Mr. Toy's Mental Notes

On the ballot for the upcoming election are two competing propositions, 98 and 99. Both deal with eminent domain, the power of government to take private property for "public use." As many of you may already know, in what was probably the least popular U.S. Supreme Court decision of all time, the term public use was defined as any use a government thinks will work better than what is there now. This gave local governments the right to force homeowners to sell their homes so someone else could build shopping centers in their place. Prior to this decision, it was assumed that public use was limited to things like roads, parks, and other, well, publicly owned things. Propositions 98 and 99 are the latest attempts to fix this injustice, at least within California. Earlier attempts failed because they tried to do more than this one thing. Their authors decided to use the public outrage against the Supreme Court decision as an excuse to have eminent domain redefined their way, by t...

Have you heard how John McCain and Hillary Clinton are pandering to voters this week? They want to eliminate federal gasoline taxes for the summer to give us a break from high gas prices. With gas pushing $4.00 a gallon, who wouldn't think this is a great idea? Not me! Gasoline taxes are the primary source of funding for our roads and highways, which, if you hadn't noticed, are falling apart. The highway trust fund already has a deficit of more than $3 billion. The gas tax holiday would add another $9 billion to that hole! That's $9 billion that wouldn't be employing construction workers who keep our roads in shape. Clinton says she'll make up the difference by increasing taxes on oil companies. So oil companies would subsidize roads we all use. McCain says he'll cover the costs by eliminating pork in them transportation budget. Fat chance. There is pork, but nowhere near $9 billion worth. Eliminating a good 25% of the year's road money would cost collective...

I turned on the radio this morning and heard a commercial for the Monterey Jaguar auto dealership. I always liked the look of Jaguars, ever since I was a kid. And we always called the car "JAG-waar" My three dictionaries say this is correct. In recent years Jaguars have been advertised by gentlemen with English accents who pronounce it JAG-you-ar. That rattled my ears a bit, but two of my dictionaries still say it is correct, albeit as a secondary pronunciation.  That said, JAG-you-ar always sounded pretentious to me, as if the user thought the dictionary's first pronunciation was lowbrow. But on the radio this morning, I realized the local Jaguar dealer has no idea how to pronounce the name of their car. The lady with the voice selling cars said "JAG-wire." She's probably a "real-uh-tur" who supports "nuc-u-lar" power. Tags: ...

Last year when the California Department of Food and Agriculture started spraying pheromones to keep these alien light brown apple moths from breeding, I was cautiously concerned about the effects of the program, but not particularly alarmed by it. But lately, every time agriculture secretary A.G. Kawamura opens his mouth to reassure us the more worried I get. In a March 30th commentary in the Monterey Herald, Kawamura used an entire column from top to bottom to tell us that the moth was a "bona fide threat" but he never bothered to point to any actual damage done by the moth, nor did he show that the moth has no natural enemies to keep it in check. He completely failed to address concerns about the pheromone spray, particularly the so-called "inert" ingredients that people are worried about. His chief concern seemed not to be so much with the moth itself, nor with public health, but with Canada and Mexico's reluctance to buy California produce unless it is i...

I've never been one to jump on a bandwagon. I find that in going along with the crowd a lot of good things get passed over unnoticed. Take the iPOD bandwagon. Apple makes a great product here, to be sure, and they revolutionized portable music with an easy interface and attractive device. However, while Apple's products are very good, if I was a grade school teacher I would put this note on Apple's report card: Does not play well with others. If you're content to limit yourself to Apple products, you'll be fine with an iPOD. But if you are like me, and don't want to become dependent on one company, there are many alternatives. Recently, I thought it would be fun to get a portable music player. I'd been working hard and wanted a new toy. Doing chores to music makes the task much more enjoyable, like a spoonful of sugar that helps the medicine go down. I've played with other people's iPODs, and found them interesting, but they have shortcomings. O...

Sing to the tune of Super-cali-fragi-listic-expi-ali-docious: Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us, Cuz the EPA won't let us regulate themostest, Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonna sue theman who hosed us, Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us. Dumb is the little minded Johnson guy, Dumb is the little minded Johnson guy. The EPA administrator says that we're apest, For doing something that we're sure isreally for the best, But Stephen Johnson's own employeesseem to side with us, To try explaining his behavior they areat a loss. OH! Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us, Cuz the EPA won't let us regulate themostest, Arnold Schwarzenegger's gonna sue theman who hosed us, Excess-Cali-fornia-green-house-gasses-gonna-toast-us. Tags: ...

I sent a letter to the president of Amtrak a few weeks ago. I was concerned with the way Amtrak was handling the Coast Starlight service disruption after a mudslide closed the tracks in Oregon. A couple of weeks later I received a nice, if somewhat vague reply signed by Alexander Kummant himself. Since Amtrak is a federally funded transportation system, I also sent copies of my letter to our two lady senators and to our Congressman Sam Farr. Sam Farr's staff sprang into action. They sent a copy of my letter to Amtrak's president seeking an explanation of Amtrak's actions on my behalf. Amtrak in turn sent Sam Farr a copy of Kummant's reply to me. Sam Farr's eager staff sent me a letter proudly informing me that they had investigated my complaint. They concluded that Amtrak had already replied to me and they sent me a copy of Mr. Kummant's letter which I had already received from Amtrak directly. No further action was taken by Sam Farr's office, as far as ...