California

Prison BarsPrisons are big business- they make a lot of money for the suppliers and fund, in an indirect way, the work of the police officers and forces who put people in them. They are also a necessary institution to keep the state functioning- protect the masses from the individuals who do not participate in society the way that creates a liveable society. For most of us, people go into and come out of prison without much affect on our day-to-day lives. We don’t think about prisons as something that needs to be managed- well, at least, I don’t think about prisons on a day-to-day basis. Read more

As you may well have noticed, we’re currently in a recession. It’s affecting all of us, from the poorest writer to the states themselves. There’s a theory in economics that an economic downturn acts a little like a natural brush fire; the weakest gets burned away, and the strongest are forced to pare down, streamline and become more efficient. The companies that thrive and prosper will be those that are able to adapt to the new climate most rapidly, and especially those that are able to use technology to make themselves more profitable. Read more

IronyLet me preface this by saying that I couldn’t be more favor of same sex couples having equal rights and protections under the law as anyone else. Actually, it’s my view that no government, be it state or national, should be in the business of marriage at all; civil partnerships, certainly, but for me, marriage should be a religious sacrament, for churches to decide on for themselves, but be separate from any legal meaning.

This all being the case, it seems to me that yesterday’s decision by the California Supreme Court to uphold proposition eight was the right one, even if a large part of me is disappointed by the outcome. I’m sure that, should the decision have gone the other way, I and a decent sized part of the population of California (not to mention equal rights campaigners across the country) would have been more than satisfied and been able to turn a blind eye, to a certain extent, to the use of the court’s power. Read more