Tuesday, January 14, 2025

California Wildfires

 California is once again on fire.

It seems that this is an annual event, at least in the past several years. One doesn't have to browse too deeply into the interwebs to find article after article on the mismanagement of California by Governor Gavin Newsom. I won't dig any deeper into that here.

However, from the research I've done there are approximately 24 dead, 12,000 buildings destroyed, and nearly 4000 acres burned. The cause of these fires isn't climate change as many progressives would have you believe. Also, this is not climate change denying, but simple facts. High winds, very dry conditions, human involvement, and electrical lines touching local vegetation appear to be the main culprits.

Now it's extremely easy for me to sit back and tell the Californians that "this is the government you wanted and you elected." Which is factually correct although I hate to see anyone lose their home, regardless of how much their respective net worth is. And while I some sympathy for the folks who lost everything, I'm still drawn to my People in the foothills of North Carolina who are still sleeping in tents and campers. To whom the Biden administration gave some money, but not nearly enough to rebuild. President Biden did however state in a tweet that the federal government would rebuild any and all buildings destroyed by the fires to 100%. He did not make such a bold claim to the much poorer people of North Carolina, most of whom did not vote for Biden this past November.

The internal struggle of wanting to see bad people fail (I consider Gavin Newsom a bad human being) is real with me. Instead of focusing on the nuts and bolts of his state's interior structure, he seems to have been caught up in DEI politics and hiring and promoting people based largely, if not solely, on their gender and skin color. It has been alleged that budgets have been cut in areas that directly effected both the risk of fires spreading and the human capital needed to fight the fires once they did break out.

I suppose that like most things involving state and federal government that we will never know the whole truth....


Friday, January 10, 2025

Boundaries & Consequences

 I'm told that being able to set boundaries is essential, or at least a good tool to have, for one's mental health.

While this issue is relatively new to to me personally, I can see the benefit to not end up being someone's door mat or punching bag.

However, I haven't been able to locate an article or a study on the consequences of setting boundaries. I cannot think of one single thing in life that comes without any consequences, whether intended or not, whether good or bad. There are series of articles on setting boundaries with addicts, spouses with addiction, children, teenagers, etc. But nothing on what happens with the person to whom you established the boundary. What if they retaliate? What if they decide they don't want the boundaries that have been established? What then?



As the person who usually is getting "boundaried" by my spouse what I am to do after the fact? Just accept that this is my new reality and go on about my day? Do I get to have any sort of discussion at all? It doesn't seem that way to me, at least the manner in which the boundaries are being doled out against me.
It often feels like the boundary-setting is being used as a cudgel to beat me over the head when I don't act in a given way. That is manipulation and control plain and simple.