OB Rag

Christmas 2015 Notable for Extreme Weather Throughout the US

By John Lawrence

Record high temperatures on Christmas day, as much as 30 degrees F above normal, were experienced up and down the eastern portion of the US. At the same time, tornadoes destroyed homes and lives in the nation’s midsection and south.

December 2015 saw more than 2,600 record high temperatures; major metropolitan areas in the Northeast saw some of the warmest Christmas Eves and Days on record.

The author surveying the devastation of Pinyon-Juniper deforestation (Photo: Max Wilbert)

By Will Falk / San Diego Free Press

Once I recovered from the shock I experienced witnessing the carnage produced by a Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) so-called “pinyon-juniper treatment project” just south of Spruce Mountain in Nevada, all I wanted was the destruction to stop. In order to stop the destruction, we have to ask the question: “Why are they doing this?”

Reader Allissa Rosa sent these polished photos of Abbott Street in Ocean Beach flooding at sunset yesterday, Tuesday, January 5th.

Yes, it happened again.

The so-called “million-dollar” condos at Saratoga Avenue and Abbott Street have flooded for the second time in less than 4 months.

In this most recent series of El Nino storms, OB and other parts of the City and County flooded. As did the garage and some of the units at the Saratoga condos. And – as KUSI reported – there was a Lamborghini parked in one of the garages.

The vacationing owner of another car that was under 6 feet of water at the same complex had leased a unit for $5,000 a month and had parked his vehicle in the garage that accompanied the unit. And no one warned him of possible flooding. The very same condo complex experienced flooding during the rains in mid-September 2015. The big news then and reported worldwide was that a brand new Lamborghini was destroyed in the garage of the complex.

My grand-daughter finally arrived on January 2nd in the New Year – Skylar Rae Seguin was born at 4:50 a.m. Sedona, Arizona time.

She and mom – Michelle – and dad – Forrest – are all doing fine. Tired but fine.

Skylar came in and weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces, and was 20 inches in length.

Recent 3rd Deliberate Impersonation Causes Dissension Between Well-Known Staffer and Readers

It is official: OB Rag technical staff have determined that there is a well-knowledgeable troll who has recently intentionally impersonated the emails of OB Rag staff and used them in comments to articles in order to cause dissension among the staff and to discredit staff to the readers of the OB Rag.

The most recent impersonation was of well-known OB Rag restaurant reviewer, Judi Curry, with a comment made using Judi’s email address and avatar to a post regarding a petition calling for justice for Tamir Rice, the 12-year old African-American youth gunned down by a white police officer in Ohio.

via UFT

By Jim Miller

It’s a new year and a big one for politics. Here is my pragmatic political wish list for 2016:

1) That Donald Trump actually wins the Republican Presidential nomination and brings the entire Republican Party down when the sizable majority of Americans who hate his ideas vote out the party up and down the ticket.

2) That Bernie Sanders wins some primaries and continues to unsettle the Democratic Party and build momentum for a continuing progressive movement in our politics, win or lose.

3) That the lack of a mayor’s race will finally convince San Diego progressives …

Because we’re drunk?

Dan Fallon / diggs

Let’s be honest, most of us don’t actually know the words to Auld Lang Syne. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from drunkenly slurring along to the instantly-recognizable tune at our annual New Year’s Eve parties.

It’s a song that elicits feelings of goodwill towards man, a song that moves. While Auld Lang Syne is an integral part of the New Year’s Eve ritual, most of us probably still have a few questions about the song. Namely:

What are the lyrics?

Where did this song come from?

And why the heck do we spend the first few minutes of each year singing it?

Is Bono right? Is it true that “nothing ever changes on New Year’s Day!”?

Without tangling up on that concept, we now post below articles we have published over the months of 2015 that have some interest for us today as we review the past year and anticipate the new one.

Check these out – perhaps you, dear reader, missed some in the Hurley-burley of modern SoCal life.