Posted inOpinion

A look at the perils facing our liberties and freedoms: the California doom loop vs. the original No Kings movement

 I have written previously about California’s war on energy, which is destroying our economy. Yet, the war on energy is but one facet of the war on our liberties and freedoms. I sat in on a meeting decades ago with members of the Santa Barbara County Cattlemen’s Association as they listened to a warden of […]

Posted inOpinion

Rough sailing with legal pot

Measure T, approved by voters, will serve to tax marijuana operations located in the unincorporated areas of the county. The measure taxes every level of operations and the county hopes it will generate millions, if not tens of millions of dollars in revenue each and every year. As it stands right now, Santa Barbara County […]

Posted inOpinion

God of fire is pleased

Having written nearly 2,000 opinion columns during my career, there is one particular subject that I have repeated over and over. It has to do with the dangers and implications of wildland fires. I characterize these observations by way of the subject line “fires, floods, and fools.” Fire, of course, leads to the watershed being […]

Posted inOpinion

Treating child criminals as victims only

Human trafficking historically referred to people forced into slavery by way of force, fraud, or coercion who are used for manual labor, illegal acts such as mules for drug runners, and for purposes of sexual exploitation. The term is now routinely applied to underage prostitutes regardless of the circumstances. The rationale is that no underage […]

Posted inOpinion

Let’s win the West again

President Obama signed a bill that will address our dire water situation that stems not so much from drought as it does from policies that have squandered the water we would otherwise have in storage. The bill, with broad bipartisan support, passed through both houses of Congress and will facilitate water storage, conservation, desalinization, and […]

Posted inOpinion

Trump’s contract with America

Despite overwhelming opposition from the establishment of both parties, along with a unified front of media hacks, a political novice, against all the odds, has been elected president of the United States. The Donald did it, and he did it his way. Words can’t describe the earthquake that has shaken the world’s political class to […]

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