Michael Burns's blog

I have posted my professional resume at the following link.

• Professional Resume of Michael A. Burns ...

Victor David Hanson wrote an excellent article titled "Accounting for California's Suicide" which was published by Real Clear Politics on March 6, 2009.

I suggest everyone read the above article. Once read, take action if you wish to save the State of California.

Technorati : Budget Deficit, California, Liberal Ideology
Del.icio.us : Budget Deficit, California, Liberal Ideology

So, what does a Legislature do when: 1) the budget is $42 billion short; 2) the Country is in a recession; and 3) their constituents are taking pay cuts or losing their jobs? Well, in California, the Democratic controlled Legislature raises taxes!!! (Read the article here).
Once again, it is the citizens who have to pay for their mistakes.
The Legislature in California has been on a spending spree for the last decade. And, following the "dot-com bust", the Legislature has contiunously tried to raise taxes rather than cut-spending. They have finally succeeded. The Legislature "says" there are cuts. But, you will be hard pressed to find "actual cuts". What the Legislature calls cuts is really an increase, only the increase is not as big as was desired.
Will voters in this State ever realize that the "tax and spend" philosophy does not work?
And, more importantly, will Republicans stop welcoming those who are Repbulicans In Name Only (RINO), like our Governer and the three "Republicans" in each house that had to support the proposed tax increases?

http://www.zoundryraven.com -->
Technorati : Budget, California, Republicans

I successfully completed upgrading my installation of andLinux following the instructions given here with the following exceptions:

• To get to "Software Sources", bring up the Synaptic Package Manager and select Repositories from the Settings menu.
• To run "Update Manager", I had to install it and then execute it from the command line.
  
  > sudo apt-get install update-manager
  > update-manager
  
• I had to make the same change to the rc.local file as I did when I upgraded to Hardy. The modification I needed to make is listed on this page.

The update took approximately 90 minutes complete. And, all is well.

Technorati : Hardy, Intrepid, andLinux, upgrade

For those of us in North Orange County, specifically Yorba Linda and north-east Anaheim, our commute is going to be tough for the next several months. The south-bound lanes of Imperial Highway between Orangethorpe and La Palma will be closed for up to 4 months starting Friday.

Read more about the closure in the OC Register article here.

We learned in the previous article that we have a Republican form of Government, a government ruled by law. The basis of our Government is held in the words found in the Declaration of Independence.

"... they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed ..."

And, this forms the basis of my political beliefs! From these words, I have developed the "Three P's of Government" which define the proper role of government.

Three P's of Government
Protect Life - The government must protect the citizens it represents.
Preserve Liberty - The government must preserve the freedoms of it's citizens.
Permit the Pursuit of Happiness - The government must allow it's citizens to pursue happiness.

I apply each of these to a government action to determine whether the action is appropriate or not. If the action is in opposition to any of them, then the action is inappropriate. In most cases, an action will apply to at least two of these.

For example, let's take the issue of banning fireworks, something that is very common in Southern California.

Protect Life - Banning fireworks does protect life and property. This very reason is why the bans were proposed.

Preserve Liberty - Banning fireworks takes away a freedom. Law-abiding citizens are no longer free to use fireworks if they so choose.

Permit the Pursuit of Happiness - Banning fireworks does not really apply here. One could stretch it and say that the ban prevents them from "being happy", but that is not what is meant by "pursuit of happiness".

So, "banning fireworks" is not appropriate because it takes away a freedom from it's citizens even though it may protect lives and property.

Now, this seems pretty simplistic and limits the role of government. And, that is exactly the point. The role of government in our daily lives must be limited and, applying the "Three P's of Government" consistently, we can achieve that.

Finally, someone else is putting forward the idea I suggested here, the idea of getting the State out of the marriage business. Read the opinion piece by Douglas W. Kmiec's titled "A proposal for compromise on Prop. 8".

Essentially, the idea is to eliminate marriage licensing by the State and Federal Governments and replace it with a civil union. The civil union will have all the same rights and benefits that the State and Federal Government confers to marriage today. No ceremony is required to establish a civil union, only the completion and filing of the proper paperwork.

Then, the religious institutions will be free to perform marriage ceremonies for whom they choose.

And, more importantly, those who believe the act of homosexuality is wrong will retain their First Amendment right to state their belief in the public square, whether they are an individual or a religious institution.

Let's hope this idea gains momentum and actually get's pushed through the legislative process at both levels!!!

Merry Christmas to all!
May your day remind you of the joy we have in the Lord!