I Live in Potterville

I live in Potterville.

Potterville was the fictitious town that Jimmy Stuart encountered when he was "not born" and visiting his hometown that had been taken over by the wicked Banker, Mr. Potter. In the film, the city has turned into a poor, rundown, rotten place to live; where the rich are very rich, and everyone else is dirt poor. A conservatives paradise. I live in Potterville.

Redding, California, my hometown, is Potterville now.

The most recent evidence of this is the city's comical efforts to ban Marijuana Stores from Potterville.

Conservatives around the state, alarmed by the evil weed, have been trying to outright ban Medical Marijuana Stores from their cities for months now. It is amazing how conservatives use government to not only regulate trade, but destroy what they don't like, when it goes against their values! But if it is something they value, like sponging off the rest of us for fire protection; drown government in a bathtub!

Never mind that Marijuana, as a drug, has way less of a lethal history than say alcohol, or tobacco (both legal drugs). We are still trying to find evidence of a marijuana drug fatal overdose. Where are the conservatives who are so interested in public health with tobacco and alcohol deaths in the millions?

Our City Council, dominated by tea party conservatives, decided to ban the stores. They pushed the City Attorney into going to court, in an expensive display of fighting "windmills", against his sane legal advice.

The City Attorney told them they could regulate the stores, like any business, but banning them was problematic.

Oh no, the fools said. We, in Redding can push a court case that will overturn California Law. Forget the cost!

Meanwhile, parolees are streaming into the city, because state prisons were so overcrowded that the courts finally said, let the minor felons go, return them to their counties. So, the City Council, austere to the end, laid off cops and firemen, while the number of parolees walking the streets dramatically increased.

And what is their priority? Why, it is the Medical Marijuana Stores of course! So what if your car gets stolen, we must fight the evil weed!

Meanwhile Trinity County, right next door, has bumper crops of the stuff, is supplying marijuana to China at last check!

So, the pillars of our community, who are driven by Tea Party fervor to reduce the size of all government (I am surprised they haven't gone after the Student Councils in the High Schools), spent thousands in going to court to set a precedent that no judge in his/her right mind would do.

And, today predictably they lost; a Superior Court judge, trying to keep a straight face, denied the city's request to ban the stores; citing a pesky state law that legalized them; pesky things state law!!

I live in Potterville, where the Tea Party is supreme, where common sense is long gone, where the rich are richer, the rest of us are poor, and we have a huge American Flag next to the freeway.

And now our local assemblyman is pushing a bill to repeal a state fire protection fee, of $150 a year, that is assessed owners of homes in the surrounding dense forests. The Tea Party is claiming this is really a tax and should be repealed.

Of course I don't pay the fee, because I live in the city. Only those who live in overgrown fire zones, pay a fee that will "waste money on Cal-Fire" and work to save homes and lives. Divide $150 by 12... a whopping $12.50 per month, to have fire protection. The cons claim this "crushing tax" is a duplicate fee, since some of them live in fire districts (most by the way do not).

There are thousands living in forests, that have thousands of dead trees thanks to the "fictitious global warming", literally sitting on a powder keg. And the mean old state wants a fee so they can save their lives and homes!

I have an idea, repeal the fire fee, and impose a $12.50 per month fee on marijuana stores...makes as much sense as what these fools are doing!

I live in Potterville, where the next firestorm will kill us all, because we will be fighting a forest fires with garden hoses. And, we won't even have a joint to ease the pain!