Letters to the editor...

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... that caught our eye over the past week in the San Diego Union-Tribune.




With respect to the 4 crosses at Camp Pendleton honoring 4 dead Marines, Douglas L. Inman of La Jolla writes:

The crosses were intended as memorials to four fallen Marines but have a special meaning to those who fought in World War II. None of the letters about the crosses published in the U-T on December 31st addressed that meaning.

I am a 91-year old Marine Corps Reserve officer, retired university professor, and survivor of the landing on Peleliu in 1944. The significance of the cross for battlefield casualties has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with the press of war. Battlefield casualties often require rapid burial that precludes sorting out religious preferences. At Peleliu, Japanese snipers were still firing from Bloody Nose Ridge while the burial team was placing bodies in the soil. A single stake as marker would soon be lost, but a cross is simpler and easier to find in the flotsam of war. Thus it became the marker of choice for battlefield burials.

In the field, we were all supportive of each other regardless of religion. I can assure you that we did not think of my buddy Kehoe as a Jewish boy from Philadelphia who was buried under a Christian symbol, but rather that he was our comrade in arms and buried under the traditional battlefield symbol of honor, the cross.

That places the cross within an entirely different context: a battlefield symbol of honor. It is unfortunate that it bothers some people, but life is often that way.

We had not heard that specific utilitarian angle before. And thank you for your service to our country, Mr. Inman.





And here's Stephanie Jenkins of San Diego with praise for an Occupy activist:

Thank you for the article about the Occupy activist named Nicole. It is very nice to see that there are people who care about more than their paycheck and want to contribute to society. I’m certain she has taken her fair share of insults but as Mahatma Gandhi said, “First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.” It seems clear to me that this movement isn’t going anywhere thanks to young women like this.

(italics, ours)

Truer words have never been spoken for the sedentary lot that makes up Obama's Whining Squatters.





And here we provide some running paranthetical commentary to La Mesa resident, Daniel R. Sanley's contention with the U-T's assessment of the Obama presidency:

The Jan. 5 U-T editorial (The beginning of the end”) referred to “a failed Obama presidency.”

Troops home from Iraq (by agreement hammered out between previous administration and Iraqi government), flawed “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy scraped, saved us from a depression (Furious spin. We were promised unemployment would not go above 8% if Porkulus passed), plus job creation during a major recession he didn’t start (Ah, the old job creation myth. If one wants to say that Obama "saved" jobs, at $500,000 a job in many cases, then go right ahead), Social Security tax relief (Dubious achievement considering the teetering finances of Social Security as it is), extended unemployment benefits (Another dubious achievement considering the whole idea of pro-growth economic policies is to effectively get people off unemployment benefits, a concept seeming lost on Team O), aggressive use of drones and special forces to reduce enemy leaders (Re: drone strikes. The One doesn't want to be bothered with the sticky situation of detaining the bad guys - better off just whacking them. And we assume Dan is also referring to our unauthorized overseas military kinetics in Libya. Glad to see all of Bush's transgressions washed away here in his 3rd term), assisting students with higher education cost relief (... that is doing absolutely nothing to actually reduce the cost of higher education), encouraging alternative energy businesses (we're assuming that's a pretty big rock in La Mesa under which Dan is residing if he's managed to be out of ear shot of the President's hopelessy failed crony capitalist loan program run by the Department of Energy), proposed “balanced” method reducing the deficit (say it: "raise taxes". Besides, Obama had both houses of Congress for two whole years and did quite the opposite with respect reducing the deficit), increased health care coverage (via an unconstitutional mandate) and improvements in current plans for millions of Americans (which will most likely cost more than what millions of Americans will be able to afford), and added checks and balances for corporate abuses (the Dodd-Frank fin-reg bill will only preserve the status quo for Wall St. Chris Dodd and Barney Frank co-sponsored the damn thing for crying out loud).

I would call this presidency anything but a failure.

As previously stated, we would beg to differ.

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Operation Gunrunner/Fast and Furious update

If you're someone named Sylvia Longmire writing for the San Diego Union-Tribune last week, there's no update. In fact, there's no such thing as Operation Gunrunner, Gunwalker, Fast and Furious or any other such unseemly thing. Like, what are you talking about?

Here is a public challenge to both the National Rifle Association and the Obama administration. I challenge you to prove that either of you has any idea what you’re talking about when it comes to southbound weapons trafficking to Mexico.

The issue at hand is not whether guns sold in the United States are making their way into Mexican cartel hands; that’s indisputable. It’s trying to figure out exactly how many of those guns come from the U.S. and how many come from elsewhere.

The Obama administration has stated publicly that the United States bears much of the responsibility for the flow of firearms into Mexico and has pledged to work harder to stop it. The NRA is diametrically opposed. It has millions of members and represents gun owners’ right to bear arms, regardless of the caliber. They believe there are too many gun laws already and that the government only wants to take guns away from law-abiding citizens.

(italics, ours)

And on she goes without a single solitary reference to the deadly and illegal scheme carried out by the ATF to allow guns to be sold in the U.S. and then fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

It's jaw-dropping, really. What more needs to be said about the deplorable state of journalism in this country than someone can pen an op-ed piece in a major daily of a city that sets on the U.S.-Mexico border about the flow of guns across that border without a single mention of a gun-smuggling operation carried out by the U.S. government and which the head of that government agency will be testifying about next month?




P.S. Such was our incredulousness, we had to read the article 3 separate times to make sure we hadn't missed any word on Gunrunner/Fast and Furious. It has to be in here, right? This is the sort of stuff that makes our blood boil.

Not so random thought of the day

This post should be taken as a companion piece to B-Daddy's post on Attractive Nuisance. Read his first or second - they are hopelessly intertwined so it matters not.


Years back and not remembering some of the details, there was a case involving an individual who owned beach property up Mailbu way. His property extended out to the surf and which also encompassed a rock outcropping that became very dangerous at high tide and/or rough weather. A suit was brought against this man by another person who had injured himself on the rocks. The property owner thought he was in the clear as he had festooned the rocks with all manner of signage from Danger: Rocks and Caution:High Tide to Warning: Slow Children. Dude thought he was covered.

Not so, the judge.

A ha!, the judge exclaimed. Since you had the appropriate signage, you knew of the obvious hazards that existed on your property and you still did not take the appropriate measures to protect the public from those hazards that existed on your property.

And it is against this backdrop that we witness again the insanity that swirls around the illegal immigration debate. The All-American canal in the Imperial County east of San Diego and which for 23 miles flows alongside the border with Mexico was the subject of an editorial from the normally cogent San Diego Union Tribune. It is linked, of course, but just to let you know we're not gaming the system or being anything but above board we'll let you have the money paragraph from the horse's mouth:

It is along that stretch in particular that Escondido activists John and Laura Hunter and others have demanded that public agencies install safety devices to assist people who struggle with the frigid waters, swirling currents and surprising depths. While a number of measures have been discussed, the one studied most closely is the installation of rope lines attached to buoys.

It should be noted that the referenced "people" are not campers, off-roaders or bird-watchers. At least, we don't think so.



It's bad enough that we have created an economy on this side of the border that is so disparate from that of Mexico's that people will break the law in order to participate, we have now painted ourselves into a moral corner of insisting the very government that is charged with enforcing the border to aid and abet this lawlessness in the name of humanity.

It's gone beyond that beach house owner in Malibu who warned against crossing his property in dangerous conditions and even that of making sufficient effort to prevent people from doing so - it has now come to the point where we are urged by the humane among us to hand out floaties and life jackets at the All-American canal in order to better facilitate safe passage for illegal immigrants poised to violate our sovereignty.


Follower update: Southern Man and B@manMadeira are in the house.

End of the Day

We liked this letter to the editor from "Dave K." of San Diego which appeared in yesterday's U-T regarding unemployment angst.

Some lessons I have learned:
There is no 10 percent unemployment . Unemployment is either zero (you have a job) or 100 percent (you don’t have a job). It only takes one good interview to make a difference.

Be frugal. Live within your means. Plan ahead – way ahead. Be flexible. Be ready.

Enjoy San Diego freebies. Surf. Walk the beach. Bike Mission Bay. Watch sailboats at Shelter Island. Sit on the steps of Mt. Soledad and view the city and the coastline. Then check the weather report and the unemployment rate in Detroit. San Diego isn’t so bad. You can make it.

Freedom Week/San Diego beer week update: We're taking a mid-week operational pause this evening from participating in any beer week festivities. Hey, back off - we're not as young as we used to be.

With straight faces all around

The senior Senate Democrat shepherding legislation to overhaul the nation's financial system is planning to propose the merger of four bank agencies into one super-regulator, an idea that is significantly different from what President Barack Obama envisions.

The legislation being prepared by Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, who heads the Senate Banking Committee, would also differ from the Obama plan by blah, blah, blah.

blah, blah, blah, ours... but it should not have been.

Seriously? Is there anything Dodd could say regarding reforming financial regulation that would carry any credibility whatsoever?

That this article made it to the front page of Sunday's fish wrap demonstrates that either the U-T has a great sense of irony or is completely clueless.

Picture of the Day

...as seen this afternoon on the SR 94.

The State of California would like you to know they take child abduction very seriously.




P.S. We haven't yet received a reply to our letter to the Editor regarding the San Diego Union-Tribune's omission of the physical description of the two abductors in the Briant Rodriquez kidnapping case.

In-credible

We were going to post on the following on Tuesday but talked ourselves down off the ledge. Here was the gist of the situation: On Sunday, two armed men broke into a house in San Bernardino, tied up the family, stole money and other property and then 20 minutes later, left, taking the youngest member of the family, Briant Rodriguez, age 3, with them.

The article that ran in Tuesday’s San Diego U-T was picked up from the Associated Press. The detailed account of the home invasion, robbery and abduction was absent one glaring item: a physical description of the two bad guys.

We got our hackles up but before we posted our righteous indignation, we made a few phone calls on Tuesday afternoon/evening. First to the San Berdoo police, then the Sheriffs’ and finally to Amber-Alert. The operator at Amber-Alert said the descriptions of the two men and composite sketches had been released to the media and were also on Amber-Alert’s website.

Because finding Briant was and is the top priority, we did not go too much into investigative journalism mode but the gentleman from Amber-Alert suggested that they corroborate all the data and information they have before releasing the details on the suspects’ physical descriptions. Fair enough. Begin backing slowly away from the ledge.

Well, in yesterday’s U-T, there is an article, again, from the AP which is an update on the leads investigators are pursuing with respect to Briant Rodriquez. And guess what salient point of information that just might be advantageous towards the search for young Briant and his two kidnappers was missing? Outside of the winnowing-with-a-dull-butter knife information that the two abductors are “Spanish-speaking kidnappers” from Mexico, there is zero information on what these two guys look like.

We’re left to question just how serious the AP and by extension the U-T (they ran the story, they own the story) really is about wanting to disseminate information that would aid in this search effort.

Yes, we’ve seen the physical description of the two kidnappers on T.V. but how in god’s name do you run a story about a missing child without providing that detail? How?

Pray for Briant’s safety and his ultimate reunion with his family because out of either willful journalistic negligence or misguided political correctness, some people really don’t seem to care.

When the U-T and the rest of print media finally packs it all in, you’ll be left with at least one reason as to why it may have happened.

P.S. The physical description of the two men can be found, here, at Amber-Alert’s website.

P.P.S. Letter to the Editor requesting an explanation for this omission has been sent.