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Amount Moores Group Is Offering to Peregrine Victims is $55 Million; Originally, Plaintiffs Wanted Over a Billion
Regarding #13 I was wondering how much those quarterly postcards on heavy glossy stock did cost for Carolyn Smith's SEDC to mail out to all of us in Southeast San Diego... In case you never got one or were not so priviliged as to live south of the 94, check out the web site color scheme at sedcinc.com for its kind of Santa Fe pastels to get a rough idea. The post cards never said anything substantial, just some SEDC self-promotional line that nobody can remember... but the color scheme thing reminded me of a section in Michael Korda's <u>Power</u> on claiming office territory by painting the hallways with one's theme colors.— September 1, 2008 9:08 a.m.
Unforgettable: American Icarus III
An excellent tribute to the early days of San Diego aviation history.— August 31, 2008 11:47 a.m.
Amount Moores Group Is Offering to Peregrine Victims is $55 Million; Originally, Plaintiffs Wanted Over a Billion
Between JMI and Carolyn Smith, the CCDC/SEDC scheme of little corporations masquarading as public benefit agencies for redevelopment just might be done here in San Diego, saving the rest of the country from what infests us now by stopping this infection before it spreads.— August 31, 2008 11:38 a.m.
SEDC president to board in 2006: give up affordable housing monitoring and enforcement?
Regarding #1 Most San Diego residents were blissfully unaware of SEDC's existence as a redevelopment agency being run as a private preserve of the newly enriched... mostly because its president of the last decade and a half wanted things that way. Take a look at SEDC's minutes for the past two years, available online at sedcinc.com, which is NOT an official California government .gov website... I have yet to find a developer's proposal before SEDC's board in those minutes where a speaker IN OPPOSITION to any project is mentioned. All of the public comments were either anonymously in support or big-wig-named in support, such as "Bishop George D. McKinney" regarding a St. Stephen's proposal for 2 lots at the Valencia Business Park. The thing that stands out here is that Carolyn Smith, SEDC's current-outgoing president, makes her contribution to the proponent's post-submission interview process known (from something as recent as the June 25, 2008 minutes at http://www.sedcinc.com/BOD_support/July08/July%20…): "Ms. Smith informed the [SEDC] Board that St. Stephen's was given another opportunity to revise their proposal during their interview. It should be noted that it is unusual for respondents to revise proposals after they are submitted and particularly during the interview phase." I guess we can figure out why Ms. Smith wanted SEDC to transfer away its contract monitoring and enforcement functions: no crime was commited when nobody was looking!— August 31, 2008 10:46 a.m.
Drinking age to 18
I did a tour of duty with the Old Guard in Washington, arriving there before I turned 18. I haven't been to DC in decades, but back then, 17 was old enough to get bombed at bars where the dancers were not wearing a whole lot of anything at all except big smiles... I also got to see as a highschooler when 18 was the age by constitutional amendment to vote for president, down from 21. I guess that's how Nixon got re-elected a little while later...— August 29, 2008 4:33 p.m.
El Cajon Seeks Half-Cent Tax
Can you imagine being an El Cajon tax assessor going door to door looking for meth labs?!?— August 29, 2008 4:23 p.m.
San Diego officially in recession
Regarding #10: It should be recognized that the stockholders have an interest in an invested firm's continuing ability to access the markets, to do business, and to make a profit that increases the value of issued shares. Whenever a firm makes unethical decisions to do things "on the cheap" to avoid the cost of regulatory compliance -- and the stockholders don't care to make any noise about it -- then both firm and stockholders have assumed the risks that come along with any benefits of doing things "on the cheap." When I use the word "unethical", I mean some conduct that isn't minimally ethical because it violates the laws that ordinary reasonable people (the same kind that should be getting picked for jury duty) understand and obey as part of their non-feloneous lives as free American citizens. The bottom line is that when a firm uses up all of its good will by making stupid decisions and causing harm, then the ones who end up losers are the holders of equity investment in that firm because the firm loses access to markets, is less able to do business, and is not operating optimally to generate consistent profits for investors. How much good will do most inbred-board corporations have left?— August 23, 2008 8 p.m.
SEDC Saga Continues: ex-presidents and opening moves
I am not convinced that all politicians are crooks... but I am convinced that many new politicians are just opportunists looking to cash in like some previously-publicized corrupt politicians before them. Personal integrity among newly elected politicians would be improved if there were existing personal principles that would encourage personal integrity to thrive. Unfortunately, there are too many of them who see election to office as a free pass to acting without caring who or how many are watching... even when some who are watching carry the title of "public prosecutor". Some thoughts on having been one of those elected ones in a previous life: 1) Always keep a blank resignation letter in your top desk drawer. When you go longer than three years with "Hail to the Chief" as your favorite ring tone, then you've been in office too long and are beginning to think of retiring in office, both of which are really bad things to more than 8 out of 10 voters. 2) Appearance is everything... and once the spotlight is on you, you must appear to be flawless. BIG FLAW: GETTING YOUR ASSETS SPANKED ON A DAILY BASIS IN THE CITY'S DAILY PAPER... WHILE TRYING TO SILENCE YOUR BIGGEST ELECTED CRITIC WITH A CONSULTANT-LED RECALL CAMPAIGN. 3) Never call an American of Mexican, Asian or some other non-White descent a "disgruntled minority" at a public meeting of a California legislative body under the Brown Act.— August 23, 2008 7:38 p.m.
Schmooze and Partake
Unfortunately "Russell's teapot" is absolutely weak if one were to classify it as empirical science in the form of inductive argumentation, as it has no observational data in it. In fact, Russell (as cited by you above) requires that anything he claims in this argument to exist be not empirically observable, so that if this is inductive as empirical science, then Russell by definition made his argument rest on absolutely weak science that can never be observed and recorded as data. Your classification of "Russell's teapot" as "VERY strong" is either a false statement from an otherwise-knowledgable person or a qualifier for a semester of remedial Critical Thinking 101 on the difference between inductive and deductive argumentation. Some of us who are familiar with Russell's more in-depth works, such as his "Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy" or even the briefest glimpse of his un-finished work with Alfred North Whitehead, have some undestanding of Betrand Russell as a practical joker. I would have to classify "Russell's teapot" in that same type of "playing with words" deductive argument that you may describe when any ordinary reasonable person using the ordinary reasonable words such as "belief" in the absence of empirical proof or deductive argument, "religious" as having something to do with the existence or non-existence of God, and "atheism" as therefore being some sort of system of religious belief. As voters, we will have our chance to play with words this November by adopting or rejecting a constitutional amendment that defines the composition of a couple for marriage. As I understand it, evolution is merely God's act of creation-in-progress, as one of my favorite plays on words... I would argue that your statement "Belief in religion is worthy of contempt, not respect" might some up my personal feelings I may have about the religious belief of atheism. Whether it does or not is left to the reader. In any case, one only has to view the words of your above post to see where the real logical flaws and venom are coming from.— August 23, 2008 11:35 a.m.
Encanto Steet Fair means finding a driving alternative to Imperial Avenue!
Regarding #1: The charge started a few years ago, I believe. Anyways, it was long enough ago that leaders in Southeast San Diego would say "it is a practice that predates me here" in the 4th District.— August 22, 2008 11:40 a.m.