Epiphany!

It hit me last night what's so very wrong with California.

No winter makes people mean. You'd think it'd be the other way around. Californians should be the happiest people in the world.

Here's my take. People just need something to get pissed off at. Having something to get mad at is a good thing, especially if it's something you have no control over. The rest of the Continental US has to deal with stupid cold temperatures and blizzards and ice storms. Ticks 'em off. But there's nothing they can do with it. So they learn to cope, and get on with their lives. It reflects in other aspects of their lives as well.

"God grant me the strength to recognize the things I have no control over..."

So Californians have no freezing cold weather to rage at. So they get mad at each other. The culture here is very control-oriented. Money, possessions, and authority count. Image counts. Lawsuits count.

Two kids just got shot a few miles from our apartment last night. A 17 year old and an 11 year old. Driveby, no explanations. Just kids walking on the sidewalk.

If it were freaking cold here like the rest of the country, it wouldn't have happened. First, because no kids would be walking around in the stupid cold. Second, no nutjobs would want to leave the space heater long enough to go joy-gunning.

That's my theory. I don't care if it's wrong or not.

Cold people are docile people. You don't care what you look like when you're freakin' cold.