Krotee Didn't Help His Heights Communty

Last week a Newport Beach Hearing Officer denied the request for
"Reasonable Accommodation" to Pacific Shores Recovery which you
may know runs the sober homes whose 3 house-campus compound
is on the corner of Clay\Orange in Newport Heights. This means that
that surrounding Community in Newport Heights may get relief
from the 50 bed sober home operating there for the past 1-2 years.

However, Mr. Don Krotee, the Newport Heights Association President,
chose not to appear before the Hearing on behalf of his Newport Heights
constituency, while many of us from the outlying areas of the Newport
Beach community did appear and wondered, given Krotee's touted
local leadership role, where he was for that Hearing.

This sober home is one of the worst cases of Rehab/Group Home Over-
concentration in the City and even though the Clay\Orange site and is
within 8-10 blocks from Krotee’s house. The sober home compound is
not close enough to Krotee’s house to actually affect him personally as
it does others in his Newport Heights area, yet Krotee was a “no-show.”
And nope … Krotee didn’t even send in a letter for the record as to his
position on the matter....Krotee did nothing to help his fellow Newport
Heights residents.

But Krotee has been well known for defending and rationalizing exploits
of a number of ethically misguided and self-interested public officials.
The list of names, as you can guess, includes the usual suspects that we've
become familiar with over the last several years. Public officals who have
survived politically by giving out favors or public officals that were found
to be actually profiteering from the very same Drug Rehab industry that
now has found its way into Krotee's Newport Heights. Another of these public
officals was recently found to be using his position to evade the enforcement
of City Municiple Codes concerning a property he owns in Newport. Lovely.

Don Krotee has gone out of his way in the past to defend and rationalize
the actions of these public offials, but didn't lift a finger for his own Heights
Community suffering from over-concentraton. Lovely.

For this reason Don Krotee…from now on I will consider you to be one of the
biggest and most enabling HYPOCRITES that our Community has to offer.

NIMBY’s (would Krotee behaved differently if it were in his own backyard?)
like you Krotee are one of the reasons why we have such misguided public
officals still in power and that certain areas within our Community suffer
so disproportionately from self-interested, political representation. I bet it
makes you feel good in your silence and defense of them, to sit back, sipping
fine wine, puffing out your chest and priding yourself as to your "leadership"
and "importance" and how much you have "contributed" to the Community
while your Heights neighbors, surrounding Pacific Shores, suffer from the
effects of the laxness and the duplicity of some of the very same public officials.

Ultimately, you denied your neighbors. In my eyes...Krotee, you're worthless.

Bob Rush

READ MORE - Krotee Didn't Help His Heights Communty

Mauled by a Student Nurse

Alert readers will recall that Cancer Bitch has a rare blood disease that borders on cancer. It becomes cancer when plaintiffs' lawyers go after the people who allegedly caused it in their clients. Otherwise it's pre-cancerous. It appears mostly in men over 60, so she doesn't know what she did to get it, besides having a certain JAK2 gene mutation. The condition is called polycythemia vera and those that have it have too many platelets and red blood cells. One of the symptoms of the disease is itchy skin, especially after a hot shower.

Cancer Bitch has not taken a hot shower in years because of this. She has taken very quick warm showers and jump-in-jump-out baths because she wants to avoid hot water. In the past few weeks, she's been itchy all the time, and it ranges from regular old dry itchy skin to just-like-the-time-she-kneeled-on-the-ant-hill: itchy and painful pins and needles. It seemed for a while that benedryl could tackle the itch, but then it seemed it could not. Friday she itched and scratched during dinner. Saturday she was itchy and uncomfortable and on the way home from grading papers, she whimpered and cried in the privacy of her car. She couldn't tell if she was weeping because her skin hurt so much and she felt feverish, or because she felt, It will always be thus, why do I deserve this? She never asked, Y Me? about the cancer, but she was asking it about PV. She could understand how Spalding Gray killed himself because he couldn't relieve physical pain. She didn't know, either if she was scared and panicky because she'd run out of Effexor for a day and half, and didn't know what is fear caused by pain and what is fear caused by fear of pain.

She stopped at the drug store to pick up the Effexor and she asked the pharmacist if there was anything stronger than OTC cortisone cream. The pharmacist said her doctor could prescribe cortisone. And Cancer Bitch thought how terrible and impossible it would be to take cortisone for the rest of her life; it would dissolve her bones and maybe make her crazy, out of one's tree, as Stanley Elkin once put it.
She became Scarlett O'Hara asking, What is to become of us?, us being herself and her rare blood condition.

It was early evening and she was still weepy when she arrived home and her husband L said Why not call your hematologist? She was too choked up to do it so he called and left a message with a real live person to leave a message with the hematologist on call. Soon a hematology Fellow called the Cancer Bitch residence and said, Your itchiness may be due to a higher platelet count, so before I prescribe something you should go to the ER and get your blood count. So that is why Cancer Bitch and consort spent four-and-a-half hours in the Fancy ER. During which time a student nurse chased after a vein in the crook in Cancer Bitch's elbow, digging into it, really, and that is why Cancer Bitch yelled out, Shit, shit! when she has never before cursed or yelled out anything during any procedure ever before involving a needle in pursuit of a vein. L said that she would have a bruise the next day, and it was so: it's fuchsia and about three inches across and one inch high.

The blood was drawn and then it was examined and then it was told to Cancer Bitch that her platelet count was high, and then the ER doctor prescribed a lovely drug called Atarax, which STOPS THE ITCHING.

The question is, Why didn't Cancer Bitch's hematologist recommend this before? She will find out Wednesday, at her next appointment.

Meanwhile, Tuesday she is getting her womb opened up slightly so the gyne can examine her cervical cells to see if the abnormal cells she gathered for a biopsy are widespread and to see if there's a polyp still hiding in there. When the doctor described the procedure to her Monday, Cancer Bitch said, Is it a D & C? and the doctor said Yes, it's a D & C. D & C always sounded so mysterious, as if it were a cover-up for an abortion. It does take place sometimes after an abortion. But not in this case. In this case the doctor is probing for secrets of the womb, wanting to know if any cells have started down the road to becoming cancerous. Cervical cancer, we read, is slow-growing and it's one of the easiest cancers to treat. Taking tamoxifen can lead to cervical cancer, which is why the Cancer Bitch and her doctor are so wary.

Then Wednesday is the appointment with the hematologist who wants to put her on a pill that could eventually lead to leukemia, just like the condition itself, polycythemia vera, might.

Might might might. May. Quien sabe?

READ MORE - Mauled by a Student Nurse

Our local hero!

There have been some great sports moments. The
"Immaculate Reception" by Franco Harris from Terry
Bradshaw against the evil Al Davis Raiders! The
"Miracle on Ice" against the Russians at the Olympics.
Or, the bases loaded home run against the Jim Fregosi
Angels by the dreaded Boston Red Socks...

We won't go on here too much. Each and every sports
fan has a few of their own special moments. Hey,
what about those "Show Time Lakers" with Magic and
Kareem, James Worthy and Coop? Sorry, that was special
as well. But what about sports you hardly think about
much? Tennis, Golf or Soccer? Well, ever since Bjorn
Borg got out of tennis, along with John McEnroe, Jimmy
Connors and Ile Nastasi...our fan hours watching Tennis
has been restricted to watching Maria Sharapova, because
Chris Everett was always our favorite up until then!

Soccer? No, Beckham was supposed to change our whole
view of this very European, South American sport! Hey,
Brazil is still hot to watch. Saturday El Salvador was
playing the US in a qualifying match and after the quicker
Salvadorians scored 2 goals to nil....we had to shut the
game off...it was just two painful to watch. In the
paper the next day..we found out that the US had come
back in 88 minute of a 90 minute match to tie! Brutal.
Soccer....we save that for World Cup matches with Italy,
Britain, France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany and maybe
Sweden or Netherlands....when it comes to the girls.

OK, now on to Golf....."Tiger Woods". That's it....we
don't have to say more than that. For those those don't
know...Tiger has a house in Newport Beach..."they say".
He has one in Florida too.....but for all intent purposes
...he is our local hero. Don't forget we have Kobe too!!
Kobe maybe having trouble with his old housekeeper fired
over a year ago...but everyone knows....people just love
to sue Kobe!

So, Tiger has another beautiful baby - that's two...a
beautiful Swedish wife and all the known Golden Golf
talent in the world. You don't have to know the difference
between a birdie and a sand trap...to appreciate Tiger's
unbelieveable skills. Yesterday, he started out 5 strokes
back from the leader at the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
The young pretender Sean O'Hair never had a chance from
the beginning. Tiger was "in the zone" and was living
in "Tiger Land" and steadily caught up to the 26 year old.

It had been nine and half months since Tiger had his very
serious knee surgery repair and won his last tournament.
The scored was tied on the green of the 18th hole at the
Bay Hill Country Club in North Carolina. The sun had set
and only the bearest of light remained. When O'Hair missed
his 22 foot putt for birdie...by two feet..that left a 16
footer for Tiger to make birdie and win the tournament
outright!

OK, the ball had eyes! Of course it went in, of course
Tiger won his sixth major at the Arnold Palmer! Of,
course this well could be the greatest comeback after a
sports surgery ever! Nah, Tiger is an alien. Tiger puts
magnets in the bottom of the cups on every tee. His clubs
are made of Kryptonite! The balls all have nano radar
controlled movement from a spy in sky space satallite!
Those guys in St. Louis, running those radio controlled
drones for the Army all stop what they are doing every
time Tiger pulls out his putter! They aim their lasers
and fire! "Tiger Wins"..."Tiger Wins"...our local hero!

READ MORE - Our local hero!

Help Your Eyes Beyond Belief

Nothing can stop you from making any mistake in your life. But if you can turn back the time and fix it maybe you will. Unfortunately not everyone have ability to turn back the time. So all we can do is fixing whatever can be fix present, this time, in front of us. Therefore you will need powerful tool to fix anything that almost unfixable.

The thing that almost unfixable is your eyes. If it’s old the ability and the performance will decrease. That is just the way it is. Nothing can stop your aging and your eyes blurry and cannot see certain object or hand writing as clear as before. Therefore you need to log in to GlassesShop.com and fix your glasses or even buy new pairs. If you happen do not want to spend too much on glasses, you can choose to purchase the discounted reading eyeglasses. So you can read clearly, in style, at affordable price. Nothing can stop you from aging. But nothing can stop you to get high-indexted prescription eyeglasses either. So you do not need to worry that you will not able to fix this matter. Do not worry so much. Let GlassesShop.com worry about how to satisfy you. Because they are think highly of their customer. They highly their customer so much so they cannot be possible to disappoint you. All you need to do is simple task and simple rule. All you need to do is get an eye test and hold your prescription for an eye test result. Choose lenses and frames, and then you just need to wait patiently until your glasses of your choice arrive.

GlassesShop.com will help your eyes beyond belief. GlasesShop.com will make you confident again reading so many old letters from your late husband when he was still in war and you are still young girl waiting for him to return.

READ MORE - Help Your Eyes Beyond Belief

Cheap Car Hire in Barcelona

Having interesting about car rentals? Obviously this is one of the good solutions for those who do not owning car or for those who want to take the save and cheap way for traveling. If you plan to go traveling over Barcelona and want to try the cheap way to reach your destination, you can try this way, hiring a car might be a good solution for you and your family. There are many places that might interest you and your family in Barcelona, thus you may prepare for financial and accommodation including save car hire. If you choose this you can control your driving car and destination with certain cost money. And through this link site you can visit the leading company that provides car rentals.

Easycar.com meets you with good choices to apply car while you are travel over the Barcelona. They provide you excellent service with low cost. The cheap price is becomes their superior service and this is one of the finest online car hire in Barcelona. Car hire Barcelona allows you to see the highlights that surround the city. Visit the original nature of the city and its inhabitants, its makes Barcelona as younger and more adventurous places of traveler as well as fans of more traditional city life. Visit the place that become an object of tourism and take some photograph on it.

If you eager to apply this online car hire you can directly apply through the website, choose your destination, where place that you want to pick up car, how long you would like to rent a car, etc fill the simple for completely and soon you can drive it through the place you want. With easy and simple way you can receive low cost and best deals for car hire. If you want to pick up over the airport they will deliver it you on it. With easycar.com your traveling could be a wonderful memory spend with your family. Take this as your best reference to get car with low cost possible. Bookmark now!

READ MORE - Cheap Car Hire in Barcelona

The Small R "republicans" on the Newport Beach City Council

I've been complaining of it for a while, Newport Beach has Six of the Seven Council members as "registered" republicans, who truly do not act as Republicans, between the...

• Borrowing to balance the budget,
  
• The City Council telling Newport Beach restaurants what kind of containers they may use,
• The UTTER control of the City Council by the Police and Fire Unions, where City Council candidates PROUDLY TOUT their Union Endorsements,
  
• The building, and BORROWING to build, of a new White Elephant in the Park (City Hall), primarily because they keep hiring and hiring more City Employees, drastically increasing the size of local government.
  
• The City have MORE EMPLOYEES PER RESIDENT than a truly Communist-controlled Irvine, or more than a Democrat-led Huntington Beach. Most glaring example? How about having SEVEN Council members while most EVERY OTHER CITY have only Five.

Out of the Fabulous 6 republicans on the City Council, it takes the only non-Republican Councilwoman Nancy Gardner to make the most Conservative statement to the LA Times when discussing the aforementioned White Elephant,

"The interesting thing about Newport Beach," Gardner says, "is that while we have a lot of money, we also have a lot of fiscal conservatives. There were a lot of people from the beginning who said not only do we not need a new City Hall, we need fewer employees.""

So what's the latest and greatest, the Smoking Ban in public places proposal.

Fortunately, Mayor Ed Selich and Councilwoman Leslie Daigle are firmly against it.

However, the other FIVE (Bureaucrat Don Webb, the newest Republican Mike Henn, DTS, and former Green Party member, Nancy Gardner, slum lord Steve Rosansky, and Keith Curry...KEITH CURRY???) may support the ban.

Keith Curry? Lincoln Club Keith Curry? Conservative Republican Keith Curry? Endorsed by the Republican Party of Orange County Keith Curry? He doesn't outright oppose the ban like Mayor Ed and Councilwoman Leslie?

How do we get the public aware of this issue?

With that said, THANK GOD FOR FRANK MICKADEIT!

Why?

His latest column in the OC Register most adeptly named,

"Newport: most-liberal O.C. city?"

The outrage towards this latest example of Big Brother City Council governance is now spreading a bit and hopefully the thumb will be pressed, and pressed hard to stop it.

And word has it that if this ban is proposed, a Resolution by the Republican Party of Orange County to oppose it and the Censure of the republicans on the City Council who support it will be requested.

Not that this would matter to any of the small Rs, but it may matter to one who likes to tout his Conservative Republican credentials.

And consider this angle as well, which is non-partisan political slanted, this would be a tourism and restaurant business killer too.

Even the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce is expected to come out against the ban with Newport Beach Chamber's CEO Richard Luehrs telling Frank Mickadeit,

"Newport Beach is a destination for a lot of international travelers, and some of these people have a higher propensity to smoke."

READ MORE - The Small R "republicans" on the Newport Beach City Council

Bring More Home Entertainment for Your Family

Television has been widely used around the globe in these decades. Throughout the whole years the demands towards the televisions has always been increasing. To answer all these demands therefore many television channels are established and many television programs are made. All these channels and programs should be very different from one city to another. Furthermore, the growth in television technology has always been increasing significantly that has produced different television broadcasting technologies such as cable TV or Satellite Television.

direcsattv.com represents an authorized Direct TV reseller and was named the best Direct TV in 2007. This company has always been able to keep its reputation in providing best services to the customers at the absolutely lowest price. This company has come as the pioneer technological breakthrough innovation which includes the first national system with on-screen interactive program guide and pay per-view ordering by remote control. If you are bored with the television program provided by general television channels then this Direct TV should be the best option to bring more entertainment to your home. You can select one Direct TV Package that should match your need and perhaps Direct TV family package should be match if you need to share the 40 television channels with the whole family at your home and having a parental control for your children.

Should you are interested to the offers, you are very welcome to visit the site to learn more about the company’s profile, the tools and direct TV packages offered in this website. The customer support should be very happy to assist once you have questions regarding the product or service range given. The expert staff in this company should also be able to help you determine which system is best for you and assuring you get on-time installation to meet your needs.

READ MORE - Bring More Home Entertainment for Your Family

Purchase Tramadol on Best Licensed Online Pharmacies

Are you suffering from pain and don’t have any idea about trying medicine to reduce your pain? Have you ever try Tramadol? Tramadol can be a recommendation medicine which is useful to reduce your pain. Tramadol is kind of analgesic which can blocked your pain and if you currently experience surgery then your doctor may recommended you to take Tramadol as your pain relief. Through this page I recommended you to take Tramadol as your pain recover and the link will brought you to online pharmacies of Tramadol medicine.

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However you need to know about the important thing related with Tramadol. Through yahoo health groups you may search about it. If you ever been addicted to drugs or alcohol you should not take Tramadol as your pain relief and if you use Tramadol over dose it can be a fatal for your body part, you may experience shallow breathing, slow heartbeat, extreme weakness, and even can caused a person coma. In Tramadol yahoo page you may advance your information about the effect occurs for some people which having issues on his or her life past. Get Tramadol as your pain relief and buy it through online pharmacy Tramadol Bluebook.

READ MORE - Purchase Tramadol on Best Licensed Online Pharmacies

Media coverage in two time zones

Cancer Bitch has been in the news lately:

Grand Rapids Press, March 15, 2009

Time Out Chicago, March 19-25, 2009

READ MORE - Media coverage in two time zones

The Balboa Underground!

"You can lead a horse to water...but you can't make
them drink!"....is the old saying! Heck, it doesn't
take much imagination to know how invasive those
telephone poles are in the alleys on Balboa Island.
If they had a buck for every time someone put a dent
in their car or someone else because of them....you
could be pretty close to a millionaire.

Well, cheap is cheap! There is always a reason why
people don't understand the benefit to a beautiful
surrounding. One of the best was Sid Souffer. He
had several rusted out Cadillacs that he thought were
art! He had no qualms about going to jail rather than
to move his beloved Jack N'the Beanstalk mantle pieces.
He even moved to Las Vegas...when the Judge wanted him
in jail for contempt! Hey, Newport Beach has heritage!

Today, Brother Bob....we will call him has taken up
the Sid Souffer mantle. He is directly against putting
all those exposed telephone poles and wires underground
unless he can get it for wholesale! You see Brother Bob
is part of the pavement on Balboa Island...for many many
years. He just so happens to have his house situated
on two lots. So, you can kind of understand why he may
not want to pay double....from everyone else..when it
comes to cleaning up an oversight of over 50 years!

The reality is that Undergrouding Utilities is not just
for artistic purposes. When an electrical line breaks
when overhead..it can land on a house and start a fire.
When undergrounded it will trip a breaker and could be
an inconvenience to a few people till Edison can get by
to fix it. The most important service undergrounding
accomplishes.....is freeing space for expanded alley
access, walk-ways and certainly less places for politicians
to slap their ugly electioneering! The other biggie is
the one we mentioned before: When people come down to
visit and want to park in back of your house....they may
in fact make it through the whole week-end without a dent
on their BMW or Mercedes. The kids won't crash into the
power pole either. And as far a mom is concerned: "This
is just great....and now our neighborhood is so pretty!"

So, to Bob and the rest of the curmudgeons that don't want
to clean up the neighborhood: "Those moths will fly out
of your wallet whether you underground or not!" It can
serve our community to a great degree, if this one time
you might just dummy up and take care of business!

READ MORE - The Balboa Underground!

Business School for Your Business Skill

When you are thinking of starting your own business, you have to realize that you have so many things to prepare. Besides the capital and funds to support your company, you have to prepare yourself with the best business skills. Many company founders might get their business skills from direct experience. Te years they have passed on the business has given them the best lesson on business. However, to follow their lead and take business experience as your main lessons can take years. It also requires lots of capital and funds to support your business too.

You can take the advantage of business schools to get all the business guides that you need. These schools can teach you the best part of doing business and providing guidance from the reliable persons. These people will share their experience on building their business empire. You can summarize the years that they have spent on their business and learn it in a few of semesters. You can also read the business books that can teach you on how to run your business. On this school, you will learn the cases that you may face in the future on your company. Business schools will prepare yourself to have the best business skills and to know what steps that you have to do when you are handling some troubles.

Business school can sharpen your business skills and give you some basic knowledge. Combining it with some real actions in your company, then you can be prepared for any troubles in the future. Without have to feel the up and downs of your company, you can make sure that your company will always feel the ups without the downs. The right skills, knowledge and experience can help you to serve your customers at the best service.

READ MORE - Business School for Your Business Skill

Good-bye, Grand Rapids

Cancer Bitch has returned from Grand Rapids, the town where Gerald Ford is still a hero. She had many adventures there. Among them:
She found that her friend B, who invited her to Aquinas College (after she asked him to), is more nature-phobic than she is. She did not know that that was possible. She is a Fresh Air Fiend in comparison. Unlike B, she can identify common flowers and and likes bugs and worms. She especially likes to watch the beetle family. B does not. He considers nature to be dangerous partly because there are bugs. She became self-conscious about pointing out flora and fauna to B because she thought that he would think that she did not deserve her nature-fearing credentials. Cancer Bitch is mostly afraid of nature because it gives her asthma. Also, it bores her and makes her feel empty and that the universe has no meaning.
B and Cancer Bitch, therefore, walked around looking at Italianate and Romanesque buildings downtown. They also visited the outside of the only Frank Lloyd Wright building in GR. It is owned by Steelcase, one of the furniture manufacturers in town. Herman Miller is HQed there, which explains the Aeron chairs in the Writing Department meeting room at Grand Valley State University. Wright built the house for Meyer May. Cancer Bitch read the historic marker in front of the house: This house was built in 1908-1909 for local clothier Meyer S. May and his wife, Sophie Amberg. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the house in the Prairie style. It was his first major commission in Michigan. May was the son of Abraham May, founder of A. May and Sons clothing store. In 1906, Meyer became president of the store, which was the first in the nation to display clothes on Batts hangers. Meyer May lived here until his death in 1936. The house was used as a private residence until 1985. In 1986, Steelcase Incorporated began the complete restoration of the house, its interior and grounds. Meyer. Bing. Amberg. Bing bing. Son of Abraham. Bing bing. Clothier. Bing bing bing. Sophie. Bing. Her Jew-dar had sprung into action. She wanted to mention this to B but she was embarrassed at how Jew-centric she is. Though on GR campuses there seemed to be a dearth of Jews, so that being Jewish was odd enough to make Jews an *interesting, exotic* minority. As a Jewish student told her: I don't want to be exotic.
The question is, of course, what are Batts hangers and why are they important enough to be mentioned in a historical marker? And a corollary: Was May so unremarkable that his second most famous purchase was hangers for his store?
Batts, Inc., in Zeeland, MI, made wooden hangers until that division was bought out in 1999. So May bought local.

READ MORE - Good-bye, Grand Rapids

Newport Beach City Manager Guilty of a Misdemeanor?

Hmmmm...

Intermixed in the Daily Pilot's story about whether embattled Newport Beach Police Chief John Klein should keep his job, is this interesting tidbit.

"City Ordinance No. 866 requires the chief to be selected from a list of candidates. That list is compiled through an “open” recruitment, meaning a recruitment “not restricted to city employees,” according to the ordinance.

In the March 2 Civil Service Board staff report, and confirmed by a city official, Newport Beach City Manager Homer Bludau recruited Klein from a closed recruitment, meaning it was limited to city employees.

Bludau acknowledged his intentions in a May 2006 board meeting, according to the board minutes."

and during that May 2006 board meeting,

"...he plainly told board members he’d be looking to go along with the “intent” of the ordinance for recruiting the chief, though he wouldn’t follow it."

So according to this, and the Daily Pilot, Newport Beach's City Manager knowingly and intentionally broke his own city's law and according to the Daily Pilot, is

"...apparently is guilty of a misdemeanor?"

Wow.

However...

"No one is suggesting that Bludau should actually be charged with a misdemeanor."

So let me get this straight then...

1. The City of Newport Beach has laws.
2. The City Manager INTENTIONALLY breaks one particular ordinance which has a MAJOR INFLUENCE IN PROTECTING NEWPORT BEACH'S RESIDENTS AND VISITORS.
3. The City Manager should be held to the standards of the law/society by being held accountable for INTENTIONALLY breaking the law. But he's not going to be?
   

Now...if he accidentally broke the law...could there be some slack given to him?

Sure.

But, according to the Daily Pilot article, he knew full well of the ordinance but had NO INTENTION IN FOLLOWING IT.

Wow.

I have a question.

For "normal" folks, it was well known of the discord within the Newport Beach Police Department.

Barbara Venezia wrote about it a couple of times, and was then publicly chastised for them until this latest lawsuit blew wide open.

The Newport Beach Police Union even circulated documents in 2006 indicating that they were losing Police Officers to other Police Departments (higher paying), but surprisingly were also losing Police Officers who were going BACK TO THE LAPD AND BACK TO THE ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT, many times for LESS PAY than what Newport Beach was offering.

So pay wasn't an issue for those officers.

Morale was.

and if I knew about these "issues" within the Newport Beach Police Department, you'd better be sure that our City Manager knew about those issues and concerns.

So why would Homer Bludau completely ignore these morale issues and not even bother making an effort to fix it by looking outside of the Newport Beach Police Department management for their new Chief?

The City of Newport Beach will be paying out $1.2 million bucks based upon lapses in the Department's morale...why should the City Manager have to worry about fixing it.

He's retiring soon.

Won't have to worry about the consequences of him ignoring the City's laws.

Won't have to worry about John Wayne airport (remember this quote from the LA Times, "My nervousness will start Jan. 1, 2016, when the agreement goes away...")

Won't have to worry about paying for the morale lapses in the City he manages...

Now...I'm sure the consequences of this misdemeanor offense is minimal, if any at all, but PLEASE, make him accountable to intentionally breaking the law and set that example that

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW!

...not even our City Manager.

READ MORE - Newport Beach City Manager Guilty of a Misdemeanor?

Coattails

I have been trying to figure out for the last week and half why we want to get our pictures taken with the famous. We're projecting a false image to the world; this is a person we got to stand next to us for a millisecond and he already forgot who were were before the flash went off.

My friend M says it has to do with power. He has an ex-alderman friend whose office was littered with pictures of him next to Democratic luminaries. My little cousin M has a picture of himself and Obama from an early fundraiser. We went to a dinner honoring longtime activist Quentin Young on his 85th birthday. L's labor union bought a table and it was right next to the luminary table: Quentin, Gov. Pat Quinn, Congressmen Danny Davis and John Conyers. At one point I said to my photographer friend M: Take a picture of me with the governor.

Why did I want that? My immediate reason was to send a picture to my mother to impress her: I'm in the same place at the same time as someone you've seen on TV. Therefore.... It's the therefore that keeps tripping me up. Am I therefore important? Noteworthy? Immortal? In the know?

As it turned out, Quinn left right before dessert, so M couldn't take his picture. A few days later we had dinner with the Youngs at Greek Islands and ran into the governor again. We shook hands.

That's what politicans do; they shake hands and kiss babies. The are ingratiating. They reach out. They press the flesh. It's as if they have to touch their constituents to assure one another that they're real. I am somebody because I got my picture taken with somebody. I am a traveler because I got my picture taken in front of the Eiffel Tower/Notre Dame/Leaning Tower of Pisa/Mt. Rushmore. In that case we may be creating proof: I was there. And we're creating a memento. But deep down, are we also hoping that some of the celebrity of the Grand Canyon or Hollywood Hills will rub off on us? Syllogism: Mount Vernon is important. I was at Mount Vernon, therefore I am important.

If I had a picture of myself with Obama, I would be saying: I agree with him. I endorse him. We approve of one another. We're a mutual admiration society. Or: he approves of me. The leader of the free world is on my wavelength. We were in the same space at the same time. We connected.

There seems to be something so pathetic about this. We did not really connect. We do not know one another. We don't toss around political notions. He took a picture with a voter, that's what politicians do. All a photo with Obama would prove is that we wanted to have a photo taken with him.

The picture above is of an Illinois Congressional candidate named John Laesch, who sought and obtained Quinn's endorsement when Quinn was merely lieutenant governor. Noam Chomsky also endorsed him, though they weren't shot side by side. But Laesch and Quinn are on the same plane, the same page, in the same room at the same time. A visual is quickest in conveying a message. Pat approves of John. The associative principle: If you like Pat, you'll like John. More people recognize Pat, therefore it's good for him to appear with lesser-knowns because that raises their cache. He can do that for them. The familiar next to the unfamiliar.

Can I taste your fame? Can I take it? You're not using it all right now.

***
L said the other night, Pat Quinn is such a decent guy. They're going to crush him.

READ MORE - Coattails

Councilwoman Leslie "Wordsmith" Daigle LOVES Pork!

You know...every time Councilwoman Daigle writes something in the papers (here and here...as examples) I really, really try to read it with an open mind...

...and make sure I have extra time to read the opinion piece over and over again to make sure I truly and fully understand what I'm reading.

The latest Daily Pilot article is no exception.

Councilwoman Daigle is apparently thanking the Orange County Delegation in Washington DC, as well as US Senators Feinstein and Boxer for EARMARKING $2.87 million bucks in the 2009 Omnibus package to help with the continuing Bay Dredging on the Upper Newport Back Bay.

For those of us who weren't too sure about the Omnibus bill, it essentially,

"2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act totals about $410 billion and covers funding for fiscal year 2009 for the nine federal agencies that were not funded under the regular appropriations process last year."

and (in my mind too)

"Even a recession and record $1.4 trillion budge deficit has not altered Congress' business-as-usual culture of spending and pork"

with it's 9287 earmarks of porky pork.

But...alas!

This bit of pork helps Newport Beach's Back Bay, so that's good right?

Well...let's continue with Daigle's opinion piece...

After reading it the fourth time, I still found myself a bit confused...

She says,

"The City Council is requesting $13.1 million in stimulus funds to complete the project. The project is shovel-ready, an important feature for stimulus funding."

Got it, the project is $13.1 million bucks short, so we need more money.

I'm a bit confused about how completely funding this project helps stimulate the American Economy, but...I continue.

"The City Council also requested that members of Congress provide $15 million in stimulus funds to the Corps for harbor dredging (which is not shovel ready). Dredging the federal channel is an on-going obligation of the Corps."

Wait a minute. I know it's tax season and I know that I'm a easily confused (even when it's not tax season)...

but...

Are we asking for an additional $15 million dollars on top of the original $13.1 million bucks?

So we are asking for $28.1 million total?

That cannot be right?

(Pause, while I re-read the article again...)

So, I think I have it.

1. We received $2.87 million dollars to help with the Upper Bay Project.
2. We are requesting another $13.1 million dollars to finish the Upper Bay Project.
3. We are then requesting a cool $15 million bucks to dredge the Newport Harbor.

I guess all that makes sense.

We scratch and claw for $2.87 million dollars...why not then ask for another $28.1 million dollars right?

Since President Obama is doling the dollars out willy nilly, why not ask for an additional $100 million bucks to build our New White Elephant in the Park (City Hall...to remind you all of that)?

Well...let's now go back to Councilwoman Daigle's eloquence...

The last half of her opinion piece was very easy to understand.

Why?

Because it was written exactly how Junior High School kids are instructed to write...and I'm not making ANYTHING up here...

"The City Council is..."

"Upper Newport Bay is..."

"The City Council also requested..."

"The harbor-dredging project is..."

"The Corps is..."

"The city appreciates..."

"The city is..."

I'm not kidding here...that is exactly how each one of the paragraphs starts for the last half of her piece.

But I'm sure my Elementary School Teacher Ex-Wife would appreciate Daigle starting each sentence off with a Noun and a Verb.

So herein lies the simplicity of the writing mixed in with the utter confusion of the content which gives us the opinions of the Daigle who wanted to be Mayor of Newport Beach...

READ MORE - Councilwoman Leslie "Wordsmith" Daigle LOVES Pork!

Grand Rapids, the West Coast of Michigan

(The photo to the left is not from Grand Rapids.)

I am in Grand Rapids, home of the Gerald Ford airport, which doesn't bother me half as much as the George H. W. Bush airport in Houston. I came by car with my student A, who is an alum of Grand Valley State University, and will be reading along with me there Tuesday night. If you are ever in Grand Rapids, you must go to downtown because there are lovely, pleasing brick 19th- and 20th-century buildings. That is, you must go downtown if you like old buildings. There are a number of "ghosts," those faint vestiges of painted advertisements on old buildings.

We went to dinner at San Chez Bistro and Cafe, a tapas restaurant (which brought tapas to Western Michigan) that has tall indoor columns covered with mosaics. They were done by Jose Narezo, a local artist who exhibited internationally. He died in December.

Cancer.

His paintings are all around the restaurant too.

But it is the mosaics, or *are* the mosaics that I wanted to stay and stay and look at. We went to Chartres some years ago and the cathedral was nice and everything, and the famous British guy gave the tour, and the stained glass was impressive, though I wished I'd had binoculars, and L was enchanted, but then we took a city bus to Maison Picassiette, and that thrilled me utterly. I remember the whoosh of happiness I felt just being there.


The man covered every surface of his house and property with pieces of tile and glass:

If I'd found good pictures of Narezo's columns, I would have posted them here.

If I'd found good pictures of downtown historic buildings in GR, I would have posted them here.

At GVSU, students are protesting police brutality after a sheriff's deputy shot a GVSU student in the chest while they were about to execute a search warrant. The student is hospitalized.

READ MORE - Grand Rapids, the West Coast of Michigan

In Line

(On Line, for you East Coasters.)

I stopped at the Large Pharmacy to pick up two prescriptions before I leave town on Monday for the first stop, Grand Rapids, on Cancer Bitch's World Tour. I was in a hurry and there were three people in front of me. I arrived at the end of the line from the left while someone else arrived from the right. She was gracious and said I could go first. Since people were coming over in about 20 minutes, I accepted. She and her friend were talking about the grandfather of one of them. He's 88, widowed and went to a dance place. The announcer welcomed him, and two women asked him to dance. He took both of them out to dinner. His social life is better than mine, said the one who was his granddaughter. He and his wife had been in the competitive square dance circuit.

In elementary school was had square dance lessons every Friday in something called Rhythms for some reason. I remember the boys' sweaty palms and them holding on too tightly and jerking or pushing with their arms. I recall that we had a dance when we finished sixth grade and some kids didn't participate because they were Baptist. They couldn't play cards, either.

I paid a king's ransom for Wellbutrin XL because the insurance company hasn't accepted that the generic doesn't work. Believe me, it doesn't. My autumn was quite autumnal because of this.

Grand Rapids is known for Gerald Ford and Amway. I will be staying in the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel for two nights. On the third I get to stay in an old house that used to be a college president's residence.

The photo above is of the groundbreaking for the building where I'll be reading on Thursday.

**
I am up at this ungodly hour because I have been wrassling with the ungodly National Endowment for the Arts fellowship application. It was designed to frustrate the prose writers of America and lead us further into despair. You have to submit the application online unless you can prove you live 30 miles away from internet service. Thus the application instructions contain such gems as this: "If it appears that your submission is not being successfully transmitted to Grants.gov (e.g., you do not receive a confirmation screen), it is possible that your application actually was submitted.... An application may not be submitted successfully for a number of reasons, such as heavy usage on the Grants.gov system or security settings on your computer or your firewall." The government is trying to make the writers of this country go stark raving mad.

READ MORE - In Line

Huntington Beach Goes for the Video City title!

Huntington Beach is right across the Santa Ana River
from the City of Newport Beach....with a border to
Costa Mesa a stone throw up that same SA River flood
control channel. When we moved here in 1952 that
border was a long way from any residential building.
Hey, we even had Oil Rigs by Newport Shores...in the
now Banning Ranch area. Huntington Beach was rough, it
had a reputation that said: "We are Barstow south!" "We
have Oil Rigs and we are the Huntington Beach Oilers!"
Their bars were rough and even the Golden Bear seemed
at times....dangerous!

Even the HB beach kids were different from Newport Beach
or Seal Beach or Sunset Beach. Huntington Beach had
Oil Wells....and they were dirty but rich. They even
had Tin Can Beach in those days. Bolsa Chica was a
mere blue sky dream right then. The homeless lived on
Tin Can Beach....right across the border from Newport
Beach. Then came the surf revolution!

Robert August was the handsome guy that co-starred in
"Endless Summer" famous Surf movie. Robert was a good
pal of Mr. Pipeline John Peck...who I met at the Makaha
Surf Championships in 1963. Robert was from Huntington
Beach...and a very refined version of what Huntington
Beach surfers were really like. Don't forget, shooting
the pier was first done in Huntington Beach...and there
were some memorable occasions of guys wearing those
mussels on the pilings of Huntington Beach...doing a left
from the right side of that pier.

But why do we bring this up? Well, soon Huntington Beach
had become "Surf City USA". The northern city of Santa
Cruz even fought in court but HB finally won to get that
legal name recognition. Huntington Beach is celebrating
2009 as its 100th Anniversary as a city. "Surf City"!

Well,recently Huntington Beach has determined that they
should study the possibility of adding up to 20 Video
Cameras for Red Light enforcement. Most of the initial
group would be located on Beach Blvd.....from Pacific
Coast Highway all the way to the 405 Freeway. Almost
every light is covered. In addition, a light on Brookhurst
and Adams would be added. The vote for the study was
5 to 2. Should we say the reality is that once the
study is done....so is the program.

Lockheed-Martin are rubbing their grumby pinkies together!

We can't stand the thought of Huntington Beach, joining
the ranks of Costa Mesa adding those invasive, contestable
and worrisome enforcement cameras. Will they put signage
up so that all can see? Will they shorten the yellow light
to catch even more evil doers? Will they ever remove them?
No, we don't think so. Will they save lives or just cause
more rear end collisions?

Come on Huntington Beach...No "Video City" please! You
don't need to prove you deserve the title....just file
for it now.. and maybe no one with contest it. In the
meantime, happy 100th Anniversary Huntington Beach. You
are doing a great job with downtown Main Street. You are
doing so well, in many areas - you've come a long way
baby....but don't mess that all up by adding those
stupid cameras!

READ MORE - Huntington Beach Goes for the Video City title!

Thank you President Obama for our Dredge Cash!

The big "Ear Mark" Stimulus bill recently passed by
President Obama...has finally hit Orange County. As
you might have assessed...the dredger is busy in the
Back Bay right now. Those familiar slamming metal
sounds are echoing across from Fletcher Jones Mercedes
into the houses in the Bluff's and East Bluff Drive.

Thank you President Obama. We just got $2.87 Million
Back Bay Bucks...to continue a project that is still
underfunded by about $13 Million Dollars. As we all
know Congressman John Campbell is recovering from a
surgery and won't be back to D.C. until sometime in
April, so his pals Dana Rohrabacher, Ed Royce and some
others have stepped up to assist the Congressman get
the cash....we need for the Dredging of Newport Bay.

The $410 Billion dollar Omnibus Stimulus Bill offered
9000 Special Project Earmarks. However, those 9000
Ear Marks...only account for about 1% of the $410B
offered up. Hey, Vanguard University, one of John
Moorlach's favorites....even got $447,000 for some new
science testing equipment (if they can document the
purchases). All according to the report in the Daily
Plot today!

All in all, it still amazes us that with literally
Billions and Billions going to virtually everyone and
everything but the kitchen sink....Newport Beach is
still short $13 Million Back Bay Bucks! Maybe, Chris
Cox and his family will come back to our beloved Newport
Beach...and maybe Chris ...can help us get the last $13
Million before somebody else gets it!

READ MORE - Thank you President Obama for our Dredge Cash!

Local public service announcements

Saturday, March 14, Loyola Water Tower Campus: Ethical Journalism in a Digital World, brought to you by the Chicago Headline Club and Poynter Institute. $5 for students and $25 for nonmembers. All details here.

Golan’s Moving and Storage Inc. will pick up your cell phones, printers, cartridges, scanners, hard drives, and old light bulbs for free and bring them to the City of Chicago Computer Recycling Facility during the weeks of March 23rd and April 20th.
No TVS, a/cs, dehumidifiers. No more than 5 items will be picked up from a single location Cook County only. To set this up, email recycle@golansmoving.com.

Inspired by Thoreau (above), my former student Steve Jordan has led some students at Mundelein High School on a quest for voluntary simplicity. Use the internet to see them on TV talking about plans to give up the internet.

Anne Basye, another former student, has published a journal about her similar quest.

READ MORE - Local public service announcements

Good news about ovarian cancer?

A study shows that the CA-125 blood test and ultrasounds can help diagnose ovarian cancer in post-menopausal (which is the same as menopausal) women before it has metastasized. Ovarian cancer, you may recall, is what Gilda Radner died of. It's called the whisper disease because the symptoms are so subtle: bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, feeling full quickly, frequent urination.

The study isn't final and there's a caveat: However, the results so far leave two major issues unsettled: what the ideal method of screening is and whether finding ovarian cancer early will actually help women live longer,Katherine Hobson reports in the US News & World Report.

Women who have an average risk of getting ovarian cancer don't need to be tested, according to the American Cancer Society.

I read Gilda Radner's memoir almost 20 years ago and I remember how painful it was to read her blaming herself for the cancer--having to do with an eating disorder, I think. For all we know, she could have had a gene mutation that led to the cancer. I hate blaming the victim. For example, I read that stress and "low social support" can help ovarian and other cancers along. A study shows this. What is stress? It's the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine. Stress can be measured. The effect of stress hormones on cancer cells can be measured. I do not like this. I've been trying to remain calm for the last two weeks. I say to myself, I am calm. It works some of the time. But I get agitated easily. When I got my last mammogram, in January, I was in a waiting room for women who had had breast cancer. One woman who was my age, thin and Romanian with designer eyeglasses, said that after breast cancer she had changed her whole life--eating better, eliminating stress. Cancer as a wakeup call: You must change your life, as Rilke told us in another setting. In a museum, upon seeing a torso of Apollo. Changing is the most difficult thing a person can do. I eat more vegetables, I think; that's how I explain my lowered cholesterol. I want to be a morning person. I want not to have things bother me. I want to be calm and relaxed without taking my assortment of pills: Effexor, Buspar (generic), Wellbutrin XL. I want my asthma to go away. Yoga has helped people with asthma, my now-retired yoga teacher J used to say but I don't feel that it's changed mine much. I've been at it for maybe eight years. I want to get up with the sun and exercise every day. I want to not do things at the last minute. I want to clean my desk. I want to be organized. I want to live a long time.

The young Rilke, we are told, had writer's block, and was counseled by the much-older Rodin to go to the Paris zoo and look "until you capture the essence of the animal." Rodin's motto: travailler, toujours travailler. Work, always work. Work will save you. (That comes perilously close to Arbeit macht frei.)

We have lost much of the physicality associated with writing. Everyone sits at a computer now, not just the writer. There are no quills, no sand (to help dry the ink), no inkwells, no blotting paper, no typewriting that must be stopped at a certain hour so it won't disturb the neighboring tenants. Technology is changing, always changing, and we keep up with it or not. I want to stop it. I want to burn all the Kindles and iPods and iPhones because I don't understand them. Stop them all, like Faust wanting to burn his books. But we've come too far.

Faust doesn't look so happy:

READ MORE - Good news about ovarian cancer?

Results

hysteroscopy photos, San Francisco Women's Healthcare, Inc.

So I called the doctor again and left a plaintive message with the assistant, saying I didn't know if I had cancer and would like to know before the weekend. The doctor called back and said the pathologist was gone on Thursday and so that's why she didn't call me. She found evidence of a uterine polyp that she wants to remove and she found cells in the cervix that were dysplasic. Dysplasia is pre-cancerous, but there are several steps, she said, between dysplasia and cancer. (See http://www.womenshealthchannel.com/cervicaldysplasia/index.shtml) There were just two minute clusters of abnormal cells, she said. The thing to do about dysplasia, she said, is to keep monitoring the cells.

Thus, she will do a Pap smear soon to check out the cervical cells. Then she will go on a mission to find the rest of the polyp, via uterine hysteroscopy . That takes place in the hospital, under sedation, but I will be awake and can watch the procedure on a screen, which is very interesting she said.

Which makes me think we should re-examine the term "navel gazer." I suppose that's as far inward as men could imagine looking at themselves.

(And so it has come to this, toward the end of the first decade of the 21st century, where we write about our dysplasia for all the world to see.)


severe dysplasia, not mine

READ MORE - Results

The Unringing Phone

They say they're going to call, in a week, on Thursday. So on Thursday you wait. You don't have to wait at home anymore like people did for most of the 20th century, you take your cell with you and take your waiting with you. On Thursday afternoon you leave a message with a machine. Then you leave a message with a person. Then it's Friday and you call again and leave a message with a person. The weekend is coming up, after all.

The new gyne sounded so sincere when she said she'd call. Today's first message-taker said she'd seen my file on the doctor's desk. The next message-taker said she'd give the doctor a message to call me. And, of course, only the doctor is allowed to tell the patient the biopsy results.

If she'd not going to call me, why doesn't she delegate?

Maybe by not calling she thinks she's conveying the message that the biopsy showed nothing, just as she figured. Up until Thursday I wasn't anxious to hear. Because I knew she would call on Thursday.

Her office closes in 45 minutes.

READ MORE - The Unringing Phone

On the other other hand...

...the blood test showed that my cholesterol is a slender 133, down about 50 points from last year. I have been eating more vegetables, but still I was surprised. And after being surprised, I became quite quite proud of the number. I'm working it in to as many conversations as I can: O, the percentage of voters who turned out in yesterday's special Congressional election? Speaking of numbers, did you know that my cholesterol is...


And I got a good review from Bookslut, which called my book "far more selfless than most illness memoirs. Its eyes rove outward more than almost anything else I’ve read in the genre.... It is a sort of black planet she flies over like a pilot, unable to reach down but guided by small, scattered tribal fires of compassion.... The book is funny, damned funny. Much more Rabelais and Woody Allen than Homer." (See the rest of Richard Wirick's review at: http://www.bookslut.com/nonfiction/2009_02_014148.php

Again, the link function isn't working so well on this here blogger thing.


And my candidate and friend, Tom Geoghegan, referred to once or twice in this blog as T, one of the intellectuals who not only subscribes to but also reads The New York Review of Books, did not win the Democratic primary yesterday, for Rahm Emanuel's vacated seat.

Despite my cavassing of strangers and haranguing of friends. I guess Washington's not ready for another smart, skinny, book-writing Harvard lawyer from Chicago. And I guess it's back to the margins for me: Obama was the first candidate I ever worked for who actually WON. I thought maybe that meant that the mainstream had moved over to my way of thinking. Guess not.

READ MORE - On the other other hand...

More from the Annals of Polycythemia Vera

L's office brings in people to test our blood every year in a "wellness screening." I have polycythemia vera, that in layman's terms means I have too many platelets. (I want to link to earlier posts about PV but the linker isn't working. See 2/20/08, 3/9/08, 6/2/08, 2/1/09.) I sent my results to my hematologist yesterday and today she said that since my platelet counts are still high, despite my therapeutic phlebotomies (I go to the blood bank and they remove a pint and throw it away) that she wants to talk about prescribing hydroxyurea to lower the count. Wikipedia tells us that it's "used in hematological malignancies, specifically polycythemia vera and essential thrombocytosis." Whether my PV is cancer or not depends on whom you talk to. The delightful thing about hydroxyurea is that it prevents leukemia and also can cause it. It gets you coming and going. Side effects include "drowsiness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, constipation, mucositis, anorexia, stomatitis, bone marrow toxicity (which may take 7-21 days to recover after the drug has been discontinued), alopecia (hair loss), skin changes, abnormal liver enzymes, creatinine and blood urea nitrogen." For the moment I'm not upset, just scared about adding this new drug to my large bouquet of strong medicines. Will I have to take more drugs to combat the side effects of hydroxyurea?

The FDA tells us that the drug is good for ovarian cancer. I wonder if you can use it pre-emptively. Would that be the silver lining in this cloud? Likewise, what if people took chemo and they didn't have cancer? I suppose the chemo would kill off any cancer cells swimming below the radar. But it wouldn't keep you from getting cancer later.

Mayo tells us we should wear disposable gloves when handling the tablet or capsule. After all, this is a substance that can turn your nails black, cause hallucinations, and as I said, bring on leukemia--even years after you've stopped taking the medicine. It can lower your white blood cell count, so make you more susceptible to infection.

On the other hand, it can cause weight loss.

The thing about polycythemia vera, or at least my version of it, is that the symptoms are ridiculous. I have tiny red dots on my skin and I get very itchy from being in hot water or even from the deep massage I'm getting for my Achilles tendonitis or even just out of the blue. It also gives me red cheeks so I look robust and healthy, like I've spent all day skating around the frozen-over dikes with Hans Brinker.

I felt fine before I was diagnosed with cancer two years ago, and I feel fine now and I keep thinking of Ann Patchett's book, Truth & Beauty, where she quotes Lucy Greely saying that her cancer made her feel special. It's ridiculous now to feel special when one out of every eight or nine US women has a breast malignancy. But there's this Thanatos-loving part of me, or melodrama-loving part, that feels sort of hopeful about the possible endometrial cancer. And I don't mean hopeful as in, It's probably nothing. It's like this dark hopefulness, like an attraction to the edge of a chasm. As in, O, I'm even more special because I might have a different kind of cancer.

What kind of person thinks this? Do I feel another cancer is inevitable, so that it's a relief when I think of finally being hit by a second one? Then I don't have to worry about the second hit. If you're dying, you don't have to worry about dying, because you're already doing it. When I was younger I felt so guilty for being alive because I knew that if I didn't have asthma medicine I would be a goner. And I knew I was privileged to have the asthma medicine, and later a breathing machine, because there were people everywhere who weren't getting care. And maybe they were dying and maybe not, and it seemed like my real fate was to die. To be dead. (This is why I've been in therapy since the Nixon administration.) It helped that my parents paid for a machine like mine that they donated to the hospital. I went to summer camp for three years and hated it because I couldn't breathe but I didn't tell my parents, I think because I didn't want to disappoint them. There was something deeply wrong with me, I couldn't exist with and in Nature, even though it should have been... so natural. Nature could kill me, and now my own nature, my blood, has turned against me. Has thickened against itself.

We are finite beings. Is that so hard to fathom? Yes. Because we have been here our whole lives. The world could not have existed before we were born.

READ MORE - More from the Annals of Polycythemia Vera

Public Smoking Ban in Communist Newport Beach

The Orange County Register has this article which shocked the heck out of me...

"Newport Beach considers smoking ban in 'public places'"

Wow.

First no smoking on the beaches...which if you go to the beach,

1. You'd know is practically impossible to enforce.

2. By the hundreds and hundreds of cigarette butts found by my toddlers EVERY weekend, is not being enforced.

3. Have created quasi ashtrays in the planters which border the beach.

Obviously, any Councilman who visits our beaches would notice any of the top three things.

So since that is working SOOOO well...what's next for a Nanny City Councilmembers to do?

Ban Styrofoam (oh wait...)

Ok...how about Ban Smoking in Public Places?

Which would include "sidewalks, parks and outdoor dining patios."

And who are the two geniuses spearheading this?

Mr. "Walking" Don Webb who spent his entire working career off the government trough, and would love to see the Government take the biggest role in everyone's life.

and

Mr. "My Own Neighbors didn't want me as their Councilman" Steve Rosansky.

Now...you may be asking, why do I care about smoking in Public?

Other then the self explanatory reasoning that the outside is still free?

I don't smoke cigarettes.

However, I do enjoy a weekly cigar or two, especially when I walk my dog...on the beach...with my cigar (yes, I do live life dangerously.)

In fact, I've enjoyed quite a few cigars in a "GASP" public place with Mr. "My Own Neighbors didn't want me as their Councilman" Rosansky himself.

And he didn't seem to indicate that he cared what our fellow public place patio patrons thought of the horrible Cuban cigar derived smoke at the time.

Wow. To think that what I want to do in public (within reason) can be infringed upon more...

Times have certainly changed.

First Socialism in the White House.

Then, Taxes Bonanza in the State.

and now...public smoking ban in Newport Beach.

I am going to have to start saving up my pennies to pay those no smoking in public and on the beach fines...because I'm not going to obey that law...

Next...someone is going to tell me that you don't have to win your own City Council district to represent that district.

READ MORE - Public Smoking Ban in Communist Newport Beach

Spy Cameras in Huntington Beach?

NO Redlight Cameras…..EVER! Here we
are in the midst of the biggest economic meltdown in
world history…and what do the great powers that be in
Huntington Beach decide to consider? Yep, up to 20
Lockheed-Martin (type) redlight cameras may be coming
to the intersections of Huntington Beach should the HB
City Council decide in favor this week. Yuck, Yuck,
Yuck! Eckee, Eckee, Eckee….NO REASON Foundation
Solutions please!

These are the same redlight cameras that shorten the
Yellow lights to catch the poor and unsuspecting right
in the middle of the intersection on a left turn light.
These are same redlight cameras that require constant
calibration and monitoring to be sure they work correctly.
These are the same redlight cameras that literally kill
local business because “locals” do not want to go
through these intersections and pillars of technology
nightmares every day.

The main argument for installation of redlight cameras
is “safety”. “Let’s stop those evil redlight runners
killing our kids and grandma’s in busy city intersections.
Let’s get big bucks from tourist and unsuspecting locals
that don’t see the cameras. Let’s not even put signage
up, warning of redlight cameras ahead…until we get a 1000
complaints! Let’s charge upwards of $425 bucks if any
part of your mini-van gets stuck behind some weenie that
will not go completely through the intersection to the
other side, either because of traffic or because they
are not paying attention, or tht they want a ’safe zone’
between their vehicle and the one in front of them!”

Hey, “automating the process” is a lot easier than putting
motorcycle cops out there watching what is going on.
What they need are cameras in the Huntington Beach -
Beach Parking areas….so that Homeless and Criminals don’t
break into cars during the hot summer months or during the
less traveled winter emptiness, or even the Main Parking
structures. But then, that would require “dispatch”, that
would require “sending out the troops to find out what is
going on!” With Redlight Cameras, you just get the photo,
look up the license number on the DMV website and then
automatically send the ticket. Hey, this is safe for the
enforcement people - “no contact with people” and people
just send in their money….or they won’t get to renew their
car license the following year, or when it comes due.

In the UK, these cameras are endemic. They have them
on all the highways to monitor speeders, erratic drivers
and parked vehicles. All good “Cash Cows” for government.
The cameras monitor illegal right turns, left turns or
anything they can determine goes against the vehicle
code….and then just send the tickets…..lots of tickets!
They don’t even require signage in the UK for any cameras;
which is a good reason for living in America! Remember
those terrorists, with their burning van - "You Tube";
camera photos outside the airport in Dublin? At least
something good came of that….they found the nerds and
arrested them. But who are they planning to arrest in
Huntington Beach? Grandma’s with bad eyesight? Teenagers,
fully text messaging or on the cell phone in direct
contravention to the CA Vehicle Code? Who knows?

One thing is for sure……when the word gets out…and they
put the info on every GPS software program in the US
and the world…..well, you can bet that increase in and for
tourism in Huntington Beach may be affected negatively.
The Huntington Beach City Council might want to put this
item “on the back burner” until the economy makes a
comeback. No need to just try to kill tourism outright
or to insure that new City Council members will be voted
in during the next election cycle…….ya think?

Finally, don’t we always find it interesting that when
“Redlight Cameras” are suggested….it is never just “one
or two Major problem intersections”. No it is always
multiples of 10 like in this case 20! Why is that?
Because the vendors are not in it for “Public Safety”…
they are in it ….for the buck they make on servicing and
supplying the equipment involved. Who would want to
provide “low cost cameras” for two problem intersections?
The members of the Huntington Beach City Council and the
HB Police Chief might want to answer that question before
they “move on” to approve prolific electronic monitoring
and surveillance throughout the City of Huntington Beach!

READ MORE - Spy Cameras in Huntington Beach?

Things to Know Before Launching Your Business in the Internet

Basically there are two ways people may earn the money either being a labor or an entrepreneur. Those who have no sufficient capital or money would generally choose to be a labor while those have some sufficient capital may make a living by establishing a business. A business can manufacture either products or services offered to the customers. The promotion and advertisement should be the front line tools in the sales and marketing division to attract the customers towards the business products or services offered. Today the internet has come to bring more advantages to such business organizations. There are many business organizations establish their web site in the internet as a mean of promotion to introduce their products and services to the public.

There are several things we should consider when we would establish and launch the business in the internet. Keywords and phrases, we should develop a good keywords that will insure a good placement in the search engine. Optimization would improve the rank even more since the more sites linked at your sites the higher position your site should place the rank in the search engine. Contents are important as well, you should be able to develop the content which is not only attractive to the visitors or potential customers but also for the search engine. The contents with persuasive text and crucial keywords perhaps would assist the search engine ranking and direct the potential customers into our web site.

Monitoring should also be an important factor since internet constantly changes and therefore we should keep our track in the traffic to know the customer visit. Collecting data from the visitors should also be important to help us maintain and improve our site that might place our site back in the best rank position in the search engine.

READ MORE - Things to Know Before Launching Your Business in the Internet

We Will Miss You Paul Harvey!

As inspirations go, Paul Harvey was the great stuff
of Urban Legend. Those Golden Pair Shaped Tones that can
only be described as uniquely distinctive for his entire
Radio Career...ended yesterday at 90 years old. As we
all know 90 is the new 70.....so even at that age Paul
Harvey has been suddenly taken from us all.

His "Rest of the Story" vignettes were heard on over 1200
radio stations around the nation and the world. Wisdom
and caring understanding were Harvey's hallmarks. His
willingness to get to the underbelly of any story was
truly a special quality of that every investigative reporter
who ever earned his salt. In awe and wonder we listened to
the inimitable Harvey surprise us with those tricky or
unexpected ending of tales we thought we knew all about.

Paul Harvey was an Okie, with strong mid-west values and
spent most of his career...starting at 14 years old in
Chicago. In the 80's they even gave Paul Harvey his own
street. Paul Harvey made our world kinder, more supple,
more wise, more tender and especially more conscious of
the many complexities possible, of even the most common
good deed.

Paul Harvey.....we will miss you. You were one of a kind
and the kind of person we would always want to know. We
never met you in person....but we know how special that
would have been. For all those that did have that pleasure..
share your experiences with others. Anyone, would want to
know more about........Paul Harvey!

READ MORE - We Will Miss You Paul Harvey!