Pacifica Riptide

SPELLBINDER: Goofs, Gaffes, and Guffaws

I highly recommend the Society for the Preservation of the English Language and Literature (SPELL), which publishes a newsletter called SPELLBINDER, a great collection of goofs, gaffes, and guffaws, plus language and usage columns from all over the English-speaking universe. Send items to Jim Wallace: spellgang@juno.com. And check it out on the Web at SPELL.

JOHN MAYBURY
GOOFBUSTER

Only One Monster Home Left at Connemara??

After months of languishing in real estate limbo, with the same San Francisco Chronicle headline declaring week after week "Only a few homes homes left at Connemara," the "luxury" mini-development on Lower Milagra Ridge now says that it has only one home left for sale—at a whopping $1,475,000, according to a new story in the Chronicle real estate section. C'mon, folks, what a bargain! Snap it up and put these folks out of their misery. Is this some kind of sign? Does this mean the economic recovery has begun? Get up there and vote with your wallet. Buy this house or else!

Fish & Game Seeks Information on Stolen Radio Receiver Used to Track Olive the Sea Otter

 

The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) seeks information on the theft of a radio signal receiver unit near Santa Cruz last week. The receiver, worth approximately $7,000 and about the size of a lunchbox, was stolen from a hill above Sunset State Beach. It was being used to track the location and health of a rehabilitated sea otter. Anyone with information on the theft or whereabouts of the receiver is asked to call 1-888-334-2258. Callers can remain anonymous. For more information about Olive the sea otter, please visit her Facebook page at
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Olive-the-Oiled-Otter/53658228021.

Subscribe to DFG News via email or RSS feed: http://www.dfg.ca.gov/news.

The southern sea otter is a protected species under both state and federal endangered-species laws. Its population has been declining, and only about 2,800 remain off the coast of California. Information collected by radio signal receivers is used by researchers to better understand the health threats that affect sea otters and to help restore their numbers. The stolen device was being used to track information about an otter found at Sunset State Beach in February. The animal, nicknamed “Olive,” was covered in oil from a natural oil seep and underwent six weeks of rehabilitation at DFG’s Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center in Santa Cruz. She was released back into Monterey Bay in April, and scientists continued to track her whereabouts and health through the receiver. The theft was discovered by an employee during a weekly visit to download data. The receiver looks like a small silver metal box with dials and gauges, and was in a brown case when it was taken. It weighs about four pounds. Because of its specific nature, it cannot be used for commercial or private purposes.
 

 

Opinion: Lack of Health Insurance = Seven 9/11s

Seven 9/11s. That's how many Americans die every year for lack of health insurance: the equivalent of seven 9/11s—21,000 American lives. If responding to 9/11 was worth thousands of U.S. soldiers' lives, close to a trillion dollars of taxpayer money, and almost eight years of war, why isn't universal health care worth a fraction of that? Is there a difference between someone who died because of a radical ideology during a terrorist attack or someone who died because of a radical ideology that supports "corporations as people" over "people as people"? Not to me.

The argument about America having the best health care is a funny contradiction. It's like saying a Ferrari is the best car, or a Gulf Stream 5 is the best private jet or a 16,000-square-foot home in Beverly Hills is the best house. These things may all be true, but they cost so much that only a few thousand people can afford them.

Universal health care is too important to leave to elected officials, it seems. It needs to be a national referendum of some kind. It's beyond amoral that the numerical equivalent of seven 9/11s die every year in this country because health care is not universally available or affordable. Please, please understand the numbers. It's not about ideology. It's about the numbers.

TODD MCCUNE BRAY
RIPTIDE CORRESPONDENT

Blue Angels in Repose: Returning in October

The crack team of naval aviators returns to the Bay Area in October for Fleet Week. Here the Blue Angels park at SFO in October 2006 (above and below).

Opinion: Fire in the Lake Draws Parallels Between Vietnam and Middle East

The parallels between our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq with our attempt to control Vietnam are numerous. One of the finest examinations of Vietnam, its history, and our involvement there can be found in Frances Fitzgerald's Fire in the Lake, published in 1972 during the war. She looks at the statements and ideas that motivated our involvement, at the regimes that played themselves out in Vietnam, such as the Ngo family, the detrimental effect of American supplies and money on a small country and its culture, and the failure and absurdity of not only our troop involvement but our attempt to create a democracy where corruption was the norm.   

The lessons of Vietnam were partly learned by our military leaders, but not well enough to change our basic attitudes toward the Iraqis and the Afghanis: that Middle Easterners are inferior and need to be taught how to run their own countries. We managed to alienate all elements of the Vietnamese community, and we have similarly alienated most of the Middle East by our intrusions into Iraq and Afghanistan, and our threatened invasion of Iran. Our hard-line policies did not work in Vietnam, a much smaller nation than Iraq, have left Iraq in shambles, and have destroyed most of the support we once had in Afghanistan. We have played into the hands of such as the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden, and have given them cause to build a vast network of hard-core, Islamic terrorists willing to martyr themselves to destroy Americans.   

The Vietnamese, similarly, were willing to die for their country, though what bound them was a Marxist sense of order rather than a religious hostility. We Americans, led by ignorant leaders who thought that military might alone could cow a small nation, have made mistakes so obvious in the Middle East that even our greatest supporters there have drawn back from us. We are following the same path that we traveled down in Vietnam; what we will have after a great deal of bloodshed is probably much less than if we had stayed out altogether. The Taliban and Al Qaeda are not popular in the Middle East, and would fold from their own excesses if we were to retire from the field. We've set up puppet governments in Iraq and Afghanistan just as we set up puppet rulers in Vietnam, and the general population would throw them out immediately, were it not for American military might. As Vietnam became a peaceful nation after tossing the French and Americans out, so Iraq and Afghanistan will find a way to settle down peacefully, once they expel all foreign troops. What we have seen in Vietnam is a model or pattern for all such invasions by great powers into small but proud nations, though it's not the nation state that has endured for thousands of years, but a culture far older than ours here in the United States. Much to our amazement, neither the Vietnamese nor the Iraqis or Afghanis have understood that Western democracy and its shopping culture is superior to their own centuries-old traditions, nor have they become more friendly to so-called democratic values after being bombed and murdered en masse by American troops.   

Fire in the Lake is an important book, and beautifully written. What we can learn from it makes it invaluable for our decisions today. Send a copy to our local president, or his chief of staff, or his wife.   
   
JIM LECUYER

(Editor's Note: AP reports a record-high 45 American combat deaths in Afghanistan in August 2009,)

"Bored" Pacifican Busted for Phony Bomb Threat to Caltrain; Police Traced Call to His Cell Phone

By Joshua Melvin, San Mateo County Times
REDWOOD CITY — A Pacifica man who called in a bomb threat to Caltrain because he was bored faces up to six months in jail but will avoid state prison time as part of a plea deal, a prosecutor said. Antonio Derivera Santiago, 25, pleaded no contest Thursday to a felony charge of making a false bomb threat and will be sentenced in September, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. Santiago was facing up to three years in prison. "The next time he suffers from boredom he might try going to the library and get a book," said Wagstaffe. Prosecutors say Santiago, who lives with his parents, was at home on a Sunday afternoon, hanging out with friends, when he got the idea to call in the bomb threat. The man called a customer service hot line and told a representative that there was a bomb on train 101, and Caltrain officials should "find it," said Wagstaffe. Authorities immediately halted service and began searching trains with police dogs. But the transit police bomb squad turned up nothing. They even checked train 101, which is not in service on Sundays. Investigators began to think it was a prank and turned their attention to the caller, tracing the call to Santiago's cell phone. Police eventually got a search warrant and seized the young man's phone. He later told authorities that he had made they call because he was bored. Santiago is still in custody in lieu of $10,000 bail. His attorney could not be reached for comment.

Broadcast Blues: Strike a Blow for Media Reform

Toxic fumes filled the night sky over Minot, North Dakota. People were choking to death. Four miles away, seven Canadian Pacific train cars had derailed, spewing poisonous anhydrous ammonia into the air. Emergency personnel scrambled to alert residents to the deadly threat. But the local radio station tasked with providing emergency information played only prerecorded music for more than 90 minutes. As Minot resident Jennifer Johnson told the local newspaper, "The phone line was out, so I couldn't call 911. The only thing on the radio was music. No one was telling us what happened or what to do."

Media consolidation rules had permitted Clear Channel to own six of Minot's seven commercial radio stations. All six were programmed from 1,200 miles away. Media policy might be a yawn-inducing term that sounds like it belongs on page 4 of the newspaper business section. But media policy is killing us. Literally. And it's killing our democracy. Some 41 percent of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein attacked us on 9/11. In this film, journalists Helen Thomas, Amy Goodman, and David Brancaccio explain public access, political deception, and the drumbeat to war.

But the public airwaves are public property. That's why people from all across the political spectrum are standing up to take our media back. In this documentary, Danny Glover, Naomi Judd, Phil Donahue, Big and Rich, Democratic Senator Byron Dorgan, Republican Senator Trent Lott, and others show us why media reform is the most important issue of our time. Broadcast Blues is the rallying cry for action!

(Thanks to PCT general manager Martin Anaya for his notes on the film and media reform. Contact him at 650-355-8001 or visit  PCT CHANNEL 26 or email martinanaya@yahoo.com. The station recently screened the film at Owen Hall as a fundraiser, and filmmaker Sue Wilson was on hand to answer questions.)

 

City of Vallejo & Firefighters Union to Negotiate

CITY OF VALLEJO TO NEGOTIATE WITH FIREFIGHTERS UNION

Tombstones: When 2 Heads Aren't Better Than 1

"Tombstones" is an old newspaper layout term for headlines that run together. I got a heavy dose of head bump the other day when reading the daily rag. All the bad news just sort of ran together in my mind: The last great member of the Kennedy dynasty dies. Cal Fire chief arrested for drunk driving. Nerdy kid who's mad at a former teacher over bad grades returns to the school in combat dress carrying a chainsaw in a violin case, a sword, and 10 pipe bombs, two of which he detonates before being tackled by teachers. Passenger on Southwest Airlines fondles woman sitting next to him, then when she objects, he punches her, exposes himself, and strips naked while the flight crew struggles to restrain him until the plane can land and get police assistance. Former Santa Rosa cop arrested for four armored-car robberies. San Francisco health department finds some of its inspectors are not legal, causing several restaurants to lose their food safety licenses. Chinese steel company delivers defective parts to the new Bay Bridge project. Oil companies sabotage their own climate change "partnership" by hiring mercenaries to disrupt hearings on global warming legislation.

It's enough to make you not want to get out of bed in the morning.

JOHN MAYBURY
EDITOR & PUBLISHER