Do you want your tax dollars to be used to bail out the nuclear industry? Do you want to see between $50 billion and $100 billion of taxpayer dollars used over the next decade to keep these unprofitable, expensive, dangerous, and dirty reactors operating? Do you want to accumulate more radioactive waste with nowhere to […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Google isn’t the answer, teachers are
We’ve pretty well sorted out sex education in schools, and found that knowledge helped students make informed decisions. Rates of teenage pregnancy are down, and now school administrators and parents are arguing over whether we can trust students with the real history of this country. Never mind that any student who hears that adults don’t […]
Posted inOpinion
Still scared
The media did a real good job scaring everyone. So after all this time, you should let reality set in. Has anyone in your immediate or extended family tested positive for COVID-19? I had two. My son and a son-in-law. Did any of those people have symptoms, become hospitalized, or die? My family had no […]
Posted inOpinion
The county needs a wise decision maker
A contested development plan for a smallish lot in Los Alamos is soon to come before a county decision maker. After public comment at a hearing, its fate may be settled by the zoning administrator next month. The builder seeks to add 11 more homes to an acre-and-a-half lot that already has one dwelling, and […]
Posted inOpinion
Whistle-blown
Looking for a new neighborhood to call home? I would avoid the Skytt Mesa area of Solvang, if I were you. Sounds like it’s a neighborhood where neighbors snitch on neighbors and there’s almost nowhere to put a shed. If sheds are your thing, I guess. And if you live in Skytt Mesa, sheds are […]
Posted inOpinion
Protect Pismo clams
According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, San Luis Obispo County has the highest number of violations for poaching Pismo clams in the state. With the increasing Pismo clam abundance in recent years, poaching violations also are increasing. The only sign against clamming at the Oceano beach entrance is in tatters, almost invisible. […]
Posted inOpinion
Rule No. 1: Kick the can down the road
In the world of politics, the people we elect think in terms of short spans of time like election cycles, so if an unpopular decision like increasing electric fees needs to be made, rule No. 1 in their playbook is to kick the can down the road and let a future elected body worry about […]
Posted inOpinion
Jeers for fears
You know whose heads aren’t quite screwed on straight? The folks over at Central Coast Community Energy (also known as 3CE), which pulled a little bait-and-switch on all the people who were promised PG&E rate discounts when the electric utility traveled up and down the coast marketing itself to local cities and counties. At the […]
Posted inOpinion
Functioning brain cells
Have you ever had the urge to play Russian roulette? It’s a simple game, full of suspense, hope, and dreadful anticipation. The rules are simple. Load a revolver with one bullet, spin the cylinder, place it against your head, and pull the trigger. Sounds like fun, does it not? The odds are straightforward. You have […]
Posted inOpinion
Uncritically promoted false narratives erode our trust
As some of you may have noticed, the theory that the source of the COVID-19 pandemic may have been a lab in Wuhan, China, is no longer just the stuff of fevered right-wing fantasies and rabid Trumpists, but has become mainstream. In fact, by the time that this column runs, the lab-release scenario may be […]
Posted inOpinion
The whole story
You know what the big bad U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency does when it wants local law enforcement to had over information about a criminal in custody? It sends a fax. A fax! The inmates can hear that little fax coming in from down the hall. No notification needed. But really, what […]
Posted inOpinion
Old jobs, new faces
It was April 30 of last year when I wrote about the fear of opening our economy and people venturing out for the first time as we get back to normal. Man, did I miss that. Shocking. We are learning how wrong Fauci has been. How unnecessary and destructive the lockdowns have been. How physiologically […]
