Author: JEC

Editor: It has been a week since the passing of our good friend, Jon Christensen, who wrote on occasion for both the OB Rag and the San Diego Free Press, writing under his initials, JEC. Here, below, we repost his two-part series on “Riding the Rails in the West – The State of Amtrak”:

Part I: Are We There Yet?

by JEC

Its 6am – still dark with a morning fog when we board the Pacific Surfliner in San Diego. While there is a train leaving at 6:35 am, Amtrak urges passengers booked on the Coast Starlight to take the first train out at 6 am, likely based on experience with frequent delays. But today’s train leaves on time with a few dozen blurry eyed passengers. We were bound for Chicago via Oakland.

Days before we departed, I had mentioned to my doctor I was about to leave on a train trip, from San Diego to Chicago via Oakland. He looked up, surprised, “what, you can do that, take a train from here to Chicago?”

A more common response – why would you want to? Ask yourself, to get from one city to the next; to go from LA to the Bay Area or Sacramento, or San Diego to Phoenix – does Amtrak come to mind? If you’re like 96% of the population the answer is a simple no. In California only 5% rely on public transportation to get to and from and Amtrak accounts for only a small portion.

By JEC

August 11th was CicloSDias in San Diego. Sections of 30th and Fern streets were closed to motor vehicles; cross streets were blocked off and traffic monitors helped motorists cross the river of bicycles. Some say not quite a river, more like a creek.

Bicycling in San Diego has some serious advocates, including the San Diego Bike Coalition. They see benefits for San Diegans if we switch to using bikes more often than cars. As a bike rider, I agree with them. The challenge in front of us is how to grow a bicycle culture.

Along 30th Street I saw many fancy bikes with riders dressed in those colorful skin tight outfits. I also saw some unique forms of self-propelled transportation. I was hoping see folks wearing regular clothes as if they were going to school or work – but then it was Sunday plus CicloSDias is only once a year at that.

City Council to Take Up Faulconer’s Ordinance on July 8th

By JEC

The City of San Diego is about to ban a host of vehicles from parking on city streets. This coming Monday, July 8th, the City Council will consider a new ordinance sponsored by 2nd District Council member Kevin Faulconer that prohibits city residents from parking oversized, non-motorized or recreational vehicles on any street within the city limits.

There are exceptions, of course. Vehicles performing service to the property or loading/unloading; government or public utility vehicles; buses used to transport youths or the disabled (party buses get no free pass); and, any vehicle displaying a valid permit.

To issue permits involves creating a new bureaucracy.

A permit will be good for only 24 hours

By JEC

On Friday May 31st, NBC News posted a report from Reuters that South Korea has suspended wheat imports after the discovery of Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Wheat growing in a fallowed field of an Oregon farmer. Problem is, Monsanto only field-tested the strain until May, 2004 when the Canadian Wheat Board, then the world’s largest grain seller, informed Monsanto it’s 10 largest red spring wheat buyers, including Japan, the U.K. and Malaysia, wouldn’t buy modified (genetically altered) varieties of wheat.

BY JEC / San Diego Free Press

Is bigger better? The new AT&T commercial with the man in a suit sitting on the floor with the kids seems to think so. Cruise ships, now they have gotten huge like Royal Caribbean’s new 5,000 passenger ships. With crew that’s 7,500 souls on board.

But we don’t do cruise ships very often, but a lot of us do fly and we can appreciate the aircraft industry for trying to keep up.

Charlie Rose of CBS This Morning (on Tuesday 2/12/13) dragged former VP Dick Cheney out of mothballs to provide a pulpit for his opinions on National Defense and Obama’s ‘plans’ for the military. I know Cheney’s credibility in this area is non-existent so I was left to speculate why CBS would give this fossil a stage? Shared interests?

Cheney talked about Obama intentions to do “serious damage to the military”. He would like us to think John Brennan for CIA and Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense are the issues. I think not.

One Zephyr too soon –

Editor: Part 1 originally ran November 29th; Part 2 was delayed due to the author’s foot surgery and he sends his apologies.

By JEC 

News item, December 26th, China debuts the longest bullet train in the world. From Beijing to Guangzhou a distance of 1,428 miles, the ‘new’ train will serve 35 cities and cover the distance in under 10 hours, averaging speeds of 186 mph. The old train, the shame of Wuhan took almost 24 hours to cover the 1,428 miles. Hold the phone – the bad old train served the same 35 cities covering the 1,428 miles in less than 24 hours at an average speed of 60 mph. If we only had it so good.

Amtrak’s Premier West Coast train, the Coast Starlight is very similar;…

Local Media Ignore Story – Is It Because of Mystery Ship Possibly Involved in Collision?

By JEC / Special to the OB Rag

A mystery is unfolding offshore from OB.

The 65th Newport to Ensenada sailboat race started in Newport on noon Friday, April 27. By 1 am early Saturday morning the bulk of the fleet of 200 sailboats had passed OB and were a few miles outside the Coronado Islands just south of the border. The race organizers, the Newport Ocean Sailing Association (NOSA) were tracking each boat using an online tracking system.

International Press Inform that the Main Issues Were Cuba, Legalization of Drugs, and the U.S.’s Isolation from South America

by JEC / Special to the OB Rag / April 25, 2012

Would I sound naïve – perhaps pedantic – to say American media is censored? I just had one those “moments” when information falls in your lap by chance. Like an overheard comment, the authenticity is powerful. As it happened I was in Cartagena, Columbia on Saturday, April 14th, in the midst of the “Summit of the Americas”. I was on the cruise ship “Rotterdam” just after passing through the Panama Canal.

The Summit of the Americas was ever present; helicopters in the air, speed boats cruising the harbor. The streets were nearly lined with police/troops most often holding automatic weapons. Reportedly over 90% of all police and security forces of the entire country where in Cartagena to protect the 33 heads of states. Two small bombs exploded the night before getting everyone in the proper mood.

But what do Americans know?

The Secret Service sex scandal and that’s about it. It was the lead story on the Nightly News Monday night (4/23/12). I’ve heard nothing but the 24/7 drum beat since I returned five days ago – sex, sex, sex – seems to serve as the filler for America media.

By JEC

I recently enjoyed my 28th wedding anniversary. To celebrate my wife and I went to Las Vegas for a couple of days. Bored with the traditional I-15 route, we opted for a more adventurous route – east – to Brawley and State Route 78 as it travels through the Chocolate Mountains ending at Interstate 10 near Blythe. Wild country.

From the sand dunes near Glamis winding north through desert and sage we saw massive solar projects, and even larger excavation projects that we assumed involved mining in some form. The scenery was magnificent – set off as it was by the crisp clear weather. The desert is best in the early morning hours. Before the winds kick up the dust.

Our morning drive was interrupted by a surprising discovery of a Border Patrol roadblock on State Route 78 about 44 miles outside of Brawley.

Now why was it a surprise?

The Manchurian Candidate, the idea of a mole, a plant on the inside using a powerful position (the Presidency) to destroy the nation. Consider, in 2001 the GOP was handed a balanced budget producing a mild surplus. The GOP took that balanced budget and turned it upside down; then using lies, started aggressive wars they knew would cost hundreds of billions but they cut taxes and kicked the cost down the road. Now the bills are due and they refuse to pay. It’s like they threw a big banquet, invited everyone to go shopping and are now ducking out on paying their bills.

by JEC

On Monday, January 24th USAToday ran a major feature on Ronald Reagan. The Ronald Reagan I remember is very different from the idealized version offered in that paper.

As Governor, Reagan helped California’s public schools slip from #2 ranking to a #26 in just 8 years; in the aftermath of the killings at Kent State in May, 1970, to calm the exploding emotions Governor Reagan declared that:

“If blood is to run in the streets so be it!”