zed?

My son had his first mixed martial arts cage fight last night.

Congrats, OFG…! Aloha…!

Finally watching the end of “Any Human Heart.”

How’d he do…? Hilo town is home to B.J. Penn…! ;-)

Aloha, Chris…! How’s Ohio tonite…?

And we are having a huge thunder & lightning storm over twelve inches of snow!

Dayam, what a mixture…! 8-(

It was brutal, violent, action packed and merciless. It went the distance (3/3 minute rounds) to a decision by a three judge panel. 28/29, 28/29, 28/29 victor to the other guy. Best fight of the night.

So very strange! 12 inches of snow on Friday morning. Now, rain and thunder — tomorrow temps of 50′s!!! Look for flooding in Ohio weather news…

Thunder snowstorm! Kewl.

Close match…! Hope your son feels good about his first bout…!

Close fight. Is he ready for more?

Blowing 35 to 70 in Wasilla. 11 degrees F. Spring is just around the corner. I hope…

OFG!!! How the heck are you? CT — cheers from the heartland!

Aloha, ET…! How’s Wasilla tonite…?

Oops, crossed comments…! Some serious gusts, eh…?

Oh yeah. He wants some wins, for sure. He’s a little sore today. He did show me something I’ve never seen before. They were on the mat and he belted the other guy with an uppercut so hard it knocked the guy upright to his feet. I told him the object was to knock them down, not up.

Doing good. I go to Kilgore, TX to get a compressor going to North Dakota tomorrow.

Yee haw! (Isn’t that the appropriate response to a country song?)

…the object was to knock them down, not up…

*heh* That’s too funny…! ;-)

Long weeks on the road, dude. Great to see you here again.

Something like that…! Aloha, Cujo…! What’s caught your eye recently at ‘slobber and spittle’…?

CT! Pups!

ce, sorry to hear about the thunderstorm. Hope you don’t get much rain out of it, definitely not good on top of snow!

Aloha, NDFG…! How’s MinneSnowta tonite…?

snowy. At least we have a decent Governor!

This caught my eye today…

Saudi King Abdullah to buy Facebook for $150 billion to end the revolt

Who replaced Pawlenty…? I love my new Guv, Neil Abercrombie, a real progressive…!

Btw, that was a ‘Sunday Humor’ story about the Saudi King…! ;-)

To tell you the truth, I haven’t been blogging much lately. It’s hard to think of anything that I want to say that I haven’t already. Maybe that’s a bad sign, but it’s hard to think of anything positive to say, and being negative only works for so long.

That would be former Democratic Senator Mark Dayton…
Who wants to raise taxes on wealthy individuals in his state, relieving their budget woes.

Hey Tuttle!

Good heavens, he’s talking like a crazy man, isn’t he? Tax the rich? Absurd.

*heh* I hear ya…! One can beat their head against the wall only for so long…!

Aloha, newt…! The snows abate yet in Cali…?

It’s darned near cold enough to snow at about 5 feet of elevation, but we didn’t see any.

Oh, wait, this is more like it:

House Speaker Kurt Zellers said he was taken aback by the “epic” size of the tax hike for those with six-figure incomes. He said Dayton’s permanent and temporary increases would shoot Minnesota past Hawaii and Oregon for a dubious distinction for the highest tax rate, causing business leaders and others to flinch.

“This is a feeble and pathetic attempt at going back in time to raise taxes and increase spending in order to balance the budget,” said Zellers, R-Maple Grove. “It has not worked. It will not work.”

Democratic legislative leaders praised Dayton’s approach but wouldn’t commit to voting for the tax increases.

Now,that’s more like the Democrats we’ve come to know and love.

And to think I can’t think of anything positive to say about America these days…

I’m leaving now, at the end of a furious weather storm. The PBS “Any Human Heart” story made me weep. Goodnight Firedogs.

The West Coast got hit by quite the little cold front this week, didn’t it? Today was the first day we stayed above freezing for more than a couple hours in almost a week.

yes, what an unusual idea! /s

and he’s not letting the rethug legislature run roughshod over teachers.

Goodnight, CE. Hope you’re not in that storm…

According to The Minnesota Independent:

Dayton’s budget would cap state subsidized health insurance at 200 percent of the poverty level, a 75 percent reduction, and would result in 7,200 adults losing state health care services. The Department of Human Services would see a 2.8 percent decrease. There would also be a reduction to nursing homes and home health care services.

Not.Randian.Enough.

Pleasant dreams, CE…!

Yeah, it has been years since the cold here drove the ants indoors. But there they are.

Maybe he should threaten to cut the legislators’ health care plan if they don’t think he’s being “tough” enough.

BTW, there was one thing that caught my attention the last couple of weeks, this story about a new Republican U.S. Rep. who made everyone apologize for writing that he was using the federal government’s health insurance plan, when what he really was doing was using the plan his state provided him as an ex-legislator there.

You really have to be utterly shameless to be a politician these days.

oh i would LOVE that!

For shame!
The Lege: “There’s plenty of parking space at all of the closed malls in this state, for all of those folks who will be living in their cars. I don’t know what they are kvetching about.”

I’m still waiting to see what the Hawaii legislature is planning to do, they were primarily concerned about passage of the Civil Unions bill, but, now they’re grappling with cuts in services and tax hikes that the Guv proposed recently in his State of the State…!

Hey do all. What a great day here on the lake. The live coverage of madcity was awesome. Once calm i left for a cruise to the local pub where the topic was invading Kodiak with banjo’s. I had to implore an exit strategy. Thus a day in the life.

Wow. Wow.
Damned BlueAm, couldn’t get straight which government benefits.

Wonder when they’ll get around to figuring out that those closed malls are one of the reasons they don’t have as much tax revenue as they used to…

Yes, what fecklessness! You’d think they’d check to see if he was getting benefits from a legislature he was no longer working for before just assuming that he used the government plan.[/SARCASM]

Aloha, homeroid…! Banjos totally rule…!

I’m trying to recall which city in Cali – it may have been unincorporated Sacramento – reported an enormous unoccupied office building glut. It was something like 30%… don’t quote me. But it was ridiculous.

Good thing to have sometimes, an exit strategy. That sounds like a conversation that could only end badly.

Our homelessness rate has soared of late due to high rents from the still over-inflated house values…! Our commercial RE hasn’t been hit as hard, but, we’re still seeing a higher than average unoccupied office building and storefront rate…!

We seem to have entire shopping centers that are empty. Of course, that’s not quite true, but they have maybe half occupancy. Even the big malls around here seem to have more than the usual amount of extra space. Similar glut in office buildings, from what I can see. Yep, that seems to be what the local paper thinks, too:

Federal Way has seen staggering office sector vacancy rates in recent years. The city reached an all-time high of just over 40 percent in 2009, according to information provided by Mark Clirehugh, GVA Kidder Mathews senior vice president. The prior year’s vacancy rate was 31.34 percent, and even now, multiple vacancies exist. Federal Way features roughly 917,865 square feet of available office space, according to the city’s economic development webpage.

Gah.

SM would be proud. If the banjo’s did not work we would follow with marimbas and squeeze boxes.Of course you would have known that with out my saying it.

With the Motu Vampire squid sucking all the money out of the economy, nobody has money to spare to frequent the stores…! One would think that it would begin to dawn on them, but, nooo…! 8-(

Steve is my hero…! ;-)

I think that might be Sacramento, but I’m not sure either. But just from looking around, there’s tons of empty commercial real estate in the Sacramento area. I know that there are entire strip malls in all around Sac, esp in Elk Grove (just south of Sac) that were built at the height of the boom, but have never had any occupancy whatsoever… remain empty to this day – going on for 6 years.

Housing prices, though, throughout most of CA still seem quite overvalued. I was looking around both the Sac area and in San Diego. San Diego, imo, is still way over-valued. Anything less than $400k is pretty much a dump and definitely not worth it. You can find better value for your money in the Sacramento area, but then you have to wonder if, even at the lower price ranges (say $250k for a pretty decent house), the property will hold its value.

I still don’t think a lot of foreclosed properties have been put on the market yet.

Aloha, onitgoes…! Great to see ya here at LLN…!

‘Build it and they will come’ never panned out, eh…?

I’m up late tonight from watching the Oscars & then yacking afterwards wtih friends… it’s past my bedtime, but I was checking some other stuff on the ‘net, and so… Aloha to you.

Nope, the “build it & they will come” never panned out. Sacramento got waaaaay over-valued, built far too much commercial and home real estate, and now there’s loads of empty space everywhere. I know of at least one major law firm that lost its shirt from having moving into very expensive new office space at the height of the boom and then not able to keep up.

In the meantime, a fairly major mall in downtown Sac appears to have something like 35% occupancy. Several stores closed after the holidays. Not sure how the other malls are doing in the area. Not looking so good.

I’m also noticing that a number of Blockbuster stores are closing in both Sacramento & San Diego, fwiw.

Hey Folks: If you watch one video today about the Wisconsin protests, let it be this one.

If you don’t want to watch a short video, read this line from the video. I have a feeling that it will become a rallying cry and powerful soundbite.
I want to start repeating it.

The line is from a cop with a bullhorn talking to all the people protesting. On his back is a shirt that says, “Cops For Labor”: His closing line.

“Gov Walker, this is not your house – this is their house”

Good one! Do you know if the protestors are still in the capital? I thought that Walker wanted the cops to clear everyone out. Were there any arrests?

Aloha, spocko… That was awesome…!

We’ve actually have a lot of new construction going on right now here on the Big Isle. A new Target and Safeway is being built and the recently closed Borders is being renovated into a Walgreen’s…!

That was one of the reasons I knew that blaming the government for “making” the banks write home mortgages for people who couldn’t afford them for the financial crisis was nonsense – poor people weren’t buying all that empty commercial space.

At least, they weren’t poor before they bought the office space.

Some Cops and Firefighters, along with others refused to leave, and the Capitol Police Chief said he wasn’t going to drag anybody out…! ;-)

Who is crazier Charlie Sheen, Gov Walker or Col Gaddafi? Drugs, Mental Illness and or just a Believer in ideas without facts ( tax cuts for the rich will create jobs for example ) whats worse?

Hmmm. Looks like they’re going to need new cops soon in Wisconsin..

I think we keep forgetting that thought, though, that it’s really our government and they work for us. I wrote this years ago with that in mind. It’s sometimes amazing to me, in a country that’s supposed to mistrust government and keep it in check, that we don’t embrace that notion more.

I guess I’d go with Walker. Unless he has some glandular imbalance we’re not aware of, he doesn’t have the excuses of drugs or the isolation that being in power one’s whole life can create.

I want the back story I’m sure Gov Walker talked to the Police Chief and by talked I mean threatened, begged, bribed etc.
Walker threatened protesters with the National Guard before there were even protests now he can’t even clear his capitol building? Its been weeks

Aloha, TCU… How’s the Windy City tonite…?

I think Gaddafi is the most unhinged, only because he’s actually ordered his troops to fire upon his people…! 8-(

There was an article, multiple articles I think, while I was still living up there in the mid-90′s, talking about construction companies.

It had to do with Gold River and Folsom, Elk Grove (where I lived) and environs, and the problem for developers, or so they said, was that they couldn’t amortize their equipment unless they built… So they built. And they just never stopped until hey had filled the corridor between 99 and 5, from 80 to about Galt, with homes and office buildings.

Well exactly. Sure some people really took on much more mortgage/home than they should have, despite being pretty much given a mortgage with no money down. I mean: why were the banks doing that, other than that they were managing to scam mony out of it. The people shouldn’t have bought houses they couldn’t afford, but for sure (big time) the banks shouldn’t have lent money the way they did back then. That was nuts.

Blaming it all on the “poor” or on Fannie & Freddie is just the rightwing Oligarch’s way of getting the TeaGOPers to be distracted and lay blame on the poor, per usual, whilst letting the banking industry, etc, go scott free. Plus it the W Bush Admin, itself, that was heavily pushing the idea that *everyone* should own their own home… the American dream and all.

And yeah: what was with all the commercial real estate that got thrown up very quickly. For sure, that wasn’t a lot of poor people doing that. It was developers, many of whom managed also to walk away with a lot of cash somehow… and now there’s all of this empty commercial real estate sitting around.

I’ve checked what are supposed to be the relevant twitter feeds, and they seemed to indicate that the protesters were still in the building and would be allowed to stay.

I was leaning toward Walker too he’s to young to be this crazy Gaddafi had a lifetime to create his delusions.

Interesting. I remember after the dot.com bust lots of people lost jobs. I wondered why house prices didn’t go down. But what I didn’t get was that the mortage bubble was keeping prices up. Now with dot com bust and mortgage bust I still don’t understand why houses haven’t dropped more.
I listen to Planet Money and they explain that it has to do with banks not wanting to put places on the market because that would further depress prices. They keep the house on their balance sheet as higher priced assets, but if they put them on the market they would have to value them much lower.

I come from the midwest where they didn’t understand why I didn’t buy a house. I explained how crazy the prices where and how unstable employment was, but they are in Nebraska that still has low unemployment and people can get big houses for less that the downpayment of a house out here.
Finally when my parents came to visit I showed them the next door 2 story flat that was selling for 1.2 million. I said, “And THAT is why I won’t ever be a home owner.”

Ahh ya soothe my soul with that. Have to tell you a story. Years back i was makin furniture in western Mass and i asked my older bro to join me for a show of Bela Fleck. I did not get advance tickets so there we stood on the side walk in front of a small venue of about a hundred capacity. Then three guys from a bus down the street walk up and my bro and one of them greet and start talking juggling. Nothing new here to me so then the talk is food. I say i know a place just up the street where they have the best pizza fast. We all amble up and are munching down on great pizza and mid bite i realize i am with the band. Needless to say we had the best seats in the house. Which were on a stair case. With a view right in front.

Interesting. Well a lot of speculators came in from the Bay Area mostly, and bought up a lot of that real estate bc it was cheaper than the Bay Area. Of course, now a lot of that real estate is empty, and I think a lot of people just stopped paying their mortgages. I think there’s a lot of foreclosed properties in the Sac area that aren’t on sale yet, as they seem to be put out on the market slowly so that the market isn’t flooded with them.

I know, though, that some of the bigger property developers still managed somehow to walk away with millions and then leave either home owners and/or the smaller construction sub-contractors in the lurch… sort of the microcosm of the TBTF banks and stuff. The bigger fish got away with robbing the small people, per usual.

In Trischka and Fleck you have two of the most progressive and established monsters of the 5 . . . Martin’s having a ball, The Crow is great. That’s a great vid there CT, thanks!

I notice in yer vid up there for tonite CT, there’s a 5 String, fiddle, and pedal steel . . . you ain’t goin soft on us are ya? Leanin to the grassy side of country?

*G*

Howdy, and how’s life in the isles tonite . . .

I bought in ’93 in a new neighborhood.
By the time I left in ’96, home values were dropping – not from neglect, but because they had overbuilt. People who were selling in my neighborhood were paying sales commission out of pocket to their realtors.

Valid argument but Walker already talked about slipping agents in with the protesters. I’m thinking if he could he might order the National Guard to shoot.
He keeps laying down threats the Guard, the police, firing workers, sending the police after the Dem legislatures, the capital must be cleared etc the thing is none of his threats come to pass.
People like the Guard and the Police are ignoring him I suspect they feel safe to ignore him because….. I think he’s more nuts in private the Guard and the Police are not worried about Gov Walker.

Yes, I think a lot of foreclosed properties are not on the market. As I said, housing prices still seem very high to me in both Sacramento and San Diego. Sacramento is probably an ok place to buy IF you feel like you have some job security, and IF you’re willing to live outside of the downtown/midtown area of Sac.

San Diego, frankly, is still way over-valued, imo, and there’s just a lot of junk on the market for too high prices. People that have decent homes aren’t selling unless they absolutely have to. what I’m finding in SoCal is that most real estate on the market is over-priced junk or a nice place but very very expensive.

who wants to take on a high mortgage payment in these shakey times??

Yeah, parts of South Sac and Elk Grove from 50 south between 5 and 99 are desolate . . . n the last time I was near them areas was months ago, no telling what it is now . . .

They keep the house on their balance sheet as higher priced assets, but if they put them on the market they would have to value them much lower.

I think that’s the key. There are lots of folks, and quite a few banks, I suspect, who would lose their shirts if that stuff ever hit the market. The government lets them value the homes at those outrageous prices, and thus doesn’t have to either bail them out or take them over.

Yes, that’s the way it was in the ’90s. Then it turned around in the 2000s, and the prices started climbing again. If you haven’t been to Sac in a while, you won’t believe how much building/construction has happened. It got really nutty, esp around the 2005 – 2008 period. Way more commercial and private real estate than what the area can support.

Yep on the BlockBusters . . . n north of Sac, Natomas, is new but failing.

Even the Arden area has pockets of empty car lots and such . . . a few boarded up buildings here and there . . .

Aloha, Larue…! I’ve always enjoyed Bluegrass…! Not much music that I don’t like, except maybe Rap and Hip-Hop…! ;-)

Still pretty much the same. The worst hit was the Natomas area north of downtown. I haven’t heard anything recently, but at least at one time, they had whole developments that were pretty much ghost towns. I think the Sac Bee – that so-called “liberal” nooz paper – simply doesn’t report on it anymore. I know that’s also the case in Las Vegas and parts of Reno, but no one wants to talk about it or report on it.

If they keep chipping away at the govt workers’ jobs/pay/pensions, it will only get worse, not better.

I lived in Elk Grove my last years there, and commuted to the Nimbus Winery to work. Up 99, East on 50.
All along that stretch, they did nothing but build. I thought they would eventually have to stop, because Hwy. 50 would not support it. I guess I was wrong.

That’s great about the protestors being allowed to stay in the capital in Madison. I think there were a lot more out rallying in solidarity with the WI & other mid-west protests, but the corp-owned fascist media really downplayed it today. I saw very little said about it today. Bastards.

Having served in the Guard, I’ll tell ya that the Guard won’t shoot their friends and neighbors… Kent State was an aberration…!

*G*

I don’t watch TV news, so it’s really hard to say. I’d have to think that they were obsessing about other things right now, like the Arabs going crazy and Charlie Sheen going crazy. There’s plenty of more important stuff that we just have to know.

Well they also expanded way out east, and oddly enough, the further east you go on the 50, the more expensive and salubrious it is. That’s the area around Granite Bay and Folsom and those areas. They seem to be doing alright, but that’s a fair piece east of Sacramento. There’s some very high-end mall out that way with some very expensive stores that’s meant to be doing really well.

In the meantime, they were supposed to build a nicer mall in Elk Grove with a Norstorms (pretty high end dept store), but that has totally fallen through. Recently, they built a Henry’s grocery store on Laguna at 99, which doesn’t seem to be doing so well. Henry’s a local chain store from the San Diego area. It’s a nice grocery store with good prices but focuses on organic fruits and veggies and other health-foody stuff. Not sure how well it’s going to do in Elk Grove, which is only sort of hanging in there financially.

The Meet the Press moron tried to get the dem on the show to agree that comparing Gov Walker to Mubarak or Hitler was crossing a line.
The thing is Hitler and Mubarak both hated Unions. When one group loses its rights we all lose them first they came for the Gays but I was not gay so I said nothing I think is how the poem goes.
In Wisconsin people are not waiting until we all lose our rights they are fighting for the first group to lose their rights.

I usually don’t either, but I saw a little more than normal this weekend (just local stuff) and glanced thru the San Diego “nooz” paper and saw next to nothing about the protests. Really, it’s pretty pitful.

The LA Times had much more about it.

Benvenuti and Tsakapoulos were primary developers/investors in large tracts . . . in this Sac region . . .

Nothing but homes and unattended office space from Sac to Roseville, and beyond.

I tried to buy downtown. Couldn’t make it happen.

I was flipping through the channels and caught a snippet of Faux Spew shortly after the 4 pm order, and, they were saying that ‘a couple of dozen’ were refusing to leave…! Asswipes…! *gah*

I don’t think anyone told Gov Walker or his Republican advisers that the GOP has plans national plans several states were trying to pass this bill my guess is they all expected the Guard to back them like Walker did if they got into trouble.
The GOP now has to change plans.

It’s slightly (but only slightly) dicey to compare Walker to either Mubarak or Hitler, but I do agree that we cannot sit on our thumbs, wishing and hoping that somehow things get better.

I did note that Garrison Keilor (who happened to be broadcasting the Praries Home Companion from San Diego this weekend) made a joking reference to Walker as Governor Mubarak.

Congrats, Larue on the century mark…!

Tsakapoulos is still in the picture. Not sure about the other one; that name doesn’t ring a bell for me, so maybe he/she/they went under. There are one or two other “big” developers in the Sac area right now, but it’s late and I can’t remember now.

yep . . . in ’03/’4 I worked for a hydroseed company. I visited the large tracts (they were everywhere) and you could stand there and 360 degrees to the horizon dirt was still being moved.

N all of a sudden, in ’05 or so, it all stopped. Suddenly. Jobs stopped hard during end of ’04, and it all trickled down . . . with no building boom all the support businesses were shut down, trucking shut down, etc.

Only gotten worse over the years, as all industries slowed. Hell, the temp agencies don’t have any work, and haven’t, for 5 years now. Most of them 5 years ago are closed, and have been reopened with new franchisees, small staff of 2-3 just to keep a company presence . . . but few jobs.

Picking up a bit recently, though . . . a small tic . . .

50 and 80 are quite wider these days! *G*

But commute traffic is down, too . . . n despite all that, it’s still clogged up at times of the day on both corridors . . . you should see the 65 corridor off of 80 out to Lincoln . . . insane!

Downtown & midtown Sac are still pretty expensive. I think most of the condos & lofts are going for around $400k, unless you get something really small. Same goes for most of the single family dwellings. Might be able to get better prices in the Curtis Park/Land Park areas, but you do better if you go to Elk Grove or out by Arden. Elk Grove is probably the best bet in terms of stability… but it’s south.

I have some friends, though, who recently bought in Natomas; got a great deal and are happy. I think if you get in the right neighborhood up there, there are some good deals. But it’s in the flood plain.

Everyone keeps saying that they’re fixing the levees in Sac, but I don’t believe it. I keep holding my breath for a NOLA style levee break one of these days. I certainly would never buy in the Pocket/Greenhaven area for that reason, which is too bad, as those are nice areas.

You’re right about the traffic!! It has gotten less, but esp out that way towards Lincoln on the 80… it’s nuts. Hard going out towards Roseville almost any day of the week, except early on Sundays.

Figures that Fox would lie like that. I must say, I avoid Fake Nooz like the plague… to keep my blood pressure down.

One of the Seattle papers covered the solidarity rally out here. Since I wasn’t there, I don’t know how accurate a report it is.

The area east of Rancho Cordova along the White ROck corridor was overbuilt and overpriced . . . a lot of large companies moved out of there, including HealthNet . . . companies with a campus of 1, 000 workers.

Gold River built up but is somewhat reasonably priced it seems, as more than a few companies relocated to that area . . . but all the way up to El Dorado, it’s s you describe it, upper scale and higher priced . . . .

Thanks . . . I guess . . . funny that tradition with you hosts . . . lol

Well, it was true. They just had a couple of hundred friends with them…

I never watch ‘em myself… I just happened to see they were reporting from Madison as I was passing by…

Yeah, and WHO are all these wealthy people in Granite Bay & El Dorado? Where are they working & where does their money come from?

I find that really confounding. Even Tahoe has downgraded, and there’s cheaper real estate around there.

And even the Fab 40s in Sacramento dropped somewhat significantly in price (if I had a lot of $$$, there were some properties in the Fab 40s that were a pretty good deal recently & will probably hold their value).

I can’t figure out where the money comes from out east by Granite Bay.

Can be “interesting” to see what they say as you flip the channels…

Back when stuff was booming and they were JUST starting widening 80, I spent a year commuting from Howe to Newcastle . . . the hydroseed business. 45 minutes and more coming home at night, in 110F heat. Hated it.

Even back then, 50 was a mess after about 230pm. Folsom, Gold River, Eldorado County were booming. I think it was 2 lanes each way back then.

Gotta keep the tradition going…! ;-)

Hey! Do you pick and sing?

Mary McCurrin posted earlier today about how the Sac Bee definitely under-counted the solidarity supporters who rallied in Sacramento yesterday and over-estimated that counter-protestors from the Tea Party.

Figures…

The tv news last night in San Diego estimated that there were about 500 people at the rally in San Diego, but my friends and I really feel it was closer to a 1000. We saw no counter-protestors at all… that may be why the San Diego Union decided not to report on it… bc they couldn’t beef up the counter-protest numbers….

I’m with you, I have NO idea who those people are, or what their jobs are or if they are wealthy from elsewhere and retiring into rural dream home stuff.

Beats me, too . . .

What are the Fab 40′s?

I been here since ’88 and never heard the term!

Sorry but no! I chant here and there with various yoga groups, but I am untalented as a musician.

I know that some of you commented on my post, “2 shot at gun show. NRA Supporters respond.”

Thanks for recommending me. We’ve got a few comments that I want to address from people who missed the point.

Nobody demands the NRA provide a real solution to gun violence. They don’t even acknowledge there is a problem. It’s something that I like to do, flip the issue and say, ‘Seriously, what are you doing to do? What is your non-ridiculous solution?” They don’t even have to come up with a solution. And when we start looking for solutions they are all about tearing them down.

I quoted Sparky the Penguin in the end of my piece which I think represents the state of the debate today.
As he said to a gun’s rights person:

“Barring some seismic realignment in this country, the gun control debate is all but settled–and your side won. The occasional horrific civilian massacre is just the price the rest of us have to pay. Over and over again, apparently.”

San Diego had an absolutely horrible right wing bent when I was there, as did both the Union and Tribune.

Yep . . . spot on. Parts of it still under construction, but not as bad as years before. My wife commutes that from Howe to Gold RIver daily, has done so for 13 years now . . . boy the stories she comes home to rant about . . . sigh. That’s when I hand her the Merlot to slow her down . . . lol

Btw, have ya’ll seen the latest FOK News Channel…? ;-)

Yep, Elk Grove was a steal in April ’93… until the market tumbled – then it was larceny, and time to scram. There was no immediate equity future in those neighborhoods by mid-’95.

Lack of gun regulation: The gift that keeps on giving…

Fab 40s – you know how the streets in downtown are numbers – as in: 1st, 2d, 3rd, etc… keep going east past midtown and past East Sacramento near McKinley Park, and you will eventually hit: 40th St – 49th St. The Fab 40s are all older but very very nice homes. A rather wealthy part of town and very very just so… At the holidays, it’s a nice area to drive thru to see some rather spectacular light displays.

I read that article today after Mary posted . . . insane. N so were the comments all 350 of them! Unheard of . . .

The spin from Bee was sad to read . . . but, they is anti union, McClatchy is.

Howe to GR is some trek, but it’s nice that it’s virtually a straight line.

Wow…! Aloha, Peg…! Can’t sleep tonite…?

Hey Margaret – you’re up late, m’dear. Yeah, San Diego’s still pretty rightwing, albeit there are some pockets of progressive/liberal things going on.

Heh, I’m always lookin . . . have met a solid core of folks past two years now, there’s a good scene here and it’s developing, too.

but, they is anti union, McClatchy is.

They all are. Even the ones who say they are pro union are anti union. They just say they are pro union cause it’s such an unexploited niche these days.

The wind picked up and Kuroneko decided I should be awake too, since she couldn’t sleep. Going back to bed in a minute. Thought I’d stop by and say hello. Hello. :)

Ah, yes, J St and H St corridors pass thru there . . . mostly older homes, fairly nice . . . some larger than others . . . my dobro teach is near 36th . . .

You’re welcome for the recommendation; it was a good post. And I *loved* your Sparky the Penquin quote, which I’ve read before. Love Tom Tomorrow.

The whole “gun control” debate is really right out of control. As I think I commented to your post, I’ve had these online blog “dicussions” with conservative gun owners, who simply will NOT believe that “news” that neithr Obama, nor (generally) most progressives/liberals/Dems wish to take away their guns… we just want some responsibility and sanity to along with the purchase and ownership of guns.

Nor will said conservative gun owners believe that they’re being wildly manipulated by the gun industry. But: on it goes…

spocko, I tried to post over there, but there was no real way to keep the peace about it, what with me having no gun tradition in my family or life.

Nice diary.

I hear ya and wish I could be of more assistance. I would love to have the talent!

13 miles that seem like 300 at times . . . *G*

albeit there are some pockets of progressive/liberal things going on.

Not in Mira Mesa or Escondido I’m guessing.

Check out the 40s the next time you’re thru there, and you’ll see what I mean. Your dobro teacher will know about the Fab 40s as s/he’s very close to that neighborhood. It’s all quite nice around there, actually.

Yeah, agreed . . . shame too, cuz McClatchy actually still does SOME investigative work in their org . . . not a lot, but more than others.

Give her some skritches behind the ears for me…! ;-)

LOL!! Well now that you mention it, I was in Mira Mesa just tonight watching the Oscars with a bunch of liberal Sierra Club types (let’s not get into the Veal Pen aspect of the Sierra Club, these were just folks). So… there ya go… just up the street from the big base ‘n all!!

Escondido is pretty white bread. Haven’t spent much time there recently, but I’m sure it’s still pretty conservative.

The occasional horrific civilian massacre is just the price the rest of us have to pay. Over and over again, apparently.”

Can there be a price that’s too high for the precious freedom of any lunatic who wants one to have access to firearms?

I think she’s back under the counter in her sleeping spot now. I’ll scritch her for you in the morning! :)

You had an interesting day hoss . . . *G*

Wanna thank you for some of your comments regarding sanity, where an other or two were obviously lacking any semblance of sanity . . . Kwaitkowski’s thread was the host of one of the most spectacular online meltdowns I’ve seen in a decade . . . . *G*

Goodnight. Hope Kuroneko decides you deserve some sleep soon.

I liked Mira Mesa. I liked my house on Pagoda Way. I liked my friend’s house on Lepus, (loved that name, wish I lived on Lepus just to put it on letters), but it was wall to wall squids and ex squids when I was there.

I’ve been at meetings with Sac Bee reporters, and we’ve asked them some pretty hard questions. The reporters are pretty good at dodging and weaving the harder questions about whom they’re beholden to when they write their articles.

Sometimes the Bee has ok stuff, but often: not so much.

That weekly publication in Sac – forget the name – Sac News & Review or something – is more liberal and sometimes has good investigative articles in it. It’s a mixed bag, as it also focuses on social stuff, too.

Can there be a price that’s too high for the precious freedom of any lunatic who wants one to have access to firearms?

Sadly, probably not.

I think it’s more mixed now, albeit there are some gang areas, too.

Yes, unfortunately politics sometimes does require compromise, like for instance letting other people help you in your cause…

Sad LLN tonight.

Hope you both get some sleep soon.

Neko hasn’t come back in so I’m going to try to get back to sleep. Night LLN!

Why?

Sad in what way, homeroid…?

I’m about done in myself. Good talking with you all tonight. Let’s hope the protestors in WI can keep up the good fight for our rights (along with the solidarity of the rest of us).

Happy sleep time all!!

It was regretful.

Otherwise, there was this ‘laugh ’til you cry’ beauty in diaries today.

nite onitgoes
nite Margaret

Sweet dreams, Peg…!

Yeh, the Bee pretty much sucks but other papers McClatchy bought still hold some pop, occasionally, mostly remnants of the Knight/RIdder group I believe?

News N Review is a pseudo lib/hip entertainment scene but the LGBT population supports it avidly and the paper supports the LGBT community . . . so that’s an upside compared to the REST of our local media.

And it DOES feature the pulse of the local arts scene, foodie scene, and covers it well . . . . I guess it IS pretty hip! *G*

Sleep tight, onitgoes…!

G’night everyone.

And yes, newtonusr, those Sunday talk shows are the pits. It’s painful and disgusting.

Let’s all have good dreams tonight and awaken refreshed in the am. I have a day off… yippee!! nighters all…

I read at the gym. Gives me info on what’s happening.

nighty-night

I read, didn’t comment on that one . . always good things from SC . . . solid contributor . . for a LONG time.

THe meltdown has been taking place with increasing intensity for some time now, in fact the meltdown completely transcended ANY sense of Kwait’s diary or any of the issues.

Mostly though, that whole primary Obama has been a pissing contest between players for too long now . . . waste of white space. I’ve not kept up with either of the sides and factions . . . just too petty.

None of them are game changers or movers and shakers, but they all want to pretend they are . . . sad.

TIme for me to drift off too . . thanks to all for the chattage, thanks CT for hosting . . . Paisley’s song is kewl . . . there, I said it! lol

C ya tomorrow . . .

Ooh, I missed that diary… I’ll read it tomorrow…!

Well, I shall bid ya’ll a fond adieu for the evening, mahalo for ya’lls company…! Aloha Oe…! *g*

nite larue
nite tuttle

You’d think that somewhere along the way, both the NRA and certain elements of the conservative community would realize that they would probably have fewer arguments about gun control and incendiary rhetoric if we didn’t let so many crazy people walk around with firearms. Just about all these incidents we’ve been discussing in the last few years were either done by people who were on psych meds, or should have been. There was that guy in Arkansas who was just starting out on his anti-depressent meds, but was allowed to keep his closet full of rifles and shotguns. Yep, he shot someone. Go figure.

There is such a thing as too much freedom. Being allowed to wander around with a gun while you’re out of your mind is one example.

Goodnight, CTuttle, Larue, onitgoes, anyone else I missed. I’m headed out of here, too. I’m having trouble typing, so it’s probably time to stop. Goodnight, all.

I did not expect a conversation about futures in Cal commercial market’s. But then i want to take over an island with banjo’s.Some times it’s hard to wrap your head around diverse attributes.

If you don’t gamble then what you have is what you made.

sorry for divergence into real estate…