The Indians of Baja used the words kali forno to mean ‘high hills’ ‘mountain’ or ‘native land’. The Arabic words caliph (supreme ruler), calophat (sovereignty) and khalifah (successor) all exist as possibilities. The key may be in the Spanish word califa, which also derives from Arabic and lends itself to the leading theory about the name origin.
It says something to the nature and resilence of this massive nation-state that despite all the problems, mostly misgovernment induced, that there still exists opportunity albiet in increasingly smaller amounts.
5 comments:
First!
In yo face, Lawnmower Man! WOOT!!
I think I can speak for the majority of non-Californian U.S. Citizens in saying that we fully support your secession rights. In fact, if you act now, we'll throw in the entire state of Texas and Washington D.C.
Heck, just to sweeeeeeeeten the deal, we'll give you Orlando so you can have all of the Disney properties and have a place to grow your jambas. Of course, in return we get to annex Montreal in order to aggravate Canadians.
We'll work out some kind of custody agreement for our bastard children Las Vegas and Reno.
California doesn't have any special succession rights but Texas does. You have to understand a little about the problem. It takes more votes to be elected Superintendent of Schools in Ventura County than it takes for nearly a dozen Federal Senate seats. Were this piddling county to be named the 51st State it would not be the least/smallest by any demographic or geographic or economic measure and this for a tiny corner of California representing less than 6% of the entire state by population.
Well, to be honest, I'm in NYC and most of the rest of the country would be more than happy to see these five counties secede along with the rest of Long Island.
Note to rest of the country: We ain't taking Jersey. It smells worse than Staten Island.
Unfortunately, if they ever do cut us loose, we will immediately sink into the ocean under the weight of our own beaurocracy.
Ah, NYC, my much-loved hometown. I may live in CA these days, but you can never take New York out of the true New Yorker.
Post a Comment