OB Rag

by Jeoffry Gordon, MD, MPH

Our country is at the edge of a precarious cliff that presents the biggest danger to the survival of our democracy than anything since the Civil War…….Or like Wiley Coyote in the Road Runner cartoons – we may have run off the precipice already – but it just has not yet sunk in. The problem is one of domestic social justice and economics.

By John Lawrence / Will Blog for Food / March 22, 2011

In an article March 18, 2011 in the San Diego Union Tribune, Qualcomm said “it would spend $975 million to build a factory in Taiwan to manufacture low-power Mirasol display screens for e-readers and smart phones.”

However, there is a caveat. Qualcomm would like to imply that, if it could repatriate the $9.8 billion in cash it is holding offshore without paying taxes or at a sufficiently reduced tax rate, it would build the factory in the US instead thus creating jobs.

by Don Bauder / Scam Diego – San Diego Reader / March 21, 2011

Union-Tribune employees are wondering once again just who will own their company, or whether the U-T could be folded into a conglomeration of Southern California papers.

Two management missteps fomented the worry.

Darrell Issa has a long history in the tech industry, with close ties that continue today — and have recently gotten him in some trouble . More personally, he’s also a notorious tech junkie, unable to resist fiddling with new gadgets and the tech toys of everyone around him. So if anyone should understand how important net neutrality is, you’d think it would be Darrell Issa. But instead, he’s been steadfast in walking the corporate conservative line, adopting the favorite industry astroturf demand .

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — State lawmakers called on California utilities Monday to delay efforts to relicense nuclear power plants until the companies complete detailed seismic maps to get a true picture of the risks posed by earthquakes and tsunamis.

State senators raised sharp questions about whether California’s nuclear plants can withstand a major natural disaster such as the one on March 11 that has left Japan scrambling to control radiation coming from some of its reactors.

We’re talking about true legislative sadists looking to go medieval on America.

By David Sirota /AlterNet / March 21, 2011

Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said that states are the “laboratories of democracy.” Oft repeated over time, the aphorism has helped impart legitimacy to the rough and tumble of state lawmaking. We’ve heard “laboratory” and we’ve imagined staid scientists in white coats rigorously testing forward-thinking theories of societal advancement.

It’s certainly a reassuring picture—but there is a darker side of the metaphor. States are indeed laboratories. The problem is that today, those laboratories are increasingly run by mad scientists.

The vibrations of peace, calm, and freedom that dwell in Ocean Beach drew me here time and time again. Each time I visited this small little beach community the desires of my heart were loud and clear. Each visit more pleasant than the previous. Over the course of eight years I was drawn to the shoreline of Ocean Beach for healing, rest, reflection, and renewal. No other town I’ve been to in this country welcomed me unconditionally the way Ocean Beach has.

Deciding to sell my home in the desert to rent here for double what my mortgage payment was may have sounded unwise to some. Yet I was drawn here by powers beyond my human understanding.

By Kit-Bacon Gressitt / Excuse Me, I’m Writing blog / March 20, 2011

Last Thursday, I visited a professor in her temporary office. She was perched at an oddly placed desk amid unpacked boxes, all under a light patina of dust and the discomfort of passing disorder. She apologized when I arrived — an unnecessary courtesy, albeit a noted one, but I didn’t care. She was doing me the favor of providing guidance on an analysis of The Koala, a tabloid publication that started at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in 1982, spread to San Diego State University (SDSU) in 2004, and mutated into an edition at Cal State University San Marcos (CSUSM) this January.

“Why do you people hide in the park?” one person asked me.

“Do you think that you are going to change a damn thing?” another asked. “Obama promised to end the wars if we elected him and he lied, just like Bush” she continued.

Try though I may, there are times when I can’t stop complaining:

“Gas is too high.”
“Food prices have gone up.”
“Why is this phone bill so high?”
“It’s too hot to go walking.”
“It’s too cold to go walking.”
“There’s nothing good to watch on T.V. anymore.”
“The service is awful in this restaurant.”
“My feet, head or back hurt.”

Oh, there is so much to complain about­­– some days more than others. There are lots of people like me; you probably know a few, or you may be one yourself.

Hey, Jihmye, I send these words directly to you because I know based on your Baha’i faith that although you’re no longer here carrying on with us physically your journey has not come to an end.

But, oh, what an existence your earth bound life has been, my friend. From the beginning to the end. Dropping out of school early, fleeing Dixie in Uncle Sam’s army, blessing all within your reach with your art and your poetry and your very presence. To me you were like a breath of fresh air in a world that can, without reason or rhyme, be so suffocating and crushing at times.

While most residents of Southern California tried to figure out if the day was going to bring rain, three hundred San Diegans spent a few hours in Balboa Park rallying against two wars our government is waging – Iraq and Afghanistan.

Starting at noon, the protest included speakers, singers, poets, and the Puppet Insurgency, and at a little after 2 pm, the crowd formed up onto the sidewalk and marched south towards the freeway.

At Elm Street, the crowd broke up, with a group moving to each of the six overpasses on I-5 – 1st Avenue through 6th Avenue -, lining the bridges holding banners, flags, while attaching larger banners to the wires on the overpasses. Many supportive honks could be heard from the passing traffic below.