By Ernie McCray
For the opening of David’s Imperial Avenue office
I was asked to read a piece I wrote about our mayor to be,
something to which I took heed and agreed
because right away it seemed like something cool to do to me.
But then it occurred to me
that there ain’t a whole lot of
“Orale”
in reading an essay, ese. [Read more…]
By Andy Cohen
Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. And the 2013 San Diego Chargers certainly are very lucky.
Against all probability, the Chargers are headed to the playoffs after completing a 9-7 regular season. Two weeks ago I wrote a column calling the talk of the Chargers making the playoffs nonsense, even after their dominant week 15, Thursday night win over the #1 overall AFC playoff seed Denver Broncos in Denver. The Chargers, it seemed, had finally gotten their act together and were playing some of the best football in The League. The problem was that it took them 13 weeks to get there.
The best the Chargers could hope to finish was 9-7, and with both Baltimore and Miami (who the Chargers lost to in week 11) ahead of them in the playoff standings, and with both teams coming off of impressive week 15 wins—Baltimore against Detroit, and Miami against Tom Brady (is there any other player on the Patriots that really matters?)—their chances at extending their season beyond week 17 were slim to none.
[Read more…]
For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time-A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line in the past year.
By Doug Porter
#1 Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire…
It was an “aha!” moment triggered by one sentence buried deep in the latest of an ongoing series of “news stories” published in the Daily Fishwrap that triggered a larger realization for me.
The purpose of the story and others like it was to propound upon the sore loser propaganda campaign promulgated by UT-San Diego publisher Papa Doc (that’s what his employees call him) and his like minded minions: With [insert disliked politician’s name] in power we are all doomed. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
Talk about your cheap shots. It was bad enough when the UT-San Diego editorial board whipped up an attack on our city’s schools laden with misstatements, factual errors and a personal attack on Superintendent Cindy Marten. But when a nationally recognized education leader stepped forward to correct the record on her behalf, his response was deemed unworthy for publication.
It’ all very Orwellian; reality isn’t simply what Papa Doug Manchester tries to tell us it is. When his minions refuse to acknowledge something, the idea is for you to believe that it never happened.
One of the longest running narratives with our Daily Newspaper has been their dislike for the Board of Trustees at San Diego Unified. The paper’s ‘reform’ agenda for public education mirrors the libertarian/conservative wet dream of privatized charter schools, a change that means monetizing learning for corporate interests and creating a two-tiered system favoring the wealthier (and white) classes. [Read more…]
By Jim Miller
…the emergence of the local plutocracy’s strategy of rule by ballot initiative is a genuine threat to our local democracy.
Last year, I rang out the New Year with a list of the best in San Diego culturally and politically in 2012. This year begs for a grimmer assessment. Better yet, politically, 2013 deserves to be tossed from the house with the caveat that it not let the door hit it in the ass on the way out.
It would be tempting to do a bottom ten list as there are so many deserving candidates in all quarters, but let me just reiterate what I wrote last summer, that much of what we saw transpiring in our fair city brought to mind Mark Twain’s pithy assessment of “the damned human race”:
I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals; since it now seems plain to me that the theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.
#1 Why Only Five People in Washington Take Congressman Darrell Issa Seriously
San Diego’s own Congressman Darrell Issa is making headlines nationally this morning, but not in the way that the local daily paper would like you to believe.
Today’s UT-San Diego has a Page Two story up featuring a picture featuring Issa holding up a piece of paper, with a caption that says “interviews with employees at the Cincinnati IRS office indicate they were directed by Washington to target conservative groups.”
The north county’s answer to Joe McCarthy went on CNN Sunday morning to tout his latest ‘evidence’, which turned out to be highly edited selections from staff interviews with IRS agents. Political correspondent Cindy Crowley called Issa’s bluff, actually reading the documents and pointing out that they proved nothing. [Read more…]
Maritime Industry Has Money, We Have Our Imaginations
By Brent E. Beltrán
How does one fight what is possibly the largest industry in San Diego, an industry that has millions of dollars at its disposal? We use our creativity!
Barrio Logan is a laboratory of creative, artistic thinkers. Movements have sprung forth from its streets, homes, alleys and parks. With that kind of history it is no wonder that artists have decided to take on the behemoth that is Maritime Industry and their surrogates.
The first of many artistic projects has already begun. You won’t find this one in a gallery or on a pillar at Chicano Park. This project is only visible on the internet. [Read more…]
We now know as much about cannabis as we know about alcohol, tobacco and many prescription drugs.
By Paul Armentano / AlterNet
Speaking recently with the Los Angeles Times, UCLA professor and former Washington state “pot czar” Mark Kleiman implied that we as a society are largely ignorant when it comes to the subject of weed. Speaking with Times columnist Patt Morrison, Kleiman stated, “I keep saying we don’t know nearly as much about cannabis as Pillsbury knows about brownie mix.”
Kleiman’s allegation—that the marijuana plant and its effects on society still remains largely a mystery—is a fairly common refrain. But it is far from accurate. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.
Things are looking so bright they gotta wear shades for bicycle fans these days, both nationally and locally.
The nomination of Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx’s for U.S. Transportation secretary on Monday has bike enthusiasts excited. The Hill quotes League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke as saying:
“When Secretary LaHood announced his departure, the bicycling community asked the White House to appoint a successor with a clear commitment to multi-modal solutions to local transportation challenges, and Mayor Foxx clearly checks those boxes,”
By Eva Posner
Blackfish has been on my DVR since it aired on CNN for the first time in October. I knew I should watch it but I didn’t want to. I’ve never been to SeaWorld, and I wanted to go. I wanted to see the whales. I wanted to watch them jump in the air and wave at me. It’s really selfish, and maybe not the best thing to admit, but I didn’t want to see Blackfish because I didn’t want to feel guilty about thinking the whale show was super cute.
Last night, I decided to woman up and turn it on. Which lead to the most depressing 90 minutes I have spent in front of a TV in a long time, and relief that I never did make it SeaWorld. Because I would have been disgusted with myself. [Read more…]
By Doug Porter
For the twelve days of Christmas I give you: The madness of 2013, one month at a time. A month by month recap of stories that appeared in the Starting Line over the past year.
#1 Assemblywoman Toni Atkins vs the Poor Oppressed Developers
Sometimes it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it.
Let’s start with the California Coastal Commission story in today’s UT-San Diego.
San Diego Assemblywomen Toni Atkins is sponsoring a bill that moved out of committee yesterday giving the California Coastal Commission the authority to directly fine law breakers.
Paragraphs three and four of the UT-SD story tell us first about the reaction against the proposed legislation:
Her Assembly Bill 976 has drawn sharp rebukes from business interests, many of whom already regard the Coastal Commission as too arbitrary when it comes to issuing permits for development along California’s 1,100 miles of coast.
By Judi Curry
My grandma has a case of shingles,
She hurts terribly bad,
I wish I could do something for her,
It makes me extremely sad.
Grandma went to her doctor,
Who gave her a strong pain pill,
But all that it managed to do for her,
Was to make her feel more ill.
Grandma went back to the doctor,
Begging for some relief,
The doctor said to get a weed card
And then go buy some leaf.
So Grandma looked on Google’s list
To find the closest place,
Drove herself to the parking lot –
Of course it was owned by ACE.
…… [Read more…]
