San Diego Free Press

Grassroots News & Progressive Views

You are here: Home / Archives for Columns

Sex in San Diego: Applying to Become a Sex Talk Operator

by

by A feleségül

Last week, I applied for a job that might be the solution to my dilemma. I applied to be a Sex Talk Operator. You know – where guys – girls, too, I guess, call the sex line and become titillated by the female on the other end of the phone. I could do that, I think.

If I were a different kind of person I could enjoy turning men on, and then hanging up on them. But the Human Relations expert (?) I talked to warned me that I could not hang up on the caller – the cost is excessive – and billed to their credit card by the minute! I would be paid a small stipend, and the longer I talked to the caller the more commission I would make. (I guess I don’t want a “wham, bam, thank you ma’am situation.”)   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Trash from Foreclosed House Deposited at Bank of America Branch in San Diego

by

Residents from southeast San Diego’s Mountain View neighborhood took matters into their own hands yesterday; cleaning up garbage accumulating at a foreclosed property owned the Bank of America, and “depositing” it outside a nearby branch office of that financial institution. The doors were locked at B of A’s 36th and National location as reporters and TV camera crews watched community members, led by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment, unload furniture, appliances and litter gathered from the shuttered, but uncared for, property currently owned by the bank.

The dramatic protest was staged to call attention to the proposed Property Value Protection Ordinance, under consideration by the San Diego City Council.  The law would require banks to register homes in the city upon the filing of a notice of default, with a $100-a-day fee for failure to obey the act. If lenders register a distressed home but fail to properly maintain the property (leading to blight), the bank would be subject to a fine of up to $1,000 a day. This, proponents say, would help the city cover the true cost of neglected properties.   [Read more…]

What Congress Doesn’t Know About The City Heights Post Office

by

It was stinking hot walking from the 40th Street transit stop on University Avenue to the City Heights Post Office four blocks away. Cumulus clouds, a sure sign of summer rain everywhere else I have ever lived, were piled up in the sky directly above me. They deflated before my eyes, as if whatever rain they held had been sucked right out of them in one thirsty gulp. There would be no sudden refreshing rain shower.

A rain shower would not have been well received by the fifty or so adults sitting on the low wall outside of the Church of the Nazarene, or standing on the sidewalk and leaning against the wall of the building in the adjacent alley. It wasn’t 2:30 yet and the church would not begin its weekly food distribution for another half hour. Most of the people were elderly. A long line of their collapsible walkers with a seat and basket awaited the box of food that would be forthcoming.   [Read more…]

Why We Need More Poetry in Our Lives

by

By Karen Kenyon

“We are hungry for the secret news about life,” said former poet laureate, the late Stanley Kunitz. He was speaking of the news that poetry delivers.

Most Americans just don’t get this deep soulful daily news.

We don’t know the names of our great poets.

We don’t pay our great poets much (the majority of poetry anthologies pay in copies — most very accomplished poets teach at universities or other schools, in order to survive). Poets’ paychecks are either nil or less than even an outfielder in a minor minor league. Even our Poet Laureates are only given a stipend of $35,000. They are not household names.

Thousands don’t fill a stadium to hear a poet here in America — unless that poet is also a musician — say, Dylan or John Lennon. It’s a different story in many other countries.

The poets often speak, or spoke, for the people.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – It’s a Bad Day for San Diego’s Little People

by

San Diego Schools Busing Program Gets Ugly…Yesterday’s snail mail brought myself and the parents of 22,000 other school aged children in San Diego a letter from the SDUSD Transportation Services Department demanding payment for the coming year’s busing within the next couple of weeks—or else. Dated July 31st (Yesterday was Aug 6th) and signed by Gene Robinson, “Director of Transportation and Distribution Services”, the letter also incidentally mentions that transportation fees for a single student will rise from last year’s rate ($420) to $500. A family’s second child gets the discounted rate of $250; additional children are not charged. The “or else” part of the letter is that, if you don’t happen to have that much cash laying around, your child will not be riding the bus this year. Programs allowing for monthly payments or by the semester have have been eliminated, so it’s all or nothing.

“Payment in full for each student must be received by the Transportation Department no later than August 24, 2012.”

Parents of students who are exempt from transportation fees, like those who are in certain classes of Special Education programs and Free or Reduced Lunch categories, still have to obtain certification and submit it to the Transportation Department by the August 24th deadline. I wish all those parents good luck in getting SDISD to process their paperwork prior to the deadline. Apparently different divisions within San Diego Unified are incapable of talking with each other.
  [Read more…]

Mr. President : Legalize Marijuana and You’ll Get the Youth Vote and Win the Election.

by

A Majority of Americans Support Legalization of Marijuana Now for the First Time

This is an Open Letter to President Barack Obama Calling on him to legalize marijuana.

If you legalize marijuana, Mr. President, you’ll get the youth vote and win the 2012 Presidential election. It’s as simple as that. However you do it, Mr. President, if you legalize cannabis, you’ll then do for the young of this country what you did for the Mexican-American and Latino populations, and then what you did for the gay and lesbian communities earlier this year.

How is this so?

It just so happens, that here in the midst of campaign 2012, the issue of marijuana legalization and the status of medical cannabis have perhaps paradoxically both become highly charged topics. Legalization initiatives are on three state ballots, there’s a whole array of other reform measures up for vote, and there’s polls that show a majority of Americans support straight-out legalization of pot – all that makes this year 2012 an historic year for marijuana reform.
  [Read more…]

The Starting Line – ‘Obama Launches Unprovoked Attack on Mars’

by

Okay, I made that headline up… The reality here is that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration sent a one ton landing craft–the size of a small SUV- 154 million miles and landed it on target. Mars rover Curiosity is equipped with a collection of powerful instruments, including 17 cameras (four of which were made in San Diego), lasers and a radiation detector. It features equipment that can bore into rock and ingest samples, drawing them into an on-board chemistry lab and transmitting detailed analyses back to Earth. The mission cost an estimated $2.5 billion, slightly more than one third the $7 billion that Americans spend on potato chips annually.  Yesterday’s landing day coincided with the birthday of Neil Armstrong, the first moon walker. (And don’t worry, there is coverage of the UT-SD’s silly Sunday editorial predicting a Romney landslide below!)   [Read more…]

Field of View: Saturday at Mariner’s Point

by

Mariner’s Point is a fun place to spend a Saturday, whether you want to picnic on the grass or venture out on the bay.

You’ll share the expansive spot with other families, and even the occasional event–like a recent USA Free Style Martial Arts performance that took place. Some of those kids scared me with their fierce looks and startling kiai. But after an intense demonstration, they cooled down with a squirt gun fight fitting of summer.

All photos by Annie Lane.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line – Controversies Plague Local, National GOP Campaigns

by

It may be August, but the back and forth between political campaigns continues at a pace that leads us to wonder just how crazy things will get come post-Labor Day, which is when these sorts of contests usually heat up. Here in San Diego, today’s coverage highlights differences of opinion within the GOP regarding the ‘non-partisan’ race for Mayor of San Diego, which is actually hyper-partisan this year. And on the national scene, Democrats continue to dog presumptive GOP candidate Mitt Romney with allegations designed to raise questions about his character. So join me today as we take a peek into the sausage making process that passes for selecting our leaders in this day and age.

“I hope Tom enjoys his 30 pieces of silver…” Political consultant Tom Shepard’s decision to sign on with Mayoral candidate Bob Filner continues to have repercussions on the local political scene. Republican Party leader Tony Kraric’s comment over at conserv blog SDRostra comparing Shepard to Judas unleashed a lively exchange (this is excerpted, there’s plenty more over at their site) :

From Tony Krvaric…Long-time Republican consultant Tom Shepard today signed on as a consultant for Bob Filner. Yes, you read that right and no, this is not a joke. This is a betrayal of our entire reform effort that so many have been working on for so long.

That said, I have no doubt that we will prevail in November because Carl DeMaio is a superior candidate and the voters are with us on the issues. Plus, Tom’s two latest campaigns in the City of San Diego were abysmal failures; Proposition D (sales tax increase) and a certain failed mayoral campaign.

I hope Tom enjoys his 30 pieces of silver.

Best, Tony

P.S. The Republican Party of San Diego County will not do business with him ever again as long as I remain chairman. Elephants don’t forget – and principles matter.

more inside…   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Fighting the ‘Homosexual Agenda’ at Chick-fil-A in San Diego

by

The national Chick-fil-A controversy rolled into the San Diego media headlights yesterday as thousands of people lined up to buy deep fried chicken sandwiches at local outlets. Some felt they were making a statement (incorrectly, as it turns out) in support of the first amendment, as some big-city mayors have publicly stated that Chick-fil-A would not be welcome to set up shop in their cities. Others joined the lines at the fast food outlets because of religious beliefs. And still others were motivated by deeper feelings of animosity towards homosexuals; feelings that most of us would describe as outright bigotry.

The UT San Diego’s Roger Hedgecock, coming off of an on-air love-fest with publisher Doug Manchester (don’t worry, it was very manlyfawning), aired taped interviews with customers from the restaurant’s midway district location. He went on to describe the Chick-fil-A ‘Customer Appreciation Day’ as part of the battle against the ‘homosexual agenda’, warning that ‘they’ were trying to take over.   [Read more…]

The Starting Line — Three Things the UT-San Diego Doesn’t Want You to Know

by

Welcome to August, San Diego. Let’s start the month off right by cutting through the crap that publisher UT-San Diego Doug Manchester and his motley crews of spinmeisters are trying to pass off as reality. Sometimes they simply ignore news that has importance to wide swaths of the population, sometimes they simply twist the truth, and sometimes they simply lie. We’ve got great examples of all these ‘truth bending’ techniques, and hope you’ll come along for the ride. There are “lie-sickness’ bags available for those of you who feel may feel ill as we proceed along on our journey, please feel free to use them….

If you read today’s daily newspaper for our fair city you wouldn’t know that today is a momentous day for an estimated 47 million women in the United States. If you merely browsed the front page (or heard Carl DeMaio doing his ‘victory lap’ on the local electronic media), you might be under the impression that all systems were “go” for an overhaul of the City’s pension system. And if you were a regular reader, you might be under the impression that our region’s economic security was endangered by looming cuts in the defense budget, cuts that certainly must be the fault of our current Commander in Chief. Let’s start with the biggie…

August 1st marks the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions that affect women in this country over the course of the coming year. Every health insurance policy provided by employers must now include a package of preventive and diagnostic care for women without co-pays or deductibles.   [Read more…]

Unexpected Visitors: Critters on the porch, under the house & in the yard

by

I live in the City Heights neighborhood of Teralta East, the long thin sliver of flat land wedged between the busy major thoroughfares of University Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard on the south and north and Fairmount and Euclid avenues on the west and east. There is not much in the way of open space in the area and the canyons are cut off from Teralta East by those same surface roads. Nevertheless, a coyote was recently spotted in Fairmount Village. My little section of 45th street, in fact my house, is home to opossums and skunks and a raccoon has even passed through.

The opossums have been around the longest. They seem to have adapted easily to urban living. During the early years here, they feasted upon the snails and slugs that abounded in the yard. After wiping out all of the snails and slugs, they came to rely more and more upon the cat food which we set out for the abandoned outdoor cats that have also taken up residence with us. It is an understatement to say that a mature opossum is not exactly the classical beauty of the wild kingdom. There’s the rat like tail, the scroungy fur and the close set eyes and long narrow face that fall woefully short on the intelligence and cuteness scale.   [Read more…]

©2010-2017 SanDiegoFreePress.org

Code is Poetry