Fred's Humboldt Blog

School Dress Codes

2012-01-28T09:46:00.009-08:00

This story that Radley Balko linked to reminded me of school dress codes. I hated dress codes when I went to high school.

Both Mission Viejo and University High School, that I attended for a while, had dress codes. As I recall their dress code was much the same as the one in the story: Guy's hair couldn't touch the collar or ears, and no beards or mustaches. Also, girls couldn't wear pants except on a Pant's Day that as held two or three times a year.

I hated it, being a punk yippie. Eventually, some of us managed to get around the hair requirements by buying "short hair wigs". Those were pretty much just normal wigs except the hair on them met the dress code requirements. You'd put the wig on and stuff your longer hair under the wig. Looked kind of stupid but served its purpose. Once you left campus, the wig came off.

I managed to get away from the dress code entirely after I weaseled my way into continuation school. Hillview High School didn't have a dress code.

I don't believe Eureka High School has a dress code. I recall working near there one day and a group of girls were hanging out nearby. For some reason they reminded me of dress codes and I mentioned it to them. They seemed pretty unhappy even at the suggestion of one.

Anybody know of any schools in the area that still have dress codes?

Lots of Petitions Out There

2012-01-26T07:07:00.008-08:00

Here's the Secretary of State's list of all 60 (!) ballot initiatives or referendum cleared for circulation as of yesterday. A number of them seem to be similar, dealing with marijuana, taxes and even abortion.

The two most important are the ones that will return the state to a part- time legislature, which I've mentioned before here, and the elimination of the High Speed Rail Authority. That one will save the state near 100 billion dollars, if not more. Passing those two is imperative.

There's 17 initiatives still waiting to be approved for circulation.

More Pot = Safer Streets?

2012-01-25T07:27:00.003-08:00

Interesting piece here that looks at the lower auto accident fatalities in states that legalized medical marijuana.

I tend to agree that with most people it's either pot or alcohol. I've heard from others that claim they can do both. Last time I smoked pot was back in the early 80s. Back then, if I smoked pot and drank beer I'd end up having to have a chat with the toilet. It was only one or the other for me.

Gary Johnson on FOX Tonight

2012-01-24T07:32:00.002-08:00

Past two term Governor of New Mexico and Libertarian Party Presidential hopeful, Gary Johnson, will be on TV tonight with John Stossel on the FOX Business Network. 8:30pm Eastern Time which I believe is 5:30pm Pacific Time.

SOPA/PIPA: The Day After

2012-01-19T07:25:00.003-08:00

You can go back to Craigslist and Wikipedia now. Yesterday's protest is over but we haven't seen the last of those two bills. Reason magazine has a round up on the protest and where the legislation stands now.

Hat tip to Radley Balko for the link.

Call To Action: Stop SOPA

2012-01-18T07:35:00.003-08:00

Some web sites, including Craigslist and Wikipedia, have blacked themselves out today to protest the proposed Protect IP and Stop Online Privacy Acts working their way through congress. Craigslist lists a number of things, including online forms, you can do to make your feelings known to your congresscritters.

I found one page that shows Senator Dianne Feinstein as currently supporting Protect IP/SOPA. Mike Thompson opposes but no word on Senator Barbara Boxer. Everyone should at the very least contact Feinstein and Boxer and urge their NO votes on the bills.

I used on the e-mail form on Barbara Boxer's site to contact her. I tried FAXing Dianne Feinstein but there seems to be something wrong with my FAX program. I then tried e-mailing through her web site but access is real slow and I'm getting an error message on her e-mail page. I suspect she's getting hammered with traffic over this.

Now's the time to give them a piece of your mind!

Addendum: Politico has an explanation of what this is all about.

The Citizen's Legislature Act

2012-01-15T12:35:00.004-08:00

The Sacramento Bee has a partial list of ballot initiatives circulating right now. They say there might be over 50(!) after all have been cleared by the Secretary of State's office. Yikes!

I won't comment on all of them now but The Citizen's Legislature Act, which would revert the state legislature back to part time, is the most important one of the bunch. I realize the idea of a part- time legislature frightens a lot of people in this state- so many Californians wanting someone to govern every aspect of their lives- but it's the best thing we can do in both the short and long run.

Remember that California used to have a part- time legislature decades ago and things went pretty smooth. Many other states do fine with them. The problem is full- time legislators have way too much time on their hands, judging from the sort of stuff that comes out of Sacramento. The vast majority of it is wasteful, unnecessary or an assault on you or somebody else's freedoms.

We likely can't roll back the clock and take back everything they've done over the years but, by limiting the time they spend in Sacramento, we can at least slow down the pace of future damage.

I Lost My Cookies!

2012-01-15T07:59:00.002-08:00

or something like that.

Ever turn on your computer one day and none of the web sites you frequent recognize you? That's what happened to me this morning. News web sites, blogspot, sweepstakes...you name it. I had to log in to everything today. Not as easy as you would think if you forget the username and password for certain sites.

I'm wondering if there's a keyboard shortcut that deletes cookies and maybe I hit just the right keys and accidentally deleted them? Either that or my firewall is blocking them, but its settings haven't changed.

Oh well. I think I got everything back to normal now.

New Plastic Shopping Bag Site

2012-01-12T10:43:00.004-08:00

Here's a new web site for those caught up in the plastic bag ban hysteria. Nicely done, I thought. Their Discover The Cure page has some interesting info on plastic bags.

The first thing to catch my attention is they say plastic shopping bags are made with natural gas- suggesting they're not made with oil as we've been led to believe. Hmmm??? How can that be?

Second, while plastic bags are recyclable, don't be putting them in your recycling bin with the other plastics as they suggest. They aren't supposed to be in there, unless things have changed with the Willits company taking over our local recycling. Just drop them in the recycling bin at the supermarket.

Vote For the GOOOH Candidate?

2012-01-12T06:51:00.003-08:00

This letter to the editor of the Redwood Times piqued my curiosity if for no other reason than the writer was from out of state and the content wasn't specifically local. He wants incumbents out of office. I had to follow the link he provided.

I appreciate the sentiment of the Get Out Of Our House folks. At the same time, it reads a lot like some of the airhead comments I've read in the Sacramento Bee: Fire them all! Elect nobody!... blah, blah, blah.

Of course, the guys who make those comments likely never run for office themselves. They're just pointing fingers. They probably wouldn't have a clue of what to do if they were in the position of those they're criticizing. I'd also be willing to bet good money most of them vote for incumbents time and time again.

At least these GOOOH folks actually have a plan to replace incumbents by running themselves and it makes as much sense as some other ideas. Whether it amounts to anything remains to be seen.

"Politicians are a bunch of bums. We just need a different set of bums".- unknown

Romney's N.H. Win

2012-01-11T07:46:00.005-08:00

I was watching the NBC Nightly News last night. I got the impression news anchor Brian Williams was relieved that he could declare Mitt Romney the winner in the New Hampshire primary. Maybe it's just me?

Addendum: Interesting headline from Yahoo's news story on last night: "...GOP Comes to Grips with His Inevitability". At least some of those commenting on the story are a bit offended by what seems to be the media telling them who they should vote for.

Gary Johnson Talks Pot With MPP

2012-01-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

Past two- term Governor of New Mexico and Libertarian Party Presidential hopeful, Gary Johnson, will participate in an online "town hall" meeting today, Monday, January 9 with the Marijuana Policy Project's Robert Kampia. It's planned to run from 5 to 7pm Pacific Time and can be viewed at Johnson's campaign web site.

I'm guessing this will be seen on his actual web site and not the cover page the url first sends you to. If your screen resolution is like mine, you'll need to scroll down to the bottom right of the cover page and click on the "Continue to GaryJohnson2012.com" link.

Dealing With Stolen Recycled Metals

2012-01-08T07:58:00.003-08:00

Stolen metals have been making the news for some time now. The Sacramento Bee reports on the frustration everybody is having in dealing with it. For some reason the stolen manhole covers catch my attention. I wonder if there might be a relatively easy solution to at least make it harder to market stolen manhole covers?

I hate to be the libertarian proposing new laws. I realize it's easier said than done and there would likely be unintended consequences to any new laws regarding the selling of scrap metal, but I think my manhole cover idea might actually help a little:

Just about any manhole cover in existence belongs to a government entity of some sort. Whether it be a city, county or municipal services district, who else would have reason to legally own a manhole cover? I can't think of anyone or any reason any of those entities would sell one of their manhole covers.

Have those government entities develop a sales certificate for manhole covers (and drainage grates and whatever). If they sell some metal object for scrap the form would be filled out, a seal stamped on it and it would be signed by department head in that entity- perhaps their public works director.

A manhole cover or drainage grate couldn't be sold to a recycling center without that form. Sure, it could be forged, but how many manhole covers and such are actually being brought in to recycling centers? It would be easy to just make a phone call to the government agency to confirm the few attempted sales.

You might even have to stop allowing cut metal to be sold without a certificate. I'm sure many of these manhole covers are cut up into smaller pieces to avoid identification.

I can't help but also wonder if it might be a good idea to require scrap metal sellers to keep a record of who and/ or where they acquired the metal they're trying to sell? That way dealers and police could follow up if something doesn't seem right.

Again, I realize this is easier said than done and I certainly don't want to make the lives of people like this any more difficult. But the certificate of sale by government agencies for manholes and such seems like it might make it enough of a hassle that thieves might leave the manhole covers alone.

2012 Mayan Calendar Doomsday Prediction

2012-01-07T08:00:00.005-08:00

I know we're all worried about the world coming to end this December, as some think is predicted by the Mayan Calendar. I was, too, until I read a comment on a friend's Facebook page.

She reminded me that we all have items in our cupboards with expiration dates well past December 2012 so it can't be true. Good point.

Car Trivia: Safety Glass

2012-01-05T10:16:00.004-08:00

I've always wondered about this. Watching Pawn Stars the other night, they were looking at buying an old 1924 automobile and I got to wondering again. This time I remembered the next morning to try and find an answer.
First, I've always wondered when auto safety glass was invented and first used. Second, what happened before cars were equipped with safety glass? I would think the slightest accident might result in a real mess when the windows broke and people were cut to shreds from the broken window glass. I was at least partly right on the second question.

What I found was that auto accidents were quite the mess back in the early days but, at the start, cars weren't equipped with windows. That's why you see drivers and passengers wearing goggles while in the first cars, and they were generally fair weather vehicles only used when it wasn't raining.

Once they started putting windows on cars, as this page relates, the carnage began. The inventor of safety glass stumbled upon it by accident but realized the real- life application of his discovery after reading that the most serious injuries from auto accidents was from broken glass.

That was back around 1903. It wasn't until after World War 1 that auto makers routinely began using safety glass.

Next question, which I haven't found a definite answer to, is when the first recorded automobile collision happened. I did find mention of the supposed first automobile fatality. That was back in 1879 when a person fell out of a car and was run over by its wheels. Can anyone find mention of the first recorded car vs. car collision?

ACLU's 2012 Presidential Candidate Scorecard

2012-01-03T06:48:00.005-08:00

I was pleased to see my favorite, Gary Johnson, come in at the top of the American Civil Liberties Union presidential candidate report on civil liberties (warning: .pdf file). Good ol' Ron Paul comes in second with Obama at third. For some reason the report didn't include the drug war or death penalty, as Radley Balko reports.

Love or hate the ACLU, it's good to see someone besides the libertarians and the Libertarian Party paying attention to civil liberties issues.

Greenhut's 2012 Freedom Forecast

2011-12-31T06:18:00.002-08:00

Steve Greenhut takes a look at freedom's prospects in the year ahead.

2011 Civil Liberties Update

2011-12-29T07:52:00.004-08:00

Nice piece from Anti-War.com here on the state of your deteriorating civil liberties.

The Recycling Nazi Gets Spanked

2011-12-29T07:28:00.006-08:00

Yep, me. Despite being outspoken against mandatory garbage and recyclables pickup, I call myself the Recycling Nazi. I can't help but look in everybody's recycling bins as I go around town and scold those who have non- recyclables mixed in. Either that, or those with bins out for pick up when they're nowhere near full. You're only supposed to have them out on the curb when they're full enough to be worth picking up.

But yesterday I was so embarrassed. Recology- I guess that's the new name for Eureka City Garbage- called and scolded me for not having my recycling bin out on the curb in time. I was late. The pick up guy had already come by but noticed it as he looked down the street from a block or so away. Lucky for me he came back and picked up my stuff.

I actually had the best of intentions. First of all it was supposed to be raining. I don't like to put the bin out when it's raining, especially when I have a bunch of cardboard hanging out the top as I did. When I got up, it was raining so I figured I wouldn't put the recyclables bin out despite it being stuffed full. Then I forgot about it.

I usually don't place it out until about 8:30 or 9am, anyway. That lessens the chance of the bums rummaging through it. That usually works fine as he normally comes by later in the morning, or that was the impression I'd had. It's always worked before.

So it was probably 9:30am or later when I realized it wasn't raining and maybe I should put the recycling bin out for pick up. I checked doppler radar. It didn't look like it would rain so I rolled the bin out to the sidewalk hoping I wasn't too late. I figured it might be close. If it was too late, I'd just have to roll it back into the garage and wait for next week.

I saw the guy picking up later on D Street as I was working. I almost went over and asked him if he'd already done my house but decided not to. When I got done working I drove by the house, saw the bin had been emptied and patted myself on the back for getting it out in time.

Nope. When I came home the wife said I had a message on the answering machine. That's unusual enough. Nobody ever calls me, but the way she said it gave me pause.

It was a gal from Recology telling me- ok, asking me- to be sure and take my bin out earlier as the guy had been in the area much earlier. I guess he came by around 7:30 when my bin wasn't out. Later on he saw it from down the street from blocks away and went back to pick it up. He told the office gal he wouldn't go back to pick it up next time so I'd better have it out there on time from now on.

Ok. So I've been spanked. How humiliating!

Gary Johnson's Announcement

2011-12-28T14:58:00.002-08:00

I'm not sure if this is what he said at his formal announcement today, but this piece from his web site must be pretty much the gist of it and tells where his head's at.

Gary Johnson Switches to Libertarian Party

2011-12-28T09:44:00.005-08:00

Former two term Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson, has officially switched to the Libertarian Party. He'll be seeking their Presidential nomination. There's a live feed of the press conference on his web site as I write this but the audio didn't work well for me.

There's been speculation about this move for some time. Some are already trying to turn this into a Johnson vs. Ron Paul match with some of the bottom feeders within the LP apparently trying to match the main stream media in throwing out anti- Ron Paul hit pieces.

I've already wrote that regardless of how one feels about Ron Paul, they're really getting a bit ahead of themselves in trying to start this fight now. There's next to no chance Ron Paul will win the Republican nomination and it's highly unlikely Paul will switch to the LP after he loses that nomination. There shouldn't be an issue of one vs. the other.

If he surprises me and does seek the LP nomination, then would be the time to start throwing stones, if one is so inclined. In the meantime, the bottom feeders are simply working to alienate any Ron Paul supporters that might be willing to support Gary Johnson. Typical of way too many LP activists.

A number of people have criticized Johnson for his switch. Most suggesting he'd be losing the power and publicity he "gained" by being a Republican candidate. Others were upset at the idea of him taking votes from whoever the Republican candidate is. I disagree.

Johnson has been ignored by both the media and the Republican Party from the beginning. As I write this CNN has no word about Johnson or his switch. I don't expect to much in the way of change, although he might get a mention after the primaries should the media do any "wasted vote" stories.

As far as taking votes from the Republican candidate, so be it. I don't see any significant difference between Obama and the current Republican front runners now so lost votes shouldn't be an issue.

I'll admit Johnson doesn't have much to gain from his switch to the Libertarian Party, but he also has nothing to lose.

Addendum: I need to remind myself that Johnson still needs to win the LP's vote at their next Presidential nominating convention. In the almost 20 years I've been with the LP, they've always nominated the candidate I thought was best but you never know.

Powers- That- Be Go After Ron Paul

2011-12-27T07:38:00.004-08:00

This commentary posted on the Santa Rosa Press- Democrat web site this morning is at least the third hit piece in the mainstream media aimed at Ron Paul over the last few days. ABC/Yahoo News ran a couple similar ones that they left up on their main page a couple days each.

That's just the three I've seen. Never mind that anti- Paul pieces by the smaller commentators and bloggers. They're scared to death Ron Paul might end up polling in the top three, or even winning, the Iowa GOP caucus.

Love or hate Ron Paul, it really is something watching the media and other powers- that- be absolutely beside themselves over someone they feels threatens the power structure of the status quo.

Uh, oh: Now It's Sears & Kmart

2011-12-27T06:45:00.003-08:00

The bad news just never seems to stop. CNN reports that Sears is planning on closing a number of its stores around the country, Kmarts included. Sears owns Kmart.

We can only hope our local Sears is doing as well as Pay-n-Pak used to do here. Supposedly the Eureka Pay-n-Pak was the only store they had that made money. We'll have to keep our eyes open for which stores get the axe.

Have A Crappy Christmas

2011-12-25T06:47:00.002-08:00

I'll continue with my off and on tradition of trying to ruin as many people's Christmas as I can. You can read my past rants here. My favorite is probably the December 26, 2005 post. Suffice it to say, I hate Christmas. Always have.

No need to go over the same old stuff, but I will mention a few updates:

It's bad enough that Christmas still exists. Even worse that I seem to have noticed more houses with decorations than last year. Maybe it's just me? If not, it's a real disappointment as I was under the impression that practice was on the wane.

******

I've thought off and on over the years about donating a few bucks to the two radio stations I normally listen to. Both are non- profits: KMUD and KHSU. I gave up with KMUD for their politics, but now it's reaffirmed as they were playing Christmas music today. I'll never donate to KHSU, either, as they've been playing Christmas related music just about all week. I'll never donate money to a radio station that plays Christmas music.

******

I tried something new this year and did a Google search for "I Hate Christmas". I was hoping to find some like minded souls out there. The results looked promising at first glance. Taking a closer look, though, showed most the web sites are just the usual comedic spoofs of people trying to be funny or those complaining the holiday is simply too "commercialized".

This site here came pretty close but she seems to focus on the usual complaints of commercialization and a bunch of other lefty things such as killing trees. Even with that, if I thought she was serious I might have enjoyed it more.

I thought I found Hate Christmas nirvana with this forum. The first post wasn't all that good and when I tried to read the second it told me I had to register to go further. The registration wouldn't even accept the username I tried to use so I gave up. I'll give them credit for a nice try.

I finally found a home on the I Hate Christmas Facebook group. Yes! Finally some like minded Christmas haters. Ok, maybe not all of them. Some seem to be complaining about the same lame stuff others already have, like its association with shopping and Christianity.

Still, looks like there's at least some of my mind set there and I've been surprised at the number of women in the group. I've noticed what seems to be at least one soulmate there. She posted, "This day is fucking ridiculous.... And christmas shoppers are scary. Every year is getting worse and every year I have a bigger urge to just give some people shit wrapped in a newspaper as presents. Show them how much fuck I really give about them and this fucking day.".

My kind of gal, except I don't bother with Xmas presents. That shit wrapped in newspaper sounds like a fun idea, though. I'd love to figure out a way to sneak a bunch of those under someone's Christmas tree.

Maybe she could make a Hate Christmas guest post here next year? Now that would be something about Christmas I could enjoy!

One of the folks on that Facebook page also reminded the group that, according to that Mayan calendar issue, there's a possibility the world will end next December and this might well be the last Christmas we'll have to suffer through. That certainly places the end of the world into a much better light with me.

So, have a rotten Christmas, and let's hope the Mayans are right and it's the last one.

Freezing Your Ass Off

2011-12-24T07:55:00.010-08:00

Ever done that? I have at least a couple times. That's why I can't help but be a bit skeptical about the story of the 14 year old kid that supposedly got lost a couple days ago and spent the night in the woods outside Fortuna in these freezing cold temperatures. From what I could see, he fared pretty darn well.

One time I remember really freezing my ass off was back in the early 70s. A couple friends and I went camping in the Cleveland National Forest in Southern California. We drove up the Ortega Highway after dark, pulled off the side of the road and walked a short ways down a ravine by flashlight.

After the obligatory joint or two, we tried to sleep, but it was freezing cold. Not sure what the temperature was but all we had was those old square dacron sleeping bags that were never much good for anything other than using for covers when you're sleeping on someone's couch. It was too cold to sleep and we froze our asses off.

It wasn't until two days later I felt normal again. I was chilled to the bone the whole next day- even in the Southern California sun- and felt absolutely miserable.

That's why I'm a bit skeptical after watching the TV news clip last night of the kid in Fortuna having been found. He supposedly spent the night out with temperatures in the 30s, maybe low 40s, and he seemed in pretty good shape. I would think he'd almost be comatose from hypothermia after spending all night in those temperatures wearing only a T and sweatshirt.

Never mind what I think are some inconsistencies in the story. Something seems fishy just from the good condition he seemed to be in.

Addendum: I just watched the KIEM News video regarding this that ran last night and noticed something rather strange:

Never mind the rest of the stuff. Just notice that the kid seems to be the only one shown who has his outergarment unzipped. Everybody else has their sweatshirt or jacket zipped up. Some even have their hoods on. The kid doesn't.

Don't you think if someone spent an entire night in low 30 degree temperatures they'd at the very least have their hoodie zipped up? With those kind of temperatures we're talking life threatening hypothermia, yet he seems comfortable enough to not have his sweatshirt zipped up or his hood on after a whole night supposedly outdoors. Doesn't make sense.

"It's not who votes that counts...".

2011-12-22T07:23:00.002-08:00

It should be no surprise to anyone that Democrats were working behind the scenes to manipulate the recent redrawing of congressional district lines. It's as I suspected it would be.

It's not how the districts are drawn that counts. It's who draws the districts.

I opted out of voting on that initiative as I saw no point in voting on it one way or the other. Once again, I was right.

Ron Paul: Isolationist?

2011-12-21T10:44:00.005-08:00

Nice piece from Reason magazine on claims Republican candidate for President, Ron Paul, is an "isolationist". One quote sums that claim up: "This is like calling him a recluse because he tries to avoid fistfights."

******

Speaking of the Republican candidates: My choice, Gary Johnson, is rumored to be giving up on the Republican nomination and seeking the Libertarian Party's instead. This fellow from CNN claims he's confirmed it.

I certainly don't blame Gary as he's pretty much been ignored by both his party and the media from the start. I realize he'll probably get no more votes running as an LP candidate than their candidates normally do but that's still more than he will if he sticks with the Republicans.

And, at least that would give me someone to vote for.

NTSB Misleads on Cell Phone Driving

2011-12-20T08:52:00.002-08:00

The National Transportation Safety Board has been in the news lately advocating a complete ban on cell phone use while driving. They focused their case on an auto vs bus accident in Missouri where a couple young people were killed. The NTSB was at the very least misleading in some of their claims as this piece from the Cato Institute points out.

First of all, they stuffed their figures for the number of deaths that result from cell phone use while driving. The writer also points out that vehicle accident rates have been decreasing over the last ten years despite the ever- increasing use of cell phones in the car.

Lastly (is that a word?), it's pointed out that the young driver's behavior in the fatal accident was already illegal under Missouri law and there were other factors that contributed to the accident. But we won't let that get in the way of calling for a ban, will we?

For those new to this site, I'll reiterate that I opposed cell phone bans from the start. Now that they are law I hope those of you who think you're so important you need to be talking on the phone all the time become proud owners of a traffic ticket should you get caught blabbing away while driving.

Hat tip to Radley Balko over at The Agitator blog for the link.

New Political Party On The Ballot

2011-12-19T15:01:00.002-08:00

Americans Elect has gathered enough signatures to be on the ballot next year although there's no way of telling what their candidates will stand for. Seems like a dumb idea to me if only because we already have more than enough political parties in the country. Why start a new one?

Car Stereo Installer Needed

2011-12-16T14:50:00.004-08:00

Anybody know of a good place to get a radio installed in our '95 Geo Metro? It doesn't have a radio now and I'm looking to get one.

I figured Eureka Car Stereo might be the place to go but, after reading the few reviews I found, I'm having second thoughts. Connie says she thought it was supposed to be a good place. The reviews have me wondering.

I realize online reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt. There's a number of people that will complain about nearly everything. Many times you can tell by reading a review that the reviewer is just such a person. I'm not sure about the ones I've read here and here, but none of them are good.

Any suggestions?

Addendum: Taking a look at Fortuna Audio Concepts, mentioned in one of the reviews, they look pretty good. I'd rather stay in Eureka, though.

Fewer Auto Oil Changes Now

2011-12-16T07:38:00.005-08:00

I guess it's true, although I'm not sure I understand the concerns about "wasting millions of gallons of oil".

The L.A. Times reports it's no longer necessary to follow the old guidelines for changing your car's oil. It used to be recommended oil be changed every 3,000 miles or 3(?) months. Now even vehicle manufacturers are saying you can go up to 10,000 miles between changes on many cars. Wow! I guess I was right.

I've thought for some time that I needn't change my truck's oil as often as was said. I don't drive that many miles and I never saw the point in changing oil based on a certain period of time. It just didn't make sense, especially when the oil doesn't look dirty.

Nice to know there's no hurry now. I'll probably still keep doing what I've been doing since I bought my '97 Ford F150 and have the oil changed maybe a couple times a year when I take it in for its mechanical check- up. That's probably still early, but it works for me and no harm done.

This concern by the state that we're "wasting millions of gallons of oil" seems kind of dumb. A lot of businesses have sprung up over the last few years that provide oil changes. It may be a waste of money when people change their oil unnecessarily, but it's probably not a waste of oil and people get paid to change that oil. Should the state interfere with that?

Engine oil isn't like gasoline. When you drive somewhere that gasoline you use is gone forever. When oil is changed nearly 99.9% of it is recycled nowadays. Other than whatever bad stuff is filtered out of oil when it's recycled, seems to me it's not an ecological problem to worry about. It seems akin to phone book recycling: Old phone books are recycled into new ones as your old dirty oil is made into new, clean oil.

I just don't see oil changes being that much of a problem, with the exception of money spent needlessly, but that can be said about a lot of things we buy. So don't feel bad about changing your oil. Just don't change it quite as often.

Thanks to Radley Balko for the link to the story.

5th Amendment Shredded by Pres & Congress

2011-12-15T06:31:00.002-08:00

Looks like Obama is going to sign the bill that allows indefinite detention of American citizens without trial. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I did think it would be a class act on his part if he vetoed it.

Iraq War Over?

2011-12-12T10:40:00.002-08:00

So says the Pres', but you have to wonder with at least 16,000 people that will be working at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. That's larger than the population of Fortuna.

Eureka's Indoor Archery Range

2011-12-11T06:38:00.002-08:00

I had no idea until I saw this Craigslist ad that Eureka has its own indoor archery range. They even have a web page, although it needs some work. I'll have to head down there and take a closer look at it one of these days.

Debit/ Credit Card System Shift Needed?

2011-12-09T07:37:00.005-08:00

We seem to keep hearing more and more about debit and credit card scams lately. Nearly 500 Bay Area Lucky supermarket customers just got hit for big bucks by card skimmers. Hundreds more Ukiah area folk got hit by what seems to be a separate but similar operation.

I'm thinking maybe we need to change the way we, and the businesses we deal with, use debit and credit cards? Or maybe just switch to using cash? Nah. Not sure I could handle cash only anymore.

I'm wondering if more businesses ought to develop their own debit or credit cards? Many already do. Renner Petroleum has their own cards. The good thing about theirs is they can't be used anywhere but Renner cardlock stations. Bad guys can't use the card info to access ATMs, or even for gas from other branded gas stations. I would think that makes the card inherently safer and also makes Renner cardlock stations a much less desirable target for skimmers.

I noticed the other day while I was at Antich Automotive in Eureka there was an offer for a NAPA auto repair credit card- no interest if you pay off the balance within six months. I actually thought about getting one as I was running my debit card through their scanner and telling the Antich gal about the Lucky supermarket rip- offs.

Seems to me it would make sense, although I'm not sure how much of a hassle and expense it would be for a supermarket to have their own cards. Regardless, my guess would be that, had those Lucky customers used a Lucky credit or debit card for their purchases, maybe they wouldn't have had hundreds of dollars taken from their accounts via ATMs?

Dan Roberts For Congress Blog

2011-12-06T07:58:00.005-08:00

He's the only announced Republican in our upcoming congressional race (what district are we in now?). I was checking out his campaign web site the other day and noticed he has a blog of sorts. One of his first commentaries was regarding the California Public Employee Retirement System (CALPERS).

I'm not making any judgement as to Dan's viability as a candidate, but I think it's generally a mistake for him to bring up issues that aren't within the purview of the office he's seeking. I thought the same thing when Libertarian Party Candidate for Congress, Emil Rossi, sent out a release criticizing then State Assemblygal, Virginia Strom- Martin, on some state education related bill.

When you make a statement regarding an issue, you're opening yourself up to conflict not just with opposing candidates, but the voters as well. That's inevitable in a race for congress but, if you're going to raise the potential of having people disagree with you, you might as well limit the potential disagreements by keeping those topics related to the position you're running for. Why pick a fight when you don't need to?

If Dan wants to bring up an opponents' past state legislative record that shows a particular pattern of behavior such as heavy spending or restricting people's freedom, that might well be appropriate, but the caveats still apply.

Porchlighters

2011-12-04T07:19:00.010-08:00

I've been wondering about people who leave their front porch lights on at night. Looking out my window in the early morning, I notice less than half, maybe as low as a third, have their front porch lights on.

Some leave them on all night. Some turn them off when they go to bed. Some have them with motion sensors so they turn on when someone approaches the door. Why?

I noticed for some time the house across Trinity Street has hers on all the time. I just recently noticed the neighbors behind us, the Strubs, also have their light on. I finally asked them why. Julie said she guessed it made them feel safer.

I guess that's it for most of the porchlighters. Doing a quick Google search confirmed many people feel safer with the porch lights lit. I suspect it also comes back to many people's primal fear of darkness. That would account for the even fewer people I've seen who leave their living room lights on all night. I've noticed our next door neighbor, Jane, does that.

It's not for me. I do anything I can to keep my electric bill low, although we have thought about installing a motion detector light to the side of our house near the back gate where the creeps in the night sometimes come in to prey on us. Problem is, I suspect the motion of all the bushes near the walkway would set the light off so often we might as well just forget about the motion detector and leave it on.

No front porch light on for us. If nothing else it saves money and keeps trick- or- treaters from bothering us on Halloween. That is a good thing.

Free Car Removal For SoHum

2011-12-02T08:14:00.004-08:00

So that's how they're doing it. I've noticed someone on Craigslist offering to haul old cars away for free in Southern Humboldt. The Redwood Times tells a little about it. I guess scrap metal values have risen making the metal in old cars profitable. It still seems hard to believe it's worth the drive all the way up from Willits for scrap vehicles.

I wonder if those guys might be interested in removing some of the old buses and RVs you can see down off the side of the road in North Leggett?

Jim, Rene' and Jerry

2011-12-01T07:44:00.009-08:00

We were watching Nature on KEET last night. The show was titled Why We Love Cats and Dogs. One of the couples featured on the show seemed familiar to me. I told Connie, "I think those two are from Eureka". The more I watched the show the more sure I was.

As soon as it was over I turned on the computer and, sure enough, I was right:

I'm sure at least some here remember Jim Nelson and Rene' Agredano. They used to write the Times- Standard's Tech Talk column every now and then. I remembered the two if only from the names and their photos that would accompany that column. I also remembered them writing that they'd be leaving the area for some reason or another.

The show covered their journey in an RV as they spent time with their dog, Jerry, who was dying of cancer. A touching show if you get the chance to see it and Jim and Rene's segment probably got the most time of all the people and animals featured, including their own spot on the PBS web page linked to above.

Just noticed after reading their interview on the PBS page that they also wrote a blog for Jerry.

The SacBee Does The Freddy

2011-12-01T07:04:00.004-08:00

The Sacramento Bee published my letter yesterday about removing the Klamath Dams. Hooray! I realized a couple days ago the letter was probably too long for that paper. They limit letters to 150 words, as opposed to the 200 the Press- Democrat accepts. Forgot about that but they fixed it and, by removing the last sentence, cut the letter from 165 words to 145. Nicely done.

Funny thing about those letters to the editor (LTE). One of the reasons I started blogging was to improve my letter writing skills so I could fire off a decent LTE in a few hours as opposed to days. Not sure I've improved what little skill I had but I hardly ever send letters to the editor anymore since I started this blog.

Calwhine.com

2011-11-30T14:57:00.003-08:00

Stumbled on to a new blog via Richard Rider's blog. Calwhine looks like it will be a fun blog to follow once he squares away his formatting. Right now it looks like all his posts are in the left sidebar, at least to me (browser incompatibility?). Not sure what's going on with that. I e-mailed the guy and mentioned it but never received a response and it hasn't been changed. Still, it looks like it might be a fun read and I've added it to my blog list.

Buy Real Gas

2011-11-30T06:28:00.002-08:00

I was reading this article from Lewrockwell.com on the benefits of pure gasoline which led me to this directory of gas stations in the country that offer ethanol- free gasoline. I was surprised to see that Humboldt County has 3 of the 5 gas stations in the state that offer pure gasoline. Stations that have been added to the database, anyway.

Press- Democrat Does The Freddy

2011-11-29T08:14:00.004-08:00

That was fast. I sent a letter to the editor in on Sunday to the Santa Rosa Press- Democrat in regards their editorial supporting removal of the Klamath Dams. I was surprised to see it already published and the second of today's letters. Edited just a bit, but pretty much the same as I sent it in.

Now let's see if the Sacramento Bee publishes a slightly different letter I sent in on the same subject.

The Klamath Agreement: A Compromise

2011-11-26T09:04:00.005-08:00

The plan to tear down the Klamath Dams has been in the news again. The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat seems to think it's a great idea all parties agree on. No surprise there. The Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters takes a more cynical view, focusing on who would end up paying for it.

I found the comment by an Oregonian to the SRPD editorial enlightening. He claims polls and votes taken in the Klamath Basin show 70 to 82% disapproval of the agreement. Seems to me even some so- called progressives should disapprove of the way the planned dam removal is funded with the owner of the dams, PacifiCorp, paying for only a small portion of the removal. Taxpayers, some through a California water bond, pay for most of it.

I offer a compromise: Why not leave the dams in place and, rather than spend at least a billion dollars on a questionable removal, just spend a few million and install fish ladders to allow salmon migration? That way we'd be able to pretty much have it all: The fish can migrate. We get the water storage capacity of the dams, their power generation and save millions of dollars, as well.

Seems to me everybody wins under an agreement like that, even if we use part of the California water bond to pay for it.

North Coast Travelogue: Nov. 20&21

2011-11-23T07:59:00.010-08:00

Headed to the Bay Area again Sunday morning.

I was surprised at the Van Duzen and Eel Rivers. They looked like it might have been summertime. The water was fairly low and very clear. I would have expected them to at least have some mud from the recent rains but driving over the bridges I could see right through the water to the bottom of the river. Weird. Looked good enough to go swimming in.

*****

I guess people aren't really as bad off as they like to complain about. At least they don't seen interested in saving gas by lowering their freeway speed to around 55 mph. In the past I've had a few similar minded people seem to follow me as I drove south- the result of keeping roughly the same speed. This time the only vehicle that I saw for any length of time was the Amtrak bus.

*****

A remarkable first, once we got south of Cloverdale. For the first time ever I managed to stay on cruise control at around 56 mph almost all the way to Novato. I didn't know that was possible but, with the new lanes added and most cars seeming to keep a fairly consistent speed, I was able to sail right on through the area.

*****

We stayed at the Villa Inn in San Rafael again and were pleasantly surprised by our room. It was good from the start: As I drove in to the parking lot I saw a bottom floor room, Room 15, I thought would be perfect. "That room would be perfect", I thought to myself. Easy to get to and real close to anything we might need. I didn't say anything when I went to check in but the guy gave me room 15, anyway. A stroke of luck.

The room was nice, too, with no water stains on the wall paper as there were last time we stayed and some of the missing amenities from last time were there this time, including the TV remote control. It was cool with a light rain falling when we arrived and the room's heater worked quite nicely in keeping us comfortable.

Overall, a nice stay. We'll be back.

*****

We left UCSF close to 3pm, Monday which was a bit later than usual and I figured we only had a couple hours of daylight left. I hate driving at night, although it does make the time seem to go quicker for me. We made fairly decent time all the way through the Santa Rosa area, although I wasn't able to repeat my feat of using cruise control the whole way. Not even close, in fact.

By the time we were passing Ukiah it was dark. I wasn't hungry so was thinking of not making our usual dinner stop at the Willits Taco Bell. Instead, I picked up a Toll House ice cream cookie when we stopped for gas at the Willits Safeway. Connie picked up some other ice cream goodie for herself and off we went.

****

Stopped at the Legget rest stop to use the bathroom. I'd been wanting to do the #2 for hours but couldn't get myself to do it in a public restroom. There wasn't anybody at the Leggett rest stop but those places are so creepy at night I didn't want to spend any more time there than I had to so I did my #1 and raced out of there.

*****

Heading north from Leggett, we got into that curvy road section. I actually drove about my normal daylight speed and was surprised to see headlights far behind me closing up on me rather quickly. They must have been going 50 mph, or so. Seemed fast even for daylight conditions. As they pulled in behind me I'd wait for a turnout and let them pass. I had to say to Connie, "No matter how fast I go there always seems to be a bunch of people that have to go faster". What is it with you speed freaks? And there was more than just one or two of them.

*****

As we got a bit south of the Humboldt County line a light rain started up and my wiper blades were dirty or something. They squeeked real loud and didn't keep the windshield very clear. Now that could be a problem, but we weren't too far from Piercy so I figured I'd stop there and see what I could do about it.

We stopped at the Renner cardlock in Piercy and I tried wiping the wiper blades clean. That was about all I could think of doing so we started to leave and I felt a tummy ache from not doing my #2. I didn't think it a good idea to drive the last hour and a half feeling like that. I'd seen a porta- potti on the far side of the Renner cardlock and figured as disgusting as it was, I'd best try and relieve myself there. I did. It was disgusting, but I did feel better.

******

My work on the windshield wipers seemed to help (need to remember to use Rain-X on the windshield next time) and we drove straight through to Eureka, parking the truck at 8:28pm. About the same time we usually do. I guess forgoing the Taco Bell dinner stop made up the difference for leaving late.

Greenhut on the U.C. Davis Incident

2011-11-22T08:48:00.004-08:00

My colleague (hey, he's a libertarian writer, too) Steve Greenhut over at CalWatchdog pipes in on the pepper spray incident at U.C. Davis. No surprise that he calls it "brutality" as he's always seemed to me to have strong feelings towards any suggestion of police misconduct.

I have a slightly different take on it. As I wrote in a comment to his piece, I wouldn't go so far as to call it brutality. If the police attacked them with batons and beat the pulp out of some of the students, I'd call that brutality. As it was it was pretty much a temporary application of pain which the students had to have been expecting and could have left at any time to avoid.

I do think it's illustrative of how cavalier police have become in the use of both pepper spray and tasers. I realize tasers weren't used in this instance but it's the same thing: Police have a tool that isn't considered to cause lasting harm so they use it more and more, often in cases that defy explanation. When they're used when the target didn't ask for a confrontation, as Radley Balko reports, I think that certainly is brutality.

Give them an inch and...

2011-11-17T07:18:00.005-08:00

I can't help but laugh at what's going on at Santa Rosa City Hall.

You'll recall the Santa Rosa City Council, sympathetic to the Occupy movement, decided to issue camping permits to at least some that wanted to camp on the city hall lawn. That wasn't good enough for those that didn't feel enough permits were being issued, among other things.

So, some are backing out of the permit process and the city stopped issuing additional permits. To add to the entertainment, it's reported at least a a couple fights have broken out: A fist fight over a camping space, and a scuffle by a couple guys over a food bowl.

It might be fun to watch this Santa Rosa camp play itself out.

Addendum: Much to my surprise, the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle supports removing the campers in San Francisco.

Zombie Does Occupy Oakland

2011-11-13T07:27:00.007-08:00

Photojournalist Zombie took a tour of Occupy Oakland. I'm getting to think the same people participate in all the events she covers. They certainly look like the same crowd, anyway.

*******

I had some business in Old Town, Eureka yesterday so decided to drive by the county courthouse to see what was going on, not having heard anything about the encampment there for at least a couple days.

I was surprised to see not only tents on the courthouse lawn, but tents that seemed to cover just about every inch of the lawn with only a handful of people standing around. As with Zombie's photo essay of Oakland, the people standing around were what I'd have expected.

If it weren't the courthouse lawn I'd have been amused.

As it was I found myself surprised that the tents were there to that extent. I was also a bit angry as this seemed to me to be an obvious attempt at provoking a confrontation with police. And for what purpose?

*******

To add insult to injury, I was listening to KMUD radio at the time. The radio guy announced that more campers were needed at the courthouse. I might have heard "Occupy" used once, but no word about why they were camping and no word about it being illegal- at least while I was paying attention.

I thought that was shamelessly irresponsible. If he was going to support an illegal encampment he could have said why they were camping and that there could be legal ramifications for doing so.

I enjoy KMUD radio and listen to it all the time. Still, I'd be more than happy to see someone who ended up following that radio guy's advice- and ended up in trouble because of it- suing either the radio guy, the station, or both. It would be their just reward for, as we called it when I worked at Juvenile Hall, contributing to a difficult situation.

Pot Growers: Look out!

2011-11-11T15:03:00.003-08:00

Congressman Mike Thompson wants federal spy agencies to assist in the war on pot. What could possibly go wrong with that idea?

Download Your Petition

2011-11-11T07:12:00.006-08:00

I think this web site is pretty slick. It has a list of current petitions that are circulating to put initiatives on the ballot. Click on the link and there's links to download and print out the initiative and the petition itself.

For starters, I've just downloaded #1512, which would repeal the death penalty in California. There's more on the list to consider, including one to make public pensions more sustainable and three legalizing or reducing penalties for marijuana.

I'll start with the death penalty one and sort the other ones out later. Each petition takes only 3 signatures so it won't take long to get them filled out. You could also just sign it yourself (as long as you're a registered voter) and send it in.

Petitions also available from other states so check yours out.

Illegal Camping Is Not Free Speech

2011-11-09T08:31:00.004-08:00

More and more cities are getting fed up with the illegal camping associated with the Occupy Wall Street protests, Santa Rosa being one. I'm getting a little fed up with the cry by many- some who should know better- that the illegal encampments should be protected as free speech.

It may seem strange to hear from a libertarian, but free speech has its limits. You certainly should be free to criticize government, which is why we have a first amendment in the first place, but you can't do it anywhere you please. Cities and counties have the same right as people to set limits on how their property is used.

When a city or county removes illegal campers from a property, that doesn't interfere with those campers rights to free speech at all. Those same campers can still march down the street, start a blog or make a Facebook entry making their point and not be subject to arrest.

When you cross the line of legality, that's known as civil disobedience. In the past, direct action through civil disobedience has been credited with various reforms, but most who engaged in it often acknowledged they were engaged in it and the acts themselves were often directly related to the issue they were protesting- blocking munitions shipments in protest of the Viet Nam war, for instance.

I don't see how setting up an illegal camp on city or county property furthers the OWS cause. In fact, now it seems the issue has switched to the illegal camps themselves as opposed to whatever this was about in the first place. How illegal camping, or confrontation with the police, is going to get the supposed rich 1% to give up their money is beyond me.

In any case, this is not about free speech and never was.

Shoplifting In The News

2011-11-07T07:42:00.003-08:00

I've seen a couple notable shoplifting items in the news lately. One, reported by Radley Balko, was about a couple apprehended at a Safeway in Hawaii and accused of eating two sandwiches without paying for them. The intent of Radley's bringing it up was to expose what seemed to be heavy handed tactics by Safeway management and law enforcement.

It was interesting to see the comments center more on whether the couple intended to eat without paying, although most seemed to think the matter might have been blown out of proportion by all parties. I've since read that Safeway won't be following through with prosecution. Only the couple knows for sure whether it was simply an oversight not paying for the sandwiches.

Next we have State Assemblygal Mary Hayashi who got caught leaving a Neiman Marcus store without paying for over $2000.00 worth of clothes. She also claims it was an oversight and that she had intended to pay for the items.

I'll try to withhold judgment but you have to admit the fact she brought at least one Neiman Marcus shopping bag to the store with her, went into a change room and put the items in question into that bag in the changing room certainly doesn't look good.

Regardless of how Hayashi's case is adjudicated, I'll bet she won't let that happen again. I know I didn't.

*********

I actually had a short lived career as a shoplifter when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I'll blame it on a guy who later on turned out to be my best friend for a while. I don't know if he ever got caught. I did.

It started out one day in Tustin, CA back in the '60s. I was riding my bike around town and stopped by a small local drugstore. Just as I pulled up an acquaintance, the late Doug J., came out of the store. As he walked toward me he proudly pulled a huge Hershey bar out from inside his pants.

I didn't make the connection with him pulling it out of his pants, I just asked, "How'd you get that?"- us young kids never having enough money to buy a big bar like that- He replied, "I kiped it". Me: "Kiped it? What's that mean?". He says, "Here. I'll show you".

I follow him back inside the drugstore and he goes over to the candy rack. Stands there, looks around and when he thinks no one is looking, grabs another large candy bar and stuffs it inside his pants. We walked out the store and I was amazed. Wow! All the candy you want and not having to pay for it.

I immediately went back inside the store and kiped my own candy bar. I was hooked.

I soon showed a few other friends how to do it and, while I don't remember most of the specific details, I'm sure we raised hell amongst the stores for at least a month or so...until I got caught.

Some friends, Steve and Brian, and I went to the small store next to the original drug store where it all started. I think the small store was called Tiny Tim's- a small mom and pop type store that sold a little of everything kind of like a Circle K. We went on a shoplifting rampage, mostly focusing on toys.

Of special interest were some small stamped metal, double barreled cap guns and the caps we could use with them. We got a whole bunch. That night we had a sleepover at my house and had a blast with those cap guns, firing them off all night. They were kind of semi- automatic and the roll of caps would load as fast as you could fire them. And all of that for free!

Next morning we went right back to Tiny Tim's to get some more. We went to the toy rack and started loading up again. We were getting quite brazen about stealing at this point and had our pants, socks, pockets stuffed with caps, cap guns and whatever else we fancied. Steve and Brian figured they were done and left to stand by our bikes. I told them I'd be out in a minute.

I just couldn't get enough of it and taking one last look saw one more thing I wanted: A pea shooter kit. It was a small bag with a 6" straw with a paper package containing not only peas for ammo, but the outside of the package was a target so you could shoot peas at it. I wanted that pea shooter.

I looked to the right over towards the checkout and didn't see the store guy. I went for my one last grab and started stuffing it into my pants. As I stuffed it into my pants I looked over toward the checkout again and there was the store guy, standing at the edge of the aisle staring at me.

Yikes! I put the pea shooter back on the rack and started walking out of the store- the exit being on the opposite side of the store guy- and he grabbed me by the arm as I passed by him. "You're not going anywhere!".

Me: "Let me go. I'M SORRY". Him: "Give me everything else you have", and I emptied out my pockets and all the stuff I had stuffed down my pants. The only thing he didn't get was some caps I'd stuffed in my socks. I'd forgot about them.

Him: "Give me your mother's phone number or I'll call the police". Me: "No". Him, "Ok. I'm calling the police", and he picks up the handle to the telephone next to him. Me: "NO. NO!!!". Him, "Ok, then give me your phone number". Me: "NO, NO!".

We go back and forth for a while with that and me crying and screaming at the top of my lungs. At one point Steve comes back in the door and asks what's wrong. I tell him to go back outside and wait. He goes back outside. Some lady comes in with a son younger than I was and I yell at her, "Don't come in here. This man is mean!". She just walks on by.

Finally the store guy gets tired of the back and forth and after five or ten minutes of it says, "All right. Get out of here and I don't ever want to see you in here again!". I run outside where Steve and Brian were waiting on their bikes. Steve asks again, "What happened?". I said something like "Nothing. Let's get out of this stupid place", and off we went.

I never did that again!

High Desert Barbeque

2011-11-06T07:27:00.002-08:00

My collegue, J.D. Tuccille (Hey, he's a libertarian blogger, too.), recently wrote and published his first novel. It's called High Desert Barbeque. If my soul mate, Claire Wolfe likes it, it must be good. I'll buy my first copy as soon as I can figure out how to read it on this computer.

You can get either the Nook or Kindle version for just $2.99, or in paperback for $11.99. Buy one for yourself and a friend today!

Legalize Homemade Food Sales!

2011-11-05T10:58:00.006-07:00

How about legalizing sales of home made food? The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat reports a number of people trying to sell home made foods are trying to get a law passed to allow them to do so. Sounds like a plan to me and something the state's Republicans ought to jump on.

Removing government burdens on people should be right up their alley. Right?

Reverse 911: Broken Eureka Water Lines

2011-11-05T10:48:00.002-07:00

We just received one of those reverse 911 broadcast alerts from some agency advising that a couple of main water lines in Eureka have broken and they're being worked on. No word on where this happened but they ask you not call 9-1-1 should you come across it.

Nothing on the Times- Standard web site about it as I write this.

Twiddlebugs

2011-11-04T07:22:00.002-07:00

It hasn't been too long but I'd better post something. I don't want anybody accusing me of cluttering up cyberspace with a dead blog so here's one of my favorite and most memorable skits from Sesame Street.

Anybody else remember that one? I've remembered it since I first saw it but either my memory is faulty or there's two versions of it. I remember it being a bit different than the one shown.

Pretty Neat Saws For Sale

2011-10-31T10:31:00.003-07:00

This guy on Craigslist is selling some old logging saws circa 1925 that were supposedly used in the Yaeger Creek Logging Camp. Not any rust on them, either.

When I was a caretaker on a ranch up in Maple Creek back in '76-'77, I used a similar saw about 4 or 5 feet long to cut firewood. What a pain in the neck that was.

Near Record Chinook Run On Russian River

2011-10-27T07:43:00.002-07:00

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat reports on what seems to be a near record run of chinook salmon in the Russian River. They even mention how the local water authority uses information on salmon numbers to manage water releases from Lakes Mendocino and Sonoma, something they couldn't do without the dams in place as I brought up here not long ago.

Am I great, or what?

Death Penatly Ban Initiative Circulating

2011-10-26T07:46:00.005-07:00

A new initiative is being circulated for the November 2012 ballot. The Savings, Accountability and Full Enforcement Act (SAFE) will ban the death penalty in California and replace it with life without parole.

I'll be circulating a petition or two. I'd consider myself generally opposed to the death penalty but I'm not the type that sheds tears over the execution of some of the scuzbags that have been executed. If nothing else I think we spend too much money on the death penalty with little to show for it. I also tend to be appalled at the cavalier attitudes many have towards someone being executed by The State: Oh, well. He must have done something wrong!

So I'm here to help.

This was another one of those instances with the news media where I couldn't find a point of contact for petitions. No links to the proponent organization on the few news articles I could find. I hate it when that happens. Why can't the newspapers provide links for both proponents and opponents for a measure?

A quick search for info on SAFE did lead me to their web site where I added my e-mail address and zip code to their list. I quickly received an e-mail that provided a link to give them my name and address so I should get a petition or two when they become available.

If you'd like to do the same, go to the SAFE web site and give them your info.

The Fredster Makes the Tri City Weekly

2011-10-25T08:16:00.003-07:00

The Tri City Weekly's cover story this week was on haunted houses in the county. The writer contacted me for some info after reading a post I made here (March 15, 2008) a few years ago on the same subject.

Here's the part he put together from our interview:

'Fred Mangles has lived in several Eureka locations since 1973, some of which are haunted.

”The house I (currently) live in on K Street was haunted,” Mangles said. “I would go upstairs and feel this weird cold draft, it felt strange and I heard noises. My wife, Connie, would sometimes feel like there was a little girl behind her tugging at her shirt. But then we got a cat and it went away. I think it is because the ghost got someone to play with.”

He said he lived in a house on the corner of Trinity and E streets that spooked him. He would wake up with odd sensations. He had heard stories of people dying in the house, but never verified them. He said that before he moved into that house, a fire charred the upstairs."

Never mind the misspelled last name. Everybody does that.

I'm not sure where he got some of that. I don't recall saying most of what he wrote and he got the houses in reverse. I live at Trinity and E Streets now, not K Street, and both the wife and I used to have weird feelings upstairs. I never felt a cold draft or heard noises.

The house on K Street was when I was staying with the Scarpellinos back around '74ish. The upstairs was rumored to be haunted with reports of people seeing someone in the upstairs window when nobody was there and one guy reporting seeing an image standing over someone else while he was asleep.

That was it. If you want to read the whole story, here it is: Haunted Humboldt County's lore includes spooky stories, macabre myths.

Antich Automotive Does E-Mail

2011-10-24T08:00:00.002-07:00

Thought I'd give a plug to Eureka's Antich Automotive since they respond so quickly to e-mail. That may not seem like such a big deal but I've noticed many businesses with web sites can take days or weeks to respond to an e-mail, assuming they respond at all.

I've had more than one local business simply not respond to e-mail inquiries I've made. I've always felt if some business isn't going to respond to e-mail (and they need to be honest with themselves about that) they shouldn't include an e-mail address on their web site. That may turn web site visitors off but it's better than having them send an e-mail and not get a response.

In this case I was already on their e-mail list. I get notices to bring my truck in for service regularly. I've been happy in dealing with them so decided to get an estimate on replacing the front axles on the wife's Geo Metro.

I sent an e-mail to them late Saturday morning. Within five minutes I received a reply from the guy's blackberry saying he wasn't in the office and that he'd give me a price on Monday morning. Lo and behold, it wasn't even 8am this morning when I received another e-mail with the estimate.

That's what I call prompt and efficient service, at least as far as e-mail goes. Nicely done, Antich Auto!

Abolish Limited Liability Corporations?

2011-10-23T14:42:00.002-07:00

Radley Balko, over at The Agitator, started up a discussion on whether Limited Liability Corporations should be abolished. Not a subject that really keeps my attention but some of the comments are pretty much along the line of what I've felt.

For those of you who think that corporations and business in general are the root of all evil, ala the folks at the Humboldt Herald, this may not be a discussion you'll enjoy. The rest may find it interesting.

Public Service Announcement: Internet Scams

2011-10-23T08:02:00.003-07:00

I realize nobody here is a sweepstaker as I am, but since this sort of scam can be used against those who haven't entered drawings I thought I'd give it some attention. I would have thought that with the publicity given the various scams over the years people would be wiser, but this gal apparently fell for one. Here's what she posted in the "Winner's Circle" forum at Hypersweep the other day:

"I rec'd an email from theincenserack.com that I had won some incense and to get it, I would need to pay $6.50 for shipping. It came out on my PayPal a/c and said I could cancel it if I didn't want it, so I canceled. I just didn't need or want the incense to pay the postage for it.".

See anything wrong here? First of all, you should never have to pay shipping on a prize you won. I've won dozens of prizes over the years and have never been asked to pay shipping on any of them, even rather large items like this Alienware computer I'm typing this on.

Second of all, you don't go to PayPal to cancel any supposed prize as she was told to do. If you wanted to "cancel" a prize award, you'd go through the business that sponsored the drawing itself. PayPal shouldn't have anything to do with it unless you'd arranged a payment with some business beforehand.

What happened here, and I told her this in the forum, was she likely received a phishing e-mail. Either that, or maybe an unethical sales attempt, but probably a phishing attempt.

They were trying to get her financial info. They likely provided her a link to the "PayPal site" that was a close enough copy of the real PayPal site she couldn't tell the difference. Once she entered her e-mail address and password, they had it. Now they can access her PayPal account and do whatever they want with it.

Myself and one other Hypersweep member recommended she immediately change her PayPal password, at the very least. She hasn't commented back yet so there's no telling what action she's taken or what damage might have been done.

Oh, and those that were telling me that the $1000.00 I won a few months ago was likely a scam. As I wrote back then I tend to know legit sweeps when I see them. I received my $1000.00 a few weeks later and have since paid off my credit card balance. I was never asked to for any financial info, or asked to pay any shipping or processing fees for that prize.

Klamath Dams: I Won

2011-10-21T07:34:00.004-07:00

I hadn't intended on starting a debate when I commented on a Humboldt Herald post announcing a forum on the removal of the Klamath Dams. No one else had yet posted when I commented I've yet to hear a compelling reason for removing the dams. I've brought that up here before at least a couple times.

Just as happened here when I've brought up the issue earlier, no good reasons were given. I was a bit surprised that all I got were the same generalities I've heard before: Algae and dying fish. My bringing up the recent record runs of salmon on the Klamath despite the "fish killing dams" was cast aside by at least one or two intent on tearing down the dams.

I let the dambusters have the last word back at the Herald by leaving their last comment (as I write this) unchallenged as it speaks for itself:

"So, there you have it, all is well, no problem exists. I guess some people just love dams, and detest rivers as God gave them to us."

Uh, huh. I detest the rivers. I'd say I won that one if that's the best they can do.

Addendum: A couple recent Times- Standard stories illustrate the benefits of the surplus water that dams provide. This one tells of an effort by Friends of the Eel River to mount a fish watch on the Eel River and its tributaries. The concern being that low water flows might result in a fish kill.

Data gathered might result in more water being released from the Potter Valley Dam to raise water levels in the Eel. The raising of the water levels to assist fish migration wouldn't be possible without a dam to provide that water.

I thought I'd read a similar story about the time the T-S story was published that specified the Van Duzen River as having fish in it that might end up stranded. I don't believe the Van Duzen has a dam of any kind upriver so the fish there might well be damned (no pun intended) if rain doesn't raise the water level for them.

Zombie Does Occupy Wall Street

2011-10-19T07:55:00.004-07:00

Not quite what I was hoping for but photojournalist Zombie did take a crack at the Occupy Wall Street movement. It looks like there wasn't a big turnout for OWS in San Francisco, at least compared to Fleet Week, so she focused instead on a comparison between the two events and asks which event really represents the 99%?

The essay spans three pages so don't neglect the link to the next page at the bottom of each entry.

It's A Heat Wave

2011-10-17T09:38:00.002-07:00

Hard to believe it's supposed to be 69 degrees today, isn't it? Especially with all the fog and clouds. But that's what weather.com is forecasting. It gets a bit uncomfortable for me when I'm working outside, but I wouldn't mind if it stayed warm like this all winter.

Except for snow. We need to cold weather for snow to replenish our water supply. And maybe a little frost to sweeten my brussel sprouts. Other than that, this is fine.

Feds Go After Medical M.J. Advertisers

2011-10-13T09:58:00.002-07:00

Looks like the kinder and gentler Obama Administration is taking their war against medical marijuana up a notch. They're threatening to prosecute media that publish advertising for the clinics. This seems to be more than a bit over the top. What's next? Will they start going after anyone that advocates for using medical marijuana?

Oh, my God! Looks like we're already moving in that direction with the City of Los Angeles pressuring the RAND Corporation to retract a study they did that concluded medical marijuana outlets might help reduce crime. How soon will the feds start doing the same sort of thing?

Hat tip to Radley Balko for the links.

My Cool New Quote About Aging

2011-10-12T16:05:00.004-07:00

I'm working on this new statement about age. I came up with it accidentally while chatting with another player playing Aces High about an hour ago:

"I'd rather be four years younger and have a mortgage to pay off than four years older and not have a mortgage."

Pretty cool, huh? Except it doesn't roll off the lips all that well and takes just a hair more thinking to understand than I'd like. How about...

"I'd rather be 56 and have a mortgage to pay off than 60 and not have one."

That's not bad, either, but I'd rather leave out specific ages. Also, "...and not have one". One what? I suppose mortgage is obvious but some folks might read that to think it's about death, or something along that line, when it's supposed to be about not wanting to get older.

Maybe "I'd rather be 56 with a mortgage to pay off than 60 without one.". Hmmm??? Nope. Same thing and it almost could sound like I'm expecting to lose my home in four years.

Suggestions?

CA: Ground Zero for Muni Bond Crash

2011-10-11T07:01:00.006-07:00

An interesting synopsis here of a longer Vanity Fair piece on what at least one authority believes to be another potential economic catastrophe: The crash in the municipal bond markets. He thinks California will take the brunt of it. That certainly wouldn't surprise me.

The Vanity Fair article itself is lengthy and a bit beyond the capacity of my attention span. I still haven't gotten to the part where the muni bond collapse is discussed.

I did find the first couple pages entertaining, though. The author describes meeting The Governator and joining him on a crime filled bike ride through the streets of Santa Monica while they discuss the state of The State. I thought that was a fun read just by itself.

MJ Dispensaries and State's Rights

2011-10-07T15:35:00.004-07:00

As most of you know by now, the kinder and gentler Obama Administration has set its sights on California's medical marijuana dispensaries. Without getting into the pros or cons of medical marijuana, I hope at least some on The Left will take another look at their disdain for state's rights.

This is what happens when you have centralized federal control of things. Regardless of how Californian's have chose to deal with medical marijuana, the feds have said they don't care and, in fairness to the Obamatons, this same sort of thing would have likely happened under a Republican administration. In fact, I'm sure it has, although I'm not going to look up specifics.

The issue of federal control vs. state's rights certainly has two sides. I'm not sure anyone would want to dissolve the entire Bill of Rights and hope states came up with their own. As it is, states are allowed some latitude how the Bill of Rights is applied, though, and that's probably as it should be.

I'd really like to see this attack on the states be a rallying point between otherwise opposing sides. I won't be holding my breath as partisan concerns nearly always trump any common ground that the sides otherwise might find.

As an aside, if you haven't yet heard, there's more movement afoot at the federal level to expand U.S. drug laws outside the country with a proposal having been introduced to make even talking about drugs outside the country illegal under U.S. law. Radley Balko gives us a heads up on that development.

Humboldt's Worst Roads?

2011-10-06T10:24:00.003-07:00

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat seems to have taken a poll of the worst roads in Sonoma County. I don't recognize any of the names.

Maybe we should do one up here? I don't get around much and most of the county roads I've been on seem ok to me. About the only really bad section that comes to mind inside Eureka is a patch down on 2nd Street between X and V Streets.

Any other really bad sections of road out there?

Zombie Does An Affirmative Action Bake Sale

2011-10-05T12:08:00.004-07:00

Photojournalist Zombie has another fun piece up. This one covers an Affirmative Action Bake Sale at U.C. Berkeley put on by the college's Republican group. Too bad she hasn't been able to cover the Occupy Wall Street protests, but maybe there's still time?

Rainy Season Starts?

2011-10-05T11:58:00.003-07:00

Maybe. We've had over 2 inches of rain since the other night when the rain started. I hope this means an end to watering the things in my back yard until next summer. We'll need to remind those who water their lawns to turn off the water, too.

You may laugh but my experience has been that those Keep up with the Jones types determined to have the greenest lawn aren't concerned about the cost of the water they use and often leave their water timers on after the rain starts.

I remember once going to mow a guy's back yard in late October or November. It had been raining for some weeks but as I drove up I noticed his sprinklers on. No big deal for him as he had money to burn.

I'm just hoping we still have our Indian Summer to look forward to. Seems to me the usual pattern is for it to rain for a week or two at the beginning of the season, then it stops and we have a week or two of nice warm weather before winter sets in. I hope it hasn't already happened. I don't want winter to start just yet.

Should Cops Preview Their Own Videos?

2011-10-03T07:44:00.004-07:00

An Oakland police officer video taped his shooting and killing of a suspect. Should he be allowed to refresh his memory by viewing his own video before he writes his report? I'm not sure where I stand. I sent the story to Radley Balko over at The Agitator and will be interested in seeing what he has to say.

Obama Worst For Civil Liberties?

2011-09-29T09:46:00.005-07:00

I was surprised to see this piece in the Los Angeles Times. The author criticizes Obama's record on civil liberties claiming Obama has been a disaster in that regard.

I'm certainly no Obamaton but I've mostly thought of Obama's record on civil liberties as simply a continuation of those from past administrations. Maintaining the status- quo for the most part. The writer is correct, though, in that the civil liberties as well as the anti- war movement seems to have been muted under Obama.

Take the L.A. Times commentary as you will, but don't try and accuse the writer of being some right- wing shill. Wikipedia shows him to be well known as a "...champion of liberal and progressive causes".

**********

As an aside, perhaps the reason I haven't been too critical of Obama's civil rights record is that, while troubled by post 9/11 anti- terror efforts, I tend to concentrate on more "home" type issues such as people being arrested by police for recording police officers while in the course of their duties or being told what they can or can't eat (yes, I consider food and drink restrictions a civil rights issue).

Along that line, here's a petition to the White House asking that all police departments receiving federal aid be mandated to record police actions with the public. I've signed the petition but can't help but wonder that if such a law was passed it may come back to haunt us?

Might a court somewhere rule that- assuming this law was passed- since the police are required to record their actions, private citizens have no reason to and thus could still be subject to arrest?

Yelp!!!

2011-09-25T07:20:00.003-07:00

No, I didn't just kick the neighbor's dog.

Some of you might be familiar with Yelp as that online tool that enables people to review different businesses. I see it all the time when checking out places to stay on trips down south. One of the first links that usually comes up is Yelp where you get to see what other people think of that particular motel or hotel.

I became reacquainted with it yesterday when I did a search for Big Louie's Pizzeria. We were looking for the ingredients to their Baja pizza and came up with Yelp first. Unlike my other visits to Yelp, this was the first time I decided to do my own evaluation. I thought I might already have done a Yelp review but was asked to register first. No biggie. I registered and wrote a quick evaluation of Big Louie's.

The slightly unpleasant surprise was they're linked in with Facebook and Twitter and I was asked it I'd like to have my Facebook info added to Yelp. I thought I chose not to but, within an hour of registering, I received a "Friend" request from one of my Facebook friends who also uses Yelp. A few hours later I received another. I really didn't want to get in to that.

I guess it's no big deal but why does everything have to revolve around Facebook? Still, the site works easily enough and should be a useful tool for people to review and evaluate businesses. As long as they pay particular attention to my reviews since I don't have an axe to grind as some of the others seem to.

GQ Does Gary Johnson

2011-09-23T10:42:00.003-07:00

Gentleman's Quarterly has a really nice piece on Gary Johnson, the ignored Republican candidate for President. Much of it deals with exactly that: How the media picks your presidential candidates for you and what it's like being on the losing end of it.

Hat tip to Radley Balko for the link.

Free The Bees!

2011-09-22T07:31:00.004-07:00

I was pleased to see this North Coast Journal piece on local beekeeping and its related legal problems. All the local city councils should get onboard the effort to allow beekeeping within city limits. It's a no- brainer.

As an aside, the Eureka Animal Control officer that insisted the fellow in the story remove his hive immediately rather than wait for nightfall when the bees are inactive showed extremely poor judgement. Does he handle all his cases like that?

NO on Sidewalk Trees

2011-09-20T07:12:00.011-07:00

I found a green door hanger on my front door yesterday afternoon. It was from the Keep Eureka Beautiful (KEB) folks. Local busy- body and past candidate for Eureka City Council, Ron Kuhnel, was listed as the contact. They were offering to tear up squares of my sidewalk and plant trees in them, all for the low price of $75.00 each.

I'm sure they mean well, but this is a dumb idea for a number of reasons. There's no shortage of either trees or shade in Eureka but more trees, especially in the sidewalks, will cause problems- limited visibility, being one.

That's considered an advantage by the KEB folks because trees along streets slow traffic down. Why is that? Because trees reduce visibility so most people slow down because they can't see as well. But that also increases the chance of a child or pet not being seen when they suddenly appear from behind a tree. I suspect street trees could make streets more dangerous because of the drivers who speed regardless of conditions.

Limited visibility also makes it easier for thieves and other criminal types to go about their business undetected. Security experts always recommend less trees and shrubbery around a home, not more.

Trees make messes. One thing people who plant trees discover is they can be a hassle just because of the mess they make. All trees, whether deciduous or evergreen, shed leaves. Some shed leaves all year long. This ends up costing everyone for clean up and unplugging storm drains.

I recall driving down I Street last year when leaves were dropping. Between 5th and 6th Streets on the west side there's a number of sidewalk trees in front of businesses. Leaves were covering the sidewalk. That really looked the mess. I'm not one normally bothered by the "wild" look of leaves on the ground but who's gonna clean that up?

I know in my business Fall leaves can be a real headache. Try mowing a lawn with a 6" layer of leaves over it and see how fun that is. Sometimes there's more leaves than can be hauled off in one truck load. Often the city ends up footing the bill for removal as leaves end up out in the street.

Leaves can also be a safety hazard. I've slipped on piles of leaves before. A few years ago, the leaves from our chestnut tree piled up behind the tires of my truck after it rained. When I returned home the leaves were still there. As I slowed down and stopped, the wheels stopped on the leaves and the truck skidded about 3 feet. If the wife's car was still parked where it normally was I would have hit it.

What about the sidewalks themselves? There's three properties (one being the Arkley's) with fairly recently installed sidewalk trees within half a block of my house. I'm not impressed with any of them. I wouldn't go so far to call them ugly, but I cringe every time I see them. I can't help but think what a pain it would be to park my car or have to unload large items from a truck next to those trees.

I have yet to see one property with street trees that wouldn't be fine or even better off without them.

Sidewalk trees are not a good idea. If someone wants to go ahead and plant trees in their sidewalk, then have at it. I certainly won't. We have enough trouble with the trees we already have.

Let's hope few people fall for this idea or that those who do won't be able to afford the $75.00 per tree. Let's not go out of our way to create problems that needn't be.

Nice T-S Bone Marrow Transplant Story

2011-09-18T10:40:00.005-07:00

A nicely done story on the front page of today's Times- Standard regarding "bone marrow" transplants. This time they seemed to cover all the bases. Bone marrow is rarely used in transplants nowadays. That's why I placed it in quotation marks.

A year or two or three ago, the Times- Standard had a similar story about some gal from Hoopa(?) that was looking for a bone marrow donor. That story gave the impression that bone marrow was actually used for the transplant. Understandable, since even organizations involved in the process still use the term.

While not made too clear in today's story, the transplants are nearly always made today using stem cells taken from a donor's blood. They rarely extract bone marrow as they did years ago.

What they do is kill the patient's bone marrow using radiation or strong chemicals. The donor's stem cells are infused into the patient pretty much like a blood transfusion. The stem cells then create new bone marrow, hopefully minus the disease.

When that last story was published, I went to what were then the Times- Standard's Topix comments and simply pointed out that they use stem cells from the blood, not bone marrow. What followed were a bunch of quite nasty remarks in which I was accused of interfering with the girl's quest for a donor.

No matter how I tried to explain it, the folks who commented (with the exception of one who knew what I was trying to explain) really went after me. One told me that maybe my wife was special and got some special kind of treatment but (in so many words) I shouldn't interfere in other's efforts to get a bone marrow transplant.

I still can't figure out where they were coming from. Maybe it was the way I wrote my comments? At any rate, this latest story proves that my comments back then were correct and I feel vindicated.

Endorsing The YES Vote

2011-09-13T10:05:00.006-07:00

The Sacramento Bee's Dan Walters pointed out the other day how most of the bills that go through our state legislature- especially the ones towards the end of the legislative session- are essentially junk, and shouldn't see the light of day.

Then we have another piece in the Bee pointing out that many Democrats have a hard time voting No on any bills. At least a couple have voted Yes on any bill that came before them.

Lastly we have a SecBee editorial where the editors suggest the Governor mercilessly veto the vast majority of bills that are coming before him now, with the exception of a few of the editorial staff's favorites.

It's a breath of fresh air to see the Bee admit most of these bills shouldn't be passed. It's pathetic that while all of these bills were introduced and placed on the Governor's desk by Democrats, you can bet the Bee editorial staff will be endorsing these same Democrats next time they're up for election.

Eureka Online Water Billing Works Now

2011-09-09T15:51:00.003-07:00

Yet one more thing the post office will be delivering fewer of. I just received my water bill and noticed a billing web site included. Some of you might recall I tried their online billing some years ago and couldn't get it to work. Now it does. If you live in Eureka, give it a try.

SHARK!!!

2011-09-09T07:32:00.004-07:00

Actually, not too big of a deal but what was believed to be a great white shark was spotted near Crescent City. Some fishermen actually got a video of it circling beneath their boat and posted it on Youtube. Not the best video but if you watch the whole thing you'll see it a few times in the lighter water. One shot shows pretty good detail.

What I thought was cool about The Triplicate's reporting was they actually provided the search words to find it on Youtube. I've noticed some local news web sites sometimes don't even provide links to web sites that they mention in their stories.

All About Fracking

2011-09-08T16:05:00.002-07:00

I thought this Popular Mechanics piece on fracking was nicely done. All you ever wanted to know about that controversial method of natural gas drilling.

Support Your Right To Record

2011-09-06T09:16:00.004-07:00

We need to see more commentaries like this one by Glen Reynolds standing up for the right of people to record police in the course of their duties. A recent court ruling affirmed the right of people to do such things but many police departments and prosecutors have ignored that right in the past and continue to.

Radley Balko, over at The Agitator, has covered the issue extensively for some time. Here's his latest piece on citizens being harassed, beaten, arrested (or all three) for simply recording instances of what they believed to be police abuse.

I certainly agree with Balko that the police actions in this and other instances amounts to criminal behavior. We really need to turn this around and pass specific laws at the state and federal level criminalizing police interference with peaceful recording of their actions.

Giving Press+ A Try

2011-09-05T07:30:00.006-07:00

I went ahead and bit the bullet the other day. I signed up for a $2.00 (actually $1.99) a month online subscription to the Times- Standard. I used up my 5 free story views and wanted to link to one for my last blog post so went ahead with paying.

Rather silly of me to use a link that so few others can use. Probably even sillier to pay $2.00 for it!

Press+ is the outfit/ application that manages online subscriptions. It seemed a little confusing to sign up for, at first. Maybe it was because I kept switching pages and confusing their system. Seems ok now since it recognized me this morning without having to log back in with them.

What I don't like is the subscription is limited to just the Times- Standard. I tried to view a story in the Ukiah Daily Journal (same parent company as the T-S) and was asked to pay another $2.00. I'd feel a lot better about this if the subscription fee covered more than one paper's web site.

Regardless, I'm not going to pay for access to the Ukiah Daily Journal. I just don't use it that much.

POP's E Street Bust Fizzles

2011-09-03T10:52:00.004-07:00

It was a long time in coming but I guess the Problem Oriented Policing unit's bust of a house on E Street in Eureka didn't amount to much. Such a shame. I'm guessing the house with the brick chimney in the picture was the house that was raided. It's just a couple houses up on the other side of the street from ours and we've dealt with the goings on there for years.

I had no idea, except I saw four or five police cars parked a block down the street as I went to work Wednesday morning. No cops in sight and I couldn't imagine why the cops would be stopped out in front of Carol's house. I guess they parked down there so they could sneak up on them. I didn't know what happened until I read it in the paper.

Looks like it fizzled. The only arrest was for some warrant plus the gal that owns the house got cited for illegally turning her garage into a living space for some guys she's putting up. That cite for the code violation not exactly being something a libertarian should relish although if it succeeded in cleaning that house out you wouldn't hear me complaining.

So did it work? Is the neighborhood quieter and safer now? Doesn't seem like it. We suspect residents of that house of going into the Matteoli's yard on Tuesday night and stealing beer from a cooler left over from a party they had that same night. The next night- I believe the night of the day they got raided- they came back and took the cooler. They also broke the back gate when they couldn't figure out how to open it.

I was unaware of that until yesterday when I noticed we got ripped off, too. I didn't notice the garbage can I store my flattened aluminum cans in was gone from our back porch until I went to use it. I smashed a can in my can smasher, turned to toss it in the garbage can and noticed the can wasn't there. I thought something looked different earlier but hadn't paid much attention until then.

I asked Connie if she did something with it. That's when she told me she hadn't and that the guys from the drug house that stole the Matteoli's stuff probably took our can, too.

The first thing I noticed earlier that morning was the 5 gallon propane tank we had sitting in the center of the patio had been moved to the middle of the sidewalk. I just figured Connie moved it for some reason. When we realized the garbage can had been stolen (half full of flattened aluminum cans) we thought maybe they'd planned on taking the propane tank, too, but changed their minds. Or maybe they'd come back again and steal the tank and our barbeque? It wasn't in the way of the garbage can so there was no other reason to move it.

I put both the tank and BBQ inside the back room for the night, closed the back gate as best I could and blocked it with some old rotten stumps. We were hoping if they did come back we'd hear them.

They didn't come back last night but we were treated to an hour or so worth of loud yelling from them around 11 o'clockish. Some guy yelling "F**K Y**" at the top of his lungs over and over again. Not unusual at all for that place. We expect that sort of thing. I'm just hoping the stealing isn't going to start being an ongoing issue.

About the only way I can think to get rid of them is to hope for a good enough bust that they all end up in jail or maybe figure some way to seize the house using asset forfeiture laws (another issue that should bother a libertarian). All we can do is hope, but I hate the idea of having to put anything remotely of value behind locked doors every night.

In fairness, I also need to remind myself and others there's always the possibility that it might have been someone else that did the stealing. It's not like this is the first time we've had thieves in the neighborhood.

Alfred "Fred" Salinas: 1936-2011

2011-09-02T08:03:00.009-07:00

Here's to Fred Salinas, who died the other day at age 75. I hadn't seen him since back in the days of working at the Humboldt Bay Power Plant in the '80s. A friend e-mailed me yesterday to tell me he saw his name in the Times- Standard obituaries. A sad obituary it was, too, consisting of only a few sentences with no information about him. He deserved better than that.

Fred came to be a fellow guard at the power plant after being laid off at one of the mills out on Samoa that closed. I forget which one but he started there way back before the Samoa bridge was built.

He always had good stories to tell of those times, including taking the ferry across the bay to work. Back then it launched from the foot of West Del Norte Street. I particularly enjoyed the ones of the occasional fights that would break out over one thing or another on the ferry between a couple mill workers on the way to work. He'd seen it all.

He grew up in Texas and spent some time there both as a kid and an adult. I used to kid him about being of hispanic descent and the Border Patrol agents chasing after him. He didn't seem to mind, knowing me for the clown I could be.

We got to talking about the Border Patrol more seriously one day. He told me they were really good at picking out illegals. One time he was in a bar with some friends and the Border Patrol came in. They didn't give him and his group a second glance. They looked at the back of the bar, saw a group of Mexicans sitting, seemed to know they were illegals and arrested them. Somehow they could tell, Fred said.

I remember one time we were working the same shift together during a stormy day- one of those rare days when we get a bunch of thunderstorms here. He was patrolling the upper hill area of the plant- P1, we called it, for Patrol Area #1.

A bunch of squalls came through and I became a bit uncomfortable with some of the swirling cloud formations approaching the plant from the southwest. I'd seen similar things on TV before and they looked like how tornadoes formed. First time I'd seen something like that up here.

When we were done with our outside shift and came inside I commented on the weird cloud formations. Fred replied, "When we'd see something like that in Texas, we'd head for the cellar". Made me glad to know I was right to worry a bit.

A great guy, he was. Everybody like Fred. I believe he worked with us until most of us got laid off around '88. I never knew what happened to him after that but he never seemed concerned about the future prior to the layoffs. He used to say, "You'd be surprised how things seem to work out".

Since the obituary in the Times- Standard was so poor and was only up for one day, I'll let this post be my part in honoring a great guy.

Update: A nicer obituary for Fred in today's Time- Standard.

Another Humboldt

2011-08-29T09:43:00.003-07:00

It's always fun to read accounts of Humboldt County from the outside. In this case, published in yesterday's Santa Rosa Press- Democrat, the writer spent the first 11 years of her life in Southern Humboldt and takes a look at the Richardson Grove realignment project.

I started it expecting to find at least some airhead journalistic conjecture. I wasn't disappointed, although she waited until the end to suggest Richardson Grove might end up as "...just a memory".

End Of Summer Garden Update

2011-08-27T09:45:00.011-07:00

Seems like it went by so quick- garden season, that is. Then again, we started late, at least by my standards.

Here's the fava beans I started a few months ago. You can't tell by the picture but those fava beans are probably 5 feet tall. No beans on them yet but they have flowers. Down below them on the right are the the broccoli plants that were given to Connie. I planted them more at her request as I thought it was too late in the summer to get decent heads from them.

I was wrong. They did pretty well and we still have some side shoots, as you can see, although some are starting to flower. My past experience, and the reason I was leery of planing broccoli in August, was they seemed to go to seed as soon as the heads developed. Maybe it was cooler this year? I'll have to try a later crop again next year.

Back behind the favas and broccoli was where I had 3 tomato plants. One was given to me and two (Early Girl) I bought from Rite- Aid. I just wanted green ones to make pickled green tomatoes.

As soon as I thought there were enough to make a quart, I went out to pick them and noticed blight all over the plants. I'd been looking for that but not close enough. It was all over the inside of the plants so I picked about a quart of tomatoes that didn't look infected and pulled the plants up. Don't know if the tomatoes will taste bitter from the blight if they don't have visible signs on them. I know they taste bad if they do.

This 6x6 bed is what I'd referred to earlier as my "deadbed" as I'd planted some stuff in it randomly earlier on but gave up on it and just let the plants fend for themselves. I dug it up yesterday hoping it was really a 4x6 bed. I thought stepping stones might be buried under the dirt on the left side as it wasn't supposed to be any wider than the bed just past it.

Nope. No stepping stones. Connie says she thinks we pulled the stones up to place them elsewhere. That must be what happened but I don't recall doing it.

On the far side of the bed I pulled up a couple stepping stones to remove the morning glory runners beneath them. They go under the stones then pop up in the bed and spread. I think I got all the runners but I'm going to have to pull all the stones up, eventually, as they all have either morning glory or blackberry roots running beneath them. Not something I look forward to.

On the left of the above picture you can see part of the bed we planted beans in. The ones in the back look worse than the picture shows. They're turning yellow, coming to the end of their life. We picked a fair amount of beans from them. The row in the front that I planted later is just getting ready for picking.

Here's the five new beds I cleared over the last few weeks. The wood borders around the front one are almost functional. The borders around the other ones are either rotten or close to it.

I'm thinking of just leaving them as they are over the winter and early spring to see if any morning glory or berries pop up. I've already had to go back and dig up numerous suckers I missed in the original clearing.

The bed on the right, though, I decided to plant some more fava beans in. You can see the dark lines where I watered the rows. They just started popping through the soil a couple days ago.

Here's our zucchini plant on its way out. Seemed to me it started looking fallish a bit earlier than I remember my zucchini of past years. We haven't gotten too much in the way of fruit from it but we started late and the plant wasn't of the best quality.

Still I pulled 3 medium sized ones from it yesterday and there's some smaller ones just forming. From the looks of the plant I'd be surprised if it bears fruit more than a week or two longer.

You can see all the morning glory and other weeds underneath it. There's actually some berry bush sprouts inside it, too, that can make for painful picking of the fruit. Quite a mess, but the plant still did ok. It'll take some work digging that bed up when it's done.

Lastly, there's the so- called hedge along the back fence that I had to cut about 5 feet back. I mentioned earlier the Strubs stopped speaking to us after that as they enjoyed the privacy it provided. Once they noticed it was growing back, they at least least grudgingly wave every now and then should they see us.

That banksea rose that makes up most of the hedge can be a pain in the neck. Already it's growing back over our garden space. It will have to be cut back often to make sure it stays back where it won't shade the vegetable beds but we'll let the top grow up high if only so we don't have to look out at the Strubs, or they at us, every time we step out our back door.

The only other planting plans I have right now is to maybe plant some brussel sprouts in the newly cleared beds. If I can't find some plants somewhere soon I may give up on that and just let the garden sit until next spring. Come December I'll have to start planning what I'll plant, and where, next year.

Redwood Times Still With Topix

2011-08-26T09:23:00.004-07:00

I probably shouldn't bring this up, but I just noticed the Redwood Times is still using the old Topix comments. Good for them. I like it, despite how low the quality of comments often ended up using that format. No pay to view deal yet, either.

Now watch: Since it's owned by the same company as the Times- Standard, they'll probably switch to pay- to- view and Facebook comments and you'll have me to blame.

Addendum: I just noticed the Humboldt Beacon is using Topix, too.

Dehumidifier vs Humidifier

2011-08-25T06:42:00.007-07:00

Anybody ever seen on of these? I'm surprised you don't hear about them more often up here. Maybe things have changed as this is the second or third dehumidifier I've seen on Craigslist over the last couple months.

Back in the late 70s I bought one. I was living at a small place out on Beechwood Drive in Cutten. It only had a small electric wall heater and was very cold in the winter. I felt it had to do with how damp the house was. I'd heard about dehumidifiers somewhere and decided to try one.

I drove down to Sears but couldn't find one in their appliances section. I asked the sales guy where they might be found. He kept replying as if I wanted a humidifier. He apparently had never heard of a DEhumidifier. Why anyone would want a humidifier up here, unless they had a house with wood heat, was beyond me. It's damp enough around here as it is.

So we went back and forth: "We have plenty of humidifiers." . I'd reply, "I don't want a humidifier. I want a DEhumidifier. It takes the moisture out of the air, not into it.". He didn't seem to get it but we finally ended up looking in the Sears mail order catalog and found one. Seems to me they were fairly expensive for the time at around $150.00, but I ordered one.

It finally arrived. I set it in the living room, turned it on and watched it go to work.

They work like a small refrigerator. They have coiled copper(?) tubes that get real cold. The moisture in the air condenses on them and drops into a storage container sitting below the coils. I'd guess the container held about 3 gallons.

For the next 3 days I was dumping it out every few hours. It was amazing how much water that thing pulled out of the air. You'd think that moisture from the outside would replace the water that was going into the container but that didn't seem to be the case as after the 3 days water collection really slowed down and I could get by dumping it out once a day.

And the house felt a lot warmer. It really did work in making the house more comfortable. I'm surprised more people don't use dehumidifiers up here as cold and damp as it can be.

Do we use one now? No, but this house doesn't seem that damp. Besides, I don't want to use any more electricity than I have to. When I've seen them being given away on Craigslist for free, though, I've been tempted to snag one. Maybe one of these days I will and see if it makes this house seem any warmer.

Casey Anthony Story Pulled?

2011-08-23T16:22:00.006-07:00

I was reading a story early this morning on the CNN web site. It featured comments by one of the jurors in the Casey Anthony case. He (at least I think it was a guy) said they didn't feel they had enough evidence to convict her for the death at the time they made their verdict. Now, however, after having read all he has about the case, he said they would have likely convicted her.

He went on to say that the jury wasn't privy to much of the information everybody else had as they were often removed from the courtroom when certain evidence was presented. That goes along with one of the legal talking heads I was listening to after the verdict who said the jury didn't really see the same trial everyone else did. I agreed, but I still think there was more than enough evidence to convict on a lesser charge such as Aggravated Manslaughter of a Child.

I went to look for that story within an hour after I first read it and couldn't find it. I still can't find it after doing countless Google searches. I'm wondering if Anthony's lawyer got wind of it and threatened to sue CNN unless they took the story down, or maybe some judge said it should be removed?

Don't Worry. They'll Stop

2011-08-19T08:19:00.006-07:00

I often say that in jest to people I see waiting to cross the street: "Don't worry. Go ahead and cross. They'll stop.", referring to the cars driving by. I guess I shouldn't joke about that as so many people do it anyway.

The Santa Rosa Press- Democrat reports a four your old boy was hit in a crosswalk in Santa Rosa while in crossing the street with his mother. At least one car stopped. I guess that made them feel all was well and they could cross the street without further worrying about traffic. Except a guy in one lane didn't stop and hit the kid. He died from his injuries.

That sounds pretty much like the one- armed man who got killed crossing in the crosswalk on 4th Street in Eureka a few years ago. The traffic in all lanes but one stopped. He starts crossing, figures everything is ok, and doesn't keep his eye on the incoming traffic. One car doesn't stop and hits him. He's dead.

I see this time and time again in Eureka: People take a look. It looks ok, so they cross. While they're crossing the street they just look straight ahead or down at the ground. I see it ALL THE TIME!

We can blame who or whatever we want for these tragic accidents but, bottom line is, they all could have prevented if the person crossing the street keeps his eye out for oncoming traffic all the time, not just when he first steps into the street.

Textbooks Offer Both Sides!!!

2011-08-19T07:57:00.007-07:00

Maybe that would have made both a good headline and story, contrary to my earlier comment on this Sacramento Bee article. Some are unhappy that some plastic bag industry input was accepted as part of the issue of plastic bag pollution in state school textbooks.

One guy commented he couldn't understand what in the article gave me the impression the writer was upset the textbooks would at least give some print to the other side of the issue. I gave a rather convoluted rebuttal, made worse by the formatting not working right when I posted it and it ended up in one large paragraph.

After making my rebuttal I realized my answer could have been much shorter: If school textbooks routinely show both sides of an issue, the fact that they included the other side in this instance -after plastic industry input- wouldn't be worthy of the news coverage it got.

The comments to the San Francisco Chronicle's version of the story, which is pretty much verbatim, makes my case. Most of the comments I've read there seem to be from people who are livid that the folks who put together the textbooks "caved" to industry pressure and allowed some of their view to be included in the book. A typical comment:

"Under pressure- whether you like the bags or not the "California school officials" are spine-less worms."

Enough said.

August 20: Lemonade Freedom Day

2011-08-19T07:51:00.003-07:00

Tomorrow is Lemonade Freedom Day. Set up your own stand in support of all the kids' stands who have been shut down by local governments. An Authoritarian from the Washington Post explains why such restrictions are good for us.

"Necessity is the plea made for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants. It is the plea of slaves."- William Pitt

Blue Republicans Needed

2011-08-19T07:48:00.002-07:00

Some guy I've never heard of before makes a good case for Democrats to support Ron Paul.

Forgetting (Ignoring) Ron Paul

2011-08-16T09:34:00.008-07:00

Fun clip from Jon Stewart's Monday show where he takes on the media for ignoring Ron Paul, despite Paul's second place showing in the Iowa caucus.

Fun as that is, I'm fit to be tied when I see the media and political parties ignore candidates that call it the way they see it, instead of trying to bullshit everyone as the establishment candidates often do.

Being a Gary Johnson supporter is much worse. They wouldn't even let him participate in the debates.

******

Addendum: Salon magazine has a nice commentary related to this. They even go so far as to mention former Governor Gary Johnson. Mention of Ron Paul and Gary Johnson starts with paragraph 6 and closes with this one:

The steadfast ignoring of Ron Paul -- and the truly bizarre un-personhood of Gary Johnson -- has ensured that, yet again, those views will be excluded and the blurring of partisan lines among ordinary citizens on crucial issues will be papered over. That's precisely the opposite effect that a healthy democratic election would produce.

Dumb Idea: DMV TV

2011-08-13T07:34:00.004-07:00

I find a lot of the other reality shows on TV entertaining, but the idea of a show focusing on California Department of Motor Vehicle Offices seems dumb to me. As the Sacramento Bee reports, they're planning just such a show.

If nothing else, I haven't had a problem with the DMV in as long as I can remember. I've only had to go into their office maybe once or twice since they started online services. I can't remember why I had to go in there but I don't think I was there more than 20 minutes either time. That's quite an improvement over the long waits of decades ago.

I probably won't bother even watching the premier episodes of this one. Then again, you never know. I thought the spin off to The First 48, First 48: Missing Persons, sounded like a dumb idea. After all, no way a missing person case could be as interesting as a murder case. I actually found the missing persons version of the show to be quite good and watch it whenever I can.

The Strubs Have A New Tub

2011-08-11T07:16:00.007-07:00

I was walking down the sidewalk spraying weeds yesterday and noticed one of the neighbors, Julie, doing yard work out in front of her house. She was dumping the waste into one of the green waste bins City Garbage rents out. How exciting!

There's Julie standing proudly next to her new bin. Congrats to Laurie and Julie for their bouncing baby green waste bin. May you have many happy fill- ups together.

The best part of this is now we can sneak over there and dump the overflow from our bin into theirs when they aren't looking!

What lights do you leave on all night
	Porch light, all night
	Porch light, only until I go to bed
	Living room light
	Lights near all doors and gates
	No lights

Free polls from Pollhost.com