Month: June 2013

By Jeffrey Meyer

The American public is addicted to carbon products for its energy needs and, despite overwhelming evidence that man-made carbon dioxide (CO2) is a credible threat to everyone, we lack the will to act. We tend to be quick to place blame for this situation, but perhaps it is time to look in the mirror.

There is finger pointing enough for everyone, from conflicting media reports, paralysis of our political system and corporate greed from the carbon industry. But is it really about them or is it about us, immobilized by a simple lack of effort to check out the facts?

It is true that some of our media just don’t understand the worldwide carbon industry, the eventual cost of its products both environmentally and to our bank accounts. Admittedly this lack of knowledge can create a confused and apathetic public.

Juan Felipe Herrera shares stories and life lessons from his father.

Courtesty of UCTV

Let this moment be a educational one so let’s have the Debate that the President calls for

By Frank Gormlie

What a dastardly crazy last week and half it’s been.

Beginning Thursday, June 6th, with the Washington Post and the Guardian in London both running with the explosive news about the National Security Agency surveillance programs, we’ve been hit with daily revelations – that are still continuing every news cycle – that have created quiet a long list of whistle blower-delivered disclosures about what the government and the NSA are and have been doing to us – the American people.

Editor: In honor of Father’s Day, we run this tasteful ode to one father by Carlos Batara, a San Diego and Southern California immigration attorney and long-time supporter of the OB Rag.

By Carlos Batara

He never went home.

He left his native county at the age of 20 to find work. Born in an impoverished area of a poor country, he left home to earn money which he could send back to his mother and eight siblings.

He ventured through, and stayed briefly at, a few countries, eventually reaching the United States.

For the next 25 years, he crisscrossed California, Arizona, and Utah, moving from crop to crop before settling in San Diego where he worked as a dishwasher at one of the city’s most prestigious restaurants.

A new poll at the OB Rag clearly shows that the community is divided over whether to shut the new Brighton Avenue public restrooms down at night or keep them open 24/7.

In our weekly poll, begun Sunday, June 9th, 54% of the respondents said the restrooms should be kept open, whereas 45% voted to close them at night. As of 10:00 a.m. 6/14/13, 71 people had taken the poll, with one claiming no opinion.

Here is the Poll:

Brighton Beach Restroom Hours

Do you think the new public restrooms at the foot of Brighton Ave. at the beach should be open 24/ 7 or closed at night?

* “Godspell” Musical Opens Friday at OB Playhouse

Today – Friday, June 14, the musical “Godspell” opens at the Ocean Beach Playhouse as the first in a full season of shows. Organizers call this a “classic Stephen Schwartz musical is unlike you have ever seen it before!” The Ocean Beach Playhouse is located at 4944 Newport Ave.

* 100th Anniversary of OB’s Wonderland One of Themes of 2013 Street Fair – Saturday, June 22

* OB Street Fair with Kids Fun Zone

* Cliff Walls Graffiti Clean-up

* Congressman Peters Speaks Against Increases in Student Loan Rates

* Scripps Point Loma Pier to Be Replaced Just in Time for New Navy Research Ship, “Sally Ride”

Editor: The debate over the newly-released Draft OB Community Plan Update continues. Here, Giovanni Ingolia, a current member of the OB Planning Board and Co-Chair of the Community Plan Update Subcommittee, responds to a post by Geoff Page, former chair of the Peninsula Community Planning Board. Page was reacting to reports both at the OB Rag and SDNews.com about presentations on the new Draft Update by senior city planner Maxx Stalheim.

By Giovanni Ingolia

Mr. Page,

As someone who has been sitting on the OB Planning Board for 7 years, its Vice Chair for 3 years, the Chair for 2 years, and currently co-chair of the OB Plan Update Subcommittee ( along with Mindy Pellissier) I never understood why individuals like you always attacked city staff as the problem.

About 9 this morning – Thursday, June 13 – a person on the OB Bike Path that runs along the…

A number of area restaurants in Ocean Beach, Point Loma and Shelter Island have recently won awards from the California Restaurant Association. The Golden Medallion Awards were handed out by the San Diego County Chapter of the CRA at its 29th annual awards banquet held on June 4th at the Town & Country Resort.

These are supposedly San Diego’s “most prestigious restaurant honors”, as the industry association peer-to-peer awards those “worthy and exceptional restaurants” in the San Diego area. As PR of the event states:

It is an opportunity for members to acknowledge their fellow restaurateurs for their business practices, concepts, and achievements in more than 40 award categories.

By Norma Damashek / San Diego Free Press

I took a mindful walk through downtown La Jolla this morning. It was my version of a meditative exercise that’s supposed to smooth your soul and clear your mind.

Here’s how it’s done: you put one foot in front of the other in the usual way of walking while you notice what’s around you.

First you notice. And then you let it go.

Notice…and let it go.

These are some of the things I noticed on my mindful walk:

By Judi Curry

The well has run dry! There is nothing to be had anywhere. Life is a sad, lonely spiral, as the tap only trickles its remaining rust and dirt from the spigot. What the hell is she talking about, you ask? On line dating, of course!

I’ve tapped into Zoosk. I turned the spigot off on eHarmony. I cleaned out the faucet on Mingle. I prayed for a good catch at JD. I fished at Plenty of Fish. I didn’t care if I was overweight at Big and Beautiful People Meet. I didn’t lie about my age at Senior People Meet. It wasn’t my time at OurTime.com. There were no rich men at RichMen.com. There were no matches at Match.com and several other sites that I don’t remember for I was with them a very short time.

By Marjorie Cohn / truthout

Just as Bradley Manning’s court-martial was getting underway, another brave whistleblower dropped a bombshell into the media: The Obama administration is collecting data on every telephone call we make. Nearly 64 years to the day after George Orwell published his prescient book 1984, we have learned that the “Thought Police” are indeed watching every one of us. “They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type,” Edward Snowden told the Washington Post.

A former undercover CIA employee who has worked at the National Security Agency (NSA) for four years, Snowden provided a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to the Guardian. The order requires Verizon on an “ongoing daily basis” to provide the NSA information about all phone calls in its system both in the United States and other countries.