Sara Winchester Mystery House no Mystery

A bit of CA trivia. Reason Sara Winchester's house  - stairs ending abruptly, doors leading nowhere - is a mystery - marketers made it so!  Real truth behind the mystery: Sara was adding on to her mansion in San Jose when the 1906 earthquake happened. All work ceased on her multi-story addition. She moved to a houseboat, never to live at her San Jose mansion ever again.

At some point after her house was sold, San Jose decided to make it a tourist attraction. Indeed they did!  The myth that her house is haunted because of all the deaths from Winchester Rifles is just that - a myth!

Happy Memorial Day

Photo taken at Marin Veterans' Memorial Auditorium, Marin County, CA.

Wedding Bliss!

ok, ok. I LOVE the Royal Couple! After oogling the Royal Wedding live on BBC from SF – Friday morning, midnight to 4:30am, I concluded this couple had real class. It showed in every detail of the Royal Wedding, but what really made me fall in love with Kate and Will was their departing Buckingham Palace in an antique Aston-Martin, with the future King driving, a big, fat “L” on the front (Learner), and their tag reading “JU5T WED”. Their “cool” factor rose 99 points. Daughter and I stayed glued to the telly all day Friday, watching “E” channel coverage, which was really fun – gossipy, sometimes outrageous, and polar opposite to BBC’s coverage. “E” channel focused on clothing, hats (OMGosh!), and backstory gossip with a panel of 4 commentators including a Monarcy expert, who explained all the pomp & circumstance. Wonderful! Hubby retreated to another room and his computer. If only this class act filters down to the 20 & 30-something “me” culture…

Royal Rumors

Did Kate “pursue” Wills?

Ok, ok.  I said I wasn’t  going to listen or watch Royal Wedding stuff,  but I can’t help myself – especially when looking at the program grid for BBC America all day Sunday – nothing but shows, and more shows, re Royal Weddings, past and present.

So, I plonked myself down in my easy chair (otherwise known as a…Recliner!), and proceeded to watch the entire day all that BBC America had to offer.  The most interesting nugget of information in the BBC documentary  was  that Kate had a poster of Wills on her bedroom wall in middle school.  No big deal.  Then, she followed “in his footsteps” to Chile only a month after he journeyed there in the exact same program for some sort of life-enriching experience.  She then chose the remote, Scottish college, St. Andrews , just the same as Wills, where she signed up for the exact same courses he did, and managed to get in the same  dorm he lived in.  Hmmmmm.

Seems slightly planned on her part (chased? stalked?) and if deliberate, shows her determination and patience, not bad traits.

Long live the King (and his Queen)!

 

Marin County Government salaries

From the State Controller’s Office: http://lgcr.sco.ca.gov/CompensationDetail.aspx?entity=County&id=10992100000 Definitely NOT an April Fool's joke!

CPAC - terrific!

Not recovered from CPAC – great! – even if Charles Krauthammer on Fox News called it “fringe.” It was most definitely not fringe, and all the tv coverage was about Ron Paul winning the straw poll. He won because only 30% of the 11,000 conservatives attending voted in the straw poll, so 70% of us did NOT vote, and would not have voted for Ron Paul. The Ron Paul supporters were very vocal & strident, per their template. Three days of non-stop speakers/seminars exhausted me! It was like being in a candy store, and not knowing which goody to choose – speakers like Don Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Andrew Breitbart, Ann Coulter, + several new Congresspeople – Fabulous! + stalwart conservatives like Phyllis Schlafly – all wonderful! Foreign policy seminar, Radical Islam seminar with Aayan Hirsi Ali, on and on and on. No time for lunch even in 3 days. This was my first CPAC, but hopefully not my last!

Great idea - YouCut

From Eric Cantor, House Majority Leader: YouCut – a first-of-its-kind project - is designed to defeat the permissive culture of runaway spending in Congress. It allows you to vote, both online and on your cell phone, on spending cuts that you want to see the House enact. Each week that the House is in session, we will take the winning item and offer it to the full House for an up-or-down vote, so that you can see where your representative stands on your priorities. Vote on this page today for your priorities and together we can begin to change Washington's culture of spending into a culture of savings. http://www.majorityleader.gov/YouCut/

Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions

Published: January 3, 2011, New York Times By Steven Greenhouse

Faced with growing budget deficits and restive taxpayers, elected officials from Maine to Alabama, Ohio to Arizona, are pushing new legislation to limit the power of labor unions, particularly those representing government workers, in collective bargaining and politics. Scott Walker, new Republican governor of Wisconsin, is threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts. State officials from both parties are wrestling with ways to curb the salaries and pensions of government employees, which typically make up a significant percentage of state budgets. On Wednesday, for example, New York’s new Democratic governor, Andrew M. Cuomo, is expected to call for a one-year salary freeze for state workers, a move that would save $200 million to $400 million and challenge labor’s traditional clout in Albany. But in some cases — mostly in states with Republican governors and Republican statehouse majorities — officials are seeking more far-reaching, structural changes that would weaken the bargaining power and political influence of unions, including private sector ones. For example, Republican lawmakers in Indiana, Maine, Missouri and seven other states plan to introduce legislation that would bar private sector unions from forcing workers they represent to pay dues or fees, reducing the flow of funds into union treasuries. In Ohio, the new Republican governor, following the precedent of many other states, wants to ban strikes by public school teachers. Some new governors, most notably Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are even threatening to take away government workers’ right to form unions and bargain contracts. “We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” Mr. Walker, a Republican, said in a speech. “The bottom line is that we are going to look at every legal means we have to try to put that balance more on the side of taxpayers.” … …In the 2010 elections, Republicans emerged with seven more governor’s mansions and won control of the legislature in 26 states, up from 14. That swing has put unions more on the defensive than they have been in decades…. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/business/04labor.html?pagewanted=1&ref=business&src=me

Brown Plans to Raise California Sales, Income and Car Taxes

CRP Statement Concerning Brown Plans to Raise California Sales, Income and Car Taxes …"One time cuts and tax hikes are not going to solve the state's perpetual budget deficit. Bold, fundamental reform is needed. Where are the plans to move government workers from an unaffordable and underfunded defined benefit to a defined contribution pension system to wipe out our massive pension liability? Where are the proposals to give our school boards better tools in collective bargaining and flexibility to shop around for the best services at the lowest cost? How about a plan to do away with 'greenmail' tactics to allow something to actually be built in this state to expand our tax base and create jobs?... http://www.cagop.org/

Heritage Foundation: A Conservative New Year's Resolution

From Heritage's daily Morning Bell email:

"In recent months, the Obama administration has begun to take ideas directly from the conservative playbook.
-On national security, they’ve canceled civilian trials for terrorists, kept Guantanamo Bay open, and extended key provisions of the Patriot Act;
-On federal spending, they have proposed a federal pay freeze as a first step towards fiscal sanity;
-On immigration, the Left has abandoned its pursuit of comprehensive immigration reform; and
-On economic recovery, they have admitted that the Obama tax hikes are wrong for America."…

www.heritage.org