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Letters
RE "Bizarre Army": "[O]n one side we have an environmentalist and utility army, so to speak, that wants you to save energy, and at the same time the utility organizations run to the PUC and say, 'Our revenue is down, we have to raise the rates per kilowatt' or whatever, whether it’s the water, gas, or electric." Holistically, we have a generally free market with public utility monopolies embedded in it. One free market response to increasing electricity rates (in the face of increasing regulation for grid-connected home solar electricity generation) is to generate and use more electricity at home while keeping it strictly for home use or sharing with next-door neighbors, without feeding any of it back into the power grid to avoid federal regulation of "Qualifying Facilities". My Encanto Gas Holder neighborhood blogs have several entries on this issue. As for increasing water rates, some of us in Encantostan see no problem with watering the outdoor plants in the yard on any day of the week with buckets of rain water taken from whatever is left in the Lemon Grove end of Chollas Creek, since San Diego and the utility monopolies seem to have no jurisdiction over the taking of it, and the city attorney of Lemon Grove has no apparent authority to say anything about it either. When Encantostanis get real desperate, we have Richard Graves' BUSHCRAFT for recommendations on purifying stagnant or polluted water without equipment. In extreme market conditions, chronic electricity and water shortages should be considered in an all-hazard emergency incident context. See http://training.fema.gov/IS/crslist.asp and be prepared.— April 27, 2010 12:36 p.m.
So many San Diegans carry guns
RE #156: Sheepishly, I had to re-edit several times to get the whole thing in at under 3000 characters...— April 26, 2010 9:15 p.m.
So many San Diegans carry guns
Right. We cadets put the pins in every time we went for annual live fire exercises, and we took them back out some time afterward. The thing is, even with firing pins removed, if someone operating out of the Lemon Grove Sheriff's Station had seen one of us with a locked 20-round box visibly in the magazine well, how in the blue blazes would Deputy Dog know the firing pin was missing? Besides... just about all of us had a multi-purpose tool purchased at the Spring Valley swap meet and designed to put in a firing pin in about two minutes, unless that damn retaining spring in the bolt face sprang out and had to be chased down with some effort. Of course, it was a whole lot of demerits for anyone caught doing that. For the record, all cadets and veterans know that the first and last commands of the day were inspection arms to make sure that nobody had a live round chambered. For those veterans and cadets who don't know, your instructors and commanders were unbelievably slack. Unless I typed it in incorrectly, my position as BN S-4 was also that of assistant chief of staff for logistics, by TO&E, where the BN XO was chief of staff. At least it was infantry battalion TO&E at the time, right at the end of American involvement in Vietnam. In the Old Guard, blues were for Arlington National Cemetery, the White House, and other high-level assignments. On the other hand, to bury hundreds of Black World War II enlisted veterans, men who were routinely denied combat service and never were awarded a Silver Star as a minimal entitlement for an Arlington drop, we wore the Army green uniform at the other nearby regional cemeteries, and used the fiberglass M14 stocks with standard issue slings instead of wooden M14 stocks and white web slings for White soldiers at ANC (or "the Bone Yard" as it was referred to out of range of an officer's hearing). Even in death, there were separate honors for veterans of the same wars. Yes, it was about knowing the difference between the regular components, the National Guard, and the rest of the militia because I served (where a significant number of enlisted men in the Old Guard also happened to be senior ROTC wash-outs) in contrast to the misinformation put out in some of the other comments above. If seeing people carrying firearms with or without firing pins makes all of us a bit more vigilant, then so be it. That's how it should be, especially when the one with the gun also has a peace officer's badge on. After all, a loaded piece is generally more dangerous than an empty one, no matter who is carrying it. If only the same thing would happen about being vigilant whenever some corporation puts a self-serving constitutional amendment on the ballot...— April 26, 2010 9:08 p.m.
U-T Circulation Continues Fall. Ditto for Other Southern California Dailies
RE #4: I have never used your photograph to stimulate members of lesser species, no way, no how. I was taught to respect the wisdom of my elders...— April 26, 2010 6:28 p.m.
So many San Diegans carry guns
I was doing the open carry thing on a high school campus before it was called open carry, years after Penn State, after the Watts riots, and after Detroit, DC and a few other select cities were burning in the 1960s. It was called Army JROTC, and open carry was what we were doing a platoon or a company at a time, all day long, with zero complaints from anybody, because Spring Valley was unincorporated and still is a zany, wacky kind of place. We carried M14s, the same type of weapon I used and qualified with when I was later in the presidential escort battalion of the 3d US Infantry Regiment in the Military District of Washington. The M14 is still in use in the Old Guard; search for the pictures online. In my arms room (and it was mine as cadet battalion S-4/asst. chief of staff for logistics, according to the list of controlling individuals for military property custodial purposes) there were 80 M14 rifles, 20 .22 match rifles, a brace of M1911 pistols, and typically one or more M16s and a pig AKA M60 machine gun. And yes, we open-carried them all (except Miss Piggy) at one time or another, in plain view on campus with, as I said before, zero complaints. We would even come to the city to shoot at the Morse High School 50-foot indoor range. Every time we open-carried at a varsity football game to present the Colors, we were applauded and saluted by those in attendance on both sides of the stadium. The militia is NOT the Regular Army. It is by 10 USC 311 every male citizen between the ages of 17 and 45, and every female member of the National Guard. Technically, because I am an honorably discharged veteran of a regular branch of federal service pursuant to 32 USC 313, I am extended in the militia until age 64, after which I am ineligible for enlistment in the National Guard, at least for federal recognition purposes. And yes, even though the National Guard is supposed to be federalized at all times post-9/11, the National Guard is NOT the totality of any state's militia. From the above, if somebody tells you to join the NG to be in the militia, you just got called a woman. For most men of age in most parts of San Diego, them's fighting words. I haven't even gotten started on the topic of state defense forces (militia but not NG by act of Congress), or on individual citizen/family involvement in all-hazard homeland security under President G. W. Bush's National Response Framework or President Obama's proposed National Disaster Recovery Framework. If some or even most people don't want to carry or are afraid to carry, don't worry: there are plenty of trained veterans, former cadets, and ex-scouts with hunter-safety cards out there to carry for you. It's why we're here for you. Now that could be a scary carry thought... ;-)— April 26, 2010 6:19 p.m.
Happy Pill
"Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal. — Albert Camus" The above is true of more people than you know, but probably less people than I suspect. Darn those acute paranoid delusions. I detect in the video either self-actualization, idealization, or the potential for a Woody Allen film script. I mean all of that in a good way, as long as we can agree on a definition of "mean"? ... and of "good", for that matter... As for any liberal tendencies of anyone towards recreational pharma, NEVER mix artane, haldol, stelazine, and alcohol in more than modest quantities. At least, not before 8 AM and not until one has had a good hearty breakfast. If unavoidable, then at least one of the above supposedly reduces the need for restraints and/or additional "sedatives". Be well!— April 26, 2010 4:25 p.m.
Fabiani Joins Goldman Sachs Cleanup Team
One can only imagine that if the "Master of Disaster" has time to plug the dike for Goldman Sachs in anything but a superficial role as celebrity spokesman, then all of the backroom wheeling and dealing as to possible Charger stadium sites must be either set in stone or safely on autopilot, regardless of any possible ballot initiative on stadium site expenditures by public entities. Some comments I found while searching on economics of city-hopping by NFL teams: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Econ/faculty/Vrooman/sa… Also for amusement purposes: http://www.fieldofschemes.com/news/archives/2009/…— April 26, 2010 3:28 p.m.
U-T Circulation Continues Fall. Ditto for Other Southern California Dailies
I will always subscribe, for without the morning paper at least four times a week, there is nothing to line the rabbit hutch with.— April 26, 2010 10:47 a.m.
Remember: Most Scams Are Legal
"Seidman gave away the store-and I have to believe that this was done intentionally to line the pockets of the favored few-which is how gov works today (and has basically always worked)." For those curious about how far back these tendencies go, here is a link to "The Customs House" as part of THE SCARLET LETTER: http://www.online-literature.com/hawthorne/scarle…— April 26, 2010 10:44 a.m.
Remember: Most Scams Are Legal
RE #13: Perhaps the biggest eye-opener was my mentored visit to the senior counsel's office at RTC/FDIC. His office was nearly pitch black. There was what appeared to be a banker's green-shaded lamp on his desk as the only illumination in the room. My mentor Marcia spoke to him briefly, and there was a comment or two in return, but I don't recall seeing his face as it was buried in his hands with shirt-sleeved elbows on the desk in front of him, like he was in migraine hell. It was around that time that I heard rumors about the vault behind Seidman's desk that allegedly contained the list of names of institutions that were due to fail in the next few weeks or months. As for the everyday of a paid summer internship in DC, I remember being able to walk from my bus stop on 16th NW, cross through Lafayette Park, then walk around the northwest corner of the White House complex just outside the old Executive Office building (looked like Dracula's HQ) to my office building on 17th street. I think our neighbors in the nondescript unmarked building next to ours with black sedans having multiple antennas were the Secret Service, but otherwise I have nothing to say about that. Since the first Iraq war, I've heard that Pennsylvania Avenue is now completely closed to traffic, but that was after I left town. Because I had previously spent three years in the Old Guard enlisted ranks at Fort Myer a decade earlier, I was the one out-of-town intern who knew where all the really naughty strip clubs in town were located... but those excursions were strictly after hours, unlike the problems of the current SEC porn watchers on the people's time and dime.— April 25, 2010 5:20 p.m.