OB Rag

by Lane Tobias

Picture this on a beautiful fall afternoon: Live art and in-motion clothing design on the sidewalk. A mural in progress. Wine, cheese, and make-your-own cupcakes to whet your appetite. A DJ spinning beats as beautiful women clamor over swapped (and now shared) clothing. A curly-haired, bearded reporter amidst the madness.

Nothing about my presence at the OB Centric “Women Only” Clothing Swap made sense; in every respect, I was the outlier. There was rule “# 5 – No Boys Aloud”.

by Sunshine / November 9, 2009

I feel privileged to have just witnessed this man, Sinh Tho Nguyen, conclude his walk across America right here in OB on November 8th. He left the east coast’s Atlantic Shore on June 10th and literally walked across this fine country of ours.

As we freely approached him on the shores of the Pacific, he was shaking from the cold. Some kind OBcean took off their jacket and gifted it to him. His demeanor is kind. He appeared awed and exuded gratitude for all of America.

by Ernie McCray

Once upon a time, at the outset of World War II, Japanese American students at CaIifornia State Universities were rounded up and shipped off to internment camps.

Now those Institutions of Higher Learning would like to grant honorary degrees to the students who suffered such indignities.

And I guess that although an honorary degree might not be as profitable as getting a home to replace the one you might have lost or as powerfully emotional as being reconnected with an old pal you were separated from and have never seen again – it’s never the less a nice gesture, a needed touch, perhaps, in making the world a better place.

BREAKING NEWS: At about 8:15 PST, the House passed the health care reform bill, 220 to 215. One Republican voted for it, and 39 Democrats voted against it.

WASHINGTON — With a personal push from President Barack Obama, the House of Representatives Saturday inched closer to passing historic health care legislation that would guarantee virtually all Americans access to care.

Obama met for half an hour with House Democrats as the all-day debate was starting Saturday morning, and compared the health care effort to Democrats’ championing of Social Security and Medicare.

“Now is the time to finish the job,” Obama said …

When John Boehner, the Republican leader of the House, appeared at the Tea Party rally at the Capitol on Thursday afternoon, it was a dramatic signal: The wing-nuts have taken over the GOP.

Think I’m being harsh? The angry folks at the protest — which attracted several thousand conservatives — held up signs with messages of hate: “Get the Red Out of the White House,” “Waterboard Congress,” “Ken-ya Trust Obama?” One called the president a “Traitor to the U.S. Constitution.” Another sign showed pictures of dead bodies at the Dachau concentration camp and compared health care reform to the Holocaust. A different placard depicted Obama as Sambo. …

OB ELEMENTARY CELEBRATES ITS 100TH ANNIVERSARY
(see inside…)

Seagull shot with arrow found in OB
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Newport News and Rumors
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December 5, 2009, OB Holiday Parade
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TV Series “Terriers” Rumored to be Coming Back to OB in January
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School Board member John DeBeck Joins OB Historical Society in celebrating OB Elementary’s 100th year anniversary – Nov. 19th
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Chinese Commies Invade OB
AND MORE ……

By Mark Ames / AlterNet / November 6, 2009

It’s hard to pinpoint what’s the most shocking thing about Major Malik Nadal Hasan’s shooting rampage in Fort Hood, Texas. I’ll start with this: there’s nothing all that ground-breaking about it. Happens all the time, it’s just that we’re a nation of amnesiacs who forget all the unpleasantries, and refuse to learn the valuable lessons.

For starters, Fort Hood is located in Killeen, Texas — where one of the deadliest rampage shootings in American history took place in 1991, when an unemployed ex-Navy enlistee ….

Jonesborough resident Jim Stevens admits he’s not a particularly religious person, but even he is awed by what he has seen nearly every morning for the last couple of weeks on the driver’s side window of his Isuzu pickup truck.

It was two weeks ago today that an image, resembling the face of Jesus, made its first appearance on the window.

Washington : After nearly a month of gridlock, the Senate voted unanimously to extend unemployment benefits for some 1.3 million jobless Americans expected to lose benefits by the end of the year.

If, as expected, the House adopts the Senate version of the bill, it means workers in all states will be eligible for an additional 14 weeks of federal unemployment benefits. In states with unemployment rates higher than 8.5 percent, workers will be able to extend their federal unemployment benefits a further six weeks.

NEW UPDATE UPDATE: The clean-up being planned for this Sunday, Nov. 8th has BEEN CANCELED. Dr. Ehmann has sent word that he does not want anyone coming by his house this Sunday. Watch this blog for future details.
THE PENINSULA, CA. The people and resources that were mobilized to help elderly Point Loman Robert Ehmann now need help. And the help is needed immediately.

Ehmann is the 84-year old Orchard resident of Point Loma whose medical and physical conditions …

OCEAN BEACH, CA. I met Sheldon Dorf back in the mid-seventies here in Ocean Beach. The OB resident passed away on Tuesday, November 3rd, to diabetes complications. He was 76. Sheldon was perhaps one of the most culturally influential OBceans as he was a co-founder of San Diego’s now infamous Comic-Con.

Comic-Con – now the convention that draws tens of thousands every year to San Diego. The City jumps hoops just to keep the event local.

Stop and think a moment. Tuesday November 4, 2008. Election night. I bet you can remember where you were, what you were doing.

We had invited friends over, to celebrate together, or commiserate together- who knew? We weren’t sure what the outcome of the election would be. Would Obama carry Pennsylvania and Ohio and Virginia and North Carolina?

We had the computer set up with MSNBC, and the champagne was flowing. Earlier that day at the Central library information desk where I worked I answered many many questions about where people could vote.