Yesterday I lamented the potential banning of fire.
For those of you that don’t know, I live in a town that rivals Berkeley for nuttiness. Thanks to the progressive thinking fomented by Chico State University, Chico is often like an alternate reality in a sea of conservative rural farmers.
In today’s Chico Enterprise Record “Hits and Misses” we have another example of this.
The city of Chico is talking about raising all sorts of fees and fines in an effort to plug an enormous hole in its budget.
The council has for years approved spending millions of dollars it didn’t have, shifting money around to hide the problem. Now it’s out in the open, and citizens will pay dearly if they dare break city laws.
But there’s good news out there for nuclear bomb owners. The current fine for a first-time violation of the city’s nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064. Under a proposal to revise certain fines, a first-time offense will be reduced to $1,000.
For those of you new to town, this is not a joke.
http://www.chicoer.com/editorials/ci_23322509/editorial-hits-and-misses
No, really, it isn’t a joke.
No person shall produce, test, maintain, or store within the city a nuclear weapon, component of a nuclear weapon, nuclear weapon delivery system, or component of a nuclear weapon delivery system under penalty of Chapter 9.60.030 of the Chico Municipal Code.
Source: http://www.chico.ca.us/document_library/municode/Title9.pdf
On my Facebook page where I first mentioned this hilarity, Ric Werme had the best comment:
Ric Werme: Say what you will, but ever since the nuke ordinance law was passed, there have been no nuke ordnance explosions in town. Clearly that law has been more successful than the budget process!
Please excuse me, while I go enjoy some yellow cake while looking over my shoulder.
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@Anthony
Please don’t leave Cali before you give us a rundown on your solar panel installation. Will it at least run your air conditioner in the summer?
So you get fined more for ignoring smoking bans in Chico than for making a nuclear bomb. Yep. That town is nutty.
Next they will class a$$ bombs a weapon of mass (wind) disturbance…and fine that too…and repeat offenses? I should be locked up, I can’t afford the fines!
Anthony, you come across as very angry and … touchy… about Chico. I feel the same way about California. I would like to live up near Bishop when I’m done here at China Lake but think I’ll just keep rolling up 395 till I get to Carson City. I’ve no hope the politics of California will moderate any time soon. There is certain hell to go through first.
I attended CSUC for three years (Geology 1984) and appreciated the college town feel. But I never bonded with the town. The last two years I rented an old cottage up in Paradise, very quiet and the climate was much nicer. The daily bike ride down and up got old though.
Regarding the Chico ordinance:
I suspect most of the commenters are unfamiliar with the background behind the original ordinance: This was passed at a time when there was great concern and quite a lot of protest concerning the Cold War’s nuclear-arms race. The main purpose of ordinances like this – which were passed in several communities – was to make it difficult and inconvenient to transport nuclear-weapons components in the US. So it was aimed against the nuclear-weapons industry and the US military; and the strategy was to try to get so many of these ordinances passed that it would be very difficult to run the industry around the country.
I believe nobody expected the USSR to worry about paying a fine for exploding a nuclear weapon on site; but once you’re forbidding transportation of a weapon in town, it seems like just a few more words to forbid exploding it. Why not, after all?
So you might well conclude that the original ordinance was wrong-headed; but there was a rationale and a plan behind it.
I can’t provide any comparable explanation for the fine reduction. Maybe too much medical marijuana.
What about suitcase nukes? Oh sorry I gave them a heads up on that one. The luggage tax is upon them.
College town nuttiness is a function of student debt accumulation plus deficit spending by state and federal agencies. City debt on top of these debt sources is nuclear hubris.
Hopefully “Nuclear Free Zones” won’t attract terrorists with nuclear weapons the way “Gun Free Zones” have attracted mass murderers with guns.
“a first-time violation of the city’s nuclear-free ordinance is $1,064.” How on earth do politicians come up with sure stupid fines. In Sarasota, a relatively sane city the fine for not yielding to a pedestrian is $167. What are the city council meetings like? “I think that $1,065 is too much.” “well clearly $1,063 is too little” “ok lets compromise at $1064”
I strongly suggest, Anthony, if you stay in Chico that you drink bottled water from a distant source. Whatever is in the water supply in Chico is a dangerous additive.
We can’t have anything compromise the founder of WUWT.
(And no, I’m not going to add a “/sarc” tag.)
They’re not thinking. They should have lowered the fine to $64, then they’d have $1000 to foist onto more common offenses with no net increase.
Aside from not allowing nukes in the city, Chico is not allowed to build or utilize any CD shelters to protect its citizens from nuclear attacks, and prohibited from assisting victims of nuclear attacks.
“No city funds or property shall be appropriated or used for civil defense against a
nuclear war or other preparations for nuclear war, including but not limited to those civil
defense measures which address the physical or social aftereffects of a nuclear war.”
They think it’s a philosophical exercise, but North Korea’s aim is not all that good.
BTW, anti-nuclear ordinances violate the Commerce Clause and are unconstitutional.
@Janice Moore –
Unfortunately, beauty is not enough when one is living under a totalitarian regime such as we have now in California – my wife and I will be leaving soon, to be nearer family but also to get out from under the bureaucratic oppression we live under here – check-before-you-light days, plastic bag bans, campfire bans, carpool lanes, perfume-as-a-hazardous-material – and of course the anti-carbon hysteria that makes our gasoline prices and electric rates so much higher than elsewhere.
On other points: if carbon is outlawed, one wonders whether any form of life is then legal, since carbon is such an essential component of all living things. But then there are those among the enviros that want to kill off the entire human race.
And of course ignorant, delusional and mean-spirited wealthy leftists like Barbara Boxer – still braying for the carbon tax – doesn’t care that high energy costs adversely affect low-income people. They don’t feel it, so that haven’t a clue as to how it injures low-income people
The saddest thing is how low-income people support the left when the left’s policies are what’s making life the hardest for them.
Not a soul here seems to understand.
The extortionate original fine was not bringing in enough money. So, they lowered the price.
Basic economics…
Obviously they are no fans of Stanley Kubrick.
And the fine for detonating a nuclear bomb in the city is only 1000 dollars. I am pretty certain the rebuilding and clean up just might top that figure!
Neal J. King:
I think most of us do understand the rationale behind the anti-nuke ordinances. Those of us who were alive during the Cold War know that the average person felt completely helpless against massive forces that were completely outside of our control. It was a symbolic gesture, intended to make people feel like they had some control over their future.
There were lots of other futile gestures. The Terminator and Mad Max movies showed a future if something had gone wrong. Pop music had lots of warnings: 99 Red Balloons, Sting’s “If the Russians Love Their Children Too”, pretty much everyone not writing songs against Apartheid in the 80s was doing something anti-nuke. The nuclear weapon issue became anti ANYTHING nuclear, including power.
But they were all futile gestures. None of this made any actual difference, only in the minds of the people doing these things. People lost limbs and lives lying on railroad tracks to stop trains, and it made no difference. The Cold War ended and it all faded away, leaving behind only a continuing irrational fear of anything “nuclear”, including beneficial technology.
In my opinion, the thing that ended the Cold War was the continued demonstration of will. Only a madman would have tried using nuclear weapons knowing the result would be immediate devastation, so nobody did. Some of us have memories of some very tense days when it didn’t seem the Soviets were anything BUT mad.
ferdberple says: May 25, 2013 at 8:14 am
************
Fred,
I was living in Berkeley during the Great Oakland Firestorm. It was a firestorm in the trees and detritus in the Oakland/Berkeley Hills. From Wikipedia:
“On October 20, 1991, a massive firestorm (see 1991 Oakland firestorm) swept down from the Berkeley Hills above the Caldecott Tunnel. Twenty-five people were killed, and 150 people were injured, with nearly 4,000 homes destroyed. The economic losses have been estimated at $1.5 billion. The economic losses, in combination with injuries and loss of life, make this the worst urban firestorm in American history. Many of the original homes were rebuilt on a much larger scale.[60][61]”
The famous Hispanic immigrant, historian, and philosopher George Santayana (also known as Jorge Augustin Nicolas de Santayana y Borras) wrote about 100 (in 1905) years ago: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”,
The Great Oakland Firestorm was only some 22 years ago. It seems prudent to remember “the worst urban firestorm in American history”. It may be worthwhile to reduce the causes that made it so severe.
Regards,
Steamboat Jack (Jon Jewett’s evil twin)
If a nearby town, say less than 5 miles away, did not have such an ordinance, would that be an enducement for siting the bomb assembly there? It would save $1000 and have the same effect, if anyone was around to issue fines.
hey ferd:
ferdberple says:
the great state of kalifornia passed a law that Mickey Mouse was not allowed as a candidate either on the ballot or as a write in about 50 years ago. it appears as though he was getting more votes than the local idiots that were actually running for office. of course it was in areas where no self respecting republican would run for office…..
C
“The US military would completely ignore this law and arrest and/or shoot any city police or other city official attempting to interfere with the transportation or operation of a nuclear weapon like a loaded MX missile.”
Tut tut. Since the only other people likely to play around with nukes in the US are the Israelis, who never care about US law, interests, or preferences, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of point to it.
When local politics hit rock bottom, when all choices are rotten and the process to run is loathsome, its time to have fun.
Change your name to None of the Above #.Z.Z , raise enough signatures for nomination, get on ballot, then do nothing.One per riding and prepare to govern, As all officers would share the same name I guess you could be addressed as Honourable member #?
Given the voter turn out of recent elections I suspect None of the Above should be on all ballots, with the proviso that if 50% vote NOTA, all candidates withdraw from politics for at least 5 years.
And a new election ,with new candidates be called.
But our current politicians will never allow such a contest,(Impact on ego) so the first approach would force their hand.
Chico was an idyllic town of beautiful trees, 19th century Victorians, and the 2nd largest city park in the country, Bidwell Park – a place where people left the windows open and just the screen door latched on a summer’s night. I haven’t lived there for 40 years and wouldn’t go back if you paid me.
Leading up to the leftist majority in city government, my mother was leader of a coalition that fought to preserve the unique charm and character of the place. She was dubbed the “8th Member” of the City Council. During the early 70’s she and her group managed to elect the former police chief as mayor and with local business help secured a plurality of council spots. But they became outnumbered when the Tom Hayden/Jane Fonda front group, Citizens for Economic Democracy, came to town. By the late 70’s the CED had funded the take over of both Chico and Davis (UC Davis) city councils. http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20082212,00.html
They also went to work at the county level and elected 3 of the 5 Butte County Supervisors.
The most notorious of those was Jane Dolan whose husband, Robert Mulholland, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Mulholland, is about as left as you can get without being a card carrying member. Note that Mulholland helped elect Tony Blair PM.
The methodology of the left is brutal. My mother’s coalition was still fighting them into the 80’s. Her group ran a newspaper add linking Jane Fonda’s CED to one of the County Supervisor candidates. He promptly filed a libel suit naming my mother personally as chairman of the group, and seeking millions. After he was elected the suit was dismissed, but not before my elderly mother was hopitalized. She called me months later saying she no longer felt safe. I found her holed up in the house, curtains pulled, and unwilling to answer the phone. She had received numerous death threats, calls at all hours, her garage had been ransacked, stored keepsakes broken, just generally terrorized. So, in the fall of 1983 at 80 years of age, we moved her in with us to live out her years away from her lifelong friends and the city she loved.
A pox on Chico, and the damned People’s State of California.
In Scandinavia there are people on the left side that wats to make Scandinavia an atom free zone.
🙂
In Denmark in the 80s a comedian was elected to parliament with the policies , better summer weather, better Christmas presents, more tailwind on the bicycle tracks, etc etc..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Haugaard