I'm a Libertarian living in Humboldt County, CA. I've lived here in Eureka since 1973 and joined the Libertarian Party in 1992. This blog will mostly focus on local political issues, but I may stray into state and national issues as well, when I can't help myself. Please post your comments by clicking on the "comments" link at the bottom of each post. Although I do moderate comments, you need not be a registered user to post them.
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Me
I wrote previously here I'm desperately, deathly ill. Still am, so blogging is going to be light. It's difficult for me to just sit here.I'll hopefully be out of this slump soon, but it's going to take proactive medical efforts to defeat it. Bear with me. I'm not dead yet.
Today is supposedly International Womeon's Day, or A Day Without A Woman. Just as well as now I can ignore the wife. Women not allowed to comment here today, either. That's what you get for being a woman. Bye.
I stumbled upon the American History Channel last night. All the screen said was "AHC" so I kinda deduced what it meant by that and its programming. Some fun shows, including one called something like America: Fact or Fisction, where they went over what they claimed were common misconceptions of U.S. History. And a fun fact: St Patrick's Day originated in America. That's fun but I hate that we take credit for corned beef (Yuck!). I forget what channel number it was but you may want to check out AHC.
The Times- Standard tells us of the upcoming forum for Mckinleyville Community Servces District candidates. Shouldn't be too many candidates participating since they're limited to Mary Burke, David Coelho, Bonnie L. Oliver and James Vance. March 8 is that Day Without Women so the ladies best take the night off for that one. Maybe that leaves room for our very own Jeff Lytle, aka HOJ? Except he took a big defeat last time he tried that race. I doubt he wants to go there again.
Jacob Sullum over at Reason tries to cut through the mustard as to just how the new Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, might handle recreational marijuana where it's been made legal. Nothing specific seems in the works and it seems there's not much to worry about, at least as I'm reading it.
I had no idea until I read this Reason article that March 8 has been declared International Woman's Day, or A Day Without A Woman, reminiscent of that Day Without Immigrants that totally slipped by me. Hopefully, this one will slip by me, too, but I enjoyed reading Shikha Dalmia's take on the event.
The Free Thought Project declares the Wendy's restaurant chain the leader in the move towards automating the fast food business. This to stay profitable yet inexpensive with increasing minimum wage or living wage mandates. You read about it here first, folks. This will be a continuing big issue as time goes on with robotics and artificial intelligence taking over more and more jobs.
The Times- Standard tells us about that new spin off for buying energy up here: the Redwood Coast Energy Authority. I got a letter about this the other day and there was a commercial on TV about it last night. Call me skeptical, but I don't think I'll opt in. This Redwood Coast Energy Authority supposedly acts as a new entity to sell us what we've already been buying. They supposedly give you the option of choosing what type of energy you can buy: renewable vs. standard, etc. I'll give these guys credit compared to what I saw going on in Sonoma County when this was being pushed down there. Down there the airheads kept thinking they'd be cleaning up the planet with their new choice of green energy, no matter how many times they'd be reminded that most of Sonoma's energy is already "green" since it's geothermal, originating from their Geysers Plant. I haven't noticed if anyone has claimed to save money down there yet. I get the impression those who were against it to begin with still feel it's a bad idea. But look at who's running ours: "The program is governed by elected officials from Humboldt County and
the cities of Eureka, Arcata, Fortuna, Blue Lake, Trinidad, and Rio Dell
— Ferndale didn’t opt into the program, according to a statement from
the energy authority."
The same people that screw up everything else up here, so call me skeptical. I'll give these folks credit for one thing: At least they're being honest in admitting renewable power is more expensive than traditional. Both the Times- Standard article and the commercial last night pointed out that renewable with cost an extra cent per kilowatt hour.
The Lost Coast Outpost reports on Mckinleyville's rush to join other communities in banning smoking, and who knows what else? Apparently their advisory committee voted 5 to 1 to race toward more senseless ordinances. At first reading, member Ben Shepherd seemed the adult in the room, but he ended up voting for the ordinance after all was said and done. I get the feeling some elected folks take more pleasure in voting for things, than against. I feel safe in writing the county Board of Supes will jump on board. There surely must be some way we can set ourselves apart from the rest of this totalitarian state?
I just received an e-mail from City of Eureka leading to this Nextdoor page announcing a gun buy back program. How cute! I held back when I read of Eureka City Council's latest rental home inspection plan where inspectors will go out and hassle people over what are deemed unsafe or unattractive aspects of local rental housing. The Times- Standard quoted someone in city hall as saying that's a good idea because "Los Angeles and San Francisco do it that way". Great. So now the main towns in Humboldt join in a race to the bottom? Seems many forget why we moved up here: you know, the live and let live attitude and all that. That's what I originally liked about being here. I guess the big city types, including former big city cop, Chief Andrew Mills, don't see it that way. I'm guessing but it would seem a gun buy back is his idea. So how do those buy backs work? My understanding is you can take in any gun and be paid a stipend for it. I have a friend- a gun guy who is a deputy sheriff in Washington now- who witnessed such transactions and said, to be honest, the money paid for the quality of guns acquired was a "pretty good deal" for the seller. I suppose that makes it no big deal except for the big city attitude raising its ugly head yet again. I guess we should all join in and follow Eureka in its race to the bottom.
The Lost Coast Outpost kinda makes my point for me- me seeming to be the lone voice in the wilderness opposing Eureka's Street Tree program. They report on inmate work crews cutting down some old trees in Old Town. I suspect those trees were part of the natural foliage that's existed there for some time. Still, it shows what we have to look forward to as more trees are crammed in to our sidewalks and such. The Outpost notes problems caused by these older natural trees. In particular, the Eagle House: "....new owners are making a “significant investment” to upgrade the late
19th century inn, and were concerned with mold growing on the exterior
part of the building, which was being shaded by the trees, which needed
to be removed to accommodate the upcoming improvements." Do we need to exacerbate these sorts of problems with a city encouraged and run tree planting program? I should think not. There's no shortage of shade, or trees, in Eureka as it is.