I’ve been trying to stay away from the whole “birther” thing, I really have.  These people are completely nuts, and I fear for their sanity.  And I figured that writing about them would only encourage them more, so I definitely didn’t want to do that.

But, it seems that everyone is talking about them, and the Republicans behind the Orange Curtain are ground zero for the “movement.” I put that in quotes because I’m not sure a bunch of insane people qualify as a movement of any kind.  More like an epidemic.

Sigh.

It seems that the leaders of the crazies, Orange County lawyer Orly Taitz and Pastor Wiley Drake of Buena Park are based right here, and have a lawsuit that is currently making its way through the court systemin Santa Ana.  However, it is encouraging that some of the judges are prone to giving Ms. Taitz a good smackdown.

So now comes along two more dubious examples of OC crazy.  Judy Ahrens and John  Briscoe want Maya Angelou’s fantastic autobiography “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” banned from school libraries.  Seriously?  Way to put OC back in the Dark Ages J & J!  Their objection is to one part of the book in which Ms. Angelou describes being raped as a child.

I’ve read the book many times, and I don’t think that one passage should mean that the entire book is banned.  The work as a whole is moving and powerful, and already the book is restricted to being checked out by 8th graders only.  And listen, with all the stuff kids today watch, the scene is not as traumatizing to the “innocent children” as J & J would like you to believe.

But again, book banning? Seriously?

Please, crazies, you are giving the rest of us a bad name!

I am watching the  11:00 a.m. news on ABC7, one of the perks of working part-time, and they just did a story about how you can’t tailgate in the parking lots at Angels stadium. Wait, let me clarify … you can tailgate, but you can’t drink alcohol. What!?! But here’s where it gets really stupid. There was a private lot across the street, that charged the same as the stadium, that did let you booze it up. However, the City of Anaheim shut it down for the playoffs citing zoning violations.

As a huge sports fan I take offense to this. Tailgating, with alcohol, is part of the experience. Of course there are always people who drink too much and become belligerent and want to start a fight with anyone for any reason, but that can happen anywhere.

What everyone needs to remember is tailgating is about celebrating the commonality that is your team, which makes it a community. When you have a shared community you have respect, or should have, and that means respecting your fellow fans and the fans of the other team. I’m all for good natured ribbing of the rival team especially if they come into your stadium all decked out in their teams gear. It’s expected and if you don’t know this you’re very very naive. Remember though, mean-spirited barbs and violence is never appropriate.

Okay, end of my rant. Do you guys agree with me or the City of Anaheim?

Unfortunately, I can’t imbed this particular video from the ABC7 website (it was shot earlier than the live shot I saw), but click here to see the video/story.

If you’re anything like me, then even the mention of the Ford Taurus leaves a bad taste in your mouth. I understand what the Taurus did for Ford and how many people absolutely loved it, but for me, I wasn’t sad to see it leave the fleet several years ago. Now however, it’s back. And I have to admit, it’s better than I could have ever imagined.

Can it really make up for it's past??

Are you an artist? Do you live in Southern California? Do you have a recent work that hasn’t been shown at the IFAC? If you answered “yes” to all of those questions the Irvine Fine Arts Center just might have the exhibition you’ve been waiting for.

The Irvine Fine Arts Center presents All Media 2009, a juried exhibition open to Southern California artists. This show will feature two and three-dimensional art, including painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and digital media. The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 28,2009.

Click here for more more information regarding submission requirements and the entry form.

The All Media 2009 exhibition will run from November 20, 2009 through January 16, 2010 (or the 23rd … depending on which document you look at). The IFAC is located at: 14321 Yale Avenue, Irvine, CA 92604.

If your work is accepted to be part of the exhibition, please let us know. The OC Metblog readers and posters alike would love – I’m sure – to come out and show our support.

Not much gets past Jay Louis, the owner/author of the Hot Chicks With Douchebags blog. He even took notice of our little post a while back taking quasi-umbrage with his placement of OC as one of his “top five HCwDB areas”. So it should be no surprise that he (and his readers, of which I am one) found amusement in a bit of spam masquerading as reader-mail from the great city of Anaheim. He writes…

Reader Mail: Unclear on the Concept

[Image via HCwDB]

I’m very impressed with your bags. I think they’re perfect for the department stores, apparel and accessory retailers, gift shops and large chains we work with. If you can offer good pricing and if you’re interested in selling your bags to more stores visit us at

http://www.intostores.com/sellers.php

Sincerely, Kevin Sanderson
VP Merchandising
866-788-5799 (extension 3)
IntoStores.com
5753 E. Santa Ana Canyon Road
Anaheim, CA 92807

Hahaha. I feel the need to hang my head in shame, for I am from A-Ville and apparently, not only are we douche-ridden but we’re completely inept at spamming people. Of course, if it isn’t spam then I would love to see how they plan to sell these ‘bags’ in local retailers. I almost called to ask but alas cooler heads prevailed. Besides, I’m pretty sure you can already rent them by the hour but the cost to buy one outright is going to send you well into six digits.

[via HCwDB]

Jay Jennings, the curator over at The Knott’s Berry Farm Museum, alerted me to this video of his recent book signing event. It’s nice to see people still love the place and frankly I haven’t seen a line like that since I waited in like for chicken dinner. Mmmmmm mmmmmmm!

The video features Jay signing his book Knott’s Berry Farm: The Early Years inside the famed Chicken Dinner Restaurant on Aug 29, 2009. Nearly 300 people lined up to see the author – including Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter.

Here’s some fuzzy video of Republican Assemblyman Mike Duvall bragging about sticking it to a couple different female lobbyists. Oooooh sexy talk. Way to represent the OC with flair Mike! Maybe you should have moved to South Carolina – maybe then you wouldn’t feel the need to resign from office.

Let’s face it. Gas wars or not, Americans like trucks. While many Americans own them as a necessary tool for their occupation, there are plenty who also own a truck because they like how it looks or the size or they enjoy going off-road on the weekends. I fall into the last category. Actually, I think I fall into all the categories. When I owned my truck, I used it to haul my DJ equipment, I loved how it looked, I liked being bigger than most other vehicles and I LOVE to go off-road! The only problem is, for that last group, the off-road enthusiast, there really have never been any truly off-road capable trucks you could buy off the dealer’s floor. Sure there was the Hummer, but who has $100,000+ to spend on something that’s not even really capable of being a daily driver? How can we get our off-road fun toy without spending many thousands of dollars on conversions, just to make the thing unbearable to drive to and from work??

Thankfully, Ford not only heard our calls for help, but they decided to spoil the hell out of us. Drum roll please…..ladies and gentlemen, I present my new obsession……The Ford F-150 Raptor.

Bringin' the Orange to the County

I highly suggest you follow me past the jump for more pictures and information that will make many of you want to run to the nearest Ford dealership. Yes, really! (more…)

Did you know we had an OC Pride event this year? Yeah me neither. They really need to get the word out a little more. Finally there is an official event in OC for LGBT pride and I missed the damn thing. Poor Gay Days in Anaheim has been carrying the unofficial OC Pride torch for so long it seemed likely we should just officially call it OC Gay Pride and get it over with.

Anyway! I am just a wee bit irritated about the complete lack of visibility for the event. Maybe the organizers (listen up boys) should have reached our to their popular queer friendly community blogs (not unlike this one) and let them know it was even happening. Also, lets be real, if we’re gonna have OC Pride shouldn’t we be having it in Laguna Beach? Why Irvine? Oh well, here’s hoping there will be one next year and here’s hoping they actually, you know, tell people about it!

Did you know there was an OC Pride Picnic this year? If so, did you go?

Don’t let the media fool you, it is NOT a buyers market. Maybe it is, if, and only if, you are willing to wait month upon month upon month – you get the idea – for approval from the bank for that short sale property. There are good deals to be had, but you have to be willing to wait. A lot of people think they can, but since the process is so long and the banks are so overwhelmed, potential buyers are pulling their offers and moving on i.e. when an equity home is on the market people are overpaying.

When the short sale buyers pull their offers they are so ready to buy a home they act irrationally. Irrational in the fact that they are willing to pay well above the asking price for no other reason than they HAVE TO BUY A HOUSE BECAUSE THE “EXPERTS” ARE TELLING THEM TO BUY NOW. Irrational because they are willing to waive appraisal contingencies – for example the house appraises at $450,000, but sells for $510,000. Typically a bank won’t finance a loan for more than the house appraises for, but like most things there are ways around this. You buy a mortgage origiation point or more likely the bank will require you to make up the difference in cash. Of course, you can always pay in cash, in full, and believe it or not people do. We lost a house to an all-cash offer. We were also asked by a sellers agent to waive the appraisal report, needless to say we did not put in an offer, but four others did. WTF???

Let’s not forget those that are going to rush to buy and close escrow before 30 November 2009 just so they can claim the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers. The way I see it, and I could be wrong, I think there is going to be a mad rush and even more competition in the next two months. Basically you have to be in escrow no later than the end of October if you wish to claim the credit. As the law is currently written any home purchase that closes escrow beginning 1 December 2009 is not eligible to receive the tax credit.

I realize the Southern California market is markedly different than 95% of the rest of the country. However, by rushing to buy and pushing prices back up is doing no one any favors. If you buy a home for more than it’s worth that is exactly what you are doing. Even if it’s worth that price to you, it’s not a sound financial decision. So basically all this irrationality coupled with so many short sale/REO properties is making for a very small sellers market. As my husband likes to quote the age-old proverb: “a fool and his money are soon parted.”