Just when I was thinking California’s High Speed Rail Authority couldn’t sink to a lower level of deception and lies, it does just that.

It looks like it has been taking lessons from the Chiquita Canyon Landfill folks. You know those folks – the company that donates all kinds of money to all kinds of local charities in the SCV even as it breaks the agreement to shut down the dump when it reaches capacity. But I digress.

You see, the vaunted High-Speed Rail Authority has posted a video showing how a business in the Central Valley has benefited from selling out to high-speed rail. Folks who had set up a place for kids to learn boxing and make something of themselves is featured in the video.

They say, “See what high-speed rail is doing for these poor, disadvantaged kids,” and “see how we are helping the children.” (Watch it below.)

Just like the infamous dump in Val Verde, our own state High-Speed Rail Authority shows how it is supporting and helping children. It isn’t buying the kids bikes or baseballs; instead it is buying the property and building and moving the kids.

Make no mistake: It isn’t because they want to help kids. They want the land for the rails. No more and no less.

Speaking of the dump, I’ve got to ask: Just why it is still open? Is Los Angeles County above the rule of law? The agreement states that the Chiquita Canyon Landfill will close when it reaches capacity. That happened in June. I’ll bet the trucks are still rolling in dumping trash and other stuff.

Please don’t forget, more than 80 percent of what is dumped there comes from outside of the SCV. Don’t fall for the lie that the SCV needs the dump. A lot of the SCV’s trash goes someplace else … like the landfill in Palmdale.

All of those trucks full of trash headed up the 14 are OK, and we hope and pray Cemex is truly stopped. Can you imagine another 1500-plus trucks per day on that highway?

Lawmakers in the formerly great state of California is considering another new regulation. They want to regulate bovine flatulence. Yep, you read that right. They want to stop cows from polluting the air with the methane that cows produce.

This is from the same folks who somehow couldn’t help get a leaking gas well capped for months. It spewed as much methane into the atmosphere as 100 million cows would in a year.

Don’t know how they are going to stop the cows from passing gas. There are around 5.5 million cows in the state. I’m sure that somehow the solution will involve expensive studies and more expensive equipment. This in turn causes more taxes, and then at the estimated rate of cow farts from our 5.5 million cows, we could go 20 years before it equaled the amount of methane leaked by that well.

How many millions of bison roamed North America before they were slaughtered almost to extinction? No problem with “buffalo farts” then. If we really want to clean things up, how about we start with the cranial flatulence in Sacramento? Trouble with those folk is that the hot air and gases come out of both ends.

No matter how it is done, someone will do something that “helps children” and post a video showing how they do that.

Doesn’t the formerly great state of California have more significant problems to solve? What about the water supply? Fixing the roads and highways? Schools? I don’t think cow farts are a problem for the state.

Actually I’m once again an outsider. For a number of years I wrote about the SCV while I was stationed in Virginia. Now I’m in Arizona. A little town called Bullhead City. It is a bit warm here at times, but what the heck –it’s a dry heat. The old RV is doing well, and the little Jeep still follows too closely as we go down the road, but home is where I find it. The SCV will always be my hometown.

Fact remains I can’t afford to live in it. Housing costs, taxes, insurance, fuel prices and maybe cow farts have pushed me away. Some of you like that. That is fine with me. I’m a “zonie” now.

Cooler today. Only 103. May have to take a dip in the river. Looks like a warm weekend. Temps will be near 115. Dry heat. Slight breeze of 20 mph from the south.

Be well, my friends.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School before joining the Navy. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].