About Last Week… ‘Please tread on me’

“Please tread on me.”

Maybe the legislature wouldn’t exactly approve that textual change to the state flag – though some legislators might vote for it, considering their private proclivities – but at least it would be honest.

There are more than 400,000 business-related regulations on the state’s books, doctors were (even if only temporarily) banned from being honest with their patients, parents worried their eight-year-old may be a bit too young to learn about anal sex are harassed, and any attempt to voice any opinion outside of what is deemed appropriate is met with a metaphorical boot stamping on the misthinker’s face.

As Joel Kotkin recently wrote, California is where freedom goes to die.

Of course, feel free to do things in public that only a few years ago would get you tossed in jail, even if you did them in private.  

So it comes as no surprise that a bill has been proposed to limit how fast cars will go. Scott Weiner, San Francisco state senator and quite possibly a pro-treader, has introduced a bill that will make sure new cars, starting in 2027, cannot travel faster than 10 miles over the speed limit.

So, not quite the “kill switch” proposed by the feds, but at least a “coma switch” would be in every car.  And, because speed limits do things like change, the system would have to track a cars exact location at all times.

One way around this for people with long driveways would be to set an 834 MPH for said driveway and have some fun, but that may be legally impractical.

However, it will help a certain demographic group: stalkers. All they would have to do is to make sure to only buy used cars without coma switches and then they would never have to worry about their prey getting away.

And what will fancy Tesla owners do now when they will no longer be able to hit the “plaid” button?  

Welcome back to khaki, guys.

But the over-regulation does not stop in the driveway; in LA it’s moving into the house.  The county Board of Supervisors, apparently having nothing else to do, passed an ordinance that will set a maximum room temperature so people don’t have to suffer the heat.

First, that’s absurd.  Second, do the four supes who voted for the ordinance not know how INCREDIBLY DAMAGING TO THE CLIMATE AND UNFAIR AIR CONDITIONING IS!?!?

Well, let’s remind them. Eric Dean Wilson wrote a piece for Time a couple of years ago that the county nabobs clearly should read before finalizing the ordinance.

Wilson, who used the phrase “the terrible cost of comfort” in a book subtitle, has much to say on the subject. First, air conditioning can lead to “thermal monotony” which could make people “more vulnerable to heat-related illness.” 

As to thermal monotony, I didn’t know living in San Deigo was so dangerous, but I digress.

But if people are going to have to use – sigh – air conditioning, at least it should be in a communal space:

“The troubled history of air-conditioning suggests not that we chuck it entirely but that we focus on public cooling, on public comfort, rather than individual cooling, on individual comfort. Ensuring that the most vulnerable among the planet’s human inhabitants can keep cool through better access to public cooling centers, shade-giving trees, safe green spaces, water infrastructure to cool, and smart design will not only enrich our cities overall, it will lower the temperature for everyone. It’s far more efficient this way.”

Words fail me.

Speaking of failing words, three Democrats and Steve Garvey faced off in a senate race debate last week.  Garvey did well, though you would not know that from the vast majority of the media coverage.

The never-ending screeching of Adam Schiff, Katie Porter, and Barbara Lee about Big Bad Don was an exercise in talking-point induced tinnitus and utterly meaningless outside of the failed attempt to get Garvey to invoke the Orange Devil as his lord and master.

“Will you vote…” questions are sub-gotchas and remind one of the “why won’t you condemn X for Y?” reporters shout at members of Congress.  The question has no meaning and is just a verbal prop on which the reporter can hang anything they wish.  Didn’t answer?  WHY NOT?  Didn’t condemn?  HE’S EVIL!

But Garvey did have a highlight reel moment when chatting with the egregious Schiff. Adam was yammering on about Trump and democracy and this happened:

Garvey: “I believe you were censured for lying.”

Schiff: “I was censured for standing up to a corrupt president.” 

Garvey: “Sir, you lied to 300 million people and you can’t take that back.”

It’s always handy when political attacks are true and Lee and Porter must have been quite pleased with Garvey for saying what they wanted to say.

Speaking of debates, the LA DA’s race has had a few, some of which we have covered here in the Globe.

But some may be smaller or we weren’t notified of or are niche to the point of being nearly private.  

However, this recent debate is an interesting one. Hosted by The Empowerment Congress, it featured seven of the 11 candidates, including George Gascon.

According to George, he has “reduced the levels of incarceration without impacting public safety.”

And I took the all the air out of my tires and got better gas mileage.

The rest of the candidates did take shots at George, with Judge Debra Archuleta landing the most zingers.  You can watch the debate here: 

Speaking of not doing their job right, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber erred rather badly when it comes to the aforementioned senate race and candidate Christina Pascucci.

It seems that Weber’s office oopsied and “all ballots for the March 5, 2024, Primary Election were printed with an incorrect ballot designation for Christina Pascucci.”

Instead of Pascucci’s correct ballot designation, “Local Television Journalist,” the document listed Pascucci as “No Ballot Designation,” said the Pascucci campaign.

This is not a minor thing, especially for a candidate struggling to get traction.  It makes the candidate look weak, ill-prepared, a neophyte, dismissible.

Weber’s office has made the change on its website, but the ballots are already done and it’s not clear exactly what – if anything – can be done about that.

Thanks for reading the Globe!