From the People's Republic of Seattle:

I've spent the last 2 days in Olympia meeting with leislators (all Democrats) from the 33rd and 34th districts on the following issues:

Employers forced to pay medical insurance for all workers.

Mandatory 5 weeks paid family medical leave for all workers.

Mandatory smoking ban in all businesses and public buildings.

Doubling the current tax on all cardrooms to 20% of gross receipts. This would close at least 30 businesses employing over 100 each people earning an average of $21 per hour. This would eliminate 3000 jobs and $131 million in payroll for a tax that would generate only $10 million to $15 million dollars. They want this money to provide even more free health care to the extimated 2,500 bums (er.. homeless) that wander the streets of Seattle.

I feel like I'm in Europe already.

Now I know oj hates smoking and gambling, but personally, I feel like I'm in Europe already.

Pardon my many typos and errors above. I'm a little too close to this situation to be calm.

Pat made my point - Blue America shares European culture, and will take us down Europe's road if they can.

Continental Europe will be our last enemy, the final redoubt of statism and secularism.

"...what culture do we share with a secular statist Realist Europe?"

Common languages, common history, common heritage, similar political institutions, integrated economies...the list goes on and on. Culture is more than political economy. And Blue American is still America, too. Their interests and their preferences count.

--Their interests and their preferences count.--

Not if it sets us on the road to wrack and ruin. Let them move to Europe or Canuckistan.

Language? Not with the contitent.

History? Not with the continent after Magna Carta

Heritage? They aren't Christian anymore.

Political Institutions? Everyone has them now

Integrated economy: The whole world has one now.

all of our connections to europe are in the past tense. also, people didn't come here because they thought europe was good, they came here to escape europe. if the europeans can and will be of assistance then fine, but i have not a jot of sentimentality towards them and mostly hold them all in disdain. the next time europe gets in serious trouble, they are going to have to solve it themselves because i just don't see the american citiznery spending money or blood on those unworthy s****

pj,
I agree. Blue states and democrats in general want to make everyone dependent upon the state. The only good thing (and it is a big thing) about them having all the power in WA is that they will create the conditions for their own demise. I hope that time doesn't come too late for my company's survival. Having total power has driven them crazy.

In terms of history, I think Brandon was referring to events like WW1, WW2 and the Cold War whereby the US and Europe did go through a fairly heavy period of interaction.

Interaction? They lay prone while we defended them.

"Language? Not with the contitent."

I'll give you half a pass on that one. I suppose Spanish isn't as common in New Hampshire as it is in Arizona.

"Not with the continent after Magna Carta"?????

So you are writing 700 years of history including all of the settlement of America by Europeans out of our common history? Come on.

"Heritage? They aren't Christian anymore."

So is religion the sum total of our heritage? Philosophy doesn't count at all?

Brandon:

Yes. We share a history with the Brits not the conitnent.

they don't believe in Greek philosophy any more either.

Unfortunately, you haven't heard of the process of "Californication."

Sounds like you are in the final stage or two -- where the businesses move away to found some new paradise of the productive and the liberals blame them for the squalor the liberals actually created.

Eventually, the liberal elite also flees the scene to follow the productive, leaving Detroit in their wake to begin the process anew.

Brandon,

Common history? We have a feudal past and a fascist recent past?

Similar political institutions? We have a Presidential system, not a parliamentary system. We have single member districts, not some goofy form of proportional representation. We use Anglo-Saxon common law, they use the Code Civil. They have state churches, we do not.

aml: just one word for you -- arnoldification.

i wonder if the people who knock california would feel the same way, if they could afford to live here. just asking.

cjm;

Yes. I could afford to live in California, but having spent quite a bit of time there on business, there's no way I'd ever move there. I can't tell you how much fun I had when Californians came out here in pointing out some of the quality of life issues - "Yeah, it was a tougher than normal commute yesterday - I hit a red light!". "Oh man, a parking ticket - that's $3 down the drain!". Heck, I could walk to work faster than most of the Californians could drive.

With the rise of the Internet and on-line shopping, most of the advantages to be had in California are now available here in the hinterlands. I mean, what else would one need for intellectual stimulation than this weblog?

aog: if one is concerned about the price of parking tickets, one can't afford to live here. it didn't used to be so crazy expensive, and i couldn't afford to move here myself (been here long enough to have bought in cheap).

i don't knock other places gratuitously, but will be happy to do comparisons when challenged. fundamental economics informs even the casual observer that california is far and away the most desirable place to live in north america. you might disagree, but that doesn't change the facts.

there are many beautiful places to visit, outside of california, but for year round residency it is the best, hands down. if you or anyone else are happy where you are then good on you, but happy people don't usually feel the need to make the kind of cracks that are so often directed at california. maybe there is a reason you are "angry" and i am "grateful"

Just the noxious impact that 'California cuisine' has had on our nation's diet is enough to avoid the place. The San Diego area is indeed beautiful and friendly, but the sheer weirdness quotient even there is too high for me, and I'm an NYC boy and former academic.

AOG is right to point out the fact that many of the advantages of living in California can be compensated for over the Net. The same is true for NYC. If you are a Classical music buff, you are better off listening to a good Deutsche Gramaphon CD of Beethoven or Mozart than going to a live performance of the NYC Philaharmonic at Lincoln Center. If you want good deli but live in Jacksonville, you can get overnight from the Carnegie Deli or the Second Avenue Deli.

bart: and when the northeast is grinding through an ice storm while socal is 80 degrees, where do you order out for that :) ? the place where i live has almost the same weather as Provence but without the irksome presence of french people. sure there are lots of weird people here but i kind of find them entertaining in a "theater of the absurd" way.

cjm,

You can avoid the ice storms of NYC or the weirdos of Socal while gaining most of the benefits of either place if you live in a whole bunch of areas of the country. Speaking for myself, I've considered relocating to any of about six metro areas, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Jacksonville, the Space Coast of Florida, the Tampa area or Hawaii. Each has its virtues and each has its faults, just as NYC and Socal do, but the striking thing is how easy many of the necessary accoutrements of a decent life that would rivet one to NYC or Socal, from top-quality pastrami to the Marriage of Figaro, are available on the Web.

cjm;

I like ice storms. The aftermath is phenomenonally beautiful (you can't capture it on film - the movement and the subtle rainbow refractions are too much a part of it). Moreover, I hate leaving the house and an ice storm provide the perfect excuse.

And I'm not "angry", I just enjoy annoying people (hence, the psuedonymn). What does upset me a bit is the assumption of so many Californians that everyone would move there if they could, it's only a lack of money or talent that prevents it. The implication of this is that people who don't live there are incompetent dregs. I make cracks as payback for that.

As an example of this kind of thing, you say it's a fact that California is the most desirable place to live in North America. That's not a fact, it's the mode of a large number of opinions. You're committing the error of mistaking a statistical tendency for an absolute, on the order of thinking "men are stronger than women" means "any man is stronger than any woman".

Besides, I was just answering your question :-)

aog: i know many many people are perfectly happy where they are, and note i didn't say california is the "best" place in the u.s.

but it is a measurable fact that california is the most desirable, based on population trends and the cost of real estate.

the people who say those things aren't native californians (i am 5th generation).

bart: i know, isn't fantastic how much is available at the touch of a key :) ? i am a movie collector and a pretty big collector of music, too. also, i buy lots of technical books from amazon. all in all its a golden age we live in.