Statement of Principles


Nevada government keeps getting bigger and BIGGER. We deserve minimum, strictly limited, constitutional government in this State.

Forget all this blather about a $3B "shortfall". The budget for the '12/'13 biennium should be no more than $200M.



Tuesday, March 31, 2009

CCSD Theatre Fluff

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

"Ascension Day" and "Bang Bang You're Dead" are two small-scaled one-acts, mediocre in writing and direction, that want to make the world a better place. [Bang] has been rewritten post-Columbine. It tries to get inside the head of Josh, an ostracized high-school student turned killer.

Why do taxpayers tolerate this kind of fluff? If we're forced to pay for educating other people's children, the least we should be able to expect is for them to learn basic skills. Can any of these cast members (students) read Shakespeare, or even know who he was? Can any of them pass algebra?

Every one of these arts schools hires some black guy from Cleveland who dresses up in African tribal garb, calls himself Mbafa Kumpundi, and shows kids how to beat on drums. This gig is called "cultural sensitivity". I know of a performing arts high school in another large, urban school district. All day long "diverse" faculty members tell kids that Whites are oppressors.

Saturday, March 28, 2009

Rogers Defends Worthlesss Departments

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

Rogers said: If we start talking about (eliminating) a department, pretty soon everything falls apart.

How about eliminating all departments popular with "student"-athletes? UNLV is phasing out a degree program called "University Studies" because it's a jock major. Some huge percentage of players on the football and basketball teams were in it. The program's requirements are so soft, a 3rd grader could get through it. Nevertheless, most of its majors never complete it. Outrageous. Now UNLV is replacing that quack program with something called "Interdisciplinary". Same sewage, different toilet.

For that matter, how about eliminating *all* liberal arts programs? Most of those departments have no objective standards. It's noteworthy that a significant percentage of the majors are romantically involved with their professors. Why should blue-collar consumers of trashy romance novels have to pay sales taxes to support elitists who want to dissect Wuthering Heights as a pretext for sexual opportunism?

Rogers doesn't want to talk about eliminating ridiculous "academic" programs because then the truth about these charades would be exposed. Or, he might have to explain why UNLV places such a high value on professors of football ($431K per year) and basketball ($1M per year). Is Rogers the Chancellor of NSHE or ESPN?

Saturday, March 14, 2009

A Small Government Budget

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

83% of the Gibbons budget was eaten up by K-12, NSHE, & HHS. The goal of small, constitutional government would have been served by cutting these items down to their constitutional mininima.

K-12 spending (37.1%) could have been reduced to less than $2M per year by abolishing every public school except one per district. Taxpayer support for NSHE (13.7%) could have reduced to $0.00 by eliminating all University activities except practical instruction in Agriculture, Mining, and Engineering.

HHS (32.6%) is a cesspool of waste. It's only constitutional duties are management of the state institutions for the mentally ill and disabled. The detailed budget is still opaque, but it counts ~4,000 in-patients, and budgets ~$130M (less than 20% of HHS's overall budget). The prison budget ($285M per year) is perhaps most opaque of all. How many inmates are victimless criminals? Release them and CLOSE most of the prisons. How many guards are women? Fire them. I would not want to throw the helpless out into the desert, or parole violent felons, but I think that we could save a bundle by attacking the waste within these legitimate functions. I conservatively estimate at least HALF.

Many folks are a lot more familiar with PERS than I. I think we should abolish the benefit. It's overly generous, especially for employees who perform now (or did before retirement) NEGATIVE work. Offer buyouts if need be. The rest of the budget is either small fry or unconstitutional bureaucracies deserving abolition.

At a glance, my freedom budget works out to less than $250M per year. More than my oft-cited $100M figure, but not bad for an hour's work.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Buckley-Run Health Insurance Company

Originally posted in a LVRJ Forum

A health insurer might react to this kind of legislation by surrendering its license. That would reduce competition. Or, an insurer might decide to add autism coverage by dropping coverage for some other child conditions. Or, a health insurer might try to raise its rates. Either way, health insurance consumers who liked their policies just the way they were will be inconvenienced.

We don't want politicians writing insurance policies. We don't want them mucking around with the private sector. Big government never knows when to quit.