It seems a little strange that Guadalupe is moving forward with its theater renovation project without having all the cash it needs in the bank yet. The Royal Theater revamp fund is still short $3 million—that’s the same $3 million the Guadalupe City Council declined to ask its residents to fund via a bond measure […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
The 2024 election is fraught with information overflow and faulty facts
The election season is in full swing locally, regionally, and nationally. In most places the candidate filing period is closed, and each candidate is busy trying to convince voters to support their ideas. On the federal level, two very different people are competing to become the president of the United States; each has a public […]
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Democrats are the victims of their own infatuation with DEI
A preordained, carefully scripted coronation, or a food fight at a cannibal’s banquet? To the surprise of no one, Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid following his disastrous debate performance and the failure of subsequent “soft ball” interviews with pre-cleared questions to reassure the public of his mental soundness. Biden then endorsed Vice President Kamala […]
Posted inOpinion
How about a new set of ‘commandments’
In response to Mr. Ron Fink proposing that the Ten Commandments be displayed “in every school, library, courthouse, and city hall in the United States” (“What’s the fuss?” July 25): I can only reply that many citizens, myself included, resent being subjected to archaic and divisive Christian orthodoxy and dogma. How about a new set […]
Posted inOpinion
Factual errors may get in the way of opinions
The editorial by Dan Dennis in the Aug. 1 Sun (“The stakes are too high”) was largely correct in its explanations of our national political situation. Good writing, Dan. Unfortunately, there was a factual error early on which may have kept knowledgeable readers from giving full credence to his opinions. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall […]
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Canceled
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to cancel DCPA—aka the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate; aka a weed-eating herbicide often used to treat broccoli and onion fields that’s associated with certain birth defects. But officially canceling DCPA ain’t easy. It’s not like a clarion call to boycott your neighborhood racist coffee shop on TikTok. Or the right-wing […]
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Democrats are sporting fresh faces and ample energy heading into Electoral College decisions
Last August, my commentary concluded with this observation: “One thing is certain: By next August, both parties will have completed their primary elections … and named their nominees. We already know the stakes in 2024: Nothing less than the future of our democracy, the security of our planet, and the conditions under which our nation […]
Posted inOpinion
New normal
I’m a little confused about a recent Santa Barbara County Planning Commission decision about cannabis—mostly I’m confounded about Commissioner John Parke and his support of a processing project, something I assume he’s against. You know, he’s always talking about that odor. Cannabis smells impacting quality of life seem to niggle Parke like no other, insinuating […]
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Democratic Party’s style is to avoid democracy by simply anointing a candidate
What is democracy? Merriam-Webster defines it this way: “rule of the majority; a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.” Earlier this year there was a primary election where registered voters of each political party […]
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Opinions are one thing, but keep the facts straight
Kindly allow me space in your paper to correct two flagrant fictions contained in Dan Dennis’s opinion piece of Aug. 1 (“The stakes are too high”). President Franklin Roosevelt’s Glass-Steagall law was passed in 1933; the Great Depression had been already raging since the collapse of the stock market in October 1929, four years earlier. […]
Posted inOpinion
Let’s teach how to think, not what to think
In response to Ron Fink’s July 25 “What’s the fuss?” commentary about the Ten Commandments in public schools, I have a couple of points to make about the Constitution mandating a separation of church and state. He claims it was not to keep the church out of the state, but it was that, and to […]
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Wild country
Kudos to all the firefighters and other personnel who worked so hard to get the Lake Fire under control and prevent it from spreading more. The 38,000-acre fire patchworked its way through the forest, left homes (but not property) relatively unscathed, kept campgrounds and trail systems fairly intact, and didn’t turn into the megafire that […]
