OB Rag

It is Christmas, 2012, and I sit in the sunlight of the early morning and welcome the day. For many years I have been alone on Christmas morning; my children, parents, sister and I celebrate Christmas on its eve. My children spend the day with her mother and later in the day, my parents, sister and I have dinner at my cousin’s home. As a result, the gift I receive Christmas morning is time. Time to sit and reflect, time to meditate, time to just be.

As a Catholic Christian of the Franciscan brand, and a student of Buddhism and the Tao, I spend much of my time thinking about the concept of compassion; what it means and how to let flow from me and perhaps by example, to others. I know in my imperfection, I fall short on many occasions, but I try.

Former Homeless Man Thanks OB for Teaching Him Love and Patience

Editor: The following post was originally published as a Letter on December 22nd. We thought it was so poignant, that we decided to post it as an article and “Reader Rant”.

My name is Mic D. I was homeless in OB from about 1989 to 1991. I “lived” near dog beach at a fire pit for about a year, and then in a dugout in Robb Field for another year. It was a most difficult time of life for me.

Being a widow is difficult if the relationship between the two spouses was a good one. There are times that being a widow is harder than other times. Like now. The Holidays. Being a widow and having 12 grandchildren becomes quite expensive and for the first time in many years I am unable to gift my children as well as their children.

In William Carlos Williams’s famous poem “Burning the Christmas Greens” he notes how at “the thick of the dark moment” in “winter’s midnight” we turn to the trees because “green is a solace” that we use to “fill our need.” Thus the “living green” along with “paper Christmas bells covered with tinfoil and fastened by red ribbons” seem “gentle and good to us.” But then when their time is past we feel the relief as we clear our rooms and assign the greens to the fireplace and “in the jagged flames green to red, instant and alive.” And we stand “breathless to be witnesses as if we stood ourselves refreshed among the shining fauna of that fire.”

by Mark Gabrish Conlan / Zenger’s Newsmagazine

First, the good news: the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8, the voter-approved initiative that abruptly stopped California’s four and one-half month experience of marriage equality in November 2008.

Now, the bad news: the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the constitutional challenge to Proposition 8.

By Blake Bunch / IVN San Diego / Dec. 20, 2012

The recent spike in domestic surveillance could represent an increase of police force “militarization” to some, an argument which is primarily defended through public safety measures. In San Diego, CA, the County Sheriff Department’s interest in a Scout unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has remained shrouded from public knowledge.

By Miriam Raftery / East County Mag / December 20, 2012

In a unanimous decision, the California Public Uitlities Commission (CPUC) denied SDG&E and Southern Califiornia Gas Company’s proposed plan which had sought to charge ratepayers for its uninsured liability costs for wildfires caused by the utility’s lines, both for future fires and the 2007 firestorms that ravaged San Diego County. (Go inside for link to the formal decision.)

IROC recommends hold on San Diego water rate increases

It’s true, the oversight committee on San Diego’s water rates recommends no increases in rates either water or sewer until their own study is completed. The committee is currently conducting a cost of service study including a “review of the revenue, expenditures, and sales volume assumptions underlying the study.”

George Janczyn, over at GrokSurf’s San Diego, has conveniently provided us a link to a copy of their report,

Former Congressman out of prison after 8 years

By Greg Moran / Enron by the Sea

Former Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, who has been in federal prison since admitting to taking bribes, has been transferred to a halfway house in New Orleans for the final few months of his prison term.

Cunningham, 71, was transferred from the federal prison in Tucson, Ariz., on Dec. 5, according to Edmond Ross, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

America cannot truly address gun violence unless it is prepared to address the root causes of gun violence.

by Nadin Abbott / San Diego Free Press

Since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Connecticut, we have had many discussions on the sources of gun violence in our country. We were all shocked.

Receipt of Give-Aways by Other firms in San Diego Prove We’re No Exception

By John Lawrence / San Diego Free Press

States, counties and cities are in a race to the bottom because they are giving away taxpayer dollars to provide incentives for corporations to locate withing their boundaries. There’s a fierce competition going on and corporations are playing one region off against another.

By David Helvarg / Blue Notes / December 17, 2012

We just had an election in which the public seemed to see the need for larger changes in society. And of course changes of any kind tend to come in waves. Along with the emergence of a new demographic profile of the U.S. electorate we saw people in a number of states voting for Gay marriage equality, legalized use of marijuana and in California, a tax increase to help save public education.