OB Rag

by Anonymous

When I was seventeen in1967, a friend and I got in trouble at school, cutting class to go surfing if I remember right. This was not the first time we had been caught breaking school rules so it was no surprise when we were both called in to the principal’s office.

We were introduced to a couple of army recruiters and given choices. My friend Stein – his mother dead and his father the town drunk – could enlist or go to juvenile hall. I was offered expulsion or military service. I chose expulsion.

Stein, still not eighteen, showed up in Vietnam just in time for the Tet offensive. He was in country for less than two weeks before he was killed.

I would never betray my friend Stein by thanking him for dying in a war that no one has has ever explained to my satisfaction that had anything to do with mine or any other Americans’ freedom, or pursuit of happiness.

10News.com/ May 31, 2010

A local man said he was stabbed in broad daylight in Ocean Beach on Friday, but it may be difficult for him to identify his attacker. Ole Keever is recovering in his hospital bed after he was stabbed four times in the head, near his liver and also his back.

I met Mar Cardenas a couple of weekends ago at a Coffee Party meeting. I knew she was one of the main organizers of a car caravan to Phoenix to protest the new Arizona immigration law, SB 1070. She is an energetic woman in her mid-forties who has a huge heart, a leader in the local Unitarian Universalist church, who also is the granddaughter of Lázaro Cardenas, one of the great former presidents of Mexico – in fact the FDR of our southern neighbor.

On Friday, May 28th, she and about a hundred others departed from Chicano Park on their way to cross the desert and arrive in Phoenix for a protest rally and march to the Arizona state capital today.

Dear Rand Paul:

It is not possible to change a true bigot’s values. Much of that comes from generational views passed down from parents, grandparents, whatever. But I want to address your recent remarks since you won the Kentucky GOP senate primary.

I would have to agree to disagree with you on pretty much every level. One argument you make is that you prefer to have racist business owners openly advertising their hatred, so that you can make an informed decision. My guess from this statement is that you’ve never been a victim of bigotry, or racism, or true hate.

Engineers have at least temporarily stopped the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government’s top oil-spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning.

The “top kill” effort, launched Wednesday afternoon by industry and government engineers, had pumped enough drilling fluid to block oil and gas spewing from the well, Allen said. The pressure from the well was very low, he said, but persisting. The top kill effort is not complete, officials caution.

Political apathy? Nah, political crapathy!

By Sarah Little / OB Rag / May 27, 2010

After much introspection I’ve concluded that I’m not politically apathetic. I am politically horrified. I’m socially horrified as well. I look around and see a nation of lemming-like creatures who gasp in horror when tragedy strikes as we turn our collective heads to some overriding power that is supposed to step in to avert or mitigate disaster. FEMA, local law enforcement, OSHA, the Coast Guard, Border Patrol, the School Board, the Constitution, the Pope… God! Someone or something is supposed to make sure “this” doesn’t happen and if it does the “they” are supposed to fix it!

By Congressman Alan Grayson /MichaelMoore.com / May 21, 2010

Next week, there is going to be a “debate” in Congress on yet another war funding bill. The bill is supposed to pass without debate, so no one will notice.

What George Orwell wrote about in “1984” has come true. What Eisenhower warned us about concerning the “military-industrial complex” has come true. War is a permanent feature of our societal landscape, so much so that no one notices it anymore.

But we’re going to change this. Today, we’re introducing a bill called ‘The War Is Making You Poor Act’. The purpose of this bill is to connect the dots, and to show people in a real and concrete way the cost of these endless wars.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica conservation group that conducts coastal waters tests, has given part of Ocean Beach an A+ rating in its latest annual report. The water around the OB Pier in both dry and wet weather got this highest rating. Dog Beach did not fare as well, as it remains a troubled area due to the run-off that comes down the San Diego River.

High grades in the coastal water rating system demonstrate that there are less incidence of sickness from fecal bacterial in the surfzones for ocean users.

By Stephen Luke / NBCSanDiego.com / May 26, 2010

San Diego police are laying out their summer staffing plans for the city’s beach areas. Starting this Friday with the Memorial Day weekend crowds, San Diegans will see a lot more officers near the coast.

“You know, when it’s summertime and there’s more people, there’s more opportunity for problems,” Mission Beach resident Dave Cummings said.

It was a scene to behold. There was Julie strumming the guitar – singing softly, there was David minding the hot dogs on the flaming grill, Cat handing out cups and paper plates, and there was Lupe Haley – dishing out her pasta dish, a fruit salad, a veggie salad and dessert. And the homeless and hungry stood patiently in line.

It was a Monday, and as she has every Monday for the last 22 years, Lupe Haley came down to Ocean Beach to feed the homeless and whoever else showed up.

Yet hamstrung by demands by local police officers that she obtain the proper permit for public food handling, this Monday Lupe has set up her food line not at her usual site in Saratoga Park, right next to the sand, but in a friendly church parking lot off Sunset Cliffs Boulevard.

The Ocean Beach Historical Society hosted the 16th annual OB Exposed! photo contest at the Masonic Center on Friday, May 21. As usual, the event was an enjoyable celebration of local photographs and the shutterbugs who snap them.

Over the course of a couple hours, more than 100 people perused the entries, voted for the “people’s choice” winner, and enjoyed free food and drink. Ocean Beach native Noah Tafolla, creator of the KPBS TV series Wonderland, announced the contest winners, which were selected by a panel of judges

When Ocean Beach’s Heathens raise funds, they do it with style.

On a recent Saturday night, the OB-based group of artists, street performers and other free spirits welcomed 150 people to a warehouse in Barrio Logan. The night’s activities alternated back and forth between DJ-driven dance sessions and performance pieces featuring select members of the group.

Escape from Heathens Island was the name given the night’s festivities. Most guests wore costumes, the theme seeming to be a psychedelic blend of pirate and clown, with some tribal flavor tossed in.