Advisor Blogs

The recession is upon us.

While still not official, most agree that we are in an economic downturn. Unemployment is rising, housing prices are plummeting and energy costs are soaring. As a result, in this election year, the federal government is offering tax rebates (admittedly ill-advised) to lessen the pain.

But in California, politicians think there are only two times to raise taxes -- good times and bad times. Oddly enough, this is one of those times.

1. Local College Econ Prof Parrots "Wisdom" from Internet Spammers
2. Duncan Hunter's HUGE Fund Raising a Farce
3. All of Rider's Major Lawsuits Have Been about Properly Voting for Tax Increases and Issuing Bonds
4. In This Game, God Abandoned the Methodists
5. The Insanity That Is Oakland: Illegal Affirmative Action in Firefighter Selection
6. Here's My $10 Cash Christmas Present -– from Me to YOU!
7. CraigsList Bans Our Gonzo San Diego Firefighter Ad
8. The New (Well, Recent) Multi-TRILLION Dollar GOP Spending Plan
9. End the War on LEGAL Drugs

It's screwy: TV networks MUST have watchers -- lots of us -- or they go out of business. So why are they making it so hard to watch their shows?

I'm talking about the wacky practice of scheduling shows at odd times and odd lengths. It's in pursuit of a bone-head theory about preventing channel switching, but it more likely prevents watching in the first place.

Six Items – Five on San Diego fires, last one on home prices.

This is devoted entirely to fire fighting in general, and the San Diego County fire disaster in particular. The good news is that -- at TREMENDOUS expense and tragic loss of life -- we had an opportunity to learn from the 2003 massive Cedar fire, with four years to implement needed improvements and reforms. The bad news is that, in some critical matters, our politicians and bureaucrats didn't seem to learn a damn thing.

1. Win a Nobel Peace Prize. Al Gore did it – you can too!
2. Bring Back Gray Davis! He Would Be Better than Arnold.
3. Media bias? Yes, But Perhaps Even Worse Is Reporter Laziness.
4. I Mean It! Gray Davis WAS a Better Governor than Arnold. Just Ask Gun Owners.
5. Further Proof Arnold Is a Terrible Governor. He Lied About Supporting Open Government.
6. The Hidden Cost of Depreciation in Public Works.
7. Trolleys FAR More Crime Ridden than Buses.
8. Portland, the Smart Growth Model for Central Planners, Gets Thoroughly Debunked.

Me 'neither. But how often do you read this trite phrase in articles about the Boomer Generation? Plenty!

It might seem just trivial. But it's actually a negative stereotype, a meaningless generality to apply to almost 80 million people. And the next step after stereotyping is prejudice. Saying "aging boomers" is saying Boomers are no longer normal people.