By the title I had thought that California had led the country once again, but it turns out to be unintentional. This is a writer with a sharp eye.
Years ago I was planning to put into a story where a guy is walking downtown and has to be careful because, in the future, road rage becomes a battle of Transformers--the next logical couple of steps from the utter absurdity that is the modern SUV craze.
"America was never innocent. We popped our cherry on the boat over and looked back with no regrets. You can't ascribe our fall from grace to any single event or set of circumstances. You can't lose what you lacked at conception.
"Mass-market nostalgia gets you hopped up for a past that never existed. Hagiography sanctifies shuck-and-jive politicians and reinvents their expedient gestures as moments of great moral weight. Our continuing narrative line is blurred past truth and hindsight. Only a reckless verisimilitude can set that line straight."
--James Ellroy, American Tabloid
Ensure a Free and Fair Election (Ban Paperless Voting Machines
"The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words."