Another case for building a wall around California?

Yes, build it around California! The problem with California is that Californians repeatedly vote and approve really stupid policies.  Forget building it across the Mexican border. Mexicans are actually hard workers. Plus they are ambitious and resourceful enough to dig under, cut through or climb over the fence. Just watch this episode of Penn and Teller's award winning documentary television show Bullshit! to discover what I'm talking about.

Mexicans are smarter than walls! Californians...eh maybe not quite as smart as walls... 

Californians would probably wait at the fence for a handout... like a ladder or shovel... or more likely, increase taxes on wealthier people and/or businesses and then hire government unionized workers (at $38 an hour) to get the job done about ten years from now... after, of course, the public bond passes and the proposal sails through a dozen planning meetings and is signed and notarized by seven bureaucrats in triplicate...  This means we could keep them, and their really bad ideas, from ruining other states! At least for awhile.

For those not living in California, and not living on the west coast in states boarding California, let me explain for you.

For over a decade Californians have been fleeing their home state (thanks to bad policy prescriptions which drive up the cost of living and increase poverty). Californians have been moving eastward looking for more opportunities and a better life. Unfortunately, they bring with them all the bad ideas they voted for which ruined their home state. Both Arizona and Nevada went from Red to Purple states and it is largely thanks to migrants from California.

(ACTUAL PHOTO OF GAS PRICES IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA AS OF 10/8/2012!
87 OCTANE IS $4.759 A GALLON!!! OMFG!)

All joking aside (yes, I'm not actually in favor of building a fence around California, but those people just keep making the case for it better and better) here is yet another bad policy prescription that is making life difficult for Californians.

Perpetual left-wing economic incompetent Senator Diane Feinstien thinks it is a conspiracy by corporations and has called for a federal investigation. But in reality its just dumb left-wing economic and environmental planning. You see, I live just 4 hours from L.A. in the small city of Henderson, Nevada (a suburb of Las Vegas). Our gas prices were a mere $2.799 in comparison while southern Californians are paying $4.759 a gallon!

Please note, Nevada's gas taxes are 11th highest in the nation and just $0.16 lower than in California. In other words, something other than California's notorious high taxes is causing gas prices to be 70 percent higher in Southern California than nearby in southern Nevada

The reason Californians are paying $2 to $3 a gallon more than the rest of the nation is because of a self induced shortage. You see, California law requires two different mixtures of fuel (one for summer and one for winter). This is all done to every so slightly reduce carbon emissions. The impact on the environment is most likely negligible but the impact on your wallet is massive! I'm not against saving the planet from environmentally damaging chemicals, but I am against stupid, wasteful, expensive and ineffective (which seems to describe most policy prescriptions from the left-wing green crowd these days).

So why is this very special fuel mixture required ONLY in California driving up prices (that alone does play some role)?

According to the NBC News article "California voters only have themselves to blame" the state is currently in between the time gas stations must switch between the summer and winter fuels. Gas stations don't want to be left with surplus fuels they CANNOT LEGALLY SELL so they reduce production resulting in a shortage until they are LEGALLY ALLOWED to sell the winter mixture. Lower supply and the same demand results in higher prices.

It is basic economics... but basic economics is too hard for some to grasp. Rather than a Federal probe to solve this non-mystery, why don't we have a Federal probe into the mind of Senator Diane Feinstein and others who simply refuse to accept the laws of supply and demand... or even think about unintended consequences?

Oh wait, that's not a mystery either. Politics regresses to the lowest common denominator of stupid.

(NOTE: Please forgive my spelling and grammar, my formative years of education were spent in California)