Opinion

It is clear that people who make statements like “[electrify] vehicles of all types” or “[create] livable communities where transit, walking, and biking are important” (“Kick the oil habit,” June 17) have no earthly idea what is going on beyond their front doorstep. One trip down any highway in California and you will see hundreds […]

So I see this front page headline, “New Times investigates the economics of illegal immigration,” and on the sister publication’s cover of the same week, “Dollars and Deportations” (June 24). Hmmm, I thought, very interesting, maybe someone is going to shed some light on the situation, especially here in Santa Maria. Well, upon reading both […]

The U.S. Army just discovered resources of over a trillion dollars of minerals in Afghanistan. It would be expeditious for our government to sign a compact to mine and market this; it would pay off a third of our national debt. Unfortunately our “do-gooders” would want this money to provide condos, unlimited food stamps, medicine, […]

   In response to Bob Blair’s comment (“Environmentalists have oil on their hands, too,” June 10), the Chinese are not drilling off the coast of Cuba. Glen Beck started that rumor and it has been proved a lie. He does not retract any of his lies, so people who don’t check him still believe it […]

Lucia Casalinuovo claims off-roaders are no windfall because they purchase food at local supermarkets which “don’t need the off-roaders to make money” and camp for a $10 fee when they should be spending $500 to $600 for a three night stay at a local hotel (“Fewer beach campers would bring in more money,” June 10). […]

The fundamental flaw in the Santa Barbara County budget crisis is that the Board of Supervisors has been in denial for the past three years. They ignore their money problems that, they, themselves, have caused by allowing out-of-control spending of the public money. The board will claim they have a balanced budget as they pop […]

If you are an environmentalist, member of the Sierra Club, or liberal Democrat, you are partly responsible for the BP oil spill in the gulf. Had you allowed the oil companies to drill onshore in the lower 48 and offshore in shallow waters in California and Alaska, they would not have been forced to go […]