Free Republic

Charles Darwin once famously wrote of his gradual loss of ability to enjoy music or any of the other simple joys of life, post-Theory; and I must say that at times I understand what he meant. For entirely different reasons (chemical, not spiritual), I, too, often feel incapable of discerning the bright joys of quotidian life as I used to. Yet even though the smell of life's roses goes sometimes undetected by my nose, I have faith that roses still smell sweet — and that faith is enough. So it was in 2009. Though in many ways a cherry pit...

There's a certain smug self-satisfaction emanating from Sacramento nowadays, one without recent precedent. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Green Giant of U.S. politics, beams from the cover of Newsweek. Democratic leaders, emboldened by polls showing state lawmakers' long-tiny popularity ratings are improving, aggressively push for a relaxation of term limits. The notion that the state is in an era of “post-partisan” productivity reigns over the land. In coming weeks – when the governor releases his revised 2007-08 spending plan in early May and begins the annual budget haggling in earnest – we'll find out if we really are in a new...