One-Sixteenth

I hope everyone realizes that this was a joke constructed by the sponsors to point out the uselessness of our state legislature. As a resident myself of the state capitol, Sacramento, I have to admit that, on the whole, the legislators are a contemptible group of human beings: most of us Sacramentans try to simply ignore them and pretend that we live in a normal town.

However, as the following links indicate, Richman and Canciamilla intentionally created this resolution to parody the usual crack-pot behavior of our legislature. The giveaway is phrases such as "disrespect Pluto" and the statement "Downgrading Pluto's status will cause psychological harm to some Californians who question their place in the universe," which is intended to poke fun at the left-wing obsession with "self-esteem," etc. (Richman is a Republican and Canciamilla a moderate Dem.)

Of course, there is still the possibility that some of the co-sponsors did not get the joke and really thought this was a serious resolution!

http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14316541p-15231480c.html

http://www.phoblographer.com/2006/08/im-really-going-to-miss-these-two.html
"This year I decided to use humor to make the same point with [a] satirical House Resolution 36 supporting Pluto's status as a planet. I got 53 coauthors."

I kept poking around on the website, looking for the info that would tell me it was a joke. I figured it must be, but I couldn't find anything there to indicate one way or the other. Thanks for the links.

The possibility that some of the co-sponsors thought it was serious ... well, it *is* California, after all. ;-)

That is hilarious! The "mean-spirited International Astronomical Union" is my favorite, I think.

Well...you've heard the old joke about somebody tilted the continent and all the nuts rolled out to California? There is a grain of truth there.

The homeschooling community in Sacramento is dominated by "unschoolers": nice enough people, but it's kind of weird interacting with people who *brag* about their children being academically behind the public-school kids. And, then, there is the California Libertarian Party: I was active in the Party some years ago until my wife and I realized that we would prefer that many of these people not know where we lived. The problem was not political disagreements but rather, to take one example, the thirty-year-old Libertarian who announced his romantic interest in eight-year-old girls, and, perhaps even worse, the Party leaders who agreed with him that pedophilia was a "lifestyle choice"! (I hasten to add that I am talking about *California" Libertarians, not all Libertarians across the country, and, even out here, there are many "lower-case" libertarians, like me, who are fairly sane.)

On the other hand, the craziness does result in pretty widespread tolerance for those of us who dissent from mainstream America on religion, politics, etc. I grew up in the Midwest (St. Louis) and moved out to California because of the intense intolerance in St. Louis towards anyone who was not a religious believer. My kids are still managing to shock their grandparents when we go back to visit by announcing that they (the kids) are atheists. Out here in California, even the fundamentalists tend to be more tolerant -- after all, they know they're just one more religious sect along with the Buddhists, Scientologists, Wiccans, etc.

Dave