Free Cities
California
California Leads the Nation in Bringing Back Medieval Illnesses
Victor Davis Hanson pointed out some years ago that California ignored its premodern problems while dreaming of postmodern marvels such as high-speed rail. There’s no better example of a premodern problem that’s been allowed to take root and thrive than the Medieval diseases now plaguing the state. California Healthline recently ...
Blog
Justice for Crime Victims Isn’t a “Bedrock Value” in Gavin Newsom’s California
Gov. Gavin Newsom triggered a firestorm on Wednesday by signing an executive order ordering a moratorium on the death penalty. His action effectively grants a reprieve from lethal injections for the state’s 737 death row inmates. According to Politico, his action will most benefit the 24 death row inmates who ...
Blog
Water, Water In The Desert, But Still None To Drink
A proposal to draw water from the desert to slake perpetually dry Southern California seems no closer to reality now than it did when the idea emerged well more than a decade ago. The project has, according to California Water News Daily, “received numerous validations of its plans, including its ...
Blog
Well-Meaning Government Anti-Poverty Programs Actually Hurt the Poor
I recently explained in these pages how government welfare programs keep people at a sustainable level of poverty instead of helping people escape poverty. Little of the actual results of welfare policies resemble the promises made by their proponents at their outset. But the insidious effects of persistent government intervention ...
Blog
Proposition C Makes San Francisco A ‘Sanctuary City’ For The Homeless
When San Franciscans went to the polls on Nov. 6, they knew in advance what the consequences are likely to be if an initiative to tax corporations to fund services for the homeless was approved. Yet they passed it anyway. Nearly 61 percent voted for Proposition C, which imposes a ...
Blog
Giving People Cash to Do Nothing Won’t Reduce California Poverty
The latest hot social theory in California is universal basic income. Essentially, it’s about paying people to do nothing. Academics and tech titans have promoted it to address poverty, rising costs of living, and even the temporarily disruptive effects of innovation. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs has generated national headlines for ...
Agriculture
A way out of California’s water crisis
California’s chronic water problems were once again national news when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation establishing a code of water-use restrictions that would be more fitting for an undeveloped nation. As usual, policymakers chose the austerity of coercive public policy over the voluntary, cooperative agreements that markets use to efficiently ...
Blog
New Permanent State Water Restrictions Won’t Increase Supply
California’s man-made drought will become permanent in 2022, the year that “guidelines for efficient water use” must be in place to comply with a couple of bills signed in late May by Gov. Jerry Brown. The main provisions of Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668 are, according to the ...
California
State Should Embrace Charities, Nonprofits to End Homeless Crisis
California, long considered a land of golden opportunity, has a homeless problem. To the north of San Diego, not far from the gates of the fantasy world at Disneyland, a two-mile long homeless camp reminds us of a real and ugly world. Street people are slowing rail traffic between Sacramento ...
Agriculture
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will We Ever Build More Water Storage in California?
Read the PDF It’s not elected officials’ fault if it doesn’t rain. But they are largely responsible for the issues that arise when it doesn’t. That’s why California’s most-recent drought was often referred to as man-made. The next one, which will reportedly arrive this year, should carry the same label. ...
California Leads the Nation in Bringing Back Medieval Illnesses
Victor Davis Hanson pointed out some years ago that California ignored its premodern problems while dreaming of postmodern marvels such as high-speed rail. There’s no better example of a premodern problem that’s been allowed to take root and thrive than the Medieval diseases now plaguing the state. California Healthline recently ...
Justice for Crime Victims Isn’t a “Bedrock Value” in Gavin Newsom’s California
Gov. Gavin Newsom triggered a firestorm on Wednesday by signing an executive order ordering a moratorium on the death penalty. His action effectively grants a reprieve from lethal injections for the state’s 737 death row inmates. According to Politico, his action will most benefit the 24 death row inmates who ...
Water, Water In The Desert, But Still None To Drink
A proposal to draw water from the desert to slake perpetually dry Southern California seems no closer to reality now than it did when the idea emerged well more than a decade ago. The project has, according to California Water News Daily, “received numerous validations of its plans, including its ...
Well-Meaning Government Anti-Poverty Programs Actually Hurt the Poor
I recently explained in these pages how government welfare programs keep people at a sustainable level of poverty instead of helping people escape poverty. Little of the actual results of welfare policies resemble the promises made by their proponents at their outset. But the insidious effects of persistent government intervention ...
Proposition C Makes San Francisco A ‘Sanctuary City’ For The Homeless
When San Franciscans went to the polls on Nov. 6, they knew in advance what the consequences are likely to be if an initiative to tax corporations to fund services for the homeless was approved. Yet they passed it anyway. Nearly 61 percent voted for Proposition C, which imposes a ...
Giving People Cash to Do Nothing Won’t Reduce California Poverty
The latest hot social theory in California is universal basic income. Essentially, it’s about paying people to do nothing. Academics and tech titans have promoted it to address poverty, rising costs of living, and even the temporarily disruptive effects of innovation. Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs has generated national headlines for ...
A way out of California’s water crisis
California’s chronic water problems were once again national news when Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation establishing a code of water-use restrictions that would be more fitting for an undeveloped nation. As usual, policymakers chose the austerity of coercive public policy over the voluntary, cooperative agreements that markets use to efficiently ...
New Permanent State Water Restrictions Won’t Increase Supply
California’s man-made drought will become permanent in 2022, the year that “guidelines for efficient water use” must be in place to comply with a couple of bills signed in late May by Gov. Jerry Brown. The main provisions of Senate Bill 606 and Assembly Bill 1668 are, according to the ...
State Should Embrace Charities, Nonprofits to End Homeless Crisis
California, long considered a land of golden opportunity, has a homeless problem. To the north of San Diego, not far from the gates of the fantasy world at Disneyland, a two-mile long homeless camp reminds us of a real and ugly world. Street people are slowing rail traffic between Sacramento ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: Will We Ever Build More Water Storage in California?
Read the PDF It’s not elected officials’ fault if it doesn’t rain. But they are largely responsible for the issues that arise when it doesn’t. That’s why California’s most-recent drought was often referred to as man-made. The next one, which will reportedly arrive this year, should carry the same label. ...
