Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 8:57 pm | Randy Thomasson
If you’re like me, you’re concerned about high gas prices in California.
As someone who watches the stock market, I shake my head at how California’s Democrat-controlled government somehow keeps the average price of regular gas above $4 per gallon, when oil prices are low, and when most other states enjoy much lower prices.
So, to help you and your family, here are SaveCalifornia.com’s 5 ways to fight against high gas prices:
2. Drive less if you can, by driving more for your needs than your wants. This will likely mean combining errands. Sometimes this will mean changing where you buy goods and services. And might mean buying more online.
4. When voting, don’t for an environmental activist candidate or ballot measure, because you’ll be supporting a lower supply of energy and higher energy prices (as well as higher prices for housing, food, and water).
5. Remember that Democrats have controlled the California State Legislature for 60 years. They caused and are still causing your high energy prices.
Why are gasoline prices so high in California?
California’s Democrat politicians, with the help of self-interested government unions, are devoted to big, expensive government, as well as to liberal environmental activists who regard dirt and trees as more important than people made in the image of God and people’s private property. The Democrat politicians have imposed the highest state gas tax in the nation: $1.26 a gallon (98 cents in gas taxes and gas fees, plus a 28-cent “mystery tax”).
California’s Democrat-run government forces gasoline to be more expensive to formulate, which is another disincentive to oil refineries trying to do business here:
“For many years, California also required that summer-blend gasoline — which is more expensive to produce and contains extra additives designed to reduce air pollution in the summer — be used all year round. So, while gasoline prices typically fall in September across the United States as stations switch to the cheaper winter blend, Californians were left paying higher prices. In 2012, around the time gasoline prices were breaking records, Governor Jerry Brown changed the regulations to permit winter-blend gasoline to be sold in California in an attempt to bring down rising gasoline prices. Still, both the summer and winter blends of gasoline used in California are more expensive to produce than those used in any other state.” “California Is Approaching $4 Gasoline, But It Has Only Itself To Blame,” Forbes, Sept. 28, 2018
In 2017, the Democrat-controlled California Energy Commission crowed about no new refineries and no new refineries:
“Permitting Issues. It is unlikely that new refineries will be built in California. In fact, from 1985 to 1995, 10 California refineries closed, resulting in a 20 percent reduction in refining capacity. Further refinery closures are expected for small refineries with capacities of less than 50,000 barrels per day. The cost of complying with environmental regulations and low product prices will continue to make it difficult to continue operating older, less efficient refineries.”Source
And the Democrat politicians have also prohibited interstate oil pipelines into California, thus decreasing the supply, increasing the demand, and jacking up the price of gas for us all:
“With no major pipelines connecting California to its neighbors, the state remains largely untouched by the shale boom. While refiners in the Midwest and Gulf Coast are awash in cheap, American crude, those in California are paying as much as $6 more per barrel for oil shipped from Saudi Arabia, Ecuador and Colombia. That’s taken a toll on California pump prices, which were 61 cents higher per gallon last year than the national average.” Source: Bloomberg.com
I hope you benefit from this information and will share it with others. California’s high gas prices are a negative consequence of our bad state government. When voters revolt against the establishment, this can change. In the meantime, let’s save on gas where we can.
When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. Proverbs 29:2
After 40+ years of killing babies in the womb with your federal tax dollars, Planned Parenthood abortionists have taken a big step to separate themselves from you.
On August 19, 2019, America’s abortion giant announced it will officially withdraw from the Title X “family planning” program instead of abiding by a new Trump Administration requirement preventing grant recipients from referring clients for abortions.
This reveals that Planned Parenthood’s singular mission is slaughtering pre-born babies, not continuing to receive federal funding for “women’s health,” absent abortions.
This is also a significant victory for our Constitution and for restoring constitutional judges, those who abide by the written words and original intent of the U.S. Constitution. Upholding the Trump rule separating contraception funding from abortion funding in July were 7 Republican judges versus 4 pro-abortion Democrat judges. And this was on the West Coast’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals!
Planned Parenthood will lose some $60 million in federal funding, but not all. They will still receive about $500 million from Medicaid, the joint federal and state “welfare” medical program, of which the federal government provides most of the funding. And I expect the ruling Democrats in the California State Legislature to “in-fill” this “lost” abortion funding, with your state tax dollars, per Planned Parenthood’s request.
For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
Saturday, August 3, 2019, 8:42 am | Randy Thomasson
“It’s mine!” Remember hearing this from a young child or saying it yourself?
Little children know stealing is wrong — as long as they’re the victim of the theft. Otherwise, it’s all too easy to fall into self-deception and “justify” a little stealing here, a little pilfering there, nothing that will be easily noticed or missed. But God sees it all, doesn’t He?
Likewise, a liberal in an immoral city might claim there’s no absolute truth. But steal from him or lie to him and he’ll say that was absolutely wrong to do!
Because theft is rampant in our culture and our government, and because we’ve all stolen something (no matter how small), SaveCalifornia.com urges you to teach your children and grandchildren that stealing is absolutely wrong because:
1. Stealing always disrespects an owner. Instead of caring what the owner’s free will is, the thief will take what he wants, even if the owner has not given his voluntary, non-coerced consent. For this reason, stealing always devalues the person, deeming the thing to be taken more important than the person it’s being taken from.
2. Stealing always harms an owner. Theft always decreases a legal owner’s profit, use, or enjoyment; theft causes a rightful owner to suffer loss, no matter how small. Because stealing always subtracts from what an owner owns. Whether the owner knows or doesn’t know you stole from her, God sees and knows what you did.
3. Stealing always harms the character of the perpetrator. By agreeing to sin, and agreeing to harm an owner, a thief immediately lowers his standards, becomes untrustworthy, and finds it all the easier to steal more often, in greater amounts. This is the hardening of the heart, the scarring of the conscience, and the depravity of the soul.
4. Stealing always grieves Creator God. From Genesis to Revelation, the Word of God calls stealing a sin and prohibits it. This is why Western Civilization reflects God’s laws when it makes it punishable to steal, beginning with “petty theft” or “larceny,” whenever someone takes or uses property without the owner’s informed consent (the very definition of theft). As the Author of morality, God views any stealing as a crime against Himself, for He cannot fellowship with sin.
5. Stealing always begins with coveting. Security experts know that if a thief can’t see something or doesn’t know it exists, it’s less likely that theft will occur. In the same way, the Bible informs us that all sins start on the inside before they manifest on the outside.
As Christian writer Tim Challies writes, One way of looking at things is to see the tenth commandment as the internalization of the eighth commandment. Just as adultery of the heart is lust, and murder of the heart is hatred, so theft is the heart of covetousness. When Achan stole some of the devoted things from Ai, he first “coveted them” and then “took them” (Josh. 7:21). Likewise, James says, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel” (James 4:3).
Types of stealing
Petty theft Burglary Robbery Embezzlement Knowingly receiving stolen property Cooperating with thieves Identity theft Intellectual property theft Illegal Entry Shoplifting Looting Vandalism Dishonest business practices Cheating on taxes Refusing to pay debts Keeping property you found without making an effort to find the owner Claiming the work or knowledge of others to be your own When politicians defraud voters When union bosses coerce money from workers When stealing anything from your employer When stealing food or drink from a restaurant
The Early Church had a high moral standard against all forms of theft: “…they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so.”
Show your children and grandchildren this and then talk about it, especially what moral standard kept some people from stealing: LA Riot Looters: ‘A Colorblind Orgy Of Wrecking And Taking’ (national news report of 1992 Los Angeles riots)
David Pratte explains what the Bible says about stealing: “When I was about 6 years old, my family visited a neighbor down the street. I saw lying on the floor a toy Mickey Mouse watch — it didn’t really even tell time, but it looked like a wristwatch. I wanted it, so I picked it up, put it in my pocket, and took it home. Of course, I felt terrible, because I knew better. Besides, I couldn’t wear it without my parents asking me where it came from. Next time we visited that neighbor, I took it back and put it where I had found it. I never told anybody, and nobody ever said anything about it, but I learned my lesson. Most people do not want to think of themselves as thieves, because they know stealing is wrong.”
RSS 2.0 Feed