Wisdoma by Brian Kindsvater

Here in Sacramento a hot topic this year is whether to raise the sales tax to pay for a new arena for the Sacramento Kings.  In a nutshell, $500 million will be raised to build an arena, the Kings’ owners will chip-in 10-15% of the initially estimated building costs, the public will pay for the inevitable cost overruns, and the Kings owners will keep all the profits from any event at the arena.  In return, the Kings agree to stay in town for another 30 years.  (No one has yet disclosed the inevitable loopholes and escape hatches that would let the Kings leave earlier).
Like it or not, that is the going rate to keep professional sports teams in all but the largest markets.

In November we will get to vote on this – sort of.

Sacramento County, which is notorious for overspending on wasteful projects and not caring too terribly much about its residents, which is why a significant part of the county is in revolt with new cities recently being incorporated in Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, and Rancho Cordova, is not putting on the ballot a $500 million proposal to keep the Kings in the area.

Nope.

We will get a ONE BILLION DOLLAR sales tax proposal.  $500 million for the Kings project, and another $500 in general revenue for the county to use as its wants.  The county has not put forward any specific need for the money, nor specified any use for the money.

Many people are focused on extortion from the Kings owners to keep in the Kings in town.  That’s nothing.  The County Supervisors are extorting everyone to the tune of an extra $500,000,000 for themselves to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

To look at this from another perspective, in 2002 the Kings franchise was worth about $209 million.  (Source: http://www.rodneyfort.com/PHSportsEcon/Common/OtherData/NBATeamValues/NBANSLI02.pdf).  It is surely worth a few million more today, ballpark it at about $250 million.
For one billion dollars, why doesn’t Sacramento just buy the Kings and keep all the revenue from a new arena?  With that hefty premium Sacramento could buy the Maloof’s continuing management of the team.  Maybe even buy their casino.

It is a hard enough sell for some to use “public dollars for private interests.”  That is a legitimate way to look at the transaction.  On the other hand, one could say a legitimate use of public dollars is to bring a professional sports team to the area.

Critics sometimes think that every public dollar must be spent on the homeless and most vulnerable in society – irrespective of fault.  That is not true.

But what must the Kings owners be thinking?  They are needlessly increasing the risk that the voters will reject a new arena because Sacramento County Superivisors have porked an extra $500,000,000.00 onto the ballot proposal.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is speaking with Italy’s Prime Minister Romano Prodi — then George W. Bush comes into the hall…

… Merkel converses with her neighbor at the table, does not notice how Bush is approaching from the rear …

… suddenly the US president lays both hands on Merkel’s shoulders …

… begins his Texan one-second massage …

… the chancellor jerks, startled, raises her hands high, does not know who has grabbed her from behind …

… and with an air of innocence the president after the joke navigates to his place at the conference table.

New Jersey and Oregon are the only states that do not allow motorists to pump their own gas.  200,000,000 other Americans, of all ages, are able to pump their own.

In the face of a New Jersey proposal to allow self-serve gas stations, Bill Dressler, executive director of the New Jersey Gasoline Retailers Association and Allied Trades, says there are safety concerns. While attendants are trained, many motorists would be novices. “It could be put in the wrong container,” says Dressler, whose group represents about 2,200 of the state’s 3,800 gas stations. There could be “somebody getting out and smoking and they didn’t turn the engine off.”

Trained gas pumpers?  Are you kidding me.  Where did they get the training?  Who trained them?  Are they licensed?  Do they have continuing education requirements?  Is there different training for regular or supreme?  Can they recommend a good donut shop?

The Moussaoui trial has ended and he is being sentenced to life in prison at the Supermax, or Super Maximum Security Prison in Colorado.

What’s next?  The Super Duper Max?  The Extra Max?  The We Really Mean It This Time This Is A Maximum Security Prison?
Does this mean all other federal prisons are less than maximum security?   Did I miss the stories about all the prison breaks because they were less than secure?

The Oscar for best movie of the year was awarded to Crash, a politically correct movie prevailing over another politically correct movie, Humpback Mountain.

Actually, the hands-down best movie of the year was Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.

Both movies were released in May 2005. Worldwide, Crash grossed $84 million. Sith grossed $848 million. Glad to see you agree with me.

Insurgents detonated bombs inside one of the Iraqi Shiite’s holiest shrines, destroying its gold dome, and leading to more than 90 reprisal attacks. The top US commander and ambassador promised that the US would pay to help rebuild the shrine.

Why? Why should US taxpayers continue to foot the bill for Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence? Or is this an implied admission that US policies have failed, leading to the current violence?

It is time to evaluate whether Iraq is in a civil war, with US forces hopelessly ensnared in the middle constituting convenient scapegoats for each side, bleeding the pockets of US taxpayers. Consider this chronology of news headlines:

January 22, 2004 – “CIA officers in Iraq are warning that the country may be on a path to civil war, current and former U.S. officials said Wednesday”

April 5, 2004 – “The Bush administration has received a warning from two senior senators that Iraq faces the possibility of civil war.”

December 28, 2004 – “Iraq faces the prospect of civil war as Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s government loses credibility and violence against U.S. forces increases, according to almost a half dozen former and serving administration officials.”

May 11, 2005 – “Seymour Hersh: Iraq ‘Moving Towards Open Civil War'”

July 10, 2005 – “Allawi: this is the start of civil war”

September 26, 2005 – “Behind the blood and chaos of the insurgents’ bombs, there is an undeclared civil war already underway in Iraq, between the Sunni minority who ruled this country under Saddam and the Shiite majority. ”

February 3, 2006 – ” Iraq’s Civil War Has Cost $3,000 Per US Family – So Far.”

70,000 people have joined protests in Pakistan against the Muhammad cartoons.  In their anger over the insult they have torched restaurants, burned movie theatres, destroyed a bus station, and ransacked the primary mobile phone operator in the country.  Protestors have also claimed all of these things, such as music and movies, are against Islam.

Committing violence and destroying property are apparently not against Islam.

It is not logical for someone to say they are offended by a cartoon, and to a result destroy their cell phone service.

These are people looking for an excuse to riot.  Apparently, a lot of of people.  The poor.  The unemployed.  The extremist religious zealots and Taliban sympathizers looking to take the world back to the 12 Century.  Opposing political parties trying to cause trouble for political gain (sounds like the US in that regard).

You have been to the auto repair shop so often that when you walk in they do not have to ask for your name or car description before pulling your records up on the computer.