So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye

Indeed, it’s time for me to hang up the closed sign on this blog.

Thanks to everyone at NBC Local Media for allowing me to opine on state politics for close to a year.

If you aren’t already, be sure to check in on the new KNBC website at NBCLosAngeles.com, which continues to have the best local mainstream news coverage of the local networks.

As for me, my postings can usually be tracked by checking in at davidmarkland.com – stalkers can also get more frequent, personal updates on me via Twitter.

To be honest, I may drop thoughts on here from time to time. I have a backlog of post drafts I still need to to cater to, and simply saying goodbye can be so hard sometimes.

California to become part of China, predicts Russian professor

On the bright side, if Russian academic Igor Panarin’s prediction that 7 Western states will be absorbed by China after an upcoming US civil war, California will be its namesake: “The California Republic.”

Panarin first presented his theory of the United States collapse in 1998 without much fanfare, but has increasingly been covered in the mainstream press, perhaps in part to the steep economic downturn on the heels of the Russian’s forecasted date: 2010.

 

He predicts that economic, financial and demographic trends will provoke a political and social crisis in the U.S. When the going gets tough, he says, wealthier states will withhold funds from the federal government and effectively secede from the union. Social unrest up to and including a civil war will follow. The U.S. will then split along ethnic lines, and foreign powers will move in.

California will form the nucleus of what he calls “The Californian Republic,” and will be part of China or under Chinese influence. Texas will be the heart of “The Texas Republic,” a cluster of states that will go to Mexico or fall under Mexican influence. Washington, D.C., and New York will be part of an “Atlantic America” that may join the European Union. Canada will grab a group of Northern states Prof. Panarin calls “The Central North American Republic.” Hawaii, he suggests, will be a protectorate of Japan or China, and Alaska will be subsumed into Russia.

Of course, the biggest beneficiary of this would be Sarah Palin, who could then run for President in Russia, perhaps arguing that her foreign policy expertise comes from living right next door to Canada.

Your high school exam proudly presented by…

Governor Schwarzenegger may be wise to look to San Diego high school teacher Tom Farber with help solving the state budget crunch. Faced with a sliced budget for school supplies, including printing, Farber turned to a little product placement to fill the gap:

At 3 cents a page, his tests would cost more than $500 a year. His copying budget: $316. But he wanted to give students enough practice for the big tests they’ll face in the spring, such as the Advanced Placement exam.

 

“Tough times call for tough actions,” he says. So he started selling ads on his test papers: $10 for a quiz, $20 for a chapter test, $30 for a semester final.

San Diego magazine and The San Diego Union-Tribune featured his plan just before Thanksgiving, and Farber came home from a few days out of town to 75 e-mail requests for ads. So far, he has collected $350. His semester final is sold out.

More at USA Today.

EHarmony reluctantly providing dating services to homosexuals, will enthusiatically cash the payments

E Harmony, the online dating site long known for providing its services exclusively to heterosexuals (or at least people seeking a relationship with a member of the opposite sex) has agreed to create an similar service for homosexuals. Compatible Partners, the new service from the Pasadena based company, will launch sometime prior to March 31st following a settlement from a New Jersey lawsuit:

The lawsuit was filed by the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division on Civil Rights. The case originated in 2005 when a New Jersey resident filed a formal complaint with that state, alleging that eHarmony violated his rights under the state’s Law Against Discrimination by not offering a same-sex matching service.

In July 2007, the director of New Jersey’s Division on Civil Rights issued a “finding of probable cause” that eHarmony had violated the discrimination law. [Daily News]

E Harmony has argued previously that the reason they haven’t offered services to same sex couples is that their system is based on “29 dimensions of compatibility” found on heterosexual couples they’ve studied. Their new site will be based on the same research, which they suggest may not work for same sex couples… which, of course, isn’t keeping them from putting their oft used word “compatible” into the name and url of the new service, CompatiblePartners.com.

Pot dealers encroaching on Starbucks territory

This is hard to believe: the Office of National Drug Control Policy is claiming San Francisco has more cannabis clubs than Starbucks by 98 to 71. I’m not going to argue that San Francisco has a large number of pot sellers, but more locations than Starbucks? Inconceivable! I’ve been there… there’s at least one Starbucks for every joint tokin’ vagrant.

San Francisco’s Department of Public Health disputes the Federal finding, saying they only have 24 pot clubs registered.

Either way, this doesn’t count in the number of underground dope sellers in San Fran, operating from home, public parks, and, of course, the bountiful of Starbucks.

More at SF Gate.

California’s electoral votes called into question over Obama’s citizenship

 

Image of Obama and Keyes from NBC Augusta

Alan Keyes has latched onto the bigfoot theory that Barack Obama may not be a natural born US citizen, and has filed a suit in California Superior Court to postpone certifying the state’s electoral votes until someone can provide proof of Obama’s citizenship… in spite of assorted groups, including FactCheck.org and mythbusting website Snopes have already backed the claim. The American Independent Party and other groups have joined the suit.

NBC Augusta has also posted a copy of the birth certificate.

What’s surprising is that it seems every time one of these whackball claims that Obama is not a natural born citizen, a new, sometimes made up, challenge to his legitimacy arise. After a copy of a birth certificate was presented, and verified, conspiracy theorists claimed it didn’t count because it wasn’t an original. Then, after FactCheck wrote that they had seen an even touched the original in Hawaii, the nutjobs then claimed FactCheck was in cahoots with Obama over the whole deal. Some tin foil hat folks, conceding the birth certificate was real, and that Obama was born in the US, went so far as to claim that because Obama had also gained Kenyan citizenship during his youth, he was no longer considered a natural born citizen… if you believe this, then you probably also believe there’s a trick to regain your virginity.

But, Keyes has learned over the past 8 years that if you tell a mistruth enough times, more people are bound to believe it.

Feinstein forgoes opportunity to raise CA funds by attempting to ban scalping of Inauguration tickets.

After reports came in that tickets to Obama’s inauguration had been drawing bids of up to $40,000 on eBay, California Senator Diane Feinstein has pushed for a bill to “make it illegal to sell or attempt to sell tickets to the swearing it.” Not only is this another case of a Democrat attempting to interfere with capitalism, its verging on treasonous to the state of California – not only does it keep our politicans from selling their tickets to help balance the state budget, it also keeps valuable commissions out of the pockets of California based eBay!

The OC Register’s Total Buzz blog explains how the ticketing process should work:

“Inaugural tickets are distributed by House and Senate members and all the offices are already oversubscribed with requests. Congressional offices won’t even get the tickets until the week before the swearing in and people will have to show ID when they go – in person – to pick up the tickets.”

Feinstein argues that the bill will stop “unscrupulous behavior” anyone who obtains the tickets for free… so instead politicians should just give them out to their highest donors, or people to whom they owe favors. Its so democratic!