Category: History

A massive industry profits off the government-induced fear of terrorism.

By Alex Kane/Alternet

Michael Hayden, the former director of the National Security Agency, has invaded America’s television sets in recent weeks to warn about Edward Snowden’s leaks and the continuing terrorist threat to America.

But what often goes unmentioned, as the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald pointed out, is that Hayden has a financial stake in keeping Americans scared and on a permanent war footing against Islamist militants.

And the private firm he works for, called the Chertoff Group, is not the only one making money by scaring Americans.

Post-9/11 America has witnessed a boom in private firms dedicated to the hyped-up threat of terrorism. The drive to privatize America’s national security apparatus accelerated in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, and it’s gotten to the point where 70 percent of the national intelligence budget is now spent on private contractors, as author Tim Shorrock reported.

It’s difficult to imagine anything other than a crusty, inflatable, creepy-looking … thing when picturing a sex doll in the mind’s eye. A likeness to the figure in Edvard Munch’s The Scream, though slightly more unsettling if that’s even possible.

But sex dolls actually have quite an interesting history, reaching back as far as 8 A.D. with the myth that Pygmalion obsessed over a woman he sculpted from ivory so much so that Aphrodite eventually made her real. In the 1940s, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler devised the “Borghild Project,” which involved the production and shipment of sex dolls to German soldiers in an effort to lure them away from diseased French prostitutes.

Calling for due process for Mayor Bob Filner – and his accusers – a coalition plans to hold a press conference today, Monday, August 19th at noon. It will be held at the Civic Center Plaza.

Declaring that the silent majority will not be silent any longer, organizers are asking “community members of color, veterans, environmentalist, educators, woman’s rights, gays, civil rights, labor, human rights, faith, unions, neighborhoods, immigration” to join them:

“as we stand united in stopping the public mockery of our judicial system. Due Process for mayor and accusers. Let’s get back to business of moving region forward with Mayor Bob Filner.”

This is a proposal to form some type of task force or coalition of Ocean Beach organizations to deal with the problem of the out of control July 4th marshmallow wars.

This proposal is based on several premises:

• The historic tradition has gone out of control, is getting worse each year – as evidenced by this year’s mess and melee. The current state of affairs, as most OBceans would agree, is unacceptable.

• It must change – and it must change over the coming year, as it will not be going away, and next year – unless dealt with – will be worse than this year.

• The marshmallow war tradition is a uniquely Ocean Beach problem. The community, the village, OBceans – must deal with it ourselves. It cannot be left up to politicians.

Both sides must set aside their profound differences and look at steps to relieve the worst elements of solitary confinement.

By Tom Hayden / LA Times / August 16, 2013

At least 300 inmates are now several weeks into a fast that could soon lead to organ failure and death for many of them. Events are moving rapidly, but as I write, nothing has been resolved. And, as California corrections chief Jeffrey Beard made clear recently in an Op-Ed for this newspaper, the sides are far apart.

Beard, presumably reflecting Gov. Jerry Brown’s views, paints the strike leaders as dangerous gang leaders who are pressuring inmates into a hunger strike to “restore their ability to terrorize fellow prisoners, prison staff and communities throughout California.” That rhetoric is hardly designed to lead to conflict resolution. On their side, the strikers are demanding an immediate end to what they see as inhumane conditions, including indefinite solitary confinement, which they see as a violation of the 8th Amendment ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Thursday, Aug. 15th at 7pm
Point Loma United Methodist Church
1984 Sunset Cliffs Blvd, OB

Step back in tome with Jim Bregante’s historical presentation of San Diego’s waterfront and Little Italy. Take this historical journey with an experienced speaker and Docent for the San Diego Maritime Museum and his PowerPoint presentation.

Nearly half of the respondents in our OB Rag poll on the future of the Marshmallow Wars want to ban it or ban the fireworks on July 4th in order to get rid of the gooey controversy. A total of 45% of those who did respond said ban the fireworks or ban the marshmallow fight.

A plurality of those polled – 25% – picked “Ban the fireworks and you’ll stop the marshmallows” option. Another 20% want to “just ban the marshmallow war”.

Another significant number – 16% – want to keep the tradition but contain it and control it. They picked the option: “Keep the traditiion, but contain it in a “superdome”, “thunderdome” or “Marshmallow Areana”, with controlled access, limited time, and control what is brought in.”

Yet OBceans are still as divided as ever. Four per cent voted to move it to Dog Beach, another 2% want to deal with it by having police officers cite anyone who throws marshmallows on the beach. Only 2% wanted to keep the war.

A local ticket holder to the planet Rillispore remembers seeing Clint Carey

By Stephanie Denton / Special to the OB Rag

Some explain the OB Spaceman as an “artist who could have been, one who chucked his career for a life without possession.” Meaning the New Englander who found himself in Ocean Beach, Clint Carey was a self-proclaimed “Contactee” of the planet Rillispore. Clint portrayed his contact with planet Rillispore through the glowing medium of fluorescent paint on fiberglass. This was a progressive art form at the time; fluorescent paintings dubbed “Black light Art” had yet to take on the cultural identity of the hippie counterculture.

Regarding the Spaceman of OB, one native recollected “The Spaceman did some kind of art or music or something, played the Saxophone.”

Bob Oates provided the association of the Saxophone to the Spaceman of OB. An avid Jazz Saxophonist, from his OB Pier side bungalow he listened, created, recorded, and supported Clint for over 30 years. “This was friendship,” says Rick Bollinger, the writer and director of tonight’s – August 9th – opening of “The Spaceman of Ocean Beach” a Readers Theater taking place tonight At the Ocean Beach Playhouse, 8pm.

by John Lawrence

From coast to coast, we saw a variety of record-breaking weather in July 2013. Several cities recorded one of their hottest Julys on record. A heat wave that lasted a week in middle July helped propel Hartford, Conn., Bridgeport, Conn., and Providence R.I. to their hottest July and calendar month on record. In the west Salt Lake City, Utah, Reno, Nev., Elko, Nev., Medford, Ore., Roseburg, Ore. and Bend, Ore. all saw their hottest July and calendar month in history.

Although July is typically the driest month of the year in the Pacific Northwest, it was exceptionally dry in July 2013.

Seattle, Olympia, Wash., Portland, Ore., Eugene, Ore. and Salem, Ore. were among the slew of locations in western Washington and western Oregon that recorded no measurable rainfall in July 2013. Only four other Julys since 1890 have had no rain in Portland (downtown). For Seattle, it was the first time in more than 50 years with no measurable rain in July.

By Jay Powell

The news this week via the “Utterly-Terrible” news machine (August 6 edition) is, when asked the “push-poll” question:

“What story about Filner concerns you more: the charge of sexual misconduct or the charge that he improperly extracted monetary concessions for the city from developers in return for approving their projects?”, the result was a dead heat at 44% for each.

Never mind that in both cases the “story” is about a “charge”. And that the only so-called “extraction” was from the now infamous Sunroad developer for donations to two City sanctioned projects.

There’s a summer musical band program in the OB and Point Loma area for junior and senior high school students, and it’s been going on for 24 years – until now. Now, “Band at the Beach” is celebrating its 25th season.

A musically-inclined woman named Dell Schroeder has been running it in OB for all these years, and this year it’s taking place at Correia Middle School from August 5th to 9th.

Dell Schroeder has done a lot of wonderful things in an attempt to keep music alive in the schools this past quarter century. She has been a private music teacher for many decades and also volunteers at Correia and works with kids to help them learn their instruments better. In the words of one of her fans: “She is a saint.”

Here is what Band at the Beach says about itself – from its brochure:

In the San Diego Reader, columnist Don Bauder has a different view of the Filner scandal and imbroglio. He says it “is all about greed” and that the “business community reveals it plans to pick [our] pockets.”

We are reprinting it here in its entirety:

Don Bauder / San Diego Reader / August 1, 2013

A story in the Aug. 1 Union-Tribune tells all that has to be known about the Filner slaughter. First, the city attorney’s office issued two dubious opinions to smooth the way for a recall. City Attorney Goldsmith, a toady for the downtown corporate welfare crowd, has been an enemy of Filner from the beginning. But then comes this quote, which is all you need to know about what is going to happen.