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Water Survey Says...
Burgess, I frequently disagree with my friends. It's part of what makes them my friends...we can disagree and still get along. What really gets my goat are the apathetic. Those who don't care irritate me far more than those who care passionately, but happen to be on the other side. My friend, I'm sure we'll continue to disagree until we find something we both support...and then we'll work together. Thank you for your kind words. Keep up your activity and enthusiasm for making your neighborhood and city a better place. I look forward to continuing our online dialogs for years to come. Best, Fred— April 30, 2009 1:28 a.m.
Games Gangs Play
Spliffie the "insurgant" is even more fun than our friend Fumbler...keep the laughs coming!— April 29, 2009 6:46 a.m.
Water Survey Says...
Fact 1: The earth is a closed system. There is no more or less water today than at any time in the past or future. It's ALL recycled. In fact, chances are you are carrying an H2O molecule that was once in the gut of George Washington. Fact 2: We've been drinking recycled toilet water for decades...by the time the water gets that far down the Colorado, it's been "augmented" by outflow from other municipal systems. Fact 3: San Diego is basically a desert next to a coast line. So long as we insist on farming grasses in our front yards and subsidizing golf courses, we're squandering what we cannot easily replace. Fact 4: The last hundred years may have been extraordinarily WET compared to previous eras. We cannot sit on our hands and wait for a miracle. Time to get to work on recycling our water and ending the waste.— April 29, 2009 6:42 a.m.
The San Diego Pot and Coke Connection at work
JW, your own example illustrates exactly why we've got to stop the current madness. Let's say you were just a little bit "weaker" and hadn't successfully resisted the lure of this drug. That would have made you a criminal. Instead of getting help, you'd be thrown in jail. Now we look at Portugal, which in fact has much more liberal drug laws than the Nederlands. Guess what? Their drug abuse rates have dropped since legalization, while their rates of treatment have almost doubled. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,18… So, JW, you can now recognize that your claims are actually the opposite of the truth. I expect you to change your mind accordingly.— April 28, 2009 4:36 a.m.
The San Diego Pot and Coke Connection at work
JW, the point isn't that legalizing would put everyone in a drug haze...it would get the cops out of theirs. In the "Good Old Days", before drug prohibition, about 2% of our population at any time was "abusing". In the last several decades we've enacted laws, put hundreds of thousands in jail, and forced the rest of the world to go along with our prohibition. Guess what? About 2% of the population abuses drugs. So it seems people will do this stuff with or without it being illegal. The difference is the outcome. Instead of treating that problematic constant 2%, we treat everyone who uses drugs as a criminal. No treatment, just incarceration. Also lost in the "drug war"...our 1st, 4th, 5th, and 8th amendment rights. Portugal, the Netherlands, and other countries that have broken with the USA's paranoid stance have found considerable benefits. Drug abuse actually drops with decriminalization, along with costs to enforce these pointless laws and incarcerate those whose only "crime" is to prefer "illegal" intoxicants to booze or prescription pills. In fact, drug "abusers" are everywhere...and they're not losers. We've got past and present presidents, Olympic heroes, most of our best musicians...all "criminals" who have been extremely successful. I personally know some very senior and influential people in the IT world who smoke a joint with their morning coffee...and they are not unusual at all in the industry. Meanwhile, police are corrupted by drug money, and the cartels are wealthier and more powerful than ever. Cops are trained to treat every citizen as a potential enemy (a direct result of the drug war) and are now armed like storm troopers with tanks, body armor, and automatic weapons. Again, all thanks to the "drug war", our cops are high on unfettered power...and are themselves shooting up steroids to keep up with the pumped up inmates in our overcrowded prisons. So to stop some kids from mellowing out with a little weed, we're turning our cops into irrational and aggressive robots who are so hyped up on hormones that they're eager to stomp someone...maybe even you. So, JustWondering, I think you should open your mind to the potential harm reduction that drug legalization (or at least decriminalization) would bring to the world. Certainly, the current approach is NOT working. Is making a plant illegal really worth subverting the Constitution? Repealing the drug war is the only choice for those who love America and its founding documents.— April 27, 2009 4:56 a.m.
Games Gangs Play
It was difficult to leave the gangsta life, but in the end I had to do it. Mainlining on broadband, hanging around the Frye's parking lot, checking out system components...oh those were crazy days. I remember when Java first came out, and everyone tried it and thought it was okay. Then the Java babies started flooding emergency rooms and computer science labs. By then I'd moved onto Cisco. In the hood, there were two main gangs. The Lins and the Softs. I'll never forget when I saw them meet in the valley. A lot of hard drives crashed that day. I'm just sayin' cause I'm outa the life now, that you all don't know what it's like living on the edge, hanging with your homies rolling cables, plugging in, getting all gigged up. It's not the same now, with these kids coming up now. They'll plug into any operating system. They don't even care. Yeah, it was tough leaving the life, but in the end I'm happy now that I live in a church basement. I'm hopeful that I'll get a job as a convenience store clerk, build my life again. Until then, I'm just staying away from computers as much as possible so I don't get sucked back in.— April 24, 2009 2:11 a.m.
Fat cats
Looking at the picture of the boat, I wonder if that's not a huge crane on the superstructure...maybe for hoisting the owner aboard.— April 22, 2009 11:06 p.m.
New Padres ownership raises conflict of interest questions for a CCDC board member
Kilkenny should resign. Every decision of importance at CCDC has an impact on the Padres. CCDC (actually, the City of San Diego) is paying the Padres ballpork bonds. That should be enough to disqualify Kilkenny from most votes. Besides, after the fiascos, scandals, and shenanigans that Kilkenny has overseen in the last few years, he should never have been re-appointed in the first place. If the Mayor and Council now claim to be interested in reforming CCDC and overseeing its work for a change, they ought to tell Kilkenny to go. There've been too many scandals at CCDC already. Kilkenny can be found right in the middle of the stench. Time to resign...or be removed by a new council majority that wants to see reform instead of business as usual downtown.— April 22, 2009 11:04 p.m.
San Diegans’ stocks and home values are down 40 percent or more
11% unemployment in the valley now...a 100,000 techies, nerds, geeks, recruiters and software sales-critters out looking for work.— April 18, 2009 11:18 p.m.
San Diegans’ stocks and home values are down 40 percent or more
Economically speaking, I believe the nation's markets are best represented as a boob shaped curve. While some markets internationally still have perky slopes in their charts and well rounded assets, we've become a bit saggy. This is understandable since we've recently had the financial silicone implants removed. Economics is fascinating...— April 18, 2009 12:40 a.m.