People often claim that Afghanistan is the “graveyard of empires”, and they are absolutely right! Ghengis Khan, Tamerlane, and Alexander the Great all fell to the sun-hardened warriors in the Afghanistan mountains. However,most people pay too much attention to the “graveyard” part, and not enough to the “empire” part. To say that we may meet the same fate as Alexander the Great admits that the “empire” part of that phrase must also apply to the United States. I am not going to comment on whether the United States is or is not an empire, with all the nastiness that word implies, but stop using the phrase if you don’t think the US is an empire.

A recent Chico, California city ordinance re-legalized public bowling. Which immediately begs the question–why on earth would a city council waste time making public bowling illegal? Good question. I don’t have the information on when the ordinance was passed–but bravo to the brave City Councilmembers for having the bravery to stand up to anti-bowling special interests and repeal the law. Really? Are there not more important issues to focus on?

So, thank you Chico, California City Councilmembers Mary Flynn, Scott Gruendl, Andy Holcombe, Larry Wahl, Jim Walker, Tom Nickell, and Ann Schwab. To thank each of these brave men and women personally, please email dpresson@chi.chico.ca.us and lcameron@ci.chico.ca.us, which will place a hardcopy of your email into the inbox of every councilmember.

P.S. – This is not Chico’s only historically stupid law. There is a city ordinance that says a $500 fine will be given to any person who detonates a nuclear weapon within city limits. 1.) Within city limits? Really. 2.) If they can get a nuclear weapon–don’t you think $500 is going to be easy to procure? 3.) Who is going to accept this $500 fine? 4.) Why $500? That seems absurdly low to me.

Chico, CA Mayor Ann Schwab

Newt Gingrich, the bastion of conservatism who once interested America in the Contract with America, is claiming that if the Republican Party doesn’t straighten out, a credible conservative third-party could emerge.

“If the Republicans can’t break out of being the right wing party of big government, then I think you would see a third party movement in 2012,” Gingrich said Tuesday. The speech, to a group of students at the College of the Ozarks in Missouri, was recorded by Springfield TV station KY3.

But continue reading the article–Gingrich goes on to say that although he despises Obama’s increase in the budget, the latest economic crisis began under Bush, who passed the bailout packages. It’s good to see someone with such a big name in the conservative movement not playing partisan politics. Gingrich’s message is that, essentially, the Republican Party ought to say “mea culpa” and return to small government principles.

-Nock the Blogger

With all of the recent news about bailouts, war expenditures, and stimulus packages–the word “trillion” has been thrown around a lot. To most of this, this is a number too larger to even comprehend, sort of like one million, one-hundred million, or a billion. It is important to understand the difference, though. PageTutor has a pictorial that demonstrates what a trillion dollars looks like–and I’d suggest everyone take a look.

For those who are too lazy to surf over to PageTutor, here is the last picture–of a trillion dollars stacked next to an average height man.

One trillion dollars