Dude...Where's My Booze?

I was perusing through this old Police Blotter from the OC Register and saw this funny listing

"Lafayette Road, 2800 block: boat burglary, July 19. A bottle of alcohol was stolen from an unlocked boat. Estimated loss: $13."

Three questions:

1. Did an officer actually go out to take a report? $13?
2. How many times do you think you can report this to the police before they catch on?
3. Does insurance cover the loss?

Depending on the answers, I may have lots of phone calls to make to the Newport Beach Police Department.

READ MORE - Dude...Where's My Booze?

City Hall Poem

Also from Friday's OC Register (I must have not paid too much attention to them that day) is this poem about City Hall. I don't know what it means, which is probably why I got a D in my College poetry class.

Enjoy.

READ MORE - City Hall Poem

The Article to Nowhere...

One of my favorite movies is Best in Show and in the beginning is an introduction to two of the characters, Sherri Ann Ward Cabot (a younger, blonde, puffy, trophy wife) describing her relationship with her much, much older husband Leslie Ward Cabot. She goes on to say,

"Leslie and I have an amazing relationship and it's very physical, he still pushes all my buttons. People say 'oh but he's so much older than you' and you know what, I'm the one having to push him away. We have so much in common, we both love soup and snow peas, we love the outdoors, and talking and not talking. We could not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about."

Watching this scene cracks me up every time and if you've seen the movie, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

But the point is that it's a mundane monologue that goes nowhere, which brings me to last Friday's article. In this OC Register "Guest View" column, Council member Leslie Daigle goes on to describe (in 442 painstakingly long words...it seemed much longer) a day's visit to Newport Beach's Back Bay. Fascinating... Being an elected official opens up the opportunity to be a target, with every written word constantly scrutinized and then thrown back into their face during election time. Councilman Keith Curry and Mayor Steve Rosansky have both taken their shots, politically, in the Daily Pilot's Pol Position column (I thought Mayor Pro Tem Ed Selich and Councilman Don Webb had also written stuff up, but I couldn't find them). Councilman Curry yesterday talking about City Hall and Mayor Rosansky going over the Harbor Patrol. Point is, these Newport Beach Council Members have gone out on a limb and have written their positions on topics which have been items of contention. They've gone out and taken stands, and while many people may not agree with them, they still took them. And that's admirable. And that's what being an elected public official is about. After all, who can forget former Council member Dick Nichols' wonderful quotes about the...Mexicans...

But Council member Daigle's description of her day in the Back Bay? In the OC Register, the same paper who so nicely detailed her encounter with Fernando Espina at the Corona Del Mar High School track. I don't know...maybe Council member Daigle had nothing better to say about City Hall, Harbor Patrol, Sober Living Homes, Airport Expansion, or anything else which the residents are concerned about. Maybe horse mussels and the mating rituals of the male blue heron are more interesting and are the pressing issues going on in her Council District. Maybe. She is taking a stand on the Sex Offenders residency issue (who is for letting Registered Sex Offenders live next door without knowing about it?) and the Parking Lot/John Wayne issue, but then again, I think that 99.99% of Newport Beach, and most of Costa Mesa, Irvine and Tustin also don't want John Wayne Airport to expand, so I think that both are "safe" positions to take. Anyway, I don't live in her district, so maybe I'm out of touch with their issues.

Perhaps...

READ MORE - The Article to Nowhere...

I Hate Fancy Hospital

It is 11:30 and I should be on my way to my last chemo appointment, along with my friend S who flew in from San Francisco for escort duty, but Fancy does not have me on the schedule. In fact, I am not on the schedule until a month hence. I called this morning to see if I needed to be there at noon, my appointment time, or later, because I often wait and wait in the huge and distressing cancer ward waiting area. I also called because I remembered I didn't get a printout of this appointment, though it was understood I was coming in today at noon. Or I thought it was understood. After seven sessions on Mondays at noon (one on a Tuesday because of a holiday), and being told that Taxol is administered every two weeks, I thought it was obvious that I should be seen today at noon. But my nurse is on vacation, and I think her backup is on vacation, and given Fancy Hospital's tendency to overbook (worse than the airlines? I can't decide) I should not assume anything. But I did. I am very very very upset.

My voice cracks when I talk on the phone to the receptionists and chemo administrative director and the nurse who called me back after she was (allegedly) paged twice in 45 minutes. And so now it is 11:52 and I have been called back and told I have my appointment at 1. I can't tell you how momentous the last day of chemo is. It is, well, the last day of chemo. The end of the beginning. The end of feeling you are blasting the cancer away and now you are left up to your own devices and tamoxifen. P said her father became angry when his chemo ended and I understand why.

READ MORE - I Hate Fancy Hospital

Who to Trust?

Sorry for the length of this post, but...

Years ago, a very connected and involved GOP Politico told me that in Politics, you can only truly trust two types of people. Ultra-Conservatives and Ultra-Liberals (notice he didn't say Republicans or Democrats), because you always know where they stand. Even in the State Assembly and the State Senate, those are the two groups of people who also go along with others always, because there would never be any surprises on policy decisions. That's why watching our Governor, and his decisions, can be soo hair raising, and fun, because every one on both sides of the Aisle really don't know where he's going to go on decisions until he actually makes them.

I make a distinction between Conservatives and Republicans because as many people know, just because one is Republican, it doesn't guarantee that they are Conservative, or vice versa. For instance, Council member Mike Henn was, for almost 20 years, registered as Decline to State, and re-registered as a Republican last March. But regardless of Party Registration, he stated that he has always considered himself Conservative. Then you have many many Republicans who are affectionately known as RINOS (Republicans in Name Only - I'll spare the list) who are Republicans because...well...only they know why.

But that's what I'll use to segue into today's topic. In today's Daily Pilot is this Pol Position column written by Council member Keith Curry. Now, Council member Curry has always been known as someone who's been involved in Politics outside of the City (The Lincoln Club of Orange County) and as someone who could be called a Conservative and a Republican. You should know where he stands on the issues, especially fiscally, since most Fiscal-Conservatives, as Council member Curry is, believe in smaller government, less debt and responsible spending. But all of that contradicts his Pol Position column today.

When building a new City Hall is brought into the picture, most of the Republicans forget they are Conservatives. Heck, even Jim Righeimer, now a Costa Mesa Planning Commissioner, and a well known Republican, and Conservative, activist, got into the fray with his weekly Daily Pilot column opining why the City Hall initiative should go to the ballot. As a non-elected Conservative, why wasn't the discussion about being fiscally responsible by NOT borrowing $50 million bucks to build a New City Hall which will accommodate MORE City Employees? Let's me reprint this post.

City of Newport Beach - Est. Population - 84,218 + City Workforce - 944.20 Full Time Equivalent (FTE) employees = 89 residents per employee

City of Costa Mesa - Est. Population - 113,440 + City Workforce - 700.69 FTE employees = 162 residents per employee

City of Irvine - Est. Population - 202,079 + City Workforce - 978.33 FTE employees (*contracts out for fire and library services) = 206 residents per employee.

City of Huntington Beach - Est. Population - 202,788 + City Workforce - 1105.5 FTE employees = 183 residents per employee

Note #1 - Irvine has been controlled by the very liberal Emperor Agran and his Democrat City Council majority on and off since 1978.

Note #2 - Huntington Beach has also been controlled by a Democrat City Council for the past few years.

Note #3 - Newport Beach's City Council has been Republican controlled for many years now, including a "narrow" 6-1 Republican current edge.

So I don't understand what is going on here. The City of Newport Beach, which holds a supposed 6-1 "Republican" edge has more city employees, and more city employee pension liability, wants to build a new City Hall which most likely will be built to accommodate for future employee growth. The New City Hall will put the City of Newport Beach into major debt ranging from $40 to $60 million. Mayor Pro-Tem Ed Selich once told me that financing the City Hall is like using a mortgage to pay for your house. True, except that I'm not mortgaging my house using your money, or how about I'm not mortgaging your house using my money. City Hall is supposed to be for all the residents, but how many of Newport's 80,000 plus residents have actually set foot into our current City Hall. Maybe 10%, maybe 20%. But ALL of us will be paying for it. Shoot, my aunt from Lancaster who gets a parking ticket in Newport will be paying for it. Once, I tried to take a picture of my in-laws in front of the City Hall chambers once and a City Staffer shoo-ed us off. Does the City Hall have Story Time for the kids? You don't even have to go to City Hall to pay for things anymore.

So today's Pol Position by Council member Curry. He talks about a new City Hall, where he thinks it should go, why it shouldn't go where others want it to. How to take your name off the petition you signed (didn't know you could do that). Throws around the difference between tens to twenties of millions dollars between one site or the other. But where is his concern about what borrowing that kind of money will do to the future of Newport Beach? On the Facilities Finance Review committee, he said that the City could afford it using Certificates of Participation. But to me, it's still debt (Yes, I know that Municipal Debt financing is Keith Curry's profession), and by the time it's paid off at 6%-8% interest, guess what...we'll need another City Hall and what we've paid will be double the amount of the original price (because of interest). Also, what about the torrid rate at which our fair City is increasing it's City Employee load? One of the reasons our current City Hall doesn't work is because the City has employed more people than their building can fit. We already have more employees per resident (almost more total City Employees) than the People's Republic of Irvine, with Chairman Agran at the helm since 1978. Where is Councilman Curry's concern about the size of Government? It's much easier not to give, then to take away later. Will Newport have the...guts (another word actually came to mind first) to do like Supervisor Moorlach in trying to change the Employee Pensions? Let's not forget that the Pension Liability (Funded or not) is still future debt.

Conservatives like Councilman Curry should know this and should tread a bit more carefully when it comes to financing Newport's future in a potentially uncertain economic future. I know that as a Newport Beach City Councilman, you have to go with the "flow" of what Republican dominated Newport Beach wants, but being a Conservative is more than a term, it's also your philosophy, and as evidenced by your pre-City Council involvement with the Lincoln Club, it's who you are. As a wise man once said, sometimes the ends may justify the means, but remember that while ends come and go, you'll have to live with the means for the rest of your life.

READ MORE - Who to Trust?

The End of an Era

For the past few days I've been obsessed about the big media news in town: the buy-out of the Chicago Reader, our city's leading alternative weekly, by Creative Loafing, an out-of-town chain that, from what I read, is not known for hard-hitting journalism or great writing. The first piece I had in the Reader was maybe in the late 1970s or 80s and I've been an intermittent contributor since. Maybe seven years ago I was part of a small group of freelancers who negotiated better terms with editors, and that made me feel more part of the newspaper and the freelance community. I've had my battles with editors over story ideas and the rhythm of my sentences (don't mess with the rhythm of my sentences) and the editors did decline to include this blog on its pages or site, but I am grateful that they published some of my non-mainstream work, and gave me deadlines when I needed them. About a half-dozen of the pieces in my essay collection were first published in the Reader. If you would like to be obsessed too, then I urge you to join what's become a town forum of readers and employees. It's in the comments section of Michael Miner's blog on the Reader site. It is hoped that the Reader's name won't change. It's disconcerting to read of an alt weekly in the chain referred to as "the Loaf."

But as the French say, after bread, art is the great need of the people. I think the French said it. I saw an exhibition on the saying in a Paris gallery in the late 1970s. All the sculpture was made of bread dough. According to Danton, "Après le pain, l'éducation est le premier besoin du peuple." Kropotkin says this, "After bread has been secured, leisure is the supreme aim," but I prefer "art" to "education" or "leisure." But maybe "leisure" is right, and thus, the supremacy of creative loafing over the art that is or was the Reader.

READ MORE - The End of an Era

Teacher Tax Credit Going?

It's been a summer of City Hall, County of Orange Supervisors, Mayor Rosansky's messy house, and potential Presidential candidate fund raisers. School's been out for the past month, teachers have gotten their raises, and classes will begin in another month; so it's appropriate that State Board of Equalization Member Michelle Steel (who represents Orange County, amongst most of Southern California) writes about the State of California's Assembly and their attempt to raise taxes on teachers. Michelle is a very well liked (Nationally and Statewide) Conservative thinker who, despite being married to the former California Republican Party Chairman Shawn Steel :-), is one of the highest ranking Republicans in the State of California on the State Board of Equalization, which just happens to regulate and mediate ALL TAX ISSUES within the State. Michelle and the State Board of Equalization are probably the most powerful, yet most unknown, government agency in the State. Fortunately, she's a really smart, nice and a very accessible Lady. Below is her op-ed in the San Bernardino County Sun:

State should not end teacher tax credit

Michelle Steel

San Bernardino County Sun

Article Launched:07/27/2007 12:00:00 AM PDT

http://www.sbsun.com/pointofview/ci_6474878

School's out for summer, but it's no reason for San Bernardino County teachers to spend time at the beach. If the state Assembly gets its way, local teachers could arrive at classrooms this fall without the benefit of an important tax credit. In a rush to make their summer recess, the Assembly has approved a state budget that permanently eliminates California's Teacher's Tax Credit.

Since its creation, the Teacher's Tax Credit has provided over half a billion dollars in tax relief for California's teachers. Qualifying K-12 teachers receive anywhere from $250 to $1,500 in tax relief for their out-of-pocket expenses. In 2003, the last state budget to fund the tax credit, over 200,000 teachers received an average of $748 in tax relief.

The state Senate, which has stalled passage of the Assembly's version of the budget, should refuse to pass any budget that permanently repeals this vital tax credit. Republican state Senators, all of whom publicly signed Americans for Tax Reform's Taxpayer Protection Pledge, especially, have motivation to oppose this blatant tax increase.

In 2000, the Legislature created the tax credit to combat two common problems plaguing teachers: high out-of-pocket classroom expenses and terrible teacher retention rates. By the time the state's education dollars trickle down to the classroom, very little money is left over for common classroom supplies. California's selfless teachers invariably supplement their classroom budgets with personal funds. According to the National School Supply and Equipment Association, teachers nationwide spend an average of $1,752 in out-of-pocket expenses for classroom supplies and instructional materials.

However, the second objective - teacher retention - has drawn criticism from the Legislative Analyst's Office, the state's nonpartisan budget analyst. Earlier this year, the LAO released a report claiming that the tax credit has had little to no effect on keeping teachers from leaving the education profession. This criticism has fueled the covert move to eliminate this tax credit.

Although the LAO's criticisms are not without merit, it is difficult to assess the tax credit's effectiveness when considering the Legislature's inconsistent application of the tax credit. In four of the past six years, California has repealed the tax credit to help balance the state budget. How can a tax incentive encourage teachers to remain in academia when the Legislature has suspended the tax credit more times than it has granted it?

Admittedly, there are flaws with the current administration of the Teacher's Tax Credit. For example, new teachers, those with less than four years experience in the profession, are ineligible for the tax credit. New teachers arguably incur more expenses than experienced teachers, who already have previous year's supplies and instructional materials.

The California Federation of Teachers estimates that half of new teachers do not make it past their fifth year teaching. Consequently, almost half of all teachers never see the tax credit. Such flaws are reasons to amend, not end, the tax credit. The Legislature would be wise to spend its time improving the Teacher's Tax Credit, instead of cutting the tax credit altogether just to make their summer vacations.

Teachers should be reimbursed for their out-of-pocket classroom expenses, and tax credits give each teacher the greatest flexibility to decide the classroom supplies they need most. The state Legislature has the unenviable task of closing a $2 billion budget gap, but the $165 million Teacher's Tax Credit is only milk money out of the state's $140 billion budget.

Michelle Steel represents San Bernardino County on the state Board of Equalization, the country's only publicly elected tax board.

READ MORE - Teacher Tax Credit Going?

Free Lindsay...please!

Even though a State Agency was responsible...what was the
OC Board of Supervisors doing when it should have be looking
where our "Identity Theft Sensitive" (from traffic tickets)
was winding up? If it was Bangalore.....the chances may have
been less...that they could sell the info out the back door.
Hey, it's a world economy...every Russian Mobster knows your
Social Security number and mother's maiden name. As Tony
Soprano might say: "Wha'daya goin do?"

Ok....this isn't about that issue however...it's about the
great demise of the younger generation. We just went to the
beach movie at the Balboa Pier last night and saw a movie
with Surf Legend Kelly Slater....along with two shorts, one
on skateboarding and one one the hot new surfers that Quicksilver
has on it's payroll. The event included Sponsorship by Citi Bank,
Quicksilver and the Balboa Performing Arts Foundation. They had
the typical promotions with some good mini-burgers and tri-tip
beef sandwiches. Plenty of local families and kids. They had
a drawing for a variety of skateboards, backpacks and even a
surfboard. The people were a real cross section of our community
and that part was fun. What wasn't so fun...was the Mach 10 volume
on the speaker system....which had to cause brain damage for kids
under five. What wasn't so fun...were the self promoting types
of new surfers on the radar. The obvious drug references. The self
promoting, self absorbed and self described.......all not very
attractive to those of us that grew up in a sport that was bigger
than any individual player.

Why the long warm up...on why Lindsay Lohan needs to be let go Free?
Well, sadly Lindsay is not alone. Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Britney
Spears and Christina Aguilera....all seem to be suffering from
similar maladies. Michael Vick, Barry Bonds, NBA Referee Tim Donaghy
and the entire Tour de France bicycle competition......all seem to
be victims of poor judgement, inappropriate behavior or simply a lot
of bad luck. Let's forget the Kobe Bryant problem in Colorado, thank
goodness that one has dried up. Could we talk about the photos of
Princess Diana...as she died in the tunnel in Paris? Are we off the
subject? No, we are talking about money, celebrity, money and more
money. We are talking about bad conduct by a complete generation of
those who seem to know "NO Propriety!"

So, what can be done? Rehab housing required for every potential
celebrity on earth? Legalized drugs for every rich celebrity on earth?
Drivers License revocation for every celebrity on earth? New rules
for any celebrity: A driver and a limo is required!

Let's look at Lindsay's problem in a little more detail. Her dad just
got out of jail, her mom wants season tickets to the Playboy Mansion
and Lindsay just got out of a ten day rehab stint. Immediately, she
gets drunk on her butt, fires or abuses an assistant, chases the
assistants mom in her SUV..and gets immediately busted by the LAPD.
Was this a set up? Kind of reminds you of the Sonny Corelone scene
at the Toll Booth in Godfather I.

Who is to know? Should we just incarcerate every celebrity just
because they are celebrities and are seen in personality magazines?
What could be next? Politicians, Candidates for Office, or major
CEO's...next? Paparazzi seem to be the only ones making any money
in publishing in this day and age. They constantly drive their
efforts with scandal, intimidation and innuendo! If it doesn't
care a stir....no money! We feel sorry for Lindsay...because she
is probably "chemically dependent", "psychologically dependent" and
under a lot of pressure....to constantly perform. Lindsay is 21
years of age. She probably doesn't even surf. Let's give Lindsay
a pass "this time". Take her drivers license for next three years
and call it a day! Free Lindsay...she is too cute!

READ MORE - Free Lindsay...please!

Congressman John Campbell Events

Coming up in August are a couple of events with Newport's (actually Irvine's) own Congressman John Campbell. While Huntington Beach's (and Newport's before redistricting) Congressman Dana Rohrabacher has been making news, Congressman Campbell has been quietly making a name for himself as a champion for fiscal responsibility (would you have thought different about this former CPA?). Anyway, hear what he has to say. If you click on the picture above you'll get a larger, and readable, version. The following came over the email:

Please join Congressman John Campbell at one of two events in the Los Angeles and Orange County areas. August 14th at the Regency Club. August 15th at the Balboa Bay Club (Please note that the 5:00 pm start time is a half an hour earlier than on the original invitation). John Fund and Representative Campbell will discuss current political and legislative issues followed by a question and answer session. As with the other Congressional Club events, there will also be plenty of good food, drink, and socializing with friends. Attached to this email is a letter and invitation to the events. Many of you may have already received this invitation via fax or snail mail. If you have already RSVP'd please disregard this email. If you cannot open the attachments, please call 949-232-8882 for more information: If you have any questions, please contact me at the following: J. Allen Pitkin Political Director Congressman John Campbell 8105 Irvine Center Drive Irvine, CA 92618 Phone: 949-232-8882 Fax: 929-271-2110 Email jpitkin@jpitkin.com

READ MORE - Congressman John Campbell Events

B-watch & Komen-watch

B-watch
Our friend B spent last night on the floor next to his bed. His helper didn't show up last night and his cell phone was downstairs. The helper showed up this morning and got him dressed and into his scooter. B called me to come and plug in his new scooter. It took both of us about 20 minutes to figure out where on the scooter you plug in the plug-thing. I couldn't read the info booklet without my reading glasses, and B said it didn't tell you where the cord went. But as I said, finally we prevailed. You'd think that a manufacturer of scooters for disabled people would have a special easy way to recharge the battery of the thing.
B is advertising for a new helper. If anyone knows a reliable person who can dress and undress someone with MS, as well as do very light housekeeping, and, if possible, light clerical duties, let me know (in comments section). It would help if the person lived nearby--Lakeview or Uptown.


Komen-watch
Our friend S went out with Nancy Brinker when she was just a Homecoming Queen runner-up from Peoria. Now she's a Dallas socialite and founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, named for her dead sister. In today's post, Capitol Fax talks about Komen and contributions. You see how important apostrophes are when you read the last sentence. Does he mean politician's or politicians' cash?
Reports Rich Miller of Capitol Fax:

"Only days after Antoin 'Tony' Rezko was indicted on federal corruption charges last fall,[Illinois] Gov. Rod Blagojevich's campaign moved quickly to try to limit the fallout and gave to charity political donations directly linked to one of the governor's former top advisers and fundraisers.But one charity eventually turned down the tainted money and sent the Blagojevich campaign a check back in March for $44,846.03, according to state-mandated campaign disclosure reports the governor recently filed.Officials for the Texas-based Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, now known as Susan G. Komen for the Cure, said they returned the money because they do not accept political funds. [*]Despite the Komen foundation's explanation, state campaign disclosure records for the past seven years show the foundation and its Illinois affiliates previously accepted $2,110 in politician's cash, ranging from an ad in a program book to fundraising tickets to outright donations."

In other Komen news: Earlier this month, the Komen gave $2 million to oncologist Insoo Bae of the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center to continue to study the the interaction between environmental carcinogens and genetic risk for breast cancer. The Lombardi Center reports that Bae is looking at the way genes and environment combine to cause cancer. Specifically: "Bae will examine a range of environmental carcinogens – such as cigarette smoke, alcohol, and dietary factors – to identify those agents that increase the probability that BRCA1 defective cells will become cancerous." Komen needs to keep going after the causes of cancer, and spend less time and money tying pink ribbons around everything that breathes and everything that doesn't. The Bae research is good news for us Ashkenazim, those mostly likely to have a BRCA1 or 2 mutation in our genes. As for me, I'm waiting to hear from the jolly genetic counselors about what my blood sample revealed. According to them, I have an 18 percent chance of having a BRCA gene defect. I probably don't. It would be nice if I didn't. About 90 percent of Jews in the U.S. are Ashkenazi, from West, Central and East European countries. The rest are Sephardic, from Mediterranean and Arab countries. They're more likely to have mothers who belly-dance. We're the ones whose grandmothers spoke Yiddish. Yeah, yeah, I know that your German-Jewish grandmother quoted Goethe and didn't know from Yiddish. I'm speaking in general.

READ MORE - B-watch & Komen-watch

More low cost housing for Newport Beach - Follow Up

I wanted to elaborate some more on Ron & Anna Winship's very informative post on the Southern California Association of Governments and what they are "suggesting" to Cities in the terms of low income housing by 2014. The LA Times picked up what is required out of Irvine, a staggering 35,660 very low to above moderate income households. My first question is why constitutes very low income and what constitutes moderate income households? Especially in Newport Beach, where those terms have a completely different meaning than, let's say, Apple Valley.

Anyway, for those curious, that same report says that Newport Beach will "need" 1784 (good thing we got West Santa Ana Heights and will get Banning Ranch...) more very low to above moderate income households by 2014. Costa Mesa "needs" 1682, Huntington Beach 2092. I'm not sure about what will happen if Newport, or Irvine, doesn't hit their numbers and if they have a sliding scale of income levels. Here's the report for those who are bored and are fond of looking at numbers.

But at least this is much more interesting than this. In regards to the City Hall, the Newport Beach City Council has no teeth in this issue, especially if the initiative process is successful and it goes to the ballot.

READ MORE - More low cost housing for Newport Beach - Follow Up

More low cost housing for Newport Beach!

Today's LA Times California Section yielded a wonder
and revelation for those of us not paying too much
attention to Government intervention in our lives.

The article: "Irvine is told it must add 35,600 homes"
by Tony Barboza relates the "Quotas assigned to various
cities throughout the State of California." It seems
that every 5 to 7 years the State Dept. of Housing and
Community Development establishes what is the the Regional
Housing Needs Assessment. First off, who are these people
and how did they get into our rec room? What they are
saying is that of the 700,000 new slated homes for California
40 percent need to be designated for low-income or very
low income families. What might those families make a
year? $25,000 to $40,000 dollars for a family of five?

Demanding another 35,600 homes means another 100,000 people
and all that goes with it. Probably should be a local
decision rather than mandated by the State! Check with
SCAG and see what your municipality will have to come with.
The Five Year State Plan.....hmmm..didn't they have that
in the USSR back in the 60's?

Irvine responded to this demand by saying that they will
need an additional 1100 acres of land to implement this
plan. What is hilarious is the tremendous demand it will
create on the environment. Traffic, pollution and quality
of life infrastructure requirements. Who are these idiots
from the State? They use their power to empower the SCAG
people. The SCAG group is part of 187 Cities in California
packed with Developer types..that have never seen "a growth
curve" that they didn't just love.

The Southern California Association of Governments used to
be this very parochial group that basically got together to
ask various cities if they wanted to Annex this or that and
tried to settle local border disputes about infrastructure
and utility issues. What happened? Seems there is a new
Sheriff in town....and they are carrying a double barrel
shotgun and holding to the head of various cities they might
want to challenge their basic assumptions.

Luckily for Irvine, they have a Great Park! So, is the concept
to put those 35,600 new homes right there by 2014? Hey, it's
oh so very convenient. What about Santa Ana, Mission Viejo,
Lake Forest, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach? Hmmmm, better get
ready for a little redevelopment exercise...ya think? Hey,
the State has needs!!

What has us flummoxed is the fact that the State has no qualms
about demanding population impacts to our local communities....
(What happened to Home Rule?) ... yet refuses to give us our
equitable and fair share of what we deliver to the State in
annual Transportation Funds! Who made them God is another
visceral reaction? We didn't realize that the Soviet model of
State planning had been implemented in the State of California.
Well, until these State Agencies return to "making suggestions"
rather than demanding and implementing punitive responses to
the local NIMBY's.....it might be wise to contact your local
Assembly and State Senator person...with your comments!

READ MORE - More low cost housing for Newport Beach!

DeVore in Human Events: Nuclear vs. the alternatives in California

Got this from Assemblyman Chuck DeVore's email list, also taken from Conservative icon, Human Events.com

It's a bit long, but it's worth it.

Electricity Showdown in California

by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore

Posted: 07/24/2007

California passed two major greenhouse gas laws last year. One mandates reducing CO2 emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 -- perhaps as much as a 40% cut. The other prohibits the renewal of electricity contracts from traditional coal-fired plants. Together, these laws threaten to increase the cost of all forms of energy, making the Golden State less competitive and throwing thousands of Californians out of work.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

The electrical sector can lead the way, if it is allowed to. We have at hand the technology needed to reduce the power industry’s share of the approximately 20% of CO2- equivalent emissions it produces in California. This can be done while also asking electricity to shoulder the burden for much of the CO2 emitted by the transportation sector through expanded use of electric cars, buses and trains and with hydrogen.

The solution is simple: Expand the use of nuclear power in California by lifting the state’s 31-year effective ban on the construction of new, safe, clean and reliable nuclear power plants.

California gets 13% of its power from nuclear energy today. But calculating CO2 emissions on a lifecycle basis, accounting for fuel mining and processing, plant construction, operation and decommissioning, nuclear power only contributes 0.5% of the electrical sector’s greenhouse gases. In contrast, the 16% of power California gets from coal contributes 36% of its greenhouse gases from electricity while the 42% of power from natural gas contributes 53% of greenhouse gases.

Natural gas has the added problem of having to be imported from other states and from overseas -- the latter from nations that do not much like America. Further, California’s environmental lobby has effectively blocked the approval of the coastal liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals needed to meet increased demand. The looming natural gas shortage will soon hit working-class Californians in the pocketbook.

California’s electrical industry is laced with myriad laws and regulations -- many of them working at cross purposes. For example, the California grid has three main mandates: reliability, affordability and to derive 20% of its power from “renewables” by 2017. Pick any two.

Wind power is cheap, but especially capricious in California’s rugged terrain and varied climate. Wind turbines spinning like mad during a cool summer’s night do little for California’s electricity needs while motionless turbine blades on a hot day require the firing up of massive natural gas “peaker” plants that make up for the lack of wind power at a huge cost in fuel and CO2 emissions. And for all of wind’s supposed “green” advantages, it takes about 10 times the steel and cement for wind to produce the equivalent amount of power as nuclear does 24/7, even on a calm day.

Solar power, in any form, is costly and eats up large amounts of real estate. Solar photovoltaics (PV) use toxic materials and wear out after about 20 years -- well before any rooftop investor would recover his financial cost. Solar is useful for providing peaking power on a hot summer day and, as such, can replace to a certain degree “peaker” natural gas plants. Because all of those mirrors and panels are energy-intensive to produce and labor intensive to maintain, solar’s lifecycle CO2 emissions, while about a quarter that of natural gas, are still triple that of wind and almost eight times that of nuclear. For a number of economic reasons, the amount of solar power pouring into California’s grid has actually declined by 29% in the past four years, from 0.3% of the total in 2002 to 0.2% in 2006.
Geothermal power contributes almost 5% of California’s power, down slightly in real terms from four years ago. For a variety of environmental and policy reasons, geothermal has not taken off as a major renewable power source.
Biomass generation has been flat, hampered, in part, by the state’s stringent air quality rules and environmental restrictions on clearing fuel wood from forests.

Small hydroelectric plants are somehow defined as “renewable” while large dams are not. Whether or not the fish can tell the difference, California regulators remain hostile to both. Small hydro contributes only 2% to the grid. Further, recent studies have cast doubt on the CO2 emissions savings from hydro power anyway, as dams displace trees which impound CO2 while the rotting vegetation behind dams releases large amounts of methane and CO2. To add additional environmental insult to injury, dams use up large amounts of cement, a major CO2 culprit.
Assuming no increase in the use of nuclear power, California could reach its 20% “renewables” mandate by 2017 while cutting coal use almost in half. This scenario would see power costs increase by almost 60% and would still fall more than 47 million metric tons of lifecycle CO2 emissions short of compliance with California’s aggressive greenhouse gas reduction goals—in fact, greenhouse gas emissions from electrical generation would actually have to increase 6% to meet California’s growing needs.

Alternatively, California could lift its 1976 ban on the construction of new nuclear power plants, as proposed in the initiative for the June 2008 ballot filed last week with the attorney general’s office titled the “California Energy Independence and Zero Carbon Dioxide Emission Electrical Generation Act of 2008." By building just four 1,600-megawatt nuclear reactors, California could phase out all coal usage by 2020 while holding flat the use of costly natural gas to turn power generators. Just this one change in California policy would allow the electrical sector to reach its carbon footprint goals. Power costs would still increase about 50%, 10% less than in the zero-nuclear growth scenario, due mainly to increased costs for natural gas and greater reliance on costly solar power as part of the 20% “renewables” mandate.

Really thinking out of the box, if California were to add eight 1,600-megawatt nuclear reactors, we could zero-out coal, cut our natural gas usage by more than a third, reduce greenhouse gas emissions by more than 27 million metric tons below 1990 levels and see electrical costs rise by less than half of what they would without any new nuclear power plants. This bold plan would allow California to lead the nation in electrifying its transportation system as well as increasing its use of clean, electrically produced hydrogen to power vehicles. It also reduces our dependence on fossil fuels imported from the Middle East.

Arrayed against this plan are the usual forces of fear and uninformed dread. Some have already cited the recent earthquake damage of a nuclear power plant in Japan as a reason not to increase the use of nuclear power in California. The ballot initiative has seismic safety land use guidelines that aim to prevent what happened at an old Japanese nuclear facility. Even so, the level of radioactivity that leaked into the Sea of Japan was equivalent to that naturally occurring in a dozen people -- far, far less than the radioactivity in one wind turbine pylon.

Mr. DeVore (R.-Irvine) represents 450,000 people in coastal Orange County's 70th Assembly District. He also serves as a lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard.

READ MORE - DeVore in Human Events: Nuclear vs. the alternatives in California

The Million-Dollar Brazilian

Well, first of all, it's probably not a million dollars. It's probably going to add up to $100,000, billed to insurance. But the "hundred-thousand-dollar Brazilian" just doesn't cut it. Doesn't begin to conjure up that sexy gal from Ipanema. What I'm talking about, you've probably guessed, is the outrageous and barbaric practice of paying someone to apply hot wax to your pubic hair and rip it out. I don't know anybody who's had this done. Or rather, nobody's told me she's had this done. Probably I know lots of women, young women, very young women, who have undergone this procedure. I just haven't seen the evidence. According to an Esquire-Marie Claire survey last fall, 66 percent of women in their 20s have their pubic hair trimmed or waxed, and 18 percent keep it bare. Half of women in their 40s have their hair trimmed or waxed, and only 5 percent have it bare. Or clean, as some put it. A Brazilian, according to articles I've read, is either having every bit of hair yanked out, or leaving a "landing strip" or "Hitler's mustache." The practice is outlawed in the UK, which seems wise--so that a celebrity I've never heard of, who's the widow of someone else I've never heard of, jets to J. Sisters International Salon in New York to be waxed by one of the seven Brazilian sisters who should have been arrested at the border for importing this practice.

I subscribed to Esquire for the same reason I subscribed to Shape--because it was free, offered by Delta Airlines because the corporation didn't want me to cash in my points. In Shape I read a full-page ad I didn't quite understand, but slowly figured out was for a product that allowed you to wax your pubic hair in various shapes. The question is: Why? Beyond a passing attack of whimsy? Apparently, Shape readers are used to waxing themselves and it didn't have to be spelled out. According to Naomi Wolf, men want women to be bare because they want their sex partners to look like porn stars.

Cancer Bitch has never waxed anything, including floors and furniture, though in her youth she bleached her mustache and arm hairs. Now she doesn't have to because Adriamycin and Taxol have left her hair-depleted. She has two half-eyebrows, just a little hair left on her shins, and a threadbare little nest above her crotch. How can I say this delicately? There's a slit underneath the nest. It reminds her of the profile of a crocodile. The slit was covered for years and she forgot it was there. Forgot that her self was shaped like that, in front. In fact, Cancer Bitch saw a painting in the Ufizzi Gallery that showed just such a slit and she thought the painter had erred. She's surprised to see herself like this in the mirror. Her skin feels soft, very soft, velvety in fact, but all wrong.

Cancer Bitch has wanted to discuss this topic for a while, but has been afraid. She is afraid of attracting pornsters to this site. Also, she is non-tenured and non-tenure-track. About 15 years ago a colleague, who was an inspiration to the rest of us adjuncts because he had finagled a year-long contract that included health insurance, lost it all with just a few words. He appeared on TV with his girlfriend, either naked or having sex or both. It was part of an interview, in which he mentioned, unfortunately, where he taught. Alumni from the department were upset and made it known. And soon there was no more lucky colleague with a contract and health insurance at Well-Regarded University. There were few traces of him, either, except here and there when cleaning out a file drawer, we'd come across a suburban phone directory with his name on it.

My insurance comes from L, not the university. But I'm afraid that the president of WRU will read this...and what? Is Cancer Bitch puffed up with her own importance? She's insulting the president by imagining him to be narrow-minded. He has a contract. She doesn't. And that makes her nervous. But this is why the second wave of feminists fought, so that in the early 21st century, a Cancer Bitch could write about her loss of pubic hair with impunity.

READ MORE - The Million-Dollar Brazilian

The Newport OC?

Now Newport Beach's Newport Harbor High School can join the ranks of the National Rich and Shameless. "Newport Harbor: The Real Orange County," will premiere on MTV at 10:30 p.m. Aug. 15 with a cast from Newport Harbor High School. I guess this has been in the hopper for a while now...

I'm glad that I'm out of touch with this type of pop culture. Can't wait for Newport Beach to get misrepresented to the rest of the country.

Update - Look, I guess I must have skipped right over the OC Register's coverage...I must be slipping...

I can't wait for the Daily Pilot's round the clock coverage on this. Can't wait.

Update #2 - A day later...here's Newport's own "Bible's" coverage.

READ MORE - The Newport OC?

Don't Do It Yourself or Trayf Sabbath

I've been eating high protein, low fat and have been cooking fish and chicken at home. I was tired to salmon (after having had it twice in a week) and rode my bike to the Food Hole to get some shrimp. That's the only other kind of seafood I know I like. I don't know fish very well. I was allergic as a child, and vegetarian in my crucial learning-to-cook days. At the fish counter I went for the wild-caught shrimp, the smaller, unshelled ones. I brought them home and deveined (a euphemism for pulling the guts out) and shelled (or de-shelled) them. I was grossed out to be dealing with the raw flesh and kept thinking of how my father, who kept kosher, used to shudder when he saw shrimp and say they looked like worms. They do. At the same time I had an atavistic urge tear into them raw. I didn't. This explains the appeal of sushi. I boiled the shrimp and mixed them with organic cucumber in a soy-ginger-garlic sauce. Household hint from my friend D: Peel a ginger root and cut it into chunks and store in refrigerator a jar filled with sherry. They'll last a long time. The shrimp were OK. The cucumbers absorbed too much of the marinade, and the shrimp, too little. The kitchen smelled very very fishy and I was in a hurry and just did a basic, or un-basic clean-up. I had told my friend B I would come by after 8 to go to the Printers' Ball, the third annual festival of literary magazines sponsored by the Poetry Foundation. It was at the Zhou B. Art Center at 1029 W. 35th St., and it seemed like the best way to get there was to take the Halsted bus all the way down. B is in a wheelchair and it's too hard for one person (especially one with cancer) to help him with the transfer from chair to car to chair to car to chair.

We ended up waiting almost an hour for the bus. We were joined temporarily by a tanned woman with scars on her nose who was 58, same age as B, and was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt commemorating a sorority pledge week, in which I doubt she took part. At first I thought she was drunk but she might have just been friendly and slightly out of it. She seemed like an addict of some kind. She had been given a CTA pass at Thorek Hospital and was going to Diversey, which is just a mile south. She had been married 25 years (as had B) but her spouse died three years ago of lung cancer. He smoked Virginia Slims for 40 years, she said. B still has his wife. She's in Mexico at the moment.

Finally the bus came and it wended it slow way down to 35th Street, the middle of Bridgeport, heavy Daley territory, though Daley the Younger now lives in the South Loop. Young people holding magazines were coming toward us. It seemed like a miniature city, with short buildings. A bank, auto-supply and repair stores, a hot dog place that looked straight of out Central Casting for Small Town 1954 with its hand-painted signs. There were guys carding people at the door, though the Ball had been billed as an all-ages party. We went around back to the ramp. Inside there were tables with what was left of stacks of free magazines. On the wall were the Zhou Brothers' paintings though I didn't get much of a chance to look at them because I was intent on using the bathroom. There was just one in the bar/cafe. I talked to a young woman waiting and at one point she put her hand over her mouth. Did that mean I had fishy-garlic breath? Maybe. (L later told me about an experience he had Friday afternoon on the L. He was sitting next to a woman and saw that she had her sweatshirt held up to her nose. As soon as a seat was available across the aisle, she ran to it and lowered her shirt from her face. He smelled around and smelled himself and came up with nothing. We think it might have been garlic. Once after I'd eaten a lot of garlic we went to the Art Institute for a crowded show and heard a nearby little girl ask her mother, What's garlic? We assume it was what was on pre-Cancer Bitch's breath.)

I went back out the main room and a young man at the mike was saying that everyone had to leave. He said the police wouldn't say why. I found B at the bar and there was a stout blonde cop yelling at everyone, You have to leave, you have to leave. A kid at the bar said to her: Charge card. She said: What? He said: I'm waiting for them to process my charge card. She yelled at him for being so cryptic. No one knew what was going on. It was supposed to last until 2 and it was only 11 or so. As we went back down the ramp, a cop told us there was a minor infraction having to do with the number of people. This made no sense to me. There was plenty of room to move around (87,000 square feet), and the cops were the ones at the door. Didn't they count the number of people coming in? I went to the first Printers' Ball at the Hot House, and someone was keeping count of the crowd, because people were lined up on the street, and were being let in only as others left. C.J. Laity of ChicagoPoetry.com opines about the early closing: "Chicago's finest, what the hell is your problem? Go find some real criminals to torture; and let a few people have some fun once in a while." A more measured report can be found at Chicagoist, which quotes others saying there were "multiple liquor license violations."

The north-bound Halsted bus was right there waiting for us and we had a relatively quick ride home. B had called the helper who normally comes at 10:30 or so get him into bed and told her not to come then. He'd left a message for her to come later, but didn't hear back. So I helped him off with his pants and shirt and socks and helped slide him into bed with a special polished sliding board. It took a while.

I got home around 1. L had cleaned up the kitchen because he couldn't stand the smell. I began to understand the suburban legend about the woman whose husband left her. He got to keep the house, and her last night in it she cooks shrimp, stuffing the shells inside the curtain rods. He can never sell the house because of the terrible smell whose source is never found.

This morning I watched a video on-line about shelling and deveining, and learned that the way I'd done it was correct. Some people say you don't have to devein small shrimp, but I think that even when boiled, shrimp guts are not good for people going through chemo. I spent a very long time with the rest of the shrimp, boiling them then shelling and deveining. It's less slimy and smelling to cook them first. Then I mixed them with more cucumber and marinade. It's not worth it: Buy the shelled and deveined.

I feel slightly achy (This spelling looks strange because I have a friend named Achy, pronounced "ach-y," not "aky") and tired because I couldn't sleep this morning, but nothing like the last two Day 5s after Taxol. Is it the Vitamin B? Yesterday's acetaminophen? Or, as the doctors say, just one of those things?

READ MORE - Don't Do It Yourself or Trayf Sabbath

More Moorlach Updates

Wow, I'm really impressed with the OC Register's Peggy Lowe as she just keeps the updates coming. I tried to just keep updating my original post, but am giving up.

Taken from the OC Register's Total Buzz are Supervisor John Moorlach's memo to the County Supervisors outlining his plan. And here is the Californians for Health Care & Retirement Security's response. No word from the OC Labor Union heads yet.

I'm sure they'll be more to follow...

Update - And here's a response from the interim general manager of the deputy sheriffs union, again, taken from Peggy Lowe at the OC Register's Total Buzz.

Update #2 - Straight from Supervisor John Moorlach's mouth (courtesy of the Flash Report) is this along with this Video (courtesy of OCBlog.net)

READ MORE - More Moorlach Updates

Mo Money

What's the difference between paying off $55 million versus $65 million over 30 years at 7-10% interest?

I don't think it matters...the City of Newport Beach will go into major debt to pay off a City Hall, which it is safe to say, a huge majority of its residents will never set foot in and which will house even more City Employees (we all know that Newport Beach leads our neighboring Cities, including Democrat-led Irvine, in the Citizens to City Employees ratio) than we know what to do with.

Lose Lose Situation.

READ MORE - Mo Money

Shot Heard 'Round the County

Not it's not to the excitement level of Bobby Thomson's Home Run, nor is it like Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem, but County Supervisor John Moorlach's anticipated announcement overhauling the County of Orange's employees pension should truly start a war which will rattle the County of Orange and may trickle down into the County's cities. One of the things expected to be cut will be the infamous "3 percent at 50," a pension formula which also has begun to infect the City of Newport's public employee ranks. Supervisor Moorlach promised this action while the Treasurer/Tax Collector for the County and promised it during his Supervisorial campaign as part of his solution to get rid of the seemingly insurmountable County Employees Unfunded Pension Liability of over 2.3 billion bucks (in 2005). The County's Employee Union has been preparing for this battle for some time now, first funding a paper candidate against Moorlach during his campaign, then sending letters to then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Campbell, resulting in Moorlach calling the Union leaders thugs, which then started another battle of words.

This is very interesting in how it'll play out, whether the other County Supervisors will jump on board with Moorlach, or whether they will fear the Union enough to stay away. More interesting will be whether the "Republicans" on the Newport Beach City Council will take notice and start going after our own City Employee Unions and our own unfunded pension liabilities for our many, many City Employees

Update - Here's the OC Register's Total Buzz take on it with some more details.

Update #2 - Here's the OC Register's Total Buzz After-The-Press-Conference report.

Update #3 - And here's the OC Register's More-Comprehensive report...with pictures.

READ MORE - Shot Heard 'Round the County

Waiting for the Tsunami

This is Day 3 after chemo, so the side effects are due to kick in: depression/anxiety and bone pain. But they haven't. I slept a lot today because I was feeling run down. And then rode my bike and got some work done tonight. But. The side effects aren't here yet. I'm taking medicine for the neuropathy (finger and toe numbness) but nothing for the bone pain. But it's not here. I'm waiting.

I can't feel the cancer, so the chemo and side effects take the place of the cancer. But not yet.

READ MORE - Waiting for the Tsunami

Sen. Harman Perfect?

I'm very confused now...(which isn't too difficult to do)

Picked this up from OCBlog.net just now about Newport's (Actually Huntington Beach's) State Senator Tom Harman:

Senator Harman Earns A Perfect Conservative Score From Capitol Weekly

Sacramento - Senator Tom Harman (R—Huntington Beach) has earned a perfect “conservative” score from Capitol Weekly, a printed newspaper that is published every Thursday in Sacramento and widely read in and around the Capitol.

“I appreciate this recognition of my conservative stance on many of the key issues that came before the State Senate this year,” Harman remarked. “I remain committed to fighting for the values and principles that are important to constituents in the 35th District.”

In ranking the legislators, Capitol Weekly selected major bills that have been debated and voted on in the Legislature dealing with the environment, social issues, business and labor. Two major bills considered in determining their scorecard include Senate Bill 11, which would expand domestic partners’ benefits, and SB 840, which would mandate universal healthcare in California.

Senate Republican Leader, Dick Ackerman (R—Tustin) is the only other Senator who received a perfect conservative score of zero on the scorecard. Senator Carole Migden (D—San Francisco) was one of five senators to receive a perfect “liberal” score.

Now...The California Republican Assembly calls Senator Tom Harman a candidate for their Nanny of the Year. He attacks Republican candidates for President in the local press, has never won a Republican Primary (Open Primary for Assembly and Special Election for Senate) and now Capitol Weekly says he's the perfect Conservative while Senator Tom McClintock and Assemblymen Chuck DeVore (Who define Conservative thought to me) aren't?

It's been a long day, but this is bewildering to me.

Here's the OC Register's Steve Greenhut's take on this too.

READ MORE - Sen. Harman Perfect?

It's Getting Better All the Time...

...it can't get no worse...

Newport Beach has "grown" by 64 to 83 (depending on who's article you believe) acres, getting West Santa Ana Heights from The Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission yesterday. This essentially also, as Byron De Arakal says here, pushes Banning Ranch into Newport Beach's fold in the next year. Byron also succinctly details how Costa Mesa tried to negotiate Newport's annexation of West Santa Ana Heights into getting a piece of the 357 acre to 412 acre (again, depending on who's article) Banning Ranch from Newport Beach. For a minute, the County of Orange's Local Agency Formation Commission almost agreed, linking the two properties together, but Costa Mesa's "dream" unanimously ended yesterday by LAFCO, with discussion for the much bigger Banning Ranch continued for another 6 months. Newport Beach already plans for use of Banning Ranch in their new General Plan and calculated it's potential Traffic loads and parkland in it's future, so you know that Newport's City Council will by lobbying for it feverishly.

Oh, here's Geoff West's view on why Costa Mesa never had a chance on getting West Santa Ana Heights...

Riveting news...

READ MORE - It's Getting Better All the Time...

Moral & Ethical Responsibility!

Have we all been asleep at the wheel or did those
last episodes of the Soprano's take our eye off the
ball? We stand aside now as Barry Bonds looks to break
the famous 755 home run record of Hank Aaron. There
is a lot of conjecture about Steroids in Professional
sports. Today, it is fashionable to say: "What the heck?
Doesn't everyone take steroid's?" What about Lance
Armstrong..did he take steroids? What about Jason Giambi?
What about Mark McGuire? Heck, what about people that
we will never know about? Say: Johnny Carson, Dick
Cavett or Monty Hall? Conan O'Brien seems to have one
of the "Roid Rage personalities? Chris Benoit was one
of the top wrestlers in the World Wrestling Entertainment.
He may have killed his 7 year old son, his wife and then
himself. Will we ever know the reason? Was it in fact
made up to look like a suicide...when it was a murder
by organized crime?

Meanwhile, Michael Vick...the Quarterback for the Atlanta
Falcons has been indited on charges of running "Dog Fights"
on his Atlanta Farm. The stories of animal cruelty are
horrendous! It will be hard to believe that Vick never
knew about the activities there...but what about Marquis
Vick..his brother? What about his cousins and aunts and
uncles? What about his business manager? What about his
agent? What about members of the Atlanta Falcons football
team?

Then there is Senator David Vitter of Louisiana. He has
been engaging prostitutes since at least 2001. Hey, that
is six years! The good news is that his wife is standing
behind him! After all, she is a Senator's wife! She figures
if it was good enough for Hillary..it had to be good enough
for a Conservative Republican from the south. His phony
"I am really, really sorry!" routine....needs some further
acting essentials.

Then there is Henry Nicolas....Broadcom wonder boy! He has
billions probably....but he couldn't resist wanting to be
Hugh Hefner on Steroids! He spent $3 to $4 million dollars
on a underground grotto......for sex, drugs and rock'n'roll.
Cocaine, prostitutes from around the world and more Ecstasy
and modular drugs than a Colombian drug lord.

Then of course we have the case of the Congressman William
Jefferson...who salted away a cool $100,000 bucks in his
home freezer! He still refuses to mention where he got the
money from! He is under inditement for "bribes"!

The list seems to go on and on. Last but not least we
have the case of LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa! Here his
hypocrisy is showing. He ran on a "Family Man and Values"
ticket and all the while....had a babe in the bathtub.....
somewhere else. His choice in women is being challenged
because she dated CA Senate Speaker Fabian Nunez and a few
other Sacramento types before she tied up with Antonio!

So, what are we saying? Why are we forced to hear a constant
drone of ....."Everyone does this stuff!" Paris Hilton served
a few days in jail and then couldn't figure out what it all
meant...except that "I have changed and found God!" Paris
can't remember any Bible passages but God is probably forgiving
enough not to test her before accepting an apology. Could it
be that our forgiving society....has taken "forgiveness" to
the extreme. Husbands are killing their pregnant wives and
other wives are killing their husbands and children. Do the
news outlets force this down our throats? Do the news outlets
make us watch the trial of Phil Spector? When does too much
money and super kinky behavior finally make people stop and
say: "That's enough!"

When will the public, our citizens, our politicians and our
media....finally demand to get the hook on these creeps? We
have "gangsters" in the NFL that shoot people! We have
Sports Figures that need to set the standard for conduct...
not claim to be victims because they only have $130 million
dollars! When will we finally tell Pete Rose.....it doesn't
matter how many records you broke - you did it the wrong way.
That goes double for every other so called Sports hero that
gets caught with his hand in the HGH or Steroid bottle.
That goes double for every super rich person...that thinks
they can set their own rules of conduct. Hey, it doesn't
matter what someone does so much.....as it does when they
are caught....and then want to claim they are victims!

These people are NOT victims.....they are bully's...mean
spirited bullys...that need to be replaced..with kind and
caring people of the same status and strata! Some things
that people do...should not be forgiven....ever! They
should be remembered instead!

READ MORE - Moral & Ethical Responsibility!

Who's the Fool?

In my early morning news search, I came across this commentary in the Daily Pilot about why a light rail system (like the mess in Irvine described here and here and here and here) would be great for Newport Beach...and after laughing uncontrollably for 5 minutes and almost dropping my kid in the process, I paused and noticed who wrote it, Lenard Davis. In the past, I've been interested in what Mr. Davis has had to say in the Daily Pilot (here, here, and here) but this time he's way off base. Light rail is a "noble" idea as I've known many people living in very urban areas who don't have drivers licenses or cars because of public transportation, but even as Mr. Davis points out, we love our cars too much in Newport Beach. I think the statistic was that for our 80,000 plus residents, there are 100,000 plus registered vehicles in our city limits. But registered vehicles notwithstanding, it would cost way too much money, and we all know that Newport Beach would rather borrow money (at 7%-10% interest) to build a nice pretty White Elephant (City Hall).

So I thought that Mr. Davis was a fool for writing it.

The Daily Pilot were fools for publishing it.

But then...I wasted 20 minutes reading it (I read slowly and my comprehension is a bit lacking), spent 5 minutes laughing (laughing is never a waste of time especially when your son laughs with you), wasted 5 minutes researching and writing this (I type fast) and almost dropped my son...so...who's the fool now?

READ MORE - Who's the Fool?

Cancer & the Corporation

Just when you thought that breast cancer was the only cancer with corporate sponsorship with questionable motivation and focus--here comes a story from the New York Times on what happens when skin cancer joins with Neutrogena. I read it today in the Chicago Tribune, which cut the 1,200-word story in half. (See NYT story in Comments section.) Headline: "Doctors Balk at Cancer Ad, Citing Lack of Evidence." Neutrogena paid for a public service announcement on skin cancer, to run in 15 women's magazines this summer. The message: Use sunscreen and "if left unchecked, skin cancer can be fatal."

T'ain't that simple, say public-health doctors. Says one: "We have some pretty good evidence that sunscreen will reduce your risk of the less lethal forms of skin cancer. There's very little evidence that sunscreens protect you against melanoma"--which causes most skin cancer deaths. He adds that even though more more people are getting skin cancer screening, the incidence of melanoma has risen.

The American Cancer Society came up with the ad message and one ACS official says, "We've taken some license."

Neutrogena is a division of Johnson & Johnson, "whose sunscreens carry the society's logo," the Times points out.

Some of us are old enough to remember the Johnson & Johnson ads urging us to use baby oil to tan when we lay out in the sun. And that's what we did. But apparently we don't have to feel so guilty for it, because even if that practice makes us more vulnerable to skin cancer, it's not the kind we'll die from. So that's good news.

Meanwhile, Cancer Bitch slathers on sunscreen for reasons of vanity. She has light patches on her hands that don't tan. It's called vitiligo. And is the least of her problems. Still the patches show up more in summer (as the adjacent skin tans, despite the sunscreen).

READ MORE - Cancer & the Corporation

Chemo Day

Just another chemo day today, seventh in a series of eight. In two weeks it will be over, everyone says, except that's not exactly true. The chemo will be over then. Then I'll take pills for 10 years. The chemo itself isn't so bad. I mean it's not great fun to spend six hours at the hospital, even if it's Fancy, but there are worse things. Like four days later when the bone pain and depression/weeping sets in for the next three days. But I hope to stave that off with heavy drugs--Tylenol w/ codeine, generic Ativan, and if necessary, I'll dip into my little stash of generic Valium. I will report on the results here. I still have some numbness in my fingertips and toes, though it gets better (which is less) each day. Nurse L said I can increase my dosage of pink anti-numbness capsules from one a day to two.

My friend G picked me up and took me to chemo. We got there about 20 minutes early and had to wait. The women who take blood from my port are always very nice and cheery and motherly. It doesn't hurt very much--and I think I have a low tolerance for pain. They spray "cold spray" on the site where the port is buried (upper right chest) to numb the skin. If any of you are considering getting cancer and having chemo, I would recommend having a port inserted into your body, even though it feels alien the first week or so and fills you with regrets. But the alien feeling does fall away. And now je ne regrette rien. At least about the port.

G had to leave at 3:30 and passed the baton to L. We watched part of Nicholas Nickleby from the selection of DVDs and video cassettes in the chemo ward. Nurse L brought them to us in what reminded me of a little red wagon. The movie was rather melodramatic, with good as Good and evil as Evil, so when the Taxol was finished being dripped into me, we decided it was not necessary to stay around and see the rest of it.

At one point I asked L to get me a blanket because I was cold, but by the time he found one, I'd had a hot flash and was sweating. As I told Nurse L, the hot flashes are the least of my problems. Feeling the void in the world is the worst, followed closely by bone pain and then weeping mixed with irritability.

I was very tired and so was L. We took the bus home. I sat next to an older woman with dyed brown-red hair who goes to Thailand once a year. On the other side was a Buddhist or Buddhist-file. The older woman's cat escaped yesterday and she was upset about it. At least he had claws so wouldn't be defenseless in the world. He doesn't have a tag, though, or a computer chip in his ear, so he'll have to find his way home himself. She put up Lost flyers but the rain wrecked them. She and the other woman talked about shih tzus and one of them said they were originally ratters in China. Didn't the Chinese have cats? I asked. I don't know, the Thailand traveler said, maybe they ate them.

L and I tried to figure out why people are more apt to talk to one another on buses than on L trains. Because buses are more contained, are more like a passenger car, are quieter? We don't know.

We had a very nice dinner at home: broiled salmon with garlic and paprika, steamed cauliflower mixed with curry paste and lemon juice and sauteed onions and garlic, and a little steamed kale. We didn't take a picture of our meal, as our cancer cousins in Marin do. But we could have. We have very nice plates in two patterns. Salmon has omega-3, which is supposed to help combat chemo brain. It's hard to figure out what's chemo brain and what's middle-age word-retrieval slowdown. G is on a committee to plan an international writing festival. I was suggesting she recommend ----Umberto? Humberto, the Uraguyan who wrote Voices of Time and was a big hit when he spoke at the Museum of Contemporary Art here. About 15 minutes later the name came to me: Eduardo Galeano. I don't know where Umberto came from. I also thought of the Polish-born French writer Agnes ____ . At home I found her trilogy: Le Grand Cahier, La Preuve and Le Troisieme Mensonge. Her name is Agota Kristof . I was close, but no cigar: she was born in Hungary and lives in Switzerland. I discovered her work when I asked a friend who teaches French to recommend of a book that wasn't too difficult. The three novels are simple but stunning in their depth and darkness, and twisty at the end.

Yesterday my friend J from Ohio was in town and we had brunch with her hosted by the rabbi (and his wife, who was the chef) who married us as well as J and her husband M. J graciously decorated my scrubbed and shaved head with curlicues, filigree, tiny peace signs and grape leaves and an easy-to-read U.S. out of Iraq in back. My head was quite the hit in Chemolandia today. J is a professional artist and did a lovely job. Most of it is henna, which is a greenish paste that dries black and eventually peels or falls off to reveal red-brown underneath. I try to keep the dark on as long as possible but it's so tempting to peel and pick. It's like fifth grade when everyone was pouring glue on her/his (mostly her) palms and pulling off the dried "skin." It's as satisfying as stomping on plastic bubble wrap. Not everybody appreciates that pleasant activity. Which is too bad.

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Yoga

Last Friday at yoga I was depressed and somewhat weepy. We often do partner work and that day we paired up to help one another do dancer's pose. It's what it sounds like: you do an arabesque arching your back and holding the foot that's behind you as you keep pushing it back. Here's what I mean. The help was to critique your partner's form. My partner was one of The Twins in the Back. The Twins are girls who look about 20 and have dark, wavy hair. Usually they partner with one another. You can't blame them; they're perfectly matched by height and weight. Lately they've come with a third girl who's shorter. I'd said hello to them but never talked to them before. They always stay on the back row, in a corner. This time only one of them was in class. She asked me about my head tattoo and I told her I was going through chemo. She said that she went through chemo "in my country." She's from Peru, it turns out, and she was diagnosed with lymphoma at 14. She was in the hospital once for two months. Overall, she had chemo and radiation for two years. It was in Lima, and she lived about a mile from the hospital. She said her family was really close, that there are four girls. She also said it was very hard to lose her hair at 14. It makes you stronger, she said. She was reassuring because I think she could tell I wasn't having a good day, to say the least.

Today in class all three were there, and all in the back. I did partner work with my friend G. I wanted to at least catch the eye of the twin I talked to last week. But I couldn't tell which twin she was.

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The Wild Girls of Genetic Counseling

Today I went to the Cancer Genetics Program at Fancy Hospital to start finding out if I have either of the BRCA gene mutations, more common among us Ashkenazim than the general population. The mutations increase a person's risk for both breast and ovarian cancer. If I have the mutation, I'll send my right ovary into storage. (The left has already gone to its final reward.) I was the only patient in the office, which just had three chairs in the waiting room. It was so odd and quiet compared to the vast waiting area of Chemolandia. A chirpy intern had interviewed me on the phone already to gather all the information about cancer in the family. (Yes, we have cancer, we have many kinds of cancer: colon, endometrial, breast, stomach, lung, skin, parotid gland. Not to mention leukemia and Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia.) The intern came out to get me and I joined her and the genetic counselor, who was tall and blond and said, Someone's been writing on your head. The intern explained everything to me via diagrams in a book. She did a good job. Based on my family history, I have an 18 percent chance of having a BRCA mutation. I decided I wanted the blood test for it, and I also agreed to participate in some research, so four tubes of my blood were collected.

The blonde measured my head to see if it was big. It's not. It's normal. I always thought it was big, but that's because of the bulkiness of my former hair. There's a rare syndrome, Cowden, which is caused by a genetic mutation and makes you more likely to develop breast, thyroid, uterine and maybe colon cancer. I may be tested for that mutation, too. Besides a big head, other symptoms of Cowden syndrome are awkward gait, skin tags and bumps, what sounded like "hammertoes" in your colon, and lipomas. I've had a couple of random bumps removed and also a lipoma (which grew back). A lipoma is a fatty (lipos=Greek for fat; think liposuction...and My Big Fat Greek Wedding) tumor under your skin. I have one on my upper arm that grew to replace the one that was cut out. At the time of the surgery, I asked the surgeon to show it to me, and he did. It was yellow like chicken fat. So now my homework is to get the pathology reports from the bump- and lipoma-ectomies and my colonoscopy. The Counseling gal said tongue and mouth bumps can be part of the syndrome, and she checked out a tongue bump I've had for about 15-20 years. She looked around my mouth and gums. I felt like we were checking for ticks. (My friend D asks: What's considered foreplay in the Ozarks? Checking for deer ticks.)

I have to fill out a form to help researchers looking at another mutation. The counselor said there is follow-up for that study every two years. So people will call you up and ask, Do you have breast cancer? I asked, picking up an invisible phone. I picked it up again, Do you have cancer? Do you have cancer? Are you dead?

It was that kind of atmosphere, where I felt I could do that. If those two are any indication, genetic counselors are a load of fun.

Today was the first time in five days that I was happy. I didn't feel like crying. I could laugh. It made me realize how miserable I'd been feeling.

I'll get the results in about four to five weeks. If I have BRCA1 or 2, then I'll have to think about getting my right breast removed, too. L and I have been saying that the mastectomy was nothing compared to the chemo, but still the mastectomy was something. And those fucking drains stuck inside my body! At least if I do have to get the second breast removed, I'll be grateful that I haven't had reconstruction yet. I could get both breasts filled up at the same time.

Years ago I was friends with a genetic counselor. We met when we were docents for the Chicago Architecture Foundation. When she gave tours of Glessner House, she'd say: See that cabinet over there? It's 100 years old...and it's never been opened. Her father gave Jewish tours in New York, and gave us a private one once of the Lower East Side. Our friend had breast cancer. And then she died.

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Suffering

If anybody ever offers you the choice between suffering and depression, take the suffering. And I don't mean physical suffering. I mean emotional suffering. I am hereby endorsing psychic suffering over depression.

Don't get me wrong; suffering, though universal, and though its universality provides the basis of Buddhism, is bad. Today I suffered. It meant being weepy, rageful at the drop of a pin, filled with ire at someone for being 14 minutes late (when it didn't matter at all; and I didn't show my rage) and at a fucking stupid fucking imbecile waiter who didn't know that a goddam fucking matte is supposed to be dark and smoky, and not the color and taste of pale green swill with little green specks in it. (I didn't yell. I had a sharpness to my voice a few notches below sarcasm and I smiled deceitfully. I gave a good tip.) At the coffee house and after I was weepy from time to time and not able to balance in Warrior One pose in yoga because my toes were numb from the horrible Taxol. I wept into my purple yoga mat while folded into child's pose and then wept face up into the open air with closed eyes and sweaty head (my perpetual clammy head, compliments of Taxol and menopause) while lying on my back with my legs in butterfly and then I accepted defeat, that the weeping would not end, and rolled up said mat and walked up the street to the drugstore to pick up some refills and a drug that Nurse L had just called in to combat the numbness. Suffering meant crying out when a person crossing the street with an umbrella over her head nearly ran me down, and suffering was going to the drug store and finding out that the very new dolt of a clerk didn't have my new drug, it would take ten minutes, he said. I was weeping and hovering at the counter like a desperate addict in my rain-dropped-on bald head, t-shirt and torn shorts, and I went back to him and said, Could you give me just a pill or two for now, and finally, Could you make a little faster because I'm in a lot of pain, and feeling a little guilty because I wasn't in pain-pain, not about-to-die-and-double-over pain, but in weepiness pain, the pain of not wanting to be there, standing around and weeping and feeling a hole in my heart of desperation and sadness and rage. A dark wound in my heart. And suffering meant walking home with my three drugs finally, my umbrella above my head, knowing I would be home soon, where I would be able to collapse and even work on the stupid idiotic fucking book review, because I was suffering and not depressed. Suffering meant I knew that crying would make me feel better, once I could stop, and that I knew that underneath the suffering I had a core of appreciation for the thunderstorm that had broken the hot spell this afternoon, even though it had drenched my poor bike and helmet that I'd left moored to a parking meter on the street. Underneath the suffering was psychic pain, which is an entity, but I can deal with an entity, it is better than the erosion created by depression, which is more absent than absence, depression is the oxygen-gulping aridness of the void, and it fills every part of you with the knowledge that nothing matters, the universe is as meaningless as it is infinite. So that there is no part of you left that can slither its way around and get its interest quickened by an idea or person or mind or glazed blue Moroccan tile. There is no room for beauty or Marx or charity or alternatives to war. There is only the ash that's left after a fire, after a long long rain.

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Pain & Pain

The topic for today is pain and pain, pain that causes weeping and pain that comes with weeping, and how difficult it is to tell the difference between the two. Close readers may recall that after my first Taxol infusion, I had joint and bone pain that made me cry three days later. So I sat around and watched DVDs and TV for two days. This time around, I came armed with a corticosteroid to stave off the pain. Nurse L told me it could cause anxiety, so take it morning and mid-afternoon, not evening. And then on the third day afer the second Taxol, I was anxious, terribly anxious, because of the drug, because I was writing a book review and I'm not wired to write book reviews, they make me anxious, they tax a part of the brain I don't have. And the fourth day, I was in some joint pain, not too much, but felt like crying. I was anxious and depressed. Desperately depressed. I went to yoga and felt like crying and only sorted it out later that it wasn't because of pain or tiredness but because of depression. Soul-corroding depression. The kind of depression where the world seems like a vast desert and there's nothing to connect to, to hold onto, that every human in the universe is just a little desperate bucket of misery just going after distraction. And you can carry on a conversation in the midst of this depression, but the conversation is going on a parallel, pretend-world, what's real is the feeling underneath you can't shake, that nothing matters. And you can't stand it.

And then I would feel sadder and sadder, thinking that this is how I felt in my 20s and 30s, and I'd wonder how many other people are feeling this, all the time, and times when I've enjoyed myself, for example, when I taught a class in the fall that was really fun, were there people in it who were desperate? I went through motions, we went to dinner, to a movie, we rode our bikes home, I wrote about this depression, and then in bed I cried and cried and told L all this, and he listened and it wasn't much better but we went to sleep.

And in the morning I was OK. I didn't feel the doubleness. I didn't take the last corticosteroid. I felt a little shaky Saturday but "myself." I could laugh. I could connect with the world. My joints hurt a little, and I took a little acetaminophen. I made myself keep away from the review-in-progress or -in-destruction. I didn't want to read so I picked up Persepolis, the graphic memoir by Marjane Satrapi, to read between meeting with my friend P for lunch and running errands. (Yeah, it's reading, but also has pictures.) I watched some TV, finding myself for the second time this summer watching some show with Dick Van Dyke as a doctor. We rode bikes to dinner with M. We talked about periods of depression. He was impressed that mine went away in a day. But it was still so horrible.

The Taxol caused the weeping. The corticosteroid caused the depression. Next time I'll get help for treating the emotion. I think that's much worse than the pain. But the pain is pain.

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