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Fate of Chargers predicted
Re: AlexClarke July 13, 2015 @ 6:42 a.m. Charger fans, like all fans ("fan" short for fanatic) stupidly believe that if they are loyal to a team that the team will be loyal to them. They somehow think that the success or failure of their team reflects on their wellbeing. In today's world of high finance the fan is the last consideration. The Chargers have been good from time to time but is a lackluster team overall. The fans are loyal but Spanos and his minions could care less. How TRUE! How anybody can give a rat's a$$ about any spectator sport is beyond me, but why NO one has demanded an accounting of all the tax money that's gone into this silly circus is beyond me. Not even for a lousy couple a million for an "environmental impact study," which is nothing but a payoff for political (and actual) support. A ship of damned fools and their money is soon parted, and rats like me are stuck in steerage.— July 15, 2015 5:58 p.m.
Hysteria won't build a stadium
Re: Don Bauder July 12, 2015 @ 7:36 a.m. Twister: Unfortunately, it is too late to restore Mission Valley to its original state. The best hope is to keep it from getting even worse. Best, Don Bauder It's a FLOOD plain, at best. It's the ultimate perversity of the perverse concept that maximum development is " highest and best use." Only a culture lacking in brains would intentionally build in a hazardous area. The main reason was that the old dairies were bought up by a few pillars of the community, got a zoning change from agriculture, built, and they cried "flood hazard" to their cronies in DC, then got the US taxpayer to confine the San Diego River to a tight channel so the value of the remaining "real estate" would skyrocket. When the flow of the San Diego River increases, it's called a "flood." Ridiculous! It's just a river being a river. You are probably right that "it's too late," but ANY new development just adds to the problem. The parking lot "floods" after light rains. That means it's a RIVER. The FACTS are one thing; the politics are anti-facts.— July 12, 2015 12:14 p.m.
Hot pot!
Ponzi for Supreme Court! Bauder, don't give up your day job. It was a fishing expedition without probable cause, based on the information given. Unless the fishing expedition had a warrant based on specific relevant-to-the case information. But any fishing expedition, by definition, is a violation of Constitutional rights. Same applies to this message being stored in a government database.— July 11, 2015 2:19 p.m.
The worst kind of American
Ponzi's "scheme" is, I suspect, the formula used by many NGOs (No Good Organizations) that refuse to respond to requests for their financial statements, salaries of paid positions, etc. The more the do-gooder they are, the badder they are likely to be, and when ads ask for "only 19 cents a day to support a child," I am at once insulted and horrified, especially when they offer to send me a picture of "my" child and force the poor things to write me letter of thanks. "Virtue is it's own reward," etc. But how incompetent can a government get that audits me for caring for two aging parents and forcing me to pay up and write off the expenses of only one whilst keeping two of them off the dole, and can't go after the huge low-hanging fruit like the pseudo-universities? The fear of the coercive power of capitalism, of course.— July 11, 2015 11:35 a.m.
Because one opera company isn't enough
Someone should do an opera on "Mao to Mozart."— July 11, 2015 3:34 a.m.
Because one opera company isn't enough
What we have here is the worst kind of authoritarianism--that permeates the arts above the local level. If an artist wants to "make it," she or he must kow-tow to a system of mindless bull$hit. "Name" and "image" count among the "upper-crust" (You got dat right! "Crust" indeed.) more than substance and talent. A local composer was doing beautiful stuff in the seventies, about when I first started hearing of atonal "music," and he couldn't get it played anywhere. He moved to the east coast and kept writing because it was an imperative. A few years ago some friends took us to their favorite Italian restaurant in the Gaslamp "Quarter." As we got out of the car there was a man in his thirties or forties sitting on the sidewalk playing classical guitar fully as well as John Williams. The others didn't notice, but I couldn't dump enough money into his case fast enough before rushing to catch up. He was gone when we came out. One time I managed to convince a man working across the street who came highly recommended to do some work on our house. He did excellent work; a highly-skilled craftsman. The neighbor had mentioned that the man also was a musician. I asked him to help me move our Yamaha piano from the living room to a bedroom, and when we plugged it in, I asked if he would like to play something. He demurred, saying that he had to keep working. I told him that he didn't have to go off the clock, and reassured, he began to play. The most beautiful piano concerto I had never heard. "What was that!" I said. "I haven't decided what to call it," he said, and went back to work on the house. He lived on the street, and used his earnings to buy food and medicine for those less fortunate than he. He had five bullet wound scars on his torso, put there during a protest in Los Angeles. He was "an illegal." I have magnificent paintings by unknown artists that aren't worth a sou, because "the authorities" have never heard of the artists. This is why I love art "forgers."— July 11, 2015 3:31 a.m.
Hysteria won't build a stadium
The best "rehabilitation" plan would be to turn it back into riparian woodland--after all, it's a *river,* not a "valley." If the dam ever bursts, most of "Mission Valley" will be out to sea.— July 10, 2015 10:07 p.m.
Hysteria won't build a stadium
Ponzi, I'm all in favor of engagement, as long as it isn't prematurely broken off. As long as focus isn't lost and there is a joint pursuit of reality. It looks like the latest estimate of that a Chargers "deal" will cost the taxpayers is $900,000,000. If experience is any guide, that will be low. So, what else could "we" do with $900,000,000 other than a football stadium? That's my twisted view of the situation.— July 10, 2015 10:01 p.m.
Hysteria won't build a stadium
Don et al: I wrote a major paper on this for a comparative government and economics class when I studied business after mustering out of the military in 1965. It's long gone, but the government professor said it was one of those rare papers that a professor dreams of reading. I think it gave the econ prof nightmares, but both gave it an “A.” Something bad happened, however, and it ended up in the trash. The memory still haunts me, and is no doubt distorted by the passage of time. It probably wasn’t that good, and it probably wasn’t that bad. Either way, I just hope it wasn’t mediocre. As best I recall, it began with “primitive” humans, who had to cooperate to survive. Then it sketched out how the success of the species put enough strain on local resources to require a continuous budding off of groups that had to move into new territory, into increasingly marginal environments, that required larger and larger territories, developing nomadism and cyclical/seasonal migrations, caching, and then, when that wasn’t working so well, the enslavement of plants and animals and sedentary lifestyles—culture on steroids. Out of the sedentary lifestyle came villages and property. With property came a focus away from hunting and gathering, and needs transmogrified into desires. Cooperative exchange was replaced with competition, not for basic needs, but for excess, and hoarding reared its ugly head. Greed compounded, and continues to compound, and coercion replaced generosity and hospitality. All this was a very ragged process, of course, with no recognizable dividing lines (until tighter and tighter boundaries were established). The easy way to think about this is to contemplate one’s own needs, and distinguish them from desires. Needs always have been a matter of life and death; desires always have been the stuff of fantasy. Confusing fantasy with needs produces a false sense of desperation, and fantasy Trumps reality anytime. I think I’m outa space . . .— July 10, 2015 9:50 p.m.
Hysteria won't build a stadium
Ok, Ponzi, I guess I'll have to outline my scheme. In the late '90's, I came up with an idea for an Internet portal site that would kill advertizing by being a broker that didn't charge a nickel (maybe this is the only thing with which I disagree with Jacob Nielsen, who was advocating micropayments) for small sales and only charged the big sales a very small fee (consistent with the cost of operation plus a modest profit--my Jewish "uncle," a GREAT PHILOSOPHER, was fond of saying, "You don't take percentages to the bank, you take MONEY to the bank!"). In other words, put mad, mad, mad, Mad Ave out of business and be the way everybody WANTS to enter the Internet. I made some stupid hires of the wrong geeks and went (almost) broke. The Internet remains a "place" of tremendous potential, but it is too good for blood-sucking capitalism (the only thing worse would be blood-sucking Marxism, which is fundamentally related--they are both about coercive power).— July 10, 2015 1:27 p.m.