big blue Pacific.

Rough life, this.

Global Warming?

Bring it on, I say.

(compare and contrast)

For some interesting countervailing thoughts regarding current global warming hysteria, visit this Don Surber post (hat tip Instapundit, who also includes an unusually long post about his own thoughts at this link).

People's Republic, Indeed

If it wasn't 65 and sunny at this moment, I might be angry.

First, the Santa Monica City Council does the sort of niggling little micromanaging stupidity that exemplifies their approach towards governance.

They took steps to address the greatest concern facing our fair city, and by that of course I mean, styrofoam containers. Their use will be banned for restaurants in our city, no word yet on whether mere possession within city limits will be a ticketable offense. Other asstastic cities (Berkeley, Oakland) have taken similar steps, but really this is just foolishness on a banning transfats level.

It was passed unanimously, the story wasn't covered in the local paper, but here's a link to the agenda item from yesterday's council meeting.

Also, to brighten my day, I noticed at Crossroads School, an expensive, exclusive, and naturally "progressive" (oops, I'm sorry, it's not just "progressive", it's "distinctly progressive") private school, they were proudly flying the Hammer and Sickle.

They have many other flags flying, but that was the only one for a no longer extant entity. It's been a long time since the Soviet Union existed, and this flag didn't look particularly well worn, some joker there just thought it would be a good idea to fly the standard of a regime and ideology responsible for the deaths of tens of millions and the repression of hundreds millions more.