On vacation down here in sweltering South Georgia, south of fabulous Savannah on the coast, and enjoying the near daily rain and electric thunderstorms. Awoke to NBC's Today Show morning fodder: was Michael Jackson murdered? Levi says Sarah Palin wants a reality show! And you wonder why folks have lost faith in the mainstream media. But thanks to old pal Soll Sussman, a longtime Texan and journalist I befriended a lifetime ago, for passing along a fascinating read in The Economist comparing the states of Texas and California, one lean and mean and the other a tad lefty and generous to a fault. (read complete story here) It's worth your read as we try to find our way out of this fiscal mess, and I was struck by one passage that warns everyone not to count us out. Here goes:
"Second, it has never paid to bet against a state with as many inventive people as California. Even if Hollywood is in the dumps, it still boasts an unequalled array of sunrise industries and the most agile venture-capital industry on the planet; there is no prospect of the likes of Google decamping from Mountain View for Austin, though many start-ups have. The state also has an awesome ability to reinvent itself—as it did when its defence industry collapsed at the end of the cold war. Perhaps the rejection of tax increases will “starve the beast” and promote structural reform. A referendum on a new primaries system could end its polarised politics. Mr Schwarzenegger’s lazy governorship could come to be seen not as the great missed opportunity, but as the spur for reform.
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