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Homeland Absurdity
Trips to foreign countries are almost always fun. Decades ago, I recall more than a few trips south of Ensenada that were temporarily interrupted by people in combat boots, fatigues, OD helmet liners, and tiny Red Cross lapel pins, looking bored with their automatic weapons as they hit up my dad for a donation before letting us get back on the road. Eventually, we finally figured out that as long as we kept a little Red Cross sticker in the windshield and a few spare cases of beer in the back of the truck (dad never drank), we were OK yanquis... It's really funny how back then, before there were a paved road south of Colonet, even Che Guevara Chicanos were considered yanquis if you went far enough south of the border, 'cause we smelled different than they did down there. Maybe it was those early hormones injected into American beef finding their way into our rolled tacos... My last visit to the foreign nation of Tumwater was fantastic... a land of free beer! In water fountains!! After a few slugs of Hamms Dark, it was like we were on another planet...— September 13, 2008 7:11 p.m.
Autism Research Institute on Adams Avenue carries on work of Bernard Rimland
The mind is a very complex thing, actually many neural organs in one relatively compact package. It has been a long time since I worked with children who were considered "learning handicapped", and as this is a rather broad classification, there were a number of them who would in this age would be considered autistic. I agree that it helps to not give up. While not autistic, there was one who was nearly catatonic. My miracle of joy after many, many weeks of contact came in getting him to actually smile...— September 13, 2008 6:18 p.m.
Note to Trailer Park Patriots
To be the change I wanted to see in the world, I gave up driving during the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s. Now, every single time I am in a car, I am assured that the driver has an excuse to use the car pool lane. The more one learns about U.S. History, the more one may discover that there is and has been a long-run price for this country's security in maintaining the economics of globalization as a world-leading consumer of resources and finished goods. Whether we realize it or not, this presidential campaign has been an open debate on that price. For high-schoolers, forget your history book. There is a lot more information of much higher quality in your high school library, if you're brave enough to enter, take notes, and put that ipod down for a year or two. Your competition for that college scholarship letter hopes you aren't. Personally, I am heading out the door later to find a current high school history text and see if in fact there is no mention of Admiral Perry, although that absence wouldn't surprise. Less surprising would be that the vast majority of highschool students simply don't read printed pages anymore. Regarding #2: There is only one long-run solution to the hatred other peoples hold regarding America. Fortunately, America has the technology, the economic productivity, and the exploratory wackiness to pull it off. Virtually every nation that is populated by those who hate us has trade agreements with us directly or indirectly through our globalization with still other nations. When we wise up to the unlimited potential economic growth and unending prosperity of moving colonies and industries into outer space, we will no longer be bound to the strategic foreign-intervention expense of economic globalization. American manifest destiny in this millennium should be just that: American. ---- Jesus also said there was a time to shake the dust off our feet and walk away.— September 13, 2008 9:31 a.m.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent -- The Stealing Art Edition
Regarding #3: To be honest, I've received millions upon millions of bytes in excess unused software from Bill Gates everytime I've gotten a new Windows PC, so I have to admit he's been generous enough to me! I have no plans to have billion$. I'll be happy with a few hundred million. Even then, there will be no art collection except for some really enormous Olmec heads that I'm planning on doing myself. The little kids need something to climb on. It's either that, or some anonymous concrete dinosaurs to be scattered around public places in Bonita. On the other hand, there is this friend who lives in India. We used to talk about setting up schools and colleges there back when we were both at the University of Spoiled Daughters... I've always wanted to have my own university.— September 12, 2008 9 p.m.
Guilty Until Proven Innocent -- The Stealing Art Edition
Hmmm... you seem to have enough facts that the maid can still be "innocent until proven guilty", which you have! At the same time, collecting expensive art for expensive art's sake seems somewhat shallow. I'd much rather feed the poor, educate the ignorant, or blow it all of a real binge in TJ, where it'll seriously improve the economics at some hole-in-the-wall bar/bed and no-breakfast...— September 12, 2008 4:21 p.m.
Slippery SEDC bonus requests underneath City Council radar
UPDATE: VOSD has an article on at least two of the above positions left unfilled, where the unpaid salaries became the apparent source of the presidential and other employee bonuses: http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/09/1… From the appearence of things, Carolyn Smith <i>is</i> SEDC... darn near all of it.— September 12, 2008 2:14 p.m.
Overtaxed
I can only assume that the December 2007 Army contract review was done under the umbrella of the Boeing-SAIC Future Combat Systems initiative, designed to provide a comprehensive re-making of Army combat brigades into brigade combat teams (BCT) armed with remote sensors, unmanned weapons systems, and complete computer integration for seamless training, strategic deployment, tactics, and logistics. Full implementation and roll-out on the FCS BCT timeline is not before 2015. Individual FCS systems are now being field-tested overseas now. Any concerns regarding General Atomics' ability to manage and deliver on multiple military/naval contracts go directly to the heart of arguments regarding this nation's ability to effectively manage the two major overseas commitments we have now in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as this nation's future preparedness to meet additional global strategic demands, homeland security concerns, and catastrophic incident complexes of national significance under the National Response Framework as they may arise. If memory serves, Iraq and Afghanistan are two hot topics in the recent days of the presidential campaign... For an unclassified overview of FCS BCT ("Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited"): https://www.fcs.army.mil/news/pdf/FCS_White_Paper…— September 12, 2008 1:45 p.m.
Union-Tribune obituary Allard Roen omits mob connections
Regarding #9: Thanx... too often I'm looking at docs so closely that the really obvious stuff just goes zing... right over my head! I always wondered why it was the County Counsel's office and not the DA who sued SDG&E over the Encanto Gas Holder site in 2005. Sometimes I feel so naive, and bruised from just falling off the turnip truck...— September 11, 2008 9:14 p.m.
Oh, Cheeseburger!
I wonder how many of us now say "Gas and Electric!"... For awhile, I seemed rather patriotic by exclaiming "God bless America!" instead of an invocation of something else.— September 11, 2008 3:07 p.m.
Plastic bags block La Jolla kelp beds
I got about 204,000 results on a google of "hemp shopping bag"... http://www.google.com/search?q=hemp+shopping+bag Good political leadership is where you find it. If not found, it doesn't hurt to make some changes ourselves. If the idea of hemp turns you off, then try this for over 5 million results: http://www.google.com/search?q=cloth+shopping+bag— September 11, 2008 2:47 p.m.