OB Rag

Originally posted June 17, 2009

Taggers defacing OB, Iranian election upheaval, Homelessness, Carrie Prejean, Bird Porn. While these are all important issues, except maybe Prejean, the overload of bad news can be enough to make you want to take a nice warm bubble bath with your toaster. So if you start to find yourself overloaded with stressful political, social issues, do yourself a favor. Laugh.

And check out Ocean Beach Comedy.

By Dixon Guizot

Though he doesn’t seem like he’s in a hurry, Ocean Beach’s Dr. Jeoffry Gordon gets a heck of a lot done.

In addition to treating patients and managing his practice, Dr. Gordon speaks to local political clubs. He writes articles for medical journals. He works with the national movement for a single-payer health care solution. And along the way, the doctor stays powerfully well-informed in areas like politics, history, and finance. He recommends works by authors such as Kevin Phillips, Niall Ferguson, and Thomas Frank.

You might think a person with all that to keep him busy wouldn’t have a moment to spare, but Dr. Gordon’s demeanor isn’t rushed. He speaks deliberately, choosing his words carefully. And on a recent Monday afternoon, as we walked to lunch at Rancho’s Cocina from his office at the corner of Cable Street and Santa Monica Avenue, he strolled at a relaxed pace, prompting me to slow my normally anxious stride.

SURVEILLANCE CAMERA AND POLICE WATCH TOWER COMING TO OCEAN BEACH

Big Brother is creeping into our lives, inch by inch, camera by camera, tower by tower. Recent posts on our blog have described plans by the City of San Diego to install surveillance cameras in and around Mission Bay, including one on the OB Pier, and that the San Diego Police Department dragged out their controversial mobile watch tower for this year’s first Floatopia.

Surveillance cameras, police towers … Big Brother is definitely creeping in … do you remember the origins of Big Brother? He is a fictional character in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, the dictator with seemingly absolute control in Oceania, a society that is a totalitarian state.

Editor: Where were you during Easter Sunday’s earthquake? Patty and I were on the wooden deck and we felt every rock and roll, and went through four aftershocks. The following by Doug Copp will make you forget everything you’ve always learned about surviving earth quakes.
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The “Triangle of Life”: Ten Ways to Survive the Next “Big One”

by Doug Copp

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world’s most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries…

by David Helvarg

President Obama’s decision to have Interior Secretary Ken Salazar open vast new areas of federal ocean waters to offshore oil drilling is no surprise. In his State of the Union address, the president explained that his vision for a clean energy future included offshore drilling, nuclear power and clean coal. Unfortunately, that’s like advocating a healthy diet based on fast-food snacking, amphetamines and low-tar cigarettes.

If the arguments you hear in the coming days for expanded drilling sound familiar, it’s because they’ve been repeated for generations. We’ve been hearing promises about safer drilling technologies since before Union Oil began drilling in the Santa Barbara Channel. And if you don’t remember what happened that time, you should. Soon after the wells were bored, one of them blew out in January 1969, causing a massive oil slick that slimed beaches and killed birds, fish and marine mammals. The resulting catastrophe helped spark the modern environmental movement.

COME INSIDE FOR MORE ….

* “Terriers” Returns to Old Townhouse Restaurant April 6th

*OB Rag Calling for OB Heathens

*OB Comedy Celebrates Fourth Anniversary Show – April 9th

*OB Centric Holds Another “Swap O Rama Rama”

*Rock ’n’ roll academy opens doors in OB

Now, I’m not a big fan of “State of” kinds of speeches. Most times they leave me with a feeling of “Now, that was some BS I could have spared myself.” But it was a joy the other night listening to Richard Barrera, the President of the San Diego City Schools Board of Education, share his thoughts on schools being community based in a refreshing non-preachy conversational tone as opposed to the usual empty tome that politicians usually read verbatim at such occasions in coma inducing tones.

His rap resonated with me because as an educator I can say, from having been “part of” creating some fairly dynamic learning environments in my time, that it can’t be done with out tons of input from the “hood.” I mean what is the purpose of education if not to empower communities, the stakeholders?

At first, it looked safe to go in. So, two young highschoolers decided to try swimming at Sunset Cliffs. But Katie Kitchenka and Breyaundra Woods, both 18 years old and from Steele Canyon High School, soon found out it was too cold.

They tried getting back to shore, but couldn’t. Fortunately, an off duty border patrol agent came upon them yelling for help, and he threw them a beach towel and helped get them to a ledge.

Editor: If you opened up your computer this April 1st morning to the homepage of San Diego News Network (SDNN) you would find this headline and the following article:

OCEAN BEACH PURISTS UP IN ARMS OVER NEW MCDONALD’S

In a surprise move that flies in the face of every thing the small oceanfront community has been about, Ocean Beach officials announced Thursday that fast-food burger giant McDonald’s will open up a location along Newport Avenue.

In Part I, we saw how the terms “left” and “right” stem from the French Revolution, that during the early days of the revolt, French delegates met in the National Assembly chamber. Back then, the French delegates on the right-side of the chamber – hence the Right – wanted to keep the King and those on the left side – the Left – wanted him removed.

Ever since then, to be on the right means standing up for property rights, the status quo, and the powers that be. To be on the left means standing up for civil and social rights, for change, and for egalitarianism. Although, the terms are relative and are tied to their historical and societal context.

By Sting / Huffington Post / March 31, 2010

Whether it’s music, activism or daily life, the one ideal to which I have always aspired is constant challenge — taking risks, stepping out of my comfort zone, exploring new ideas.

I am writing because I believe the United States must do precisely that — and so, therefore, must all of us — in the case of what has been the most unsuccessful, unjust yet untouchable issue in politics: the War on Drugs.

The War on Drugs has failed — but it’s worse than that. It is actively harming our society.

Editor: The following Ten Myths was prepared this month by the California Budget Project. Go here to see their nifty graphs and pie charts.

Myth #1 : The Largest Share of the State Budget Goes To Prisons

The Facts:

* The State spends more than four times as much on K-12 education as it does on corrections and one and one-quarter times as much on higher education as it does on corrections.