OB Rag

By E.A. Barrera / Originally Published on March 17, 2011

“We may now imbibe freely of the contents of bottles and forthright books”

Morris L. Ernst, Co-Founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. December 11, 1933.

The same week this country ended Prohibition, America opened the doors to let people legally read James Joyce’s Ulysses. With St. Patrick’s Day once more at hand, the greatest of 20th Century novels and the author whose genius gave us at look into our own daily souls, deserves a brief remembrance.

Ulysses is the story of a working man named Leopold Bloom during a single day of his life. Making his way through the streets of Dublin on June 16, 1904, Bloom’s day is an adaptation of the story of Odysseus trying to get home, from Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey.

This originally appeared in the March 8 issue of City Times

“The Irish are the blacks of Europe,” says the band manager in “The Commitments,” the 1991 movie about his quest to put together a soul act in pale, white Dublin. “Say it loud — I’m black and I’m proud.”

Noel Ignatiev, a Massachusetts College of Art history professor and controversial scholar of American race relations, uses that classic line to kick off “How the Irish Became White.” The 1995 book offers an in-depth analysis of America’s assimilation of the millions of Irish who emigrated in the 1800s.

This video news clip is about the unknown Japanese workers who are putting their lives in peril to avert a nuclear disaster. This is a sobering reminder about what workers do.

The right in this country has declared war upon the working class. It is hard for me to imagine the Koch brothers putting their lives in peril to avert nuclear disaster. Maybe that’s worth thinking about too.

Tonight, March 16th, the Ocean Beach Planning Board is holding a Special Meeting on the new proposed ordinance regulating Medical Marijuana dispensaries that is going before the San Diego City Council. If passed in its current form, the ordinance would effectively ban all dispensaries in Ocean Beach and throughout most of San Diego.

The special public forum is at 6:30 pm at the OB Recreation Center, at 4726 Santa Monica Avenue. The Board is requesting that OBcians attend and give them views of the community on this issue. The Board will probably take a position at the end of the forum and pass it on to the City.

San Diegans again rallied yesterday, Tuesday March 15th, in support of the working folks in Wisconsin, and other people under attack in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio by their Republican governors with their extremist agendas.

Called by the local MoveOn.org group as part of a national call to action, the rally in front of the County Admin Building was attended by over 200 community and labor activists.

We do not have all the details yet, but yesterday, March 15th, the City Council of San Diego approved funding for the Small Dog Park at Dusty Rhodes. It includes money for a fence to separate the Small Dog section from the larger area where big dogs roam. Now it just needs to be installed.

by Geoff Page / March 16, 2011

As a follow up to my last two posts [at Voice of San Diego], I went down to the City Purchasing Department to look at the design-build proposals that were submitted for the Brighton Avenue Comfort Station in Ocean Beach. What I found out there and in subsequent calls to the proposers on the project just reaffirmed my original suspicion that the City, to put it politely, messed this up.

By Kathy Blavatt / March 16, 2011

Sometimes it’s hard to put something in writing when you’re still hoping for a better ending. But after having told this story over a hundred times, I think it’s important just to get it out there to my friends in writing and not have to keep repeating the sad details.

Tuesday Mar 15th, 2011 8:25 PM

As the nuclear disaster in Japan intensifies, US Secretary Steven Chu calls on Congress for $36 billion to build new nuclear plants in the US.

Tuesday, March 15—Today at Fukushima’s desperate deteriorating nuclear complex in Japan, there was a fire in Unit 4 for the second time in as many days.

Two workers have been missing since the first fire yesterday.

Sometimes when I look at our species, at the things we do, the wars, the isms, the way we so easily cast aside opportunities to better our lives, I wonder are our brains fried? Have we no spiritual pride? Have we no natural instincts imbedded inside our hearts and souls that can lead us to be more loving towards each other and act as our moral guide?

Aren’t we aware that our children are watching at our side and they, like other animals, cannot survive if they don’t see a model for how they should live their lives?

So last Thursday my ‘union’ (California Association of Realtors, CAR) spent the equivalent of several thousand years’ worth of individual…

For the 2011 OB Planning Board Elections the following people have officially announced their candidacies:

District 1 — Nancy Taylor (incumbent), Tom Gawronski
District 2 — Scott Waschitz (incumbent)
District 3 — No candidate
District 4 — Craig Klein (incumbent)
District 5 — Brittany Taylor
District 6 — Jane Gawronski (incumbent)
District 7 — No candidate