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!

Camaro and a Transformer from the movie.

Love them cars and auto shows.  The OC Auto Show is one of my favs as it is small enough you can see it in one afternoon and still have seen it all.  The other nice thing about it is that it isn’t all concept cars so you have plenty of opps to kick tires, slam doors and sit in your favorite cars.  Well, mostly you can do that.  The exotics are still behind bars where you can only ogle them and lust deeply in your heart for a chance to place your rump in them and imagine the pure enjoyment of running one through the gears.

Probably the most popular showcase was the Transformer Camaro.  At that little spot people are qued up 20-30 deep waiting for their turn for a quick pick in front of the group.  On the sidelines were people equally deep trying to sneak in their own pic without the line.  What ever if you don’t mind other people in the pic with your loved one if it works for you it works for me. (more…)

According to this article, Newport Beach officials are considering getting rid of 66 or so fire pits along the coast from the Balboa pier to Big Carona.

I just so happen to LOVE the fire pits.

I don’t know that I’ve used the ones in Newport as often as the ones around Huntington Beach, but my memories of them stretch back to high school, where we would all gather around and, uh, innocently have a good time.

Really, we weren’t all that bad.

But the rings have always been magnets for partygoers, as there is something sort of hypnotizing about a huge flaming pile of wood blazing at sunset and beyond.

Now we use the fire pits as a family.  My son loves nothing more than to hang out, play in the sand, have a picnic, and help his dad build the fire.

I hope that Newport doesn’t ban the use of the rings, but instead beefs up enforcement. 

And let’s hope that Huntington Beach doesn’t get any bright ideas from Newport, either.

This time the honor goes to Huntington Beach councilman Devin Dwyer, who apparently is unable to move his car in time for street sweeping and thinks he should get a pass.

There seems to be no really good reason why Mr. Dwyer can’t move his car in time, he just thinks that because he comes storming out of his home after the street sweeper has already gone by, that the city should simply make the sweeper back  up, sweep the affected area, and not give him a ticket.

He claims that if the city will not rescind his (dozen or so) tickets, he will resign.

By all means, Mr. Dwyer, do the residents of Huntington Beach a favor and do just that.

Because if you were a councilman in my city, the fact that you have a dozen or so street-sweeping tickets would make me dubious as to your capabilities to run your district.  I mean, if you can’t move your own damn car in time, how can I trust you to fix those potholes in a timely manner?

Oh, and he also thinks that the sweepers should go down the street with a loud beeping noise emanating from them.  Because, you know, the signs posted everywhere and the fact you can already hear the sweepers from two steets away isn’t good enough.

Sigh.

Their cars, that is.

This article discusses the horrific lack of parking that has always plauged CSUF, even back in the age of the dinosaurs when I attended.   CSUF has always been, and most likely always will be, primarily a commuter school.

It was always advisable to get there at least a half hour before class started, but now it seems that a two hour window is required, which seems just completely outrageous to me.

Is there a solution, other than the aggressive ticketing policies they are enforcing to get more revenue to fund more parking garages?

Should they limit student enrollment?  Should they only accept people from within a certain geographical area? Actually, I don’t know if they can legally do that, but it seems kind of wrong that someone from Rancho Cucamonga (a person quoted in the article) is traveling all the way to CSUF.

What they probably need is another Cal State campus, but in these financial times, it ain’t gonna happen.

Gary Robbins reports that Cal State Fullerton has officially fired Tuffy the Titan, the school mascot for over fifty years.  Tuffy was a prominent part of the University’s identity, as Tuffy was featured on almost everything.  Well, Tuffy will still be featured at sporting events, since it’s pretty hard to get inspired by a tree, which is part of the new logo.

The reason Fullerton chose an elephant as a mascot is due to the fact that early in the school’s history, some silly elephant races were held on the fields that are now the Student Union buildings.

As many commenters on the Register noted, I’m suprised that in the budgetary crisis we have, CSUF can justify all the money it will take to change the logo.  Guess that’s what those fee increases were for!

So, now Tuffy is gone, replaced by an extremely generic looking logo.  Ugh.

By appealing a recent court decision to reject Supervisor Moorlach’s pet project to renege on a contract with the Orange County Sheriffs.

Their suit has already been rejected twice.  You would think they would get the hint.  But no, they see the possible future savings as worth it.

Granted, it would indeed be a large savings.  But the problem with this whole thing is that once you have negotiated a valid contract, you shouldn’t be able to say, oops, never mind, I don’t like the terms anymore.  Which seems to be what they are doing.

I think the Supervisors are trying to capitalize on the extremely high anti-union sentiments that seem to be everywhere these days.

Why all the resentment? 

They aren’t perfect, but unions are why you get breaks, lunches, and a set-hour workday, amongst many other things. 

I see more anger directed at unions than I do at almost all CEOs, Wall Streeters, and banks combined.

Above is a screenshot of a story The Register posted yesterday about Ryan Jenkins being found dead in his hotel room in Canada. Now look to the right at the ad for “Killer White Teeth”. So tacky!

If you haven’t been following, it is alleged Jenkin’s committed suicide because he was suspected of killing his wife, whose “body, found in a suitcase in a Buena Park dumpster, was missing her fingers and teeth.” The OC Register’s ad-generating-gizmo apparently picked up on the fact that the article was about ‘teeth’ and decided depositing an advertisement next to it exclaiming “Killer White Teeth” was appropriate.

Now, I know this wasn’t on purpose but still… they need to rethink their advertising strategy and make sure someone vets inappropriate ad-couplings before they publish. I suppose it could just be a tacky coincidence but somehow I doubt it.

According to this piece in the LA Times, it looks like housing builder Lennar Corp is getting a great deal.

Oh yeah, you know the golf course they were contracted to build in exhcange for the right to build a few houses?

Well, never mind that, forget the golf course.  Just give us a fairly paltry 58 mil, and we’ll call it even.  Well, more than even because now you get to build up to 5,000 housing units on land surrounding the park.

Because that’s exactly what I go to a park for, to be surrounded by thousands of houses.

Gun wielding robber steals safe with a grand total of fifteen bucks inside.

Ooops.