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San Diego long-timers will bear water conservation burden
The water crisis will not, CANNOT, be addressed. It will only get worse. I say again, one cannot continue with unlimited consumption of a finite resource, brown lawns or no brown lawns. Even if El Nino (El Ninyo) comes (ironic, ain't it?), the crisis will not be "addressed," it will only create a further false sense of security. It might delay the inevitable a little, but the enemy, The Child, The Saviour, is not to blame, or even God or Nature, it is us, it is US.— June 2, 2015 7:04 p.m.
Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it
Oh, yeah. Was the headline "Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it" Don's or the editor's?— June 2, 2015 6:52 p.m.
Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it
Sorry if I stimulated thread creep, folks. I shoulda edited more carefully. As my betters (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Mark Twain, etc.) have excused such behavior, "I didn't have time to write a shorter one." I especially am in sackcloth and ashes over having participated in diffusing the central discussion to the point of killing it, unborn, as evidenced by Don's brief reply. I know how busy he is, but better not to reply at all than to be sucked in by my tangent. I am still curious to know where other Reader writers rank in terms of numbers of responses. Don must be well ahead of the pack if my "unscientific" sampling is to be believed. (Now, I know that this is thread creep too, but what the hell, this subject is already dead.)— June 2, 2015 6:50 p.m.
Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it
State-sanctioned murder is still murder. It may be cheaper than keeping them in prison for years, but the cost of appeals must be factored into the cold-blooded bean-counting. A late friend's family must continually (every five years or so) attend parole hearings to keep his daughter's murderer in the lock-up. Thus, they must re-live the misery of their loss and the torture of the trial over and over again. They, too, have been sentenced to life terms. The so-called system and the "profession" of psychology have failed society in that they do not study such monsters to begin to understand what makes them such scum. Surely they should be required to be study subjects (but of course, they won't be). What are the standards for "beyond a reasonable doubt?" What is "reasonable doubt?" From "Judge" Judy to the "Supreme" Court, power leads to merciless intransigence, retribution and revenge. When faced with a horrible crime, most of us would rather err on the side of killing the killer than letting him go--hence the number of innocent people subjected to misery and death. That we, the people, have not solved this conundrum is a signpost of our failure as intellectual beings. As babies, we were cute and innocent. As children we were honest. As adolescents and adults, we truly do become creatures of emotion, self-righteous, and therefore fools. The other animals, in their wild state, rarely if ever kill except for sex (and that is rare) and food--in other words, SURVIVAL of our species. Homo sapiens alone kills for retribution--or, more ridiculously, FOR AN IDEA. That may be why Mark Twain called it "the god-damned human race." We swapped our birthright for the mess of pottage we call CULTURE, a psychopathology that holds little hope for our survival. "Nature has shrugged off countless species in the history of the earth, and she will shrug off Homo sapiens (talk about self-righteous arrogance!) with no more concern than any of the rest." --Louis B. Ziegler— June 1, 2015 9:51 p.m.
White-collar lash
What, no fines or restitution? Shouldn't victims be paid double for their trouble?— June 1, 2015 9:31 p.m.
Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it
One can't know that "the hysteria" has died down; certainly the media would lead one to think so, but it always will, deservedly so, be an emotional hot button. All the more reason to be extra-vigilant about the validity of accusations. The burden of proof remains on the accusers.— June 1, 2015 6:38 p.m.
Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it
There are two issues here. 1. If a man has sex with a child, he must be kept from doing it again. 2. If a man is *accused* of having sex with a child, he must be given a truly fair trial. But, the so-called "gray" areas surrounding these issues can involve complexities involving false accusations, falsification of evidence, gossip, and other lies. Theoretically, the "justice" system can distinguish lies from truth, but "imperfections" in that process cause a lot of unwarranted misery through injustice. "Beyond a reasonable doubt" means little when emotion overpowers intellect. Jumping to conclusions based on the heinousness of the accusations can lead to "legal" vigilantism. One cannot count on jury nullification, because judges do not advise jurors accordingly, nay, quite to the contrary, they browbeat them to the point that they believe they "have no choice" but to convict or acquit. And, the likelihood that the jury *selection* process will include anyone who is aware of that possibility will be selected is remote. Evidence, evidence, evidence. Here, we do not have evidence, and must restrict our discussion to the principles--a fair-minded person would not indulge in speculative gossip.— June 1, 2015 6:21 p.m.
San Diego long-timers will bear water conservation burden
This is happening all over the country, even in the flood-plagued center of the country. Understanding the water equation ain't rocket science, but those in charge of almost everything pointedly ignore the scientists who really know what they are talking about. In fact, the better your knowledge, the more vigorously you're ignored. Just look at Joe Stiglits. A pariah.— June 1, 2015 9:52 a.m.
Halibut are turning on
How about reports on shore fishing and other fishing for the non-millionaires like kayak, jetty, and piers?— June 1, 2015 9:46 a.m.
San Diego long-timers will bear water conservation burden
"And we wonder why so many people enter politics? Best, Don Bauder" So, we vote against the money. "Candidates" who have the biggest "war chests" should get the least votes. Trouble is, people make their decisions based on what Big Media gives them. Trouble is, no matter how big the "donation" numbers seem to the 99 percent, they are a pittance compared to the amounts they can steal (unearned increment, not profit) by having lackey slaves in high places. I know you've bravely got your fingers in the dike trying to hold back this horde, Don, but what we need is a way to collect, store, categorize, relate, and disseminate facts with a high degree of efficiency--such that the 99 percent come to automatically distrust any entity that feeds them what they want, then butchers them.— June 1, 2015 9:42 a.m.