Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Copley Press Sells Posh Condos in Ballpark District to Owner David Copley. The Deal Raises Questions
That's surely some kind of freakonomics. David is paying his own company an inflated price to take over an asset that is guaranteed to drop for the foreseeable future. Of course, the case has already been made that the newspaper had no business buying it in the first place, so maybe this is a way for David to sweeten the pot for a buyer while removing an unwanted encumbrance. Whatever. It's kinky.— January 8, 2009 8:50 a.m.
President-elect Obama wants to toss in another trillion bucks soon
Erecting our financial system took decades, and now that we've reached three bubbling climaxes in a row it's time to come back to our senses. Have we been doing it unprotected all this time? Maybe we've got some nasty infection... Certainly, after shooting our wad of cash, this flaccid nation requires a little breather...time to recover our potency. No matter how much the Fed tries to coax and stroke us back to a firm standing, we just don't have it in us to rise to the occasion. After popping so much economic Viagra in the last few decades, we're spent...deflation is more likely than inflation for now.— January 8, 2009 7:42 a.m.
San Diego Super Chargers
I think everyone in San Diego can agree that song is lame and annoying...just like professional football itself.— January 7, 2009 7:33 a.m.
San Diego Stupid Chargers
Amen, Josh. If you're a highly paid professional entertainer like the members of the Chargers, you can easily afford a limo. If you remember the case of the shot-up player, he had been pulled over numerous times before by SDPD, even getting into fights with officers, and every time he was driven home and let off without even a warning. So what surprised me was that SDPD actually arrested this player for DUI. Usually, the policy has been to shrug and keep quiet about the whole thing. Football players ought to be recognized for what they are...young men who use their bodies to entertain guys drinking beer. That doesn't make them role models. In fact, I'll assert that young women who use their bodies to entertain guys drinking beer are far more likely to finish college, have a clean criminal record, and provide a home for their children. But that doesn't make strippers role models either. No entertainer is anything more than a showbiz worker, whether it's sports entertainment, music entertainment, or nude entertainment. They ought to earn a decent wage, but they deserve no extra respect or special treatment for choosing the job. They produce nothing of enduring value, and in the case of sports they actually destroy economic value. Save your admiration for those who deserve it, like the scientists at UCSD and Salk, where they're changing the future of the world with their discoveries... ...here's a challenge for you, Josh. Name three members of the Chargers. Now, name three UCSD scientists. See how screwed up our priorities have become in America?— January 7, 2009 7:32 a.m.
Leaving Off the Airplane
Your stadium example isn't really comparable or germane. Here's something far more to the point: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti… Instead of being proud of ignorance (oh my gawd, it says something I cannot read, it must be terrorism!) we need to be a bit more grown up. T-shirts don't explode. Neither do head scarfs, Josh. What we have is an explosion of paranoia and ignorance in this country that is so pervasive even YOU are caught in the trap. You see an Arabic looking person, and you assume he's a terrorist. I suppose when you see a black face you see a crack head gangsta with a gun, and when you see a Jew you see a greasy banker who drinks baby blood and secretly controls the world..?? So therefore, any black person or Jew should just accept with humility and gratitude an endless series of false arrests and abuse, right? You see where this is leading, Josh? With only a moment's reflection you can realize that real terrorists are going to look like you and me, not bearded and chanting the Koran in the departure lounge. In fact, the ones who attacked on 9-11 shaved their beards, hung out at a strip bar, and drank booze before their mission. So your flimsy justification that they "might" be terrorists if they look funny is totally wrong. Your way of simplistic thinking will guarantee future attacks. To succeed in blowing up a plane when you're on watch, I can just have a couple people dress up like arabs, and while security swoops down on these innocents, I would launch my attack. Simple. That's how stupid and counterproductive your notion of profiling is, and it's not justifiable under any circumstances.— January 7, 2009 7:21 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
JF, you bring up an excellent point. There ought to be tiers of firefighting. At the top, you have the elite (perhaps such as yourself) who are not only paramedics, but bomb squad members, hazmat response crew, and trained parachutists who are ready for any type of emergency, anytime, anywhere. These are the special forces, if you will. They're highly paid, but we only need a handful for the entire region. At the middle, you have the firefighter with some additional skills, but who is primarily working on day to day emergencies like small structure fires. They get a good wage, but less than what you are currently making. They make up the bulk of the career fire-fighters and managers who would earn a reasonable retirement for their service. Then there's the bulk of what we truly need. Strong, trained, capable young people who do the grunt work that makes up the majority of firefighting work. Just like we use prison inmates on work-release as fireteams, these people are only going to fight fires for a few years, and then move on to other careers...just like enlisted folk in the military. Under this layer, there should be a registry of able-bodied residents to get one week of intense training per year, but are otherwise on standby. They get called up in emergencies to augment the regular forces. Though not highly trained, they certainly know enough to join in and make a big difference in their limited scope of responsibilities. This is a sort of civilian defense force. JF, I'm sure you recognize that not ALL firefighters have to be elite. That would be like having only SEALs in our military. It makes no sense. But that's the system you are describing in your posts as justification for the enormous amounts of pay and benefits you receive. We can't afford that. We could afford a tiered system that acknowledges the reality of firefighting...not the myths of your being some kind of supermen...and recognizes that many people are perfectly capable of doing the job quite well when given the opportunity. As it is now, firefighters hold themselves above the community...just like our cops. They consider "civilians" to be little more than sheep, despised and helpless without the big manly hero to rescue them from the nasty world. We've seen the results. Contempt for the very people who pay your salaries. Perhaps if more firefighters lived in San Diego, they'd be more concerned about the city's insolvency. But when they're living out in Temecula, why should they care if San Diego goes down the tubes? In the end, JF, no matter what you and I think, the system we have today must change. It's not effective when the really big fires come, and it costs too much for day to day needs. It doesn't fit our requirements. With your leadership, perhaps the firefighters union can repudiate the corruption of the Saathoff era and work to make firefighting in San Diego something to be proud of.— January 7, 2009 7:05 a.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Re: # 178 I agree we need more and better fire protection...that's why more volunteers should be actively welcomed (not the joke of a CERT program, but something serious) especially if they can be called up as reserves when the big fires come. Enough for today. I've got to go eat dinner. Best, Fred— January 6, 2009 6:35 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Hey, JF. Thanks for your continued and persistent contributions to this forum. I do appreciate it. If I'm being more than usually offensive or putting false words in your mouth, I regret it and apologize. You're one of the good guys. I'm just a bit excitable when it comes to the situation in San Diego. I applaud your willingness to engage here. It's true, as you say, that the originator of this fraud was McGrory. I've elsewhere expressed my contempt and hostility for Jack, and said he belongs in jail for those deals. It was right then and there (1996) that the firefighters and police could have done the honorable thing and spoken up. They could have said to San Diego, "Hey, these are bad deals and not in anyone's interest except corrupt politicians". They didn't. In fact, Saathoff used it as extortion. "We'll keep quiet, but you've got to pad our benefits and pensions beyond belief." I think you'll agree that this is what led us to today's situation. You can't help that the system is corrupt. You're just working with what you've got. Still, you need to recognize that you can get in front of this, or eventually suffer the consequences. One way or another this mess must be paid for. The smart thing would be to lead the reforms instead of being buried by them. As for my prediction of an angry populace, I'll stand by it. I can't vouch for my accuracy when it comes to timing, but I'm confident in the eventual result. It took ten years for public sentiment to turn against stadium subsidies...but it will probably take less time for the public to turn against police and fire if they continue to act more in their own interest than in the interest of the public. Best, Fred— January 6, 2009 6:30 p.m.
San Diego City Employees pension fund ailing
Sorry, JF...but your firefighter union was part of the conspiracy that landed us in this situation. I agree that we should cut a lot of things, especially stadium subsidies, first...but you cannot worm your union out of responsibility for Ron Saathoff's corrupt deals. I'd like to see EVERYONE make sacrifices in hard times, but Sanders has already declared that both fire and police are off limits. I suppose this is a quid pro-quo for being so helpful and generous to his re-election, and their help getting Sanders friendly council members elected too. Looks like you'll continue to live high on the hog, while the rest of us are left with slops. Then we'll revolt and the whole thing comes crashing down. Unless you're smart enough to get in front of this tsunami. Now as soon as I see your union get out in public, admit its complicity in the corrupt deals in the past, and in atonement launch a campaign for reform in San Diego (starting with telling the voters they can chose to pay for firefighters or ballpark bonds, but not both) then I'll be back on board with you. Until then, you're demanding special treatment that you simply don't deserve. Convince your union to be a force for good (a huge change) and then you'll have earned San Diego's respect. Until then, you're just play-acting when it comes to reform. Best, Fred (P.s. With all your terrible hardships and sacrifices in so generously being a poorly-paid and overworked firefighter, how can you afford to spend day after day posting so much on this blog? Aren't you actually a union representative? Real firefighters ought to be far too busy, according to you...) (P.p.s. I can write on blogs like this because I work for myself, not the public, and make my own hours. I don't get paid by the city to whine away about how underpaid I am...)— January 6, 2009 5:10 p.m.
Jeff Moorad, Former Players' Agent, Says He Has Reached Agreement in Principle to Purchase Padres
For incisive commentary on the public funding of sports stadiums, I recommend the following: http://www.hulu.com/watch/47616/the-simpsons-the-…— January 6, 2009 4:41 p.m.