2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #251 "TREATMENT COURTS WORK!"

       As I often say on my radio podcast All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray, we all know that many things are going wrong today all around the world, but we do not particularly focus upon the fact that lots of things are actually going right as well.  And one of them is Treatment Courts, otherwise known as Collaborative Courts.  So what are those courts and what do they do?  Here in Orange County and, increasingly, all around our country we have Homeless Courts, Veterans Courts, Drug Courts, Mental Disability Courts and others.  And these courts do gratifyingly good jobs in treating the underlying problems that give rise to crimes in the first place.  They are called collaborative because the teams are composed of judges, social workers, counselors, medical doctors, prosecutors, defense attorneys and probation officers.  Yes, there is coercion that “encourages” the subjects/defendants to be involved, but those people quickly see that, if they take the programs seriously, not only will the criminal charges be dismissed but their lives will be much better.  So the programs are successful.

      When I was first appointed to the Bench at the end of 1983, it quickly became apparent to me that alcohol-related offenses were the largest unmet problems facing our courts.   So, I am proud to say, within six months of my appointment we had up and running what was probably the first Drug Court in the country.  Knowing full well that if the offenders were alcoholics they would continue to drink, and then almost certainly drive and pose unacceptably large risks to hurt themselves or others, we put them on a special program that demanded total abstinence.  In fact, I would tell them if they even ate rum cake and I found out about it, I would put them in jail.  But we did give them support with the Probation Department to oversee the program and the Orange County Health Care Agency to provide treatment.  And we were successful in keeping alcoholics, or what we called “high-risk problem drinkers,” off alcohol for six months, which was as long as I was able to keep statistics.  Happily now there are similar programs for the mentally ill, homeless and veterans.  For example, many people who are mentally ill self-medicate with mostly illicit substances in order to “keep their demons away.”  Thus it does no good whatsoever to put them in jail.  And, since jail is both the most expensive option as well as the purveyor of additional harm to these mentally fragile people, today’s approaches serve everyone’s interests.  So I just thought that you would like to know about these developments, because the best way to “get tough on crime” is to reduce it.

      Quote of the Week: “I had a rose named after me and I was very flattered.  But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: ‘No good in a bed, but fine against a wall.’”  Eleanor Roosevelt

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #250 "NO ONE PROTECTS THE TAXPAYERS!"

      While I was still on the bench I heard from several members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Office that they were set up financially for life because of the Sheriff’s Union.  How did that come about?  Because who cares more about which candidates are elected to the County Board of Supervisors than their union?  So they find candidates who are sympathetic to their cause, rally around them “for safety purposes,” and make sizeable donations to their elections.  Then, of course, when those candidates win, they pay the union back by providing them frequent raises in their salaries and also with lush benefits.  And, if the newly-elected supervisors don’t do enough for the union’s bidding after they take office, they know full well that the union will support a different candidate in the next election.  And the same situation is present for other public employees’ unions as well, like the state’s prison guards’ union.

      What kind of benefits do they get?  (You’ll love this.)  Most public employees through their unions have a provision that when they retire they will get let’s say three percent of their last year’s salary for every year they were employed.  So if they worked for 20 years, they would receive 60 percent of their last year’s salary.  (Conceptually I don’t think that is unreasonable, up to a point.)   But how is their last year’s salary computed?  Here is the huge problem.  They take all of the overtime in their last year that they can possibly take, and since their supervisors are a part of the game, that is a lot.  Then that is counted throughout their retirement as their last year’s salary.  But there’s more, because they also don’t take any of their vacation during that last year, which they sell back – and that counts as well!  So by the time the last year’s salary is computed, it often is more than 100 percent of what their base salary was – for the rest of their lives!  And with the so-called “California Rule,” it is prohibited to change that equation after they first are hired.  So throughout this process, no one is there to protect the taxpayers.  And that is mostly and precisely why most cities and counties have so much un-funded debt today.  And guess who will be saddled with paying those deficits?  Mostly our children and our grandchildren!   Does that make you as upset as it makes me?  In fact, you might remember that even pro-union FDR actually was against public employee unions.  So if you are opposed to what is happening so rampantly today, vote Libertarian every time you can!  We are basically the only salvation in sight.

      Irony of the week:  Probably the most misspelled word in our language is the word “misspell.”

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #249 "EVEN MORE BUREAUCRACY!"

     As any reasonable assessment will show, the California government is top-heavy in bureaucracy, which directly hinders successful ventures and adds greatly to the burden on taxpayers.  And now, as if more governmental agencies were needed, California’s governor is proposing to add to that bureaucracy.  How?  By creating a new Department of Early Childhood Development, an Office of Health Care Affordability, and a Department of Better Jobs and Higher Wages.  Likely the only positive result of these will be for the governor to be able to argue to his constituents that he is doing something for their benefit.  Just the Department of Early Childhood Development alone will add $8.5 million to the budget.  And the Office of Health Care Affordability, which would be tasked with “cracking down on any part of the health care industry that isn’t doing enough to reduce costs,” will simply be heaping more compliance and legal costs on to our medical bills, etc. and etc.

     Does the governor actually believe that the government can mandate better early childhood development?  Perhaps by “teaching for the test,” which was the self-defeating result of the federal government’s intrusion into the national education system.  The fact is that if California were actually serious about wanting to create more high-paying jobs it would stop taxing and hindering successful companies so much that it chases those good jobs away to places like Texas.  And that is not even considering how this result would be compounded if the new state Proposition 13 passes, because this would further materially increase the costs of companies doing business in California.  So what we have here, as stated in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, is a “failure to communicate.”  And who better to communicate reality to the governor than the taxpayers and voters?  Let’s get busy!    

      Thought for the week: “Ban pre-shredded cheese.  Make America grate again!”

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: #248 "RESPECT THE PROCESS!"

       Many people have complained that President Trump has wrongly set aside some of President Obama’s “good works” regarding things like DACA, which has kept people who were brought into our country as small children without complying with our immigration laws from being deported.  But the problem does not lie with Trump, it actually lies with Obama and Congress.  Why?  Because Mr. Obama issued Executive Orders for our laws not to be enforced for those young people.  So, that being the case, no one has a legitimate complaint when Trump similarly issues Executive Orders counteracting them.  However, if President Obama had respected the process and successfully attempted to have the immigration laws changed, President Trump would have been forced to follow suit.  (What’s good for goose also good for gander. . .)

        In other words, the process is critically important.  We don’t have dictators in our country who can rule by fiat.  The DACA issue to me is clear: we should keep those young people who have adapted well into our society here – and I believe most Americans would agree with that result.  So if I were in Congress, I would vote for the modification of our immigration laws to enact that result.  But this is yet another example of Congress abrogating its lawmaking responsibilities to a president.  Another huge example is Congress’ having passed the so-called War Powers Acts that have allowed presidents, in effect, to declare war on other nations or peoples.  No, Constitutionally only Congress can declare war!  Of course our laws still allow a president to respond to an immediate threat.  But otherwise it is meaningless for a country to be based upon the Rule of Law if its elected officials don’t respect the process– and these failings are laid at the feet of Congress!    

Quote for the week: “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”  George Bernard Shaw

Judge Jim Gray (Ret.)

2012 Libertarian candidate for Vice President, along with

Governor Gary Johnson as the candidate for President

Please listen to our weekly radio show entitled “All Rise! The Libertarian Way with Judge Jim Gray” as we discuss timely issues, and show how they will be addressed more beneficially by employing Libertarian values and approaches.  You can hear it every Friday morning at 7 Pacific/10 Eastern by going to www.VoiceAmerica.com, clicking on the Variety Channel and then upon the word “live.”  You can also hear past shows on demand as well.  And, by the way, these 2 Paragraph columns are now on my website at www.JudgeJImGray.com, Facebook and LinkedIn at judgejimgray, Twitter at judgejamesgray, and wordpress at judgejimgray.wordpress.com  Please visit these sites for past editions, and do your part to spread the word about the importance of Liberty.  In addition, my new book entitled “2 Paragraphs 4 Liberty: Solutions that are Practical, Effective, Responsible, Libertarian, is now available at Amazon.com.   Please read and discuss it with friends, and send in a review.