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Articles by Patty Jones

Affectionately known as the "tech desk" in the virtual OB Rag office, Patty likes to tinker with things, mechanical, geekery.... anything she can hope to take apart and put back together! In Solidarity! Uppity Women!

Patty has written 125 articles for the OB Rag!

350.org Co-Founder Bill McKibben and 160 220 Others Arrested at White House Protesting Tar Sands Pipeline

August 23, 2011 by Patty Jones
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UPDATE: Today, August 23rd, 60 more people arrested, including Canadian actors Margot Kidder and a Tantoo Cardinal, bring the total to more than 220.

As of today over 160 people, including 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben, have been arrested at the White House. Others arrested include co-founder of Natural Resources Defense Council and former White House official Gus Speth, gay rights activist Lt. Dan Choi, author and activist Mike Tidwell, Firedoglake founder Jane Hamsher. For the past three days, large groups of Americans have joined a non-violent civil disobedience action at the White House. The goal is to send President Obama a simple message: “Stop the Keystone XL Tar Sands Pipeline.” These protests will continue over the next two weeks.

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Second Annual OB Rag Trolley Ride – Old Town San Diego to the San Ysidro Border Station

July 14, 2011 by Patty Jones
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It seems that we’ve started a new tradition! We had so much fun last year (see Rollicking Ragsters Ride the Rails) when we all hopped on the Green Line trolley to the east county and back, that we decided to do it again. This time we took the Blue Line heading south to the San Ysidro.

Frank and I, Anna and her beloved Rich, Andy, Brittany, Annie, Brenda and Larry gathered at the Old Town trolley station Sunday morning for our adventure to the border. We hadn’t known when planning this trip that this week marks the 125th anniversary of San Diego Public Transit. San Diego MTS has even restored an 80 year old street car that will be running on the downtown loop sometime in the near future.

Read Larry and Annie’s take on our trip!

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Introducing “Victim Blamer” Extraordinaire

June 29, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Dan Rottenberg
A few days before hundreds of people took to the streets for the event SlutWalk San Diego, Dan Rottenberg, editor of the Broad Street Review, posted a column titled “Male sex abuse and female naiveté“. In the lead-in to the column he advises us,

“Earth to liberated women: When you display legs, thighs or cleavage, some liberated men will see it as a sign that you feel good about yourself and your sexuality. But most men will see it as a sign that you want to get laid. Forewarned is forearmed.”

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Words of Wisdom from Young Voices at SlutWalk San Diego

June 14, 2011 by Patty Jones
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In our coverage of SlutWalk San Diego we’ve noted the number of young people involved in this event. I want to give a more formal introduction to two of the young women that were involved in organizing this the movement in San Diego.

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Slutwalk San Diego – “No Means No and Yes Means Yes”

June 12, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Saturday, June 11 2011, SlutWalk San Diego held its first rally as a large group gathered in the middle of Civic Center Plaza. By 1:30 pm, there was a crowd of about 150. People were assembling in the shade of the large trees in the Plaza. According to Frank’s headcount, by 2:00 it was up to 350 with people still streaming into the plaza.

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Don’t Forget! – Today…

June 10, 2011 by Patty Jones

SlutWalk!

Ocean Beach Community Garage Sale!

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SlutWalk Comes to San Diego – Aims to End Victim Blaming

June 7, 2011 by Patty Jones
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UPDATE: See coverage of the event HERE

San Diego event to be held Saturday, June 11 at City Hall

There is a movement storming the country, and the world, whose purpose is to end placing the blame of rape on the victim. This includes dispelling the myth that the way someone acts or dresses determines the likelihood that they will be raped, or that they somehow deserve what they get.

It was ignited in January by a comment made by Toronto policeman Constable Michael Sanguinetti while addressing students and staff at Osgoode Hall Law School, when he recommended that women not dress like “sluts” in order to avoid sexual assault.

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Search Engine Optimization and the OB Rag

May 16, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Tomorrow morning I will be attending a webinar. Well, my brain will be attending, the rest of me will be where it always is in the morning, right here in my desk chair. The webinar has to do with “Search Engine Optimization” or SEO. Wikipedia says SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.

The webinar, or site clinic as they are calling it, will be hosted by some respected web ninjas. Among them is Chris Pearson, the founder of DIYThemes.com and the geek responsible for the Thesis Theme, the basis for the overall look of the OB Rag.

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International Workers Day San Diego, from the Barrio to the Civic Center

May 2, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Yesterday, a bright, sunny Sunday, I hopped on the trolley to 25th and Commercial and made my way to Chicano Park to join the festivities celebrating International Workers Day in San Diego. I was greeted by the sound of music from the awesome mariachi band who were entertaining the crowd from the stage. I’m sorry to say that my spanish is lousy, but as a middle-aged gringa who has lived her whole life in San Diego, mariachi has long been a favorite music style for me.

There were several hundred people in Chicano Park (I later heard an estimate of about 400, and I agree on that count), where people gathered for games, face painting, music and the playground equipment was packed with kids.

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The OB Rag presents “The Green OB” T-shirt!

April 22, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Show your love of OB and your support for the OB Rag

With the help of a benevolent benefactor, we’ve just had a brand new batch of T-shirts – “The Green OB” – printed up by the James Gang, in a whole new style! These shirts have the OB Rag logo on the front and a big, Green OB on the back. We have new colors and also some in a more tailored cut for our uppity women friends!

We still have the “Classic OB Rag” style, with a plain back and the front proudly announcing our affinity for freaks and politicos, too.

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South Anza Borrego – Badlands, Box Canyons and Blossoms

April 7, 2011 by Patty Jones
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Sometimes you’ve just gotta, gotta, gotta to get away…

We’d been meaning to get to the desert to see the flowers and both our schedules and the weather cooperated nicely today. After a light breakfast and our morning work on the Rag, we piled our provisions in the car and headed east. We took I-8 through the mountains and into the desert and under a sky peppered with high clouds we headed north on S-2.

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Candlelight Solidarity Vigil, San Diego April 4th, 2011 – WE ARE ONE

April 4, 2011 by Patty Jones
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See the full article for photos and video

Here are some photos and video from tonight’s gathering. Frank did a head count early in the rally and counted about 350. The group grew larger as the evening progressed and at its peak he estimates around 500 people. The Labor council passed out about 450 candles. Tune in later for a full account!

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Uniquely Yours, All About Avatars and Gravatars

March 19, 2011 by Patty Jones
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We love those little icons, called avatars, next to everyone’s comments. It lets us know who is talking with just a glance. They attached to your email address and show up on avatar enabled sites when you comment.

The difference between an AVATAR and a GRAVATAR is pretty simple, an avatar is generally local, or web site specific and the Gravatar (short for Globally Recognized avatar) will follow you out into the world wide web.

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Social Security, Part 1 – Speaking Truth to Fear

February 9, 2011 by Patty Jones
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There has been a lot of scary talk in the mainstream media and from politicians regarding Social Security, and it’s not been just lately, it’s been going on for decades. Using words like crisis, bankrupt, crisis, “trust fund raids”, crisis,  opponents of Social Security have been putting fear and doubt into the hearts and minds […]

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Frank, Doug and Patty are off to Palms Springs

January 30, 2011 by Patty Jones
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UPDATE: We have returned, and will be filing full reports and media for the morrow. In the meantime we can confirm that 25 were peacefully arrested in a civil disobedience action, with a crowd close to 2,000.  Over a dozen buses brought people to the rally spot in Rancho Mirage from all over Southern California. […]

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In the Age of Anxiety, Living with Panic Attacks

December 21, 2010 by Patty Jones
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If you have ever lived through a panic attack you know that it can flat scare the hell out of you. The physical symptoms, the feeling of utter dread or impending death, can leave you completely exhausted and fearful of the next attack. I don’t know if it’s the state of things in this world, […]

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Popping the Champagne Cork!

December 14, 2010 by Patty Jones
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This evening at 11:15 the OB Rag had its one millionth page hit! That’s right 1,000,000! One, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero! We started tracking our stats on November 24, 2007. We’ve been checking our stats page throughout the evening and captured the moment for posterity. The San Diego visitor that clicked on us […]

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Bernie Sanders takes to the floor to protest the Tax Cut Deal

December 11, 2010 by Patty Jones
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Senator Bernie Sanders – independent from Vermont – took to the floor of the Senate to protest the tax cut deal. According to reports he spoke for more than eight hours. Go Bernie! Too bad there aren’t more like him. See a bit of his speech below.

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Bernie Sanders Calls for Ending Tax Breaks for the Wealthy

December 6, 2010 by Patty Jones
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“There is a war being waged against the middle class in America” I caught a small part of Bernie Sanders’ speech to the senate the other night but was able to find it in its entirely on Youtube (I love the internet). In a statement made on Bernie Sanders’ Senate website, “In my view, we […]

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Ocean Beach Christmas Festival Auction Photo Gallery

December 4, 2010 by Patty Jones
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A good time was had by all at the auction on Thursday night. Thanks to all the folks who donated items, all the bidders, and the people who worked behind the scenes to make this a success… click on the images to see larger versions.

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Torrey Pines – Are they leaning or growing at a slant?

December 3, 2010 by Patty Jones
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When we went to the Ocean Beach Planning Board meeting on Wednesday night one of the arborists, Theron Winsby, brought up a interesting point. Is the Torrey Pine on Longbranch Avenue leaning or is it growing at a slant? His partner, Monique Bowen, brought her camera to the meeting to show the board a series […]

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Louie and Kathi’s Hidden Garden

December 1, 2010 by Patty Jones
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You could spend all your time in OB and still miss it. There’s a wonderful garden right next to the Blue Parrot restaurant on Niagara that you can just walk right into.

It’s Louie and Kathi’s Hidden Garden at 4973 and 4975 Niagara. It is simply an amazing place and these photos I took don’t do it justice, but at least it gives you an idea of what it is like. Look for an upcoming post about Louie and Kathi and their delightful garden. In the meantime, check it out yourself.

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The OB Rag will be undergoing maintenance this weekend!

November 19, 2010 by Patty Jones
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UPGRADES COMPLETE! Loyal Readers and Ragsters, Since I am now officially UNEMPLOYED (bleh) I finally have time to do the maintenance and upgrades to the back end of this website. I will be working on the site over the weekend when, typically, our readership is lower and there are fewer comments. I will start tomorrow […]

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Chalmers Johnson – Imperialism and Militarism, it’s a Suicide Pact

October 25, 2010 by Patty Jones
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Why should we concerned about imperialism and militarism? It’s a suicide pact. That’s the way empires end… ~Chalmers Johnson.

Hat tip to Tanya Winter for the link to this video, Thanks!

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Leave No One Behind

October 17, 2010 by Patty Jones

This 60 Minutes video from CBSnews.com was sent to us by a reader.

Stand Down 2010

In the middle of July this last summer, 947 homeless vets walked in to a three day event sponsored by Veterans Village of San Diego.

A safe place, for three days…. 879 of them walked back out and 68, picked by lottery, won a bed in the Veterans Village Treatment Center. It’s wonderful, and sad.

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350.org’s Worldwide Invitation to Global Work Party on 10/10/10

October 9, 2010 by Patty Jones
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MANY SAN DIEGO EVENTS – LISTED INSIDE

From the 350.org website:
Dear World,

It’s been a tough year: in North America, oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico; in Asia some of the highest temperatures ever recorded; in the Arctic, the fastest melting of sea ice ever seen; in Latin America, record rainfalls washing away whole mountainsides.

So we’re having a party.

Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar. That’s the date.

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Sarah Palin’s Top 10 Tea Party Mamma Grizzlies (from DC Douglas)

September 24, 2010 by Patty Jones
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D.C. Douglas, a veteran character actor and voice over artist, has produced another in a series of comedic political videos. “Sarah Palin’s Top 10 Tea Party Mamma Grizzlies” is a 4 minute voter’s guide to Sarah Palin’s mid-term Tea Party congress candidate picks.

“I find it best to put all your crazy tea bags into one pot so you can get a real taste of Sarah Palin’s political acumen,” says Mr. Douglas.

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“Blessed Unrest”- You’ve got to start sometime, somewhere.

August 17, 2010 by Patty Jones
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Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming – A book review

Having escaped high school by my junior year, passing the California High School Equivalency exam, continuing on to the community college system and gaining enough technical education to get a decent job, I never got much of an education in history or government.

I worked for a company that was owned by a fairly progressive thinking family, manufacturing goods used mainly by environmental agencies and educational institutions. It was gratifying work and allowed me to care for my family in a simple fashion, we didn’t want for much, but we didn’t want much either. I went about my daily life pretty isolated from the issues that affect so many, I had a job, we had health insurance and until that company closed I didn’t really understand how good we had it.

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Welcome to OB – Generosity, Caring, Empathy, Tolerance

July 2, 2010 by Patty Jones
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A new sticker that we can relate to.

Tell us what you think about the new sticker put together by the folks at the Regional Task Force on the Homeless, who will be present at the community forum on Tuesday night.

(MORE DETAILS AND ALL LINKS INSIDE)

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San Diego Coffee Party Movement first meeting gets a big turn-out!

March 13, 2010 by Patty Jones
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We had a wonderful turnout – 75 people signed in and signed the civility pledge! It was wonderful to see the packed house, it was standing room only.

Lots of people stood and attested to why they had come, many saying they were frustrated the way the media was portraying the average citizen and that they felt we needed a voice, a sane and civil voice, to be heard on the issues that matter to us all.

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