Quick links

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We've been busier than a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest of late but we did want to bring your attention to the following:




First, Leslie at Temple of Mut with this priceless quote which relates to a California Assembly bill that would require statewide initiative and referendum petition sign-ups to be in 11 different languages effectively choking out the entire process and which also relates to our pending fire season:

I guess we don’t have to wait for Santa Ana’s to destroy our way of life this year. Thanks Sacramento!

Please go to the link, here, for more information and follow-up links to your local elected reps contact info.





Here's Kevin Williamson channeling his inner P.J. O'Rourke and espousing on out-sourcing/off-shoring and global economic ignorance:

What’s interesting about this controversy to me is the naked xenophobia of the Left on display alongside the amusing ignorance. Liberals love a good talk about the value of learning from other cultures and other peoples, so long as those foreigners don’t mind staying poor. If they want to sell goods and services, they are the enemy. Asians are allowed to be airy gurus and quaint villagers, but the day one of them wants to set up a factory, Democrats have a fit. Mohandas Gandhi good, Ratan Tata evil. You want collective, coordinated global cooperation to solve the world’s most pressing problems? That doesn’t look like a working-group meeting at the United Nations; it looks like what Bain does. You want a display of backward, ignorant chauvinism? Put Obama in front of a union hall.

There’s a famous and probably apocryphal story about Milton Friedman being taken on a tour of a giant Chinese infrastructure project of some kind, in which the workers were using old-fashioned shovels and picks and wheelbarrows. Curious, Friedman asked his guide why they weren’t using bulldozers and other heavy machinery. The answer was: “We care about creating jobs for our people.” To which Friedman responded: “Then why not use spoons?” I wonder if Barack Obama could answer Milton Friedman’s question.

We're name-dropping O'Rourke and Williamson is name-dropping Friedman... what more can a person want..? go to the link!





And speaking of fire season, The Denver Post has a great photo essay of the wildfires that have been burning out of control in the Colorado Springs area. The following are just a couple of examples:

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The President is supposed to be out in Colorado today to check in on things. We here in San Diego know a thing or two about wildfires so our thoughts and prayers go out to those folks in the great state of Colorado and, in particular, the men and women on the line trying to contain this beast.


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Wind, wind, go away...

Although the temperature is forecasted to drop, one always keeps one’s fingers crossed down here in San Diego when we get a Santa Ana condition in late October as the Cedar fire of ’03 and the Witch Creek fire of ’07 took place at precisely this time of year and in very similar weather.

Picture is smoke from the Witch Creek fire rising up behind Mt. Miguel east of San Diego.

P.S. We had some connectivity problems which we are still recovering from which explains why things have been kind of slow around here today. We'll try to pick it up a bit.

October 2007

It was one year ago this week that San Diego was under siege from the Witch Creek and Harris fires, respectively.

It was a bizarre week full of angst, terror and uncertainty, but also of caring, compassion and hope.

A little retrospective is in order this evening as we look back on some generosity of spirit and some some-what misguided but fun-filled BwD relief efforts here and here.

BwD's Totally Excellent Adventure

Armed with a pick-up bed full of heavy-duty gardening tools and a U.S. Forest Service Basic Wildland Firefighting S130, S190 certificate, headed out to the Steele Canyon area in search of adventure. When we got to the intersection of Jamacha and SR-94, though, let's just say that the DOJ officer who was directing traffic to the front lines was less than impressed with our equipment, ambition and paper credentials.

We were sent unceremoniously packing to a Target shopping mall that had been set up as a evacuation center. The following are some photos to what turned out to be an outstanding if not-quite-as-adventerous-as-hoped afternoon.

(at right: hordes of completely unsupervised U.S. citizens feeding, clothing and comforting the less-fortunate. These were our people for the afternoon. Brother and sister, Angelo and Diane, unprompted except by their own spirit, set up the canopies at 10 in the morning at the entrance to a Target. Target said no problem. Next thing you know, people were bringing supplies here. Even the Red Cross and Salvation Army rolled up and dropped off stuff. Subway donated sandwiches and KFC made 2 separate drops of hot meals. All it took was two people. And without any org chart, wiring diagram, Lean Sigma 6 or new employee indoctrination program the whole operation ran efficiently and joyfully. We're not exactly sure how many of the approx. 15 volunteers who were there while we were, actually knew Angelo or Diane.)

(the man in the middle with the white tee is pastor Danny Contreras of El Cajon Apostolic Church. They were hosting evacuees from Ramona on the church ground and we brought them water, food and clothing from the Target HQ. We asked Danny what exactly were Apostolics. He said they were akin to Pentecostals... "..we're the holy-rollers, brother" he said with a chuckle. Pentacostals....? hmmmm.... snake handlers, perhaps. "Hey, Danny. You guys do snake handling? You handle snakes and we guarantee you we'll be back here on Sunday". Danny laughed a deep laugh and assured us that they left the snakes for other folks. Shoot.)

("care buckets" at right. Water, towlettes, health bars, toothpaste, tooth brush, etc. I asked which agency dropped these off. No agency, replied Diane, just some random dude in a pick-up that stopped by a few hours earlier)

(Steve Gonzalez in the yellow jacket of the CDF out of Santa Clara. He was passing out updates (SITREPs) on the fire perimeter and locations that had been re-opened. Good guy. The Substitute referenced it in a comment but he did explain to me why the tankers don't go up when the winds are over 30-35 mph. Its not necessarily for the safety of the plane but because there is no guarantee the retardant will hit its target in those high winds. Steve explained that they had implemented many lessons-learned from the Cedars Fire because they (CDF) "took a beating" PR-wise. We asked about his new boss. He just smiled and said, yes, it was good to have an actual fire-fighter at the top (instead of a forestry major from Berkeley - our perceived inference). We thanked him and told him the lessons-learned were making a difference).

(Sunset at the "campground"). Folks, if you have a chance in the evening after work or on the weekend, please get out there and do what you can... even if its only for an hour or so. One woman who was evacuated back in '03 and again now, said she was from the East Coast and claimed something like this would've never happened back there. "I LOVE San Diego. There isn't anything these people would not do for you".

The unfortunate aspect of this is that we ARE getting too good at this sort of thing and all signs point to these fire disasters, for a number of reasons, being the rule rather than the exceptional occurrence every 4-5 years or so. All in all, though, not a bad day.

"America is great because America is good." Democracy In America - Alexis de Tocqueville

We May not Know How to Drive in the Rain but We can sure Drive in a Fire

….ummm.. we’re still here. Long story short: because of the fires and the absences at work caused by them, it was felt that our overall benefit to society and the project office as a whole would best be served ashore rather than at sea.

As noted by KT over at The Scratching Post, the post below, and in an article we're trying to relocate and will link to when we find it, the general behavior displayed by the citizenry in the face of this disaster has been outstanding. And you want real Sunday manners? Just wait ‘til FEMA gets here!

We were struck by the irony of getting word this afternoon that the first of FEMA aid and support will start arriving tomorrow after it appears we may have turned a corner today with the winds dying down and the first evacuation cancellation notices being issued this afternoon.

Hey, what if FEMA showed up and there wasn’t a disaster?

And this isn’t to slam anybody’s performance or lack thereof at either the Agency or the upper levels of government. It is simply indicative of how much inertia is to be overcome when you are talking about getting a huge federal bureaucracy off top-dead-center. Its just a fact.

But anyway, back to our uncommon civility that has been on display here. Let’s not get too congratulatory – let’s not do too much back-slapping. We live in San Diego, afterall, where it is humanly impossible to be angry, upset or angst-ridden for too long.

Back in ’99 or ’00 the WTO or some such other NGO was having their get-together up in Seattle to plot the crushing of the world's underclasses and the disgruntled ones showed up and trashed the city in protest . The WTO was going to convene down here in San Diego the following month and everyone was worried that these middle-class anarchist knuckle-heads would do the same thing to our fair city.

We recall telling several friends that nothing of the sort would happen. The coddled little brats would show up with their placards and black masks all full of ill will and discontent and upon descending on San Diego they would…… they would….. go to the beach…. go to Balboa Park…. hang out and take pictures from Mt. Soledad or Cabrillo Nat’l. Monument. "….hey, do you want to take a drive up the coast? or maybe chill in O.B? I hear they have actual hippies there….."

… and that’s precisely what happened. Don’t get us wrong – we’re proud of our city. We’re coping but this isn’t going to be a sprint. This particular disaster is going to have a very long tail as people try to put their lives back together absent a place to call home. We aren't near out of the woods yet but we do see a glimmer of hope off in the distance.

An Absolutely Gorgeous Day, otherwise.

A double-edged sword these Santa Anas. They provide crystal clear days as the east winds off the desert blow all the junky air out to sea but they also drive the monstrous fires that we are currently experiencing down here.

Its still early but these two fires down here in San Diego currently raging out of control are worse than the Cedars fires of 4 years ago.

250,000 people, thus far have been evacuated from their homes extending from Ramona in the east all the way west to the coastal communities of Rancho Santa Fe, Encinitas and Del Mar. In the south, rural communities have been evacuated and precautionary (voluntary) evacuations are taking effect in the more heavily populated communities of East Lake (eastern edge of Chula Vista).

Its bad and there isn’t any relief in sight. Even during Santa Anas we don’t get too much wind but it has been blowing consistently since we got home which would give an indication of how hard its blowing further east.

So we grabbed the Substitute and made a shopping run down to our local Ghetto Mart. The parking lot at the Murph (Qualcomm Stadium) was being used as an evacuation center for those displaced from their homes and the call went out for supplies: they had plenty of food but they needed paper plates, plastic utensils, fruit juice and of course, water.

When we got down there we were told that the collection center for supplies was in Section M all the way around the other side of the stadium. We crawled along in single file traffic around the parking lot for a few minutes…. Where were all these people going?, we thought. There was plenty of space in the lot to just set up housekeeping if they were looking for a place to stay. We got um… creative and took a short cut to expedite our trip to Section M (kick-off was in 10 minutes, man!)

When we arrived there were small mountains of supplies concentrated in one area… water, blankets, sleeping bags, toilet paper…. It was amazing. And it dawned on us that the long-ass traffic line that wrapped clear around the stadium of which we were so impatient were other people, not looking for a place to stay, but rather waiting their turn to drop off supplies themselves. Yeah, we felt real good about ourselves after that.

On the drive back home, it felt like the wind had picked up and the smoke from the Harris fire (southern of the two fires and pictured above – Witch Creek fire is to the north) had gotten larger and darker. Not good. Not good at all.

Keep your fingers crossed for us and say a prayer for a change in the weather, a nice on-shore flow, a decrease in the wind and in particular for the safety of those whose homes are in danger and of the fire fighters and emergency workers who have got their hands full right now but whose commitment never waivers.

As you can see below, B-Daddy is all over this. This will be our last post for a while as we will be out to sea for a couple and then off to Vegas, which seems even a bit more frivolous and banal than it did just a few days ago.

(oh, and that's the Substitute above doing some of the heavy lifting at the Murph)