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Street-sweep city
I can't remember his name, but there's a lawyer in town who makes a living suing restaurants under the ADA. Maybe he could help this guy. Or maybe Aguirre? I have tangled and lost against the slicer-and-dicer machines in San Diego for decades. I'm laying low now. Too close to broke. One used to have to remember which day of the month to move one's car from one's own residential neighborhood or suffer the penalty. I think the guy's right about the handicapped parking needing to be provided or ignored on sweeping days. Our "protect and serve" folks take a drooling, perverse delight in giving out tickets to those who park within the time limits (in the areas I'm thinking about it's 7-10 AM) but after the sweeper has finished. This is clearly a case revenue-producing overkill and idiotic adherence to the letter rather than the spirit of the law. Businesses are hurt by this; it drives them into the waiting jaws of the shopping maws. But if you think the cops are bad, try tangling with the wannabe "cops" at Mission Valley Shopping Center. I was accosted by the parking valets for parking in the green (with handicapped card displayed) who would not call the cops as I suggested (handicapped parking is permitted for an unlimited period in green zones), since he persisted in ordering me to move after I pointed out the card and explained the law to him. He called "mall security," and a gang of five of them showed up. Explained again. No avail. Bullying, which didn't work. Asked for the supervisor. One said I AM the supervisor. Said, "get me YOUR supervisor. No avail. I said "call the cops." Kept bullying. Didn't work. Came time to leave. Another time SDPD Parking enforcement wanted to give me a ticket for having an expired card. Politely explained that I had misplaced it and showed my wallet card. No avail. Asked for her supervisor. Cycle cop showed up. He confiscated my card, but didn't issue the ticket. I had to leave without finishing breakfast (for which I requested time to do). No deal, even though they knew I was legal. Polite in demeanor, in an officious way, but abusive in action. The "mother's little helpers" of this world are out to get us in every way they can. See the movie, "Lonely Are the Brave." Lieutenant in helicopter with gun. God, please keep our brave police safe from armed citizens. And from DWB and other stops without probable cause. And keep our unarmed citizens safe from the zealot fraction of what police agencies have become. A recently retired cop friend of mine says he worked the toughest part of town and arrested without using his gun. He thinks the quality of policing has gone 'way downhill.— December 13, 2014 5:11 p.m.
Attorney Mike Aguirre sues CityBeat for libel
I supported Aguirre and even held a wine 'n cheese for him, but he kicked me in the balls when I tried to help him. He may not be his own worst enemy, but he has far worse ones (don't want to mention any names--those folks play rough). Even though he doesn't even know that I exist, I still think he is a rare REAL CITIZEN. I know not what others may say, but I say "give me Mike Aguirre until a better thorn in the side of the robbers-in-office comes along." I ain't holding my breath.— December 13, 2014 4:35 p.m.
None worse than Detroit
There’s something extremely important buried in this dialogue, and we oughta work really hard at teasing it out of the prolific prose proffered perhaps not persuasively enough here . . . I’ll try to get something started, but y’all can finish it. Here, in this little corner of cyberspace, an integrated intellect could take root; fundamental principles can be teased out into the open that could strike a tone both new and ringing true to all. At root, I suggest, is egocentrism. It’s always been around, but largely frowned upon until late in the 20th century when it became (shall we say?), all the fashion. (I suspect that tracking the growth and decline of the lottery might be an informative index—yea emblematic of what we have become and are becoming, but which bell-ringers like Bauder could begin tolling its anti-virtues for what they are: getting millions from millions for the faceless few at the apex of the pile of shekels. The best art is a reflection of ourselves (Narcissus, Dorian Gray—others?). We are obsessed more with out image than our substance—which was once taken as granted. We have become slaves as we have become masters. We believe that to win, we must beat. This is bullshit, but we believe it. If Sea World were being run by responsible managers, by definition interested in the long-term success rather than sucking up the last few pennies/points to inflate their quarterly reports (nay, it may be the departmental tubes within the stovepipe who are only interested in sucking up to the higher ups, so they can bail before all the rats get off the ship, leaving the third class/world in the hold where they are held. Ironically fealty to corporate is interpreted as loyalty, and “thar she goes!” The hare can’t outrun the rabbit, but can outlast it and outlive it. The metaphor, like all metaphors, while designed to illustrate principle, gets interpreted as a generality, and gives birth to whole herds of straw-man fallacies. Ad absurdum, eh? So we have our cultural history—haunting us rather than nourishing our intellectual capacities. Are we to believe that we are just not up to the Founding Fathers? Our boundless egos say otherwise, but cling to them as handy spearpoints to place any self-serving absurdity upon the same altar. I, for one, am far from certain about the answer to this. But it is a question worth exploring. I think y’all are up to the task—all that is required is to stay off those straw horses (asses?) and keep the straw men at bay. Be honest, not merely manipulative.— December 13, 2014 4:15 p.m.
Lawsuits attack Bridgepoint's automatic dialing pitches
Verily, thou art a prophet at a trade with disproportionately small profit. How you scraped your million together would be a lesson for all of us.— December 13, 2014 2:40 p.m.
SeaWorld president out; stock rises
Brain Drain, Talent Drain--From Trickle-Down to Drought: The Evisceration of America— December 13, 2014 2:36 p.m.
Lawsuits attack Bridgepoint's automatic dialing pitches
Window-dressing, window-dressing, window-dressing.— December 12, 2014 10:06 p.m.
San Diego one of top cities for active lifestyle
Lies, damn lies, statistics, and analyses.— December 12, 2014 10:02 p.m.
SeaWorld president out; stock rises
I'm more like 70% poorer than I was in 2008, when I had a quite comfortable retirement fund. I'm going downhill, eating my seed corn to maintain my "lavish" lifestyle. I always said that I'd like to die in debt, but have this bad habit of paying my bills. Sea World is a pretty good measure of the maturity of its customers, especially since it has lost the most mature segment that it once had. It once had an excellent research arm, but Carl Hubbs must be spinning on porpoise up there now. Actually Hubbs Sea World may still have excellent people, but the whole company stinks like any other that is operated by striped MBA's. Seems like their eating their whale of a company from the inside out, leaving the stockholders with nothing but a plastic "model blackfish." The bottom-feeders that hollowed out so many companies in the 80's and 90's seem to have propagated themselves and the idea that their practices are "just good business" instead of smoke and mirrors.— December 12, 2014 9:55 p.m.
Bladder smuggler
I used to eat totuava/totoaba (the latter more phonetic in Mexican Spanish than the former) in the early seventies, ignorant of their status. I quit eating them after Jack Christensen (Point Loma Seafood) told me that a Mexican "fisherman" had shown up at his place with a trailer-truck load (unrefrigerated) to sell. They were, of course, rotten. He told me that the Mexicans "fished" with dynamite, and he would never buy them anyway. He must have had legitimate sources. But an even bigger threat to this fishery comes from the good ol' USA. The trickle that is the Colorado River in Mexico (after we've watered our lawns) is insufficient to maintain the conditions in the delta under which they spawn. It's unfortunate that the rapidly-enrichening Chinese persist in their superstitions about bladders, livers, and horns as "medicinal." While some Chinese "medicines" like green tea may well have benefits, they have (or should have) rhino horns up where the sun don't shine, still attached to the rhino, especially in a day when other drugs and devices are truly effective in pumping up their peckers.— December 12, 2014 9:32 p.m.
Michael Shames fails to show in his lawsuit against UCAN
What a shame--that there's not more action here on the election.— November 18, 2013 10:31 a.m.