Powerless Sagacity
In the midst of an energy glut here in The Golden State, with serious financial problems facing us because the governor committed our future tax dollars to buying electricity at prices well above ridiculous, there's now growing concern that everything that's been done is putting us back in the way of a major energy deficit as early as this spring. All of the official faux flurry in Sacramento over the past year was just stage-managed fiscal machinations that cost us over $13 billion and erased any semblance of a projected budget surplus that might have helped to solve real problems, e.g., children in some San Francisco schools sit shivering in their coats and hats and classrooms because the buildings aren't heated.
As we enter the election year, where Gray Davis' effort at job renewal is on the line, we can expect the noise to get louder and the lies more strident, but people who expect much light with the heat are going to be disappointed. First we have the primary in March, where Davis gets a pass as all eyes will be focused on the Republican frolic. If his health holds out, former LA Mayor Dick Riordan will come out on top of Secy State Bill Jones and the Son of William Simon — a pair of politically-lightweight conservatives — with a significant leg up on Davis, who will have no wind in his sails. Then we'll have to endure eight months of smoke — not even heat — until we choose between the two. It's hard to be optimistic that our crises will be that patient.
At lunch with two dear political pals last week, The Illustrious Triad came to the conclusion that the contorted shape-o'-the-world was due, in unrelated symmetry, to three problems. First, that the failure to pioneer solar alternatives to fossil fuels had left us not only dependent on oil but under the thumb of the alien Arab culture represented by Saudi Arabia; fifteen of the terrorist hijackers were Saudis. The same system that reared these psychotics have been indoctrinating millions of children around the world with anti-Western — read American — hatred for decades.
Second, whether for reasons of misplaced national guilt, corrupt political contributions, or the Mossad has something on the decision-makers — most likely a combination of all three — we have supported Israel politically and financially beyond reason, sowing seeds of hatred through three generations of Islamics who now comprise about 16% of the world population. We only recently have uttered more than tepid opprobrium for the continuing settlement of Arab lands.
And third, we have failed to stem the population explosion. Does that require clarification? More people requiring more energy, chasing fewer resources, destabilizing governments, including nuclear powers like India and China. Also, while some would hold to the theory that the percentage of lunatics are the same — that it's just the number of incidents are greater — I think it's becoming obvious to even the loudest deniers that we're facing a too-many-rats-in-the-box problem, and it's only going to get worse.
What does our prandial sagacity have to do with the governor's race? It's probably not enough to say that California is likely to be the economic engine on which the country will ride out of the recession, whenever. Or that the state, when it was chugging along fat-dumb-and-sassy a year ago, was maybe the fifth largest economy in the world. Not that we formulate U.S. foreign policy, but we could certainly be looking harder into solar technology. And heaven knows, we of the state with the motto, Eureka — I have found it — could bespeak as much if we put our resources to it.
The problem. No one is even talking about it. I would like to think that the people of California would flock to the polls if they thought they could vote in a leader. What a concept. And while it will never be too late, the sooner we have — or make — the opportunity, the less damage we will have to repair.
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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