Libertarian Librarian

Fifteen things to both hate and love about California. It's a huge state, both geographically and in terms of population, and very diverse. Given that I lived in Southern California, and that I recently visited that part of the state, the list is probably skewed toward LA and away from San Fran. So be it.

15) Love. California's referendum procedures. A bit unwieldy, and yes, some really stupid propositions make their way onto the ballot, but the ability for direct citizenry voting on major policy issues is a remarkable democratic tool.

14) Hate. The California Cheese ads. I lived in California and was frequently in a position of having to eat their cheese. It was uniformly bland and of a spam like consistency. At best it was palatable, at worst, simply dreadful. Wisconsin cheese is so much better that it's laughable to attempt to compare them-- yet the California cheese people play these ads IN WISCONSIN touting how great their lousy cheese is. Hate them, hate their cheese.

13) Love. The Mountains. We lived in Pasadena, which butts up against the Angeles Mountains-- loved that view going to work every day.

Plus, in the fall we could go up into the mountains where the leaves still change color and the air has that wonderful fall nip to it.

12) Hate. The sports apathy of Los Angeles. Not a statewide issue, or this would be higher, but the fact that the second largest city in the country can't support even one NFL team is pathetic. And the fact that more folks show up for Lakers games than Clippers games is absolutely absurd.

11) Love. The fact that many of the shopping centers in the area are outdoors (the weather certainly helps with that), and often include things like this for the kiddies:


10) Love. The Diversity. And I'm not just talking about the different colors, shapes, and sizes of the people there. Though there is a remarkable diversity of all of those things. But during my time in So. Cal. I chatted with multi-millionaires, rednecks, volunteers, gay people, Jewish people, and individuals from an incredible variety of locations in this big old world of ours. Just so you don't doubt me about the rednecks, here's a pic from the drag races I went to in Pomona:


9) Love. All the people who voted for Schwarzenegger. These folks were so fed up with business as usual politics that they went out and elected an actor who can't even pronounce the state's name correctly. Outstanding. Seriously. Arnold was swept into office on a wave of reform mindedness, which is most excellent, and from I've seen, he is actually trying to do the job for which he was elected. Sadly, the wave crested and is now receding, no longer strong enough, so it seems, to allow the Governator to actual reform anything. Which is really, really a shame.

8) Hate. The traffic. Ye gods it is dreadful.

7) Love. The weather. It was in the 70s most of the time we were there. Not too shabby.

6) Love. Disneyland. I have to admit, it was great fun. The kids loved it, the overall look and feel of the place truly was a bit magical, and we couldn't have picked a better year to go-- 50th anniversaries are pretty rare! The only minor negative was the cost. Yikes! But hey, it was a once in a lifetime kinda event, and sometimes those cost a bit of coin.


5) Hate. Smog. They say it's a lot better now than it was back in the '70s and '80s. Which is a little scary. L.A. sits in this big bowl surrounded by mountains. The smog has no where to go. Pretty disgusting:


4) Hate. All the idiots in California that shot down Propositions 75 and 76 this Tuesday. Prop 75 would've required unions to get members' consent to use union monies for political purposes. Naturally, the unions went nuts and spent millions opposing the proposition. For reasons known only to totally clueless people, enough non-union members joined the union machine to kill 75. Prop 76 would've limited state spending to the prior year's level plus the average growth of the previous three years. Well, sure, who wouldn't be opposed to that? Good grief what is wrong with these nimwits?

3) Love. The Pacific Ocean. Tremendous. Just amazing:



2) Hate. All the idiots in California that shot down Proposition 77. I guess I can understand, though completely disagree with, the opposition to Arnie's other propositions (75 & 76 above), but how in the world a majority of voters can think it's a bad idea for voter districts to be drawn be someone other than the legislature is beyond me. One of the oldest tricks in any long-time politicians bag of re-election tricks is to redefine where the voting districts are to benefit the incumbents. This practice particularly disenfranchises minorities, yet the state with the largest percentage of minority citizens in the country votes down a proposal to take this power away from the people who are most able to abuse it. Ridiculously stupid. Almost unfathomably stupid.

1) Love. Well, it's the name of a song.

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