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City Outsources Future Moves
Oops... "are driving emergency management" should have been "are NOT driving emergency management"— December 15, 2010 8:44 a.m.
The Rage Virus
There may be less rage and more plain peer-pressure stupidity going on here. There is a reason why so many pit bulls and other fighting dogs are in shelters now, and it's because dog fighting and other animal-on-animal confrontations are encouraged by thug wannabes. Cutting the ears off is merely a way of giving a dog a tactical advantage in a fight where owners' pride and betting money are at stake. A big indicator that this was all about dog fighting is the fact that at least two puppies from the same litter have been found mutilated in this way, where one of them was found south of the border. In a depressed economy, us members of the lower class make our cash in ways that we can... especially with a popular political undercurrent in San Diego County that suggests even American citizens born of alien parents need to be deported to Mexico. The stabbed dog is another story entirely. It could be rage at another's perceived fighting dog, or not. It takes a degree of wisdom to urge compassion for perpetrators. Not many of us are able to separate our judgment of individuals from the judgment of the stupid things they or we may do. Apparently, you are that wise.— December 15, 2010 8:07 a.m.
We Were Outside Mark Madoff's Apt. Yesterday and Took These
IF this family is shambles, THEN it is merely a reflection of the economic destruction one or more family members has caused throughout the world wherever there were Madoff investors and willing speculators waiting to become one. The suicide was both an admission and an indictment of the vast majority of Wall Street movers and shakers, and it was intentionally timed this way. What was done by Bernard Madoff was simply more blatant and less technically clever than the derivatives and credit default swaps packaged and sold by AIG, Morgan Stanley, and the rest of the investment banking and insurance firms that nearly drove our economy into the dirt far more effectively than any al-Qaeda attack has threatened to do. Indeed, Osama bin Laden must be proud imagining that somebody had recruited Madoff as the perfect anti-Western sleeper cell. The fact that this fraud was undetected by the trading-side sons for so long is an indictment of their own willingness to avoid the due diligence that should have exposed all of this and prevented the accumulated harm decades ago. NOBODY who was conveniently blind to the massively awful truth is clean in this family while EVERYBODY was still enjoying the fruits of the fraud, investors included. Having been a headquarters employee of RTC/FDIC in Washington during the 1990s S&L Crisis, I can say this doesn't indicate anything good about federal securities or banking regulators, either.— December 15, 2010 7:32 a.m.
City Outsources Future Moves
Come to think of it, IF the City of San Diego is looking to hire a consultant for disaster exercise planning and implementation, THEN that's an admission that none of our senior public safety officials are actually leading the Police Department and Fire Department. IT IS THEIR JOB TO COME UP WITH THAT EXERCISE PLAN AND DISASTER SCENARIOS FOR EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THEIR OWN DEPARTMENTS or all they are doing is just collecting paychecks and pension credits. For city-wide exercises, IF the Police and Fire Departments are driving emergency management planning and coordination for drills and exercises, THEN nobody is really in charge here... especially not even the strong mayor. The City of San Diego may be in a bigger world of hurt than most of us can possibly imagine if San Diego public safety is and continues to be on autopilot...— December 14, 2010 7:26 p.m.
City Outsources Future Moves
FREE CITY CONSULTING WORK ENCLOSED: Disaster Scenario Event Sequence. 1. Lose Proposition D [Check!] 2. Botch KESSLER settlement 3. La Jolla declares independence and cuts City of San Diego property tax receipts by 80% 4. CCDC cuts the remainder by demanding its tax increment share on downtown property tax remainder 5. City of Bell offers to outsource council meetings... local residents seem highly interested in this as an apparent improvement See? They won't want me writing THAT document...— December 14, 2010 3:48 p.m.
Update San Diego, 12/14/2010
RE "On how to destroy your culture and country... and move on to control the rest of the World with a global trade network": As we learn more about the guiding principles of the New Majority, every day...— December 14, 2010 3:28 p.m.
Bankruptcy — Good for San Diego
I have complete confidence that undisciplined hackers will eventually do major if not catastrophic damage to power plants, traffic networks, and all kinds of other needful things that have become 'net-dependent BECAUSE of crappy commercial website security. I am completely not surprised that the wikileaks site has this sort of following. Previous psychological studies have shown the level of let's call them social maladjustment problems there are among the most ardent of hackers...— December 14, 2010 3:06 p.m.
Dumanis Met with Sanders to Tell Him She Wouldn't Prosecute Li Mandri, Mannino
... and for those of us who want a direct link and want it NOW... http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2010/mar/03/ci…— December 14, 2010 1:04 p.m.
In the Hostage Zone
Entertaining! With the expanded dining room, the house here has become a kid's birthday bash headquarters. One of my favorite things to do (since I have no kids of my own) is to have them all load up on birthday cake, ice cream, large root beers and whip cream straight out of the can... before sending all with elevated blood sugars home to their parents! Fun, fun, fun... as long as I leave the phone off the hook afterward.— December 14, 2010 10:23 a.m.
City Outsources Future Moves
That suggestion brings back many fond memories of playing Aggressor Force against the 82d Airborne back in the Cold War, complete with exploding grenade simulators and other noise makers that we tactically tied to trees right at ear level. Advice: never volunteer to play POW to the 82d. Unfortunately, I was ordered to volunteer for that day, retaliation for me scamming my way off the guard duty rotation roster in the Old Guard. I'm pretty sure our council members would not want me writing up the disaster exercise scenario, as it would necessarily involve the surviving city residents launching multiple recall petitions over emergency preparedness negligence by civic leaders.— December 14, 2010 10 a.m.