This ought to restore your faith in politics

Not to go all 10th grade on everybody but before you take your civics exam here, know that you most likely will fare better than your average elected official. Not that that’s any great shakes as the average score for the exam is 49% for the respondents who have never held public office vs. 44% for those who have.

We scored a 94% (31/33). We botched one question we really should’ve known but as Bill Parcells says, “You are what your record says you are.”

We fully expect to see sterling scores from at least two or three of you out there and you know who you are.

H/T: Information Dissemination

Saving You from Yourself (Updated)

“Today we are taking a strong step toward creating a healthier future for California,”

We were in the air, returning from Boston when this showed up here in the paper last week. The trans fats ban was signed into law two Fridays ago by the Governor.

Stephen Joseph who was a consultant to New York City in developing its ban, said trans fat is a larger health risk than saturated fat because it reduces so-called good cholesterol.

Who is Stephen Joseph, you are asking yourself? A dietician, perhaps or someone who holds an advanced degree in medicine and who also specializes in heart disease or cholesterol? Nope. Dude’s a lawyer....

The bill's author, Democratic Assemblyman Tony Mendoza of Artesia, said he hoped the legislation would lead to similar laws in other states.
“They've come to the realization that this is something that Americans want, that Californians want,” he said. “People are just more health conscious about what they eat.”

As sure as the Sun rises in the East, Tony has confused Californians desire to eat healthier with a desire for legislation dictating what they can and cannot eat but given a choice between the two, we know on what side of the coin our friends in Sacramento will always come down.

The California Restaurant Association opposed the California bill but has no plans to challenge the law, spokesman Daniel Conway said.
Conway said the association has no plans to challenge the law, in part because restaurants already are phasing out trans fats to satisfy customers.

Yes. You would be 100% correct if the first thing that crossed your mind was: “Then why do we need this law?” And as we’ve written before and as often times happens when legislation is passed in the name of the “N-word”, this law may actually be counterproductive as people pile-on even more trans fat-free goodies out of a false sense of security.

Our schools are miserable, we are paying way too much for goods and services across the board because of our politicians’ refusal to even consider off-shore drilling, we are facing a water shortage where plans to build a desalination plant here in San Diego lack the political backing to stand-up to environmental groups and we will continue to drive business and industry out of the state (… as companies decide to manufacture, cement, for instance in Nevada and Arizona only to truck it right back into the state in order to comply with the California Air Resources Board’s phased-in mandates to reduce CO2 emissions…. actually pumping more CO2 into the air) but….. doggone, we’re healthier and safer now because Sacramento has outlawed talking on cell phones while driving and trans fats in restaurants.

Dontcha feel so much better knowing people much smarter and benevolent than you have got your back?

UPDATE #1:We were watching the Hall of Fame preseason game this evening between the Washington Redskins and the Indianapolis Colts and ‘Skins QB Colt Brennan a rookie out of Hawai’i was making a very impressive showing with 2 touchdown passes. Commentators Al Michaels and John Madden were commenting on how Brennan’s name just sounded like a QB’s name. Madden commented that only thing that would make it better would be if he were from Butte, Montana (he's from Orange County, California) and Michaels felt compelled to one-up Madden by saying, “Yeah, and smoking a Marlboro.”

It’s obvious that Michaels didn’t get the memo and if he did, he chose to ignore it at his own peril. When the hell are people going to realize you just can’t make flip comments like that anymore. Its poor form and just encourages bad behavior. Can you imagine, now, the literally dozens of kids who were watching this game and because of Michaels' rash, insensitive and socially-corroding remarks, will want to go to Hawai’i to play football and smoke… though, we’re pretty sure that if they smoke anything in Hawai’i it won’t be cigarettes. Irresponsible. Simply irresponsible and unacceptable behavior that cannot be tolerated any longer. We need a law!!!