Darryl Manzer

If the weather guessers are correct, this will be the last time I write something when the outside temperature is 4 degrees. It is a little warmer inside. All the way up to 62. You see, I’m out of propane for the heater until I can get out onto the ice-covered road. Got to love it here in the old Bluegrass State.

What a great bit of weather in California for the Chamber of Commerce. The weather might be the only thing about our state that makes people want to live there. It sure isn’t the politics, low taxes, high-speed rail system, traffic on the 405, insurance rates, ad infinitum.

Why do we stay in the SCV? Is it because of the affordable housing? How about the great county of Los Angeles?

I’m still amazed that we have five supervisors for the 13 million or more folks of Los Angeles County when the “backwoods country folks” of Trigg County, Ky., have a total of eight reps for 13,000 folks. I think they counted the cows, hogs and chickens in the census, too. Really makes me feel I have good representation in L.A. County.

With all of the huge problems confronting our county, it seems the five supervisors we elected have to change the official county seal again, or maybe they’re only talking about it. Beware when politicians are talking about something that doesn’t cost much, because you can be sure they are talking about something else that will cost us plenty. We won’t know now, but we sure will when we see our next tax bill.

Had a strange thought, sitting here so near the home state of Al Gore. I wonder how “global warming” is working for him tonight? Of course he can afford the extra costs for heating. Maybe he can burn copies of the DVD that helped him earn a Nobel prize.

And just what is a Nobel Peace Prize? It really used to mean something. It looks like it is all politics now. So sad.

Cecil Sims (Click image for more)

You can bet President Obama didn’t have Mr. Sims for his senior-year civics class. I would bet it was a better course in our federal Constitution than any he had at whatever school he attended. I wish he would show us his transcripts. Oh, no. Now the NSA is going to look closer at my little articles here. Goes along with the audit I got from the IRS last year.

I’ve got to say, the education I received in the SCV schools was simply the best. All California schools were envied by just about every other state. What happened? Social experiments, for one thing. I’m still curious about the day little Johnny decides he is really a girl and uses the girl’s locker room at Hart. A lot of us would have loved that choice back in the day. I did do a little dreaming about such a situation back then. Guess that proves I couldn’t qualify for the new standards.

Another little thought: Just what is the Department of Homeland Security going to do with all of those weapons they’ve bought? I thought we had an Army and a National Guard in every state.

So now the NSA is going to tell the DHS to have the TSA make my life more difficult by having the IRS…

Is it the goal of this administration to make an acronym using every letter of the alphabet? Seems not even the military is doing such a good job of it. And if you use an acronym enough, you soon forget the real purpose of the agency of that acronym.

Now the IRS is collecting money for our health care. Please remember this: Having health insurance is not the same as having health care. Isn’t there an acronym for that? Oh … Obamacare is called the ACA or the “Affordable Care Act.” Since when has Congress done anything for us that is “affordable?”

Cheers.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries, published on Tuesdays and Sundays, are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].