Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it

Does anyone know of any studies of the number of cases where accusations of illegal activity were used as "weapons" of revenge or hatred or harassment? We had some neighbors once who were called "the Perfects" (a phonetic twist on their real name) who vacuumed the *exterior* of their house and had noisy fights among themselves regularly. They had called the police on just about every neighbor within a block or so for various "violations." We had a short driveway. I had a long pickup. I would park it in the driveway with the bumper almost touching the garage door. One day there was a loud knock at the door; a uniformed officer. "You can move your pickup or get a ticket," he said. "What's the violation," I asked. "Obstructing the sidewalk," said he. I looked, and sure enough, I was "obstructing" the sidewalk--the pickup bumper extended a whole two inches into the sidewalk. He said, "When we get a complaint, we're required to act upon it." I thanked the officer and moved the vehicle. I have known men who have been accused of attempted rape by women whom they had "spurned." The list goes on. With respect to the instant case of child molestation, the piece does not give us enough information to know the particulars, so I can't make assumptions one way or another. The content falls a bit short in justifying the headline, however. An overly creative copy editor? Or Don? Sorry, but I don't trust the "justice" system. Too much injustice.
— June 1, 2015 9:15 a.m.

Megan's Law, Step-Grandpa — deal with it

Prosecutors respecting the rights of the accused? Handled carefully? All they care about are convictions. The "hysteria" about child abuse cases hurts not only innocent defendants, but whole classes of people, like "dirty old men." Any man, especially any old man, if he has any chance, will give children a wide berth if he wants to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Gone are the days when an old man could talk to a child, even in public. Hold them? Hug them? Dry their tears? Forget it. Countless little children, especially little girls, now grow up without the love of their elder fellow citizens. Other cultures practice things that they could go to prison for in this country. But the worst of all are the adults who actually do actually abuse children, especially sexually. They are the cause of the hysteria, and deserve to be prevented from continuing their molestations. But the line between real love and molestation is very thin is this culture, and given all the gossip and publicity about cases, ranging throughout that wide, wide range, the sense of community and trust is eroded, and law replaces the social code. I grew up in a highly social culture in which it was the duty of all adults to care for all the community's children, including discipline. It was a community where individual responsibility was given precedence over authoritarianism. Not so in big cities. Not so in rat crowding studies. Check out the Mondragon community in Spain. Check out the W. L. Gore company Prosecutors respecting the rights of the accused? Handled carefully? All they care about are convictions. The "hysteria" about child abuse cases hurts not only innocent defendants, but whole classes of people, like "dirty old men." Any man, especially any old man, if he has any chance, will give children a wide berth if he wants to avoid the appearance of impropriety. Gone are the days when an old man could talk to a child, even in public. Hold them? Hug them? Dry their tears? Forget it. Countless little children, especially little girls, now grow up without the love of their elder fellow citizens. Other cultures practice things that they could go to prison for in this country. But the worst of all are the adults who actually do actually abuse children, especially sexually. They are the cause of the hysteria, and deserve to be prevented from continuing their molestations. continued . . .
— June 1, 2015 12:26 a.m.

San Diego long-timers will bear water conservation burden

RE: " Don Bauder May 30, 2015 @ 10:31 p.m. Twister: Trouble is, ten or twenty years ago, before drought was as big a concern as it is today, the antiquated distribution system you describe seemed to work. It took a bad drought and fear of it lengthening that woke people up to the out-of-date system. . . . People tend to blame "drought" on God or Nature. Blaming someone else for the troubles that come around and bite us in the ass is a tired old deception that, like a population of zombies, keeps coming in an endless stream of lies and damned lies "backed up" by the "higher" order of lies, statistics. But it's not that the actually relevant statistics lie in this case, it's that they are jealously guarded by the lackeys of the guilty. Without a revelation of the facts that underlie these lies, no disciplined, intellectually honest evaluation upon which a lasting solution can be based, is possible. How much water is left in the system today? At what rate is it being withdrawn? How, in terms of relevant categories, is it being allocated? What is the date at which, given the most pessimistic estimate of inflow/replenishment, it will be exhausted? What is the date at which, given the most optimistic estimate of inflow/replenishment, it will be exhausted? How much will be gained by sucking the rivers dry? What is the date at which, given the most optimistic estimate of inflow/replenishment, it will be exhausted? What then? How many toilet-to-tap and desalination plants will be required (at what cost to whom) to carry on business-as-usual (for the one percent, of course)? What will the rest of us be drinking? The filtered piss and s#it of those above us? Do we have any "legal" rights to the rain that God or Nature lets fall or will that be taken from us under riparian "rights" too? Time was, cisterns were in common use in San Diego; for an example, see the "Frost" mansion in Golden Hill on Broadway designed by Irving Gill. Its roof is designed with integrated gutters that feed into a big cistern. 32.716085, -117.141268
— May 31, 2015 3:58 p.m.

San Diego long-timers will bear water conservation burden

RE: "ImJustABill May 30, 2015 @ 8:18 a.m. "Rather than doing their job and coming up with solutions to problems that have the greatest impact on the problem with the least cost and inconvenience to constituents sometimes politicians like to come up solutions that seem like they're doing a lot but don't really have much impact. . . . "As a resident personally I will fight and argue against any forced removal of lawns and forced water cutbacks unless the state leaders show they are serious about re-thinking our ancient water rules and distribution systems. "Sorry if I have a bad attitude about this but frankly I think our political leaders are taking advantage of a lot of well-meaning people just so that big ag business campaign contributors can continue to make a lot of money." Bill is on the money. No pun intended. See the acres of unused lush lawn at 32.873029, -117.213672 for example. California Bank and Trust. Not the worst, perhaps, but among the worst. What's their water use level? They won't tell you. Nor will the City of San Diego reveal the water-use history of its facilities. All this for an effete affectation rooted in fantasy--mountain meadows in arid and semi-arid climes. Contrary to Hollywood-induced fantasy, Southern California is not a "tropical" paradise. The so-called "drastic" measures such as alternating the days of irrigation, limiting the time to five minutes, not hosing down pavement, and threatening fines for violations could not be better designed for ineffectiveness, costliness, and counter-productivity--pure deceptive window-dressing. The ONLY factor that is relevant is the amount of water "demanded" and the amount *needed.* The difference is waste. That's the "low-hanging fruit," and a simple allocation plan that considers all of the relevant factors, and would be easy and cheap to do. "Toilet-to-tap" and desalinization are sleight-of-hand tricks to make "them" big, BIG bucks. But the "bottom" line is that unlimited demand upon a limited resource is simply not feasible. Maybe a collapse is just the medicine "we" need. Anticipating the obvious, based on an honest assessment of the real elements of the issue, does not seem to be in our DNA. That, my friends, makes us dumber than cows. Yes, Bill, it isn't a "drought" problem, it's a water-supply and water-use and water-waste problem.
— May 30, 2015 7:20 p.m.

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
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.