Your mid-week, martini-worthy photo images

A departure from our semi-regular Wednesday series when we usually feature some pix and music from mid-century(ish) artists and/or celebs.



The usual August monsoon swell moving northwards from Mexico has produced some massive and spectacular thunderclouds out over San Diego's east county including a super cloud on Tuesday from the combining of three separate thunderstorms.


We saw it coming out of work but never thought to snap off any pictures of the monster that dropped an inch of rain on the Laguna Mountains. These pictures are from today:


(please click to enlarge)

Check out the San Diego Union-Tribune's slide show and write-up on Tuesday's supercloud, here.



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Don't go away mad, just go away

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We have yet to blog about the whole Bob Filner filth fiasco but as residents of America’s finest city, we feel it’s about time we chime in on the mess and in particular the recall effort that is currently underway here in San Diego.


Allow us to go on the record as saying we voted for Filner’s opponent, Carl DeMaio, last November and that we are also opposed to the recall effort.*


Before we go on, please read B-Daddy’s breakdown of why he supports the recall effort, here and here, where he makes an outstanding case for dumping Filner.


Our reasoning in opposing the recall effort stated below is lifted largely from the comment we left at one of B-Daddy’s blog post on the subject:


We’re one of those (R)s B-Daddy has kept in confidentiality, though, in sitting this one out, it is not out of a desire to drag down the statist-Democratic policies championed by the mayor (an admirable collateral benefit, to be sure) but rather in disgust that this man was voted to the office of mayor of San Diego in the first place.


We’ve been calling it our salute to the low information voter. To wit, has anyone who has been paying attention to this guy over the years really not thought he was a massively flaming douchebag of the highest order and thus not fit to serve as the mayor of our fine city? At age 70, he did not suddenly turn into this acerbic, arrogant, bullying perv… he’s been this way for years and aside from the specific allegations of unwanted sexual advances, this has been common knowledge as to the man’s character and behavior.


That's why the just-recent opposition to him by the likes of former allies Donna Frye rang so hollow. Like, she didn't know? Child, please. It just seems to be a little bit too much opportunism for our tastes.


The recall effort is going to be lengthy and costly and to our knowledge, the city charter is vague on the specifics leaving the un-codified recalling mechanism up to the City Council to figure out. To our thinking, this is a recipe for a bureaucratic and legal disaster.


B-Daddy makes absolutely valid points but... Nope. Sorry. Call it tough love or taking the medicine or us just having a little temper tantrum over here in the corner but we want this one to sting.


You voted for this creepy jerk, San Diego, now we all have to take a bite out this massive s**t sandwich. Enjoy.


* Non-support of the recall effort is not intended in any way as an endorsement of the man or as the title of this blog post suggests, blocking the exit to the doorway should Filner decide to leave of his own accord.

Post election day thoughts and ruminations (UPDATED)

(please scroll down for update)



We awoke at 0430 this morning, refreshed, re-invigorated and ready to get back at it. The very first thing, though, that crossed our mind when we rolled out of bed, and taking into account that hindsight is 20/20, was: we nominated a RINO from Massachusetts. Electorally speaking, how on god’s green earth did we think that was going to work out?


People like George Will, Michael Barone and especially Dick Morris who predicted a Romney landslide have some serious explaining to do today. Morris predicted a 100 seat swap in the House back in 2010, so he’s coming across as an increasingly opportunistic red state, red meat shill. I understand the man has turned his life around on a personal basis but there appears to be only so much sleaze that can be wrung out of the cloth.


Since we’re inherently uncomfortable with people whom we’ve never met and whom we probably wouldn't like, making decisions that affect us some 3,000 miles away, we’re inherently OK with gridlock. So, taking a silver lining approach, here, and at the expense of doing anything meaningful with respect to our long-term/entitlement debt black hole, we’re glad America chose gridlock for the next four years.

We’ll be in our late 40s before we have a chance to entertain this issue again. Entitlement reform, that is. We’ve been willing to have that discussion for years. Our countrymen, last night, apparently felt otherwise and were quite willing to kick the can down the road for at least another four years.

We’re at a loss to explain Bob Filner’s victory over Carl DeMaio for San Diego’s mayor post. Two ballot measures on pension reform and labor contracting that won handily in June were vigorously supported by DeMaio. That should have been a leading indicator, right? That and the endorsement of a popular outgoing mayor. We honestly felt DeMaio would walk away with this thing by about 10 points so we guess we have some explaining to do ourselves.


OK, time to go to work, as in work-work. We may update this post later on today.



(UPDATE #1):


For an alleged uniter, the President ran the smallest, pettiest and most negative campaign we have ever seen run by an incumbent. Any hopes he may have had in extending goodwill in order to work with a Republican congress was pretty much shot to hell by the way he campaigned.

All you civil libertarians, constitutional scholars and righteously indignant anti-corporate populists who were in full throat from 2001-2008, rest easy. No, seriously. Hit that snooze bar and rest easy - you're services won't be required for at least another 4 years.

We realize the odds are long but how about a pick'em lottery on who the next U.S. citizen will be to get wacked in a drone strike directed by the Commander-in-Chief.

Of course, the biggest basket case state in the Union, California, went big for Obama by 21 points (59-38)


From the comments, here's Sarah B.:

I look forward to a fresh crop of fiscal libertarians who speak more frankly and worry less about who they offend. The Christi personality works. More please.

Sarah's right. Romney represents the last of the establishment G.O.P. presidential candidates from this point forward. Bush Sr., Dole, McCain and Romney all did not either have the track record or could not adequately articulate a pro-growth, limited constitutional government agenda of the conserva-libertarian wing of the party. This will end in 4 years when we will have a spirited primary highlighted by a pool of sharp, principled, young Gen-Xers who will forcefully make the case for the aforementioned.

Take a rest if you must but before too long let's get ready to get after this thing with hammer and tongs.


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San Diego: America's fastest city?

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How does that country and western song go?: I'm not as good as I once was but I'm good once as I ever was...

Well, organizers of San Diego's Big Bay Boom 4th of July fireworks show may know how that feels.

When most of the country was going ooh and aah over Fourth of July fireworks displays, San Diego spectators were treated to a spectacle that lit up the night sky -- for all of 15 seconds.

Thousands had gathered at beaches and parks to catch a glimpse of the annual "Big Bay Boom" show on Wednesday night. Some camped out for hours to see the fireworks that ignite around the San Diego Bay on Independence Day.

An unknown glitch caused the fireworks to explode all at once, botching the show and bewildering spectators.

Others fled into the night as four big balls lit up before their scheduled time, adding to the confusion.

Here's the highli... er, the show:


. For those that spent the next 2-3 hours sitting in traffic trying to get out of the Pacific Beach/Mission Beach/Mission Bay area after this show, it had to be a huge disappointment. Maybe the city put these guys in charge. (NSFW warning)
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Photo image of the day

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This was the scene last week on Harbor Dr. here in San Diego and it was a symbol of the efficacy of green/alternative energy in its current state.


(please click to enlarge... the camera-in-phone did not cooperate on the first take)

This is a wind turbine blade on Harbor Drive here in San Diego. Transported on a big ol' flat bed towed by a big ol' diesel and escorted by a couple of chase vehicles. They do have a tendency to tie-up things on Harbor as they are matriculating their way down the street. Problem is - it's heading the wrong way. Instead of heading out to the desert or east county where the bird-wacking turbine farms are, it's heading back towards the 10th St. terminal from whence it came. Whatever the problem is, it's a pretty costly mistake. Not that the wind and solar industries probably care - they're the chosen ones. Check out the subsidies granted to these two sectors as compared to other engergy sectors:

Not too shabby, huh? Maybe when the government decides to stop conferring 1% status on not-yet-market-ready technologies and stops depending upon places like China with their deplorable environmental policies for the lithium needed for wind and solar, perhaps we can avoid scenes like the above.


Time's short... we'll have an update later.

Great moments in the history of local AM talk radio

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KT beat us to it but consider this a perfect companion piece to NY Times' David Brooks column whining about the San Diego Republican Party's endorsement of Carl DeMaio over Nathan Fletcher.


Here's DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) on the air with KABC AM 790's John Phillips.

Bottom line: if you are a national figure and you are going to opine upon local politics and the realities contained therein, you better have more in your arsenal than platitudes and national-level talking points.

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We don't think she'll be coming back anytime soon.



And in case you missed it: with respect to Brooks' column on San Diego and the alleged radicalization of the Republican Party, here is what we had to say:

Brooks describes Carl DeMaio, who did receive the party endorsement as "the more orthodox conservative". One wonders if Brooks did any research at all regarding DeMaio, the first openly gay city coucil person and the man who has been at the forefront of public employee pension reform, an issue that has resonated greatly with the voters of the city. If this makes DeMaio the more orthodox conservative and which also represents an "enforcing of conformity", then so be it but perhaps Brooks should pause to consider that at 3,000 miles away, he has zero feel for the political ground game here in San Diego before he puts fingers to keyboard to bellyache some more about the extreming of politics in this country.

Delving into local matters when you have no real feel for what the locals are thinking is a proposition fraught with peril. Proceed at your own risk.

Photo image of the day

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Memo to Ms. Fluke and the rest of you free-loaders out there who want the rest of us to pay for your sex life: contraception is so unavailable and expensive, Planned Parenthood is totally not putting up billboards like the one pictured here at the well-traveled intersection of Navajo Road and Lake Murray Blvd. in northeast San Diego to prove those very points.

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Also, in a Friday evening news dump the Obama administration is moving forward with their intended plans to have health insurance providers provide free contraceptive services:

Officials at the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor, and the Treasury today took the next step in the Obama administration’s effort to ensure women access to recommended preventive services while respecting religious liberty. The Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today outlines draft proposals to implement the policy announced by President Barack Obama and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Feb. 10, 2012. This policy will provide women with access to recommended preventive services including contraceptives without cost sharing, while ensuring that non-profit religious organizations are not forced to pay for, provide, or facilitate the provision of any contraceptive service they object to on religious grounds. The Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking issued today gives all Americans the chance to formally comment on ideas for implementing this policy.

Of course, this is totally misleading in that, though religious organizations may not be forced to pay for contraceptive services, the health insurance companies will... and will pass that cost right back onto the consumer in the form of higher premiums. Also, this does nothing to settle the issue that this "compromise" forces religious organizations to offer a full range of contraceptive services against their conscience nor does it solve the conscience problem of religious organizations that are self-insured.


As that billboard ably demonstrates, there is absolutely zero need for the government to get into the business of dictating contraceptive services terms to health insurance policies. Please tell us where is the compelling need? And if there is one, don't you think that in an open and transparent market place, there would be health insurance policies that would offer those services?

This is simply about picking a fight, creating an artificial issue and shamelessly pandering to a naive and dim-witted voting bloc ahead of a presidential election.

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The more things change, the more they stay the same

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On the President's proposed budget:

The White House is focusing on re-election themes such as jobs and public works projects in President Barack Obama's new budget blueprint while relying on familiar but never enacted tax increases on the wealthy and corporations to reduce future deficits after four years of trillion dollar-plus shortfalls.

Obama's 2013 budget, set for release Monday, is the official start to an election-year budget battle with Republicans. It's unlikely to result in a genuine effort to address the $15 trillion national debt or the entrenched deficits that keep piling on to it. But it will serve as the Democrats' party-defining template on this year's election stakes.

The president's plan is laden with stimulus-style initiatives: sharp increases for highway construction and school modernization, and a new tax credit for businesses that add jobs. But it avoids sacrifice with only minimal curbs on the unsustainable growth of Medicare even as it proposes a 10-year, $61 billion "financial crisis responsibility fee" on big banks to recoup the 2008 Wall Street bailout.

(italics, ours)

Sound familiar? And how has that all been working out?





And closer to home, here in San Diego:

Democratic leaders this weekend implored attendees at the state party convention in San Diego to harness the energy and enthusiasm of 2008, casting the upcoming elections as pivotal moments that will determine the trajectory of the country for decades to come.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Saturday that the only way to maintain the firewall against Republican and tea party “extremism” is to re-elect President Barack Obama, return her to the U.S. Senate for another term and marshal the resources to regain control of the House of Representatives.

She was among dozens of speakers — including Gov. Jerry Brown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn. — to paint an unfavorable picture of the alternative.

“Just think of the damage a Gingrich or a Romney or a Santorum would do if they reach the White House or if the tea party takes over Congress,” Feinstein said in a speech at the San Diego Convention Center.

“It would be no health care reform,” she added. “It would be no job program. No financial regulation. No effort to deal with climate change. No stem cell research. No reform of a broken immigration system. ... No woman’s right to choose. And a meat ax to Medicare and Social Security.”

Ask yourselves: does any/all of the above sound very "progressive" to you?


We are facing a very real debt crisis in this country, yet we have an entrenched political class of statists who simply refuse to acknowledge the math. Far from being the self-proclaimed reformers and progressives, they are fully vested in and will fight tooth and nail for the status quo.


Whether it's the $120 billion train-to-and-from-nowhere high speed rail system here in California or yet another unsustainable entitlement program in ObamaCare to be stacked on top of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security, there is no change, yet only more of the same.


A President perfectly positioned to address this sovereign crisis cynically turns in a budget designed only to get himself re-elected... to do what exactly?

So, a tea partier walks into an Obamaville

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Sir Charles of DooDoo Economics and fellow SLOB spent some time down at Occupy San Diego a couple days ago and had some very interesting observations as a result.

Consider for a moment that the left is full of people who lived through the sixties and seventies as radical activists. They have first-hand knowledge of what worked and what did not, and why. The Occupy movement, like progressive political policies, is designed to fail in order to enrich an elitist political class through expendables, dependents and useful idiots. Consider the negative connotations of the language "Occupy."

Any movement, living in squalor, beset by radicals and including fringe elements, will eventually have individuals commit heinous and deplorable acts. The movement will react to those events and be an easy target for public outrage, outrage focused upon both the individuals involved and the movement as it reacts. The sixties and seventies radical left activists remember this, teach this, and use this. This tactic is often used against conservatives who aspire to a set of high standards but, being human, make mistakes that can be exploited as "hypocritical." The application of this tactic is only slightly different when creating groups to demonize as opposed to demonizing opponents. Machiavelli would be proud, but the myth of the compassionate left is clear.

Not to go all conspiracy theory on everybody but the timing of the simultaneous crackdowns on the OWS sites a couple of days ago has lent suspicion to the notion that the political class in this country that had been playing footsie if not outright endorsing the Obamavilles that had sprung up around the country, had had enough of the negative publicity coming out of the OWS encampments... or whatever bad press the legacy media decided to report out on.

Keeping OWS alive but not too alive would appear to be advantageous leverage for the class warfare meme of the ruling class of this country.



Check out the rest of Sir Charles' outstanding post, here.

More hijinks and hilarity brought to you by OWS

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This was the big nation-wide Day of Action or something for labor unions and the #OWS set, aka the President's and the Democratic Party's base.

What sort of action were they planning on? We'll let the L.A. Times explain:

Organizers of a demonstration planned Thursday morning in downtown Los Angeles say protesters are prepared to be arrested by police for committing acts of civil disobedience -- including shutting down an intersection.

The march, which is timed to coincide with other demonstrations across the country to protest the imbalance of wealth and power in the country, is set to begin at 7 a.m. at Bank of America Plaza on Hope Street. It will then make its way through the Financial District to the corner of Figueroa and 4th streets, where demonstrators plan to shut down traffic by erecting tents in the middle of the street.

Jacob Hay, a leader of the coalition of labor and community groups that helped organize the march, said the group has secured police permits, but that protesters are prepared to be arrested for blocking traffic.

Because nothing calls attention to income inequality and chronic unemployment like preventing people from getting to work.




And last night, closer to home here in San Diego, they decided to have "a moment of silence" and "solidarity" with the guy that shot at the White House yesterday.





Absolutely love the "Wait, what? /Who-let-Einstein-have-the-mic?-oh-I-guess-I-did expression on the girl's face.

Priceless

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Hey, #OWS...

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... Occupy Jay-Z?

From Mediaite:

Right now there is a slightly heated debate going on in the Abrams Media office as we’ve found a story that somehow intersects the purviews of three of our different sites; Jay-Z’s company, Rocawear, is now selling a t-shirt that says “Occupy Wall Street” with graffiti style lettering modifying the message to read “Occupy All Streets.” A mini scandal has brewed over the shirt as it’s become clear that Rocawear, currently, has no plans to give any of the procedes to the occupiers themselves.

Please feel free to substitute "profits" for "procedes" just to make everything perfectly clear as we don't think Jay-Z is going to take a bath on these t-shirts for #OWS.

Predictably, this prompted much debate and navel-gazing at Meidaite.

Is this a brave show of support or a cynical commodification of a genuine cultural movement? Here’s a Mediaite take.

You can read thier take at the link if you desire but frankly it's entirely irrelevant. To our knowledge, Jay-Z is not in violation of any copyright laws and beyond that, he owes absolutely nothing to the #OWS crowd or anyone else for that matter.

Just another lesson in capitalism and just the way things work in the real world for the #OWS set.

From the comments:

Why don't they make their own t-shirts? All they need is a loom, and then they could weave together the back hair from all the aging hippies in Zuccotti park...

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We had the day off yesterday, so we decided to wander on down to the Civic Center to see what was shaking at the Occupy San Diego site.

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This guy appeared to be one of the leaders of Occupy San Diego. We asked first before taking his picture and he politely obliged.

There was a pretty significant police presence and as we did not interact with any of the Occupiers it was not clear to us if the police were rousting them at sundown to prevent any sleep-overs.

We spent about 20 minutes just hanging out and taking in the vibe of the scene. Outside of some of the signage and sloganeering we were left with the impression that Occupy San Diego was nothing more than a filthy homeless encampment.




* You're crazy if you think we're rolling out a picture of Jay-Z without his lovely wife, Beyonce.

Photo images of the day

As recently as 3 days ago, The Carrier Classic, which we believe is to be an annual event, was going to be played below decks aboard the USS CARL VINSON here in San Diego.

Fortunately, the expected rainy weather that did indeed arrive early this morning, paused slightly out over the Pacific which allowed those in the audience and those of us in Hi-Def T.V. land one of the most spectacular visual spectacles we have ever witnessed.

Similar to Los Angeles' Rose Bowl every New Year's Day, let's make the Carrier Classic San Diego's fall post card to the rest of the nation.


Oh, by the way, North Carolina beat Michigan State 67-55.

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Not a photo-shop. Repeat, not a photo-shop.


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Your Occupy San Diego update (UPDATED)

(please scroll to bottom of blog post for update)



Here's some more of that new civility we've been hearing so much about.

A pair of Southland street cart vendors who were forced to shut down their businesses after “Occupy” protesters vandalized their carts are hoping to get some help from local residents.

KNX 1070′s Tom Reopelle reports a fundraiser in the Gas Lamp district in San Diego on Monday night is aimed at helping two vendors get back on their feet.

The coffee and hot dog carts were located in Civic Center Plaza, the same location as the Occupy San Diego protesters.

That group first settled in to the plaza Oct. 7 and set up a tent city which has since twice been taken down by police.

Coffee cart owner Linda Jenson and hot dog cart operators Letty and Pete Soto said they initially provided free food and drink to demonstrators, but when they stopped, the protesters became violent.

And according to one city councilman, bodily fluids were used in the attacks.

“Both carts have had items stolen, have had their covers vandalized with markings and graffiti, as well as one of the carts had urine and blood splattered on it,” said Councilman Carl DeMaio.

Another real-life lesson learned the hard way for the #OWS set: That "free" food and drink wasn't free. The cart operators had to pay someone in exchange for that food and drink so it shouldn't have come as any big surprise to the economically illiterate malcontents here in San Diego that the "free" food and drink the cart operators were kind enough to supply them was going to be on a temporary basis only.

Also, please note the sense of entitlement that is required as a mindset in order to trash someone's place of work when they are no longer hooking it up for "free".

The #OWS set may share a sense of anger and frustration with the tea party regarding corporate bailouts and subsidies but there is an addendum to that with #OWS and that is, "... where's my bailout?" that is absent the tea party message.

We are reaping the benefits of a generation of young men and women that received a trophy in sports regardless of how bad their team was. We are seeing first hand what emphasizing self-esteem over actual accomplishment in our public education system is getting us.

Trashing food and beverage carts because they could no longer provide "free" food and drink is the perfect metaphor for the #OWS movement.


Yep, kind of like the tea party.




(ed. note: It should be noted that the linked news piece came from a media outlet up in L.A. The local paper of record, the San Diego Union-Tribune, seems content to run feel-good articles about veterans joining the #OWS movement.)



(UPDATE #1): Yet, even more of that new civility we keep hearing about.

Zuccotti Park has become so overrun by sexual predators attacking women in the night that organizers felt compelled to set up a female-only sleeping tent yesterday to keep the sickos away.

The large, metal-framed “safety tent” -- which will be guarded by an all-female patrol -- can accommodate as many as 18 people and will be used during the day for women-only meetings, said Occupy Wall Street organizers.

“This is all about safety in numbers,” said Becky Wartell, 24, a protester from Portland, Maine.

“When you’re in a large group of people sleeping, you will, of course, feel a lot safer than if you were by yourself,” she added.

“It will also keep away people that might feel more inclined to prey on two- and three-people tents.”

The safety measure comes amid a terrifying spree of sexual assaults -- including an alleged rape -- in the Zuccotti Park camp.

The article notes that these incidents very rarely get reported to the police as they are matters that are handleded internally.

We will restate our desire to see the victims of these assaults and rapes sue the pants off the cities as the cities refuse to enforce the law and refuse to see after the safety of the people.

Word around the campfire is that the cities, by initially backing down to the Occupiers, painted themselves into a corner and are now terrified that any efforts to move in the police to clear out and shut down the drug-infested and rape-y Occupy tent slums would result in full scale riots.

Cry us a river. This is what happens when you give in to terrorists. Oh, think we're being a little too harsh with that terminology? Think we're not employing the proper amount of civility? What, then, do you call people who either explicitly or implicitly promise violence if their demands are not met?

Your #OWS update

... what the legacy media doesn't want you to know and refuses to cover.



Via Big Government:

At the very beginning of the video, a distraught occupier complains about having been assaulted twice (“once with contaminated vomit“), and of other assaults in the camp occurring; including sexual assault. And the community’s failure to properly address the incidents. Directly after, another member points out the videographer (a non occupier), leading another member to attempt to censor the man behind the camera. All of which, mind you, is taking place in a public park.


A bit later on, the first man who broached the subject of assault, gives the camera man permission to film him, and he then proceeds to expound on the groups covering up assault and their policy to not get the police involved.

Via The Blaze at Zuccotti Park in Manhattan:

In a video posted on YouTube yesterday, a woman identified as an Occupy Wall St. protester in New York claimed that a deaf man was “raped” and that the incident might not have been reported to police. She also noted the rampant drug use making things unsafe.

“We’re trying to figure out what to do about [the drugs],” the girl begins in the video, and later hints that she’s part of the community affairs committee. “It’s putting all these people in danger–that, there’s sexual assault going on, we’re trying to deal with that … mostly drunk guys, going, groping girls, there was a guy that got raped, too, here–a deaf younger man.”

After the girl notes that there’s actually a place in the park for people to sleep under the watchful eye of others, the man interviewing her circles back around to the alleged rape:

Man: Did the guy, I mean, do these, did that get reported to the police, or did that stay inside the camp?

Girl: Well, OK, I’m not sure for that particular incident. Yeah, no I–that might have stayed inside the camp.

Later, she also recalls seeing a girl crying while saying that some guys tried to take advantage of her while sleeping.

Still, the alleged protester casts blame on the police, saying that they haven’t been responsive to some reports of abuse, including a woman getting punched in the face. However, she said that the organizers to encourage people to go to the police with claims of abuse.

So, let's get this straight: The Occupiers don't want the police until, of course, they want the police. Got it.






Via Big Government at Occupy Baltimore:

Young woman says she was raped over the weekend and nobody from the protest movement helped her.

Via Media Research Center at Occupy San Diego:

Here are a few highlights of the liberal press's love for police:

•Cries of ''police state'' and ''shame, shame, shame'' when the police won't do what the two protesters want;
•Harassing one officer about his daughter who is allegedly taught by the daughter of a protester, asking, ''Do you care about your daughter'' and screaming, ''you look like you are about to cry.'' When the officer arrested a protester who asked to be arrested, the duo threaten to show that video to the officer's daughter.
•The woman threatens the officers by shouting, ''You will be exposed,'' another implied threat going back to the docs-ing attack.

Another nearby protester's comment about one police officer: ''Fuck him!''

(ed. note: "We are Legion"... It is noted that is the response given to Christ before Christ cast the demons out of the man from Gadarenes. There is a certain symmetry here.)




Terrific...

Occupy Wall Street protesters are flocking to nearby health clinics for STD and HIV testing after getting their freak on in ’60s-style hookups with crusty strangers, sources told The Post yesterday.

“Last week was free love,” said a medical professional at a clinic located a short walk from Zuccotti Park, referring to the number of people who organizers have referred for sexually transmitted disease testing.

A volunteer at the park admitted concern among protesters about STDs.

“We give directions to clinics if people ask for information regarding STDs,” said the volunteer, who identified himself only as “Captain” and added that pregnancy tests are also a hot item.

“Like anything else, it happens. People ask, and we do the best we can for them.”

Volunteers at the medical tent hand out cash, usually $15 or $20, so the randy radicals can visit clinics that cater to a low-income clientele, the source said.

To the scoreboard: Screaming at and making thinly-veiled threats to the police... refusing to report crimes to the police including drug use and sexual assault to the same police while simultaneously blaming the police for allowing it to happen... forcing one's STD upon others....

By dammed, it is kind of like a tea party.


It is our sincere hope that the victims of these crimes successfully sue the living beejeezus out of the cities in which they are occurring as these same cities have abrogated their resposibilities to these lawless and degenerate Occupy villages.

The great San Diego blackout of 2011

For those of you wrapped up in the Packer's thrilling 42-34 victory over the Saints in the NFL's season opener, suffice to say we San Diegans are a tad jealous as a power grid domino effect that started at a substation in Yuma, Arizona, triggered the most extensive power outage in San Diego history knocking out power for the entire county and beyond from about 3:40 P.M. PDT on Thursday until about 3 A.M. this morning.


OK, some quick observations and reflections:


1. Sirens. That was the predominant sound all evening. With traffic lights out, the sound took on an ominous tone.



2. Radio stations: KOGO AM 600 was up and running and providing updates whenever possible the entire evening. ESPN San Diego (AM 1700, the worst radio station of all-time), however, straight static.


3. Who's laughing at HAM radio operaters now? Our internet as well as cell service (Sprint) was down hard. However, our neighbor was able to contact friends and family via email on his iPad.



4. So, how did you fare? No doubt it was time to put some contingency plans into place. How did that work out?


Upon facing the obvious, we immediately set up our command and control center out on the back patio...

... uhh, wait a minute... it's still like 90 degrees out there...

OK, much better.





How are we coming along with the perishables?

That's the beauty of canned food, folks... prioritize by keeping safe that which will go skunky upon exposure to heat and light.




5. Our grade: B- . We downgrade ourselves for not having a battery-operated or hand-cranked radio (we were getting our radio updates from periodic trips out to the truck). Also, we tried to make do without breaking into the emergency survival kit we keep stowed in a large plastic tub in the garage for what was, for all intents and purposes, a relatively minor 12 hour inconvenience. Our lighter went out immediately after deployment and the matches we had on hand to light candles kept flaming out.


6.

Keep that iPod charged!



7. We predict a run on WalMart, Home Depot and Fry's Electronics this weekend to shore-up any deficiencies we San Diegans saw in our game yesterday.



In all seriousness, we hope everyone is safe and sound and did not spend too much time in gridlock hell out there on the freeways. And, as the post hopefully conveyed, it's a great time to self-assess to see where you and your family stands in way of preparation should we have to cope with a true emergency and lack of services like many of our fellow citizens are dealing with at this time on the East coast.


Thanks for staying with this entirely self-indulgent post. We will return to regular programming shortly.

Programming reminder

Hey, gang... just a quick update: The San Diego Local Order of Bloggers (the SLOBs) has an aggregator at, get this, the SLOBs. Thanks again, Sir Charles!

Get on over there and "like" us if you will, please. Several other "share" options are available as well.

Obviously, there is a lot going on right now even in these dog days of August so use the SLOBs as a source of info in getting up to speed on the libertarian/conservative perspective of life, culture and politics (and even some sports!) here in San Diego, California, the U.S. and the world at large.


Blogging may be a little light today as Max and I scout out some new breweries for a Hoffer's brewery bus tour, hopefully in September.


Pax.

Having trouble with all the potential ballot initiatives..?

... don't worry, we've got you covered.



Over at The Liberator Today, B-Daddy has a great round-up of San Diego ballot initiatives, including the one that has been grabbing all the headlines of late here locally: city worker pension reform. Here's B-Daddy in response to criticisms of the proposed defined contribution 401(k)-style retirement plan:

People just have to get more informed about managing their own money, starting with the view that their 401(k) contribution should be maximized, and their lifestyle reduced to live on the rest of their income. If that doesn't leave enough spending money, then find more lucrative work, get a promotion, cut back on spending, or something, but don't expect taxpayers to foot the bill and the future risk. This is a huge culture change in America, but twenty years from now, people will look back and wonder what all the fuss was about.

The fact that we are having a discussion vote on whether or not a group of people that are living on the tax-payer dime should be required to live within their own means and keep their fiscal house in order is somewhat mind-blowing but such are the times we live in.

The day of reckoning is here, folks because math wins. Math always wins.



Please check out the rest of B-Daddy's ballot recommendations, here.

Two worlds... two sets of rules

A thought or two regarding local, state and federal book-keeping:

The Congress that passed Sarbanes-Oxley concluded that the only way to ensure transparency in corporate numbers was to require corporate officers to certify that their numbers were correct. The penalties for falsely certifying are substantial -- fines of as much as $5 million, and up to 20 years in prison -- on the theory that the fear of personal liability will reduce the incentive to exaggerate future revenue or conceal future liabilities.

By contrast, congressional appropriators and federal agency heads, are under no similar constraints. True, the government does have its own accounting principles. But nobody faces liability if the numbers are off. Nobody has skin in the game.

Consequently, if we need Sarbanes-Oxley (as its supporters still insist) to give us reassurance that we can believe corporate America’s numbers, ought we not to have something similar (as Peterson among others has argued) to reassure us that we can believe the numbers coming out of Washington?

Well, there's skin in the game, alright, but only in the sense of not being allowed back into the Puzzle Palaces of D.C., Sacramento, San Diego, etc. where you get to make up the rules as opposed to not having to worry about serving hard time as a result of any misbehaving in the private sector.

To wit: How is it that GSEs (Government Sponsored Entities) "Fannie Mae" and/or "Freddie Mac" have not replaced "Enron" in our cultural lexicon for criminal financial malfeasance?

Guess Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac won't fit on a bumper sticker.

Programming Alert

Great news! Our friend and fellow SLOB (San Diego Local Order of Bloggers... rolled in the right-hand column) Sir Charles of Doo Doo Economics has put together a SLOB blog aggregator. The SLOBs as the name suggests are San Diego area residents who are committed to free and open markets and limited, transparent and Constitutionally-bound governance. A delightful mish-mash of conservative-libertarian poltics can be found at any one of the SLOB sites.


Automatic Blogroll will move the most recent blog posts to the top and easy-to-use "share" functions will allow you to help us get out the word on any number of social media platforms.


We're pretty excited about this and we want to give Charles a huge shout-out and a thank you for undertaking this endeavor and for a job well-done.


We will update our blog roll accordingly to take advantage of this development.

Check it out here.

Pension reform: San Diego style

Think the Chief of Police here in San Diego would be above politicizing and demogoguing the issue of benefit reform for his employees? Think again.

Statement: "In the last five years, I've had 345 officers leave the city of San Diego and go to other cities for better benefits, higher wages, and better vehicles and equipment. In that same five-year period I've had only 35 officers come to the city of San Diego," San Diego Police Chief Bill Lansdowne said at a law enforcement conference in April.

Determination:....

But Lansdowne's numbers don't match the Police Department's official counts. Between the 2006 and 2010 fiscal years, the department counted 182 officers leaving for other agencies and 18 being hired from other agencies. Lansdowne's numbers were proportional to the department's counts, but exaggerated the impact to total staffing.

Check out the rest of Voice of San Diego's analysis, here.


We love our Blue, our fire fighters and first responders. Please refrain from jerking us around, however, when it comes to serious discussions involving city budget matters and explicit threats to cuts in services.