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Dave Good
Marty Graham
Moss Gropen
Andrew Hamlin
Dorian Hargrove
Garrett Harris
Ken Harrison
Patrick Henderson
Tam Hoang
Eve Kelly
Dryw Keltz
Eva Knott
Thomas Larson
Ken Leighton
Matthew Lickona
Mike Madriaga
Bill Manson
Scott Marks
Bob McPhail
Walter Mencken
Joseph O'Brien
Sheila Pell
Ian Pike
Matt Potter
H.G. Reza
Dave Rice
Elizabeth Salaam
Jay Allen Sanford
Julie Stalmer
DJ Stevens
Matthew Suárez
Amanda Tascher
More writers
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Allied Gardens
Alpine
Baja
Balboa Park
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Barrio Logan
Bay Ho
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Black Mountain Ranch
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Del Cerro
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Descanso
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Jamacha-Lomita
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Leucadia
Liberty Station
Lincoln Acres
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shizzyfinn
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Get Off the Bus, Gus
Sadly, these kinds of cut-backs in services are going to be the story of 2010. Did you hear about Blacks Beach lifeguard service?
— January 10, 2010 12:03 a.m.
Jerry Don't Surf
Sadly, these kinds of cut-backs in services are going to be the story of 2010. Did you hear about Sunday bus service?
— January 10, 2010 12:02 a.m.
Big Jetty O.K.
Nice report. Glad to hear Big Jetty is still cranking. Fingers crossed that the sand movement will help, not hurt.
— January 9, 2010 11:51 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
SDaniels, you're right about the honesty of this piece, and the author's ability to turn a phrase - both are engaging. Perhaps would be admirable in fiction. But this isn't fiction, it's real-life, featuring real people right here in San Diego. People who work in public service. It's fair for the author to critique their on-the-job performance and to describe the surroundings accurately, but the personal digs are tacky and tasteless. Perhaps this beef's not so much with the author as with her editor. The author's ethical lens may be fogged by what she's going through. But I wish her editor would have done some more editing. In any case, after another read of the article, I have a new appreciation for its ending. Do you get why Smoky is laughing? The author says she doesn't know what the joke is, but her article communicates it well.
— January 9, 2010 11:16 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Eva, as I explained in my post, I'm not looking for any kind of example on the personal anecdote level. Those anecdotes are useless. What these welfare critics need to provide to make their case are things like studies, news reports, demographic data. The fact that the critics can't point to anything suggests their viewpoints are driven by animosity, not facts.
— January 9, 2010 10:50 a.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Mindy, your comment is offensive beyond belief. My wife's mother was on welfare for a few years in the 1980s after her husband left her with four young children. Without child care available for her toddlers, and no one else to ask for help, there was no other option. The welfare payments weren't much - just enough to eke out an existence in a L.A. ghetto. But without that support, she and her four kids would have been on the street. Overall, Mindy's whole comment sounds just like the BS that Ronald Reagan and Co. spread in the 1980s...images of people on welfare driving Cadillacs and laughing all the way to the bank. Of course, the real-life examples of welfare queens are few and far between (if you have any proof besides personal anecdotes and recollections, please share). In the absence of legitimate proof (news articles, case studies, census data, etc) these types of accusations add nothing to the debate, though they do give us insight into the accusers. There is validity in the assertion that welfare can create a cycle of dependence, which is a problem. But not one to be solved with sweeping generalizations like Mindy's. As for "A welfare investigator once went out to a house to find the client had three mint-condition, classic cars on the property." So the investigator promptly noted that the person was not eligible for welfare, right? Sounds to me like the system worked in that example. If the example is even real. More likely, it's as phony as your fantasies of romancing Michael Jackson.
— January 9, 2010 8:58 a.m.
Foggy Nightfall Down By The Pier
For more funky surf tunes from The Professors, check out their website:
http://www.theprofessorslounge.com/
— January 9, 2010 8:25 a.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Altius, kudos on your spelling acumen. But a person's spelling skills are irrelevant in 95%, maybe 99%, of jobs, are they not? In fact, as George W demonstrated, a person can be President of the USA without even knowing how to pronounce words correctly, let alone spell them. Did you vote for him? As for your summation of the real problem here - political hacks addicted to spending other people's money - what's the solution?
— January 8, 2010 12:38 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Dubs, are you now saying that whatever happened 25 years ago wasn't fixed? That doesn't jibe with your original comment, where you said the perpetrators were arrested and charged. Or are you condemning any system in which some bad behavior once took place? I could bring up any number of cliches to point out your error there: don't let bad apples spoil the bunch, don't throw babies out out with the bathwater, don't let the perfect be the enemy of good, et cetera. Or I could just say give me a break. BTW, you seem to think that by mere observation, as you drive by people on your way to the freeway, you can identify who is on the rebound and who isn't. If so, they could use your special powers at HHSA...you could save them a bundle on verifying people's eligibility.
— January 8, 2010 12:29 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Duhbya, a hazy recollection of someone committing a crime in the mid-1980s? Are you serious? How does that apply here? As for your late model cars theory, it could be that, like the author of this article, the folks you observed were doing all right before the bottom dropped out from under them. And like the author of this article, they might be embarrassed about asking for help, hence parking "as far as 3 blocks away" (are you sure it wasn't 4?). But you're implying, of course, that people are gaming the system. Which is an assertion that requires much more proof than 25-year-old personal anecdotes.
— January 8, 2010 9:12 a.m.
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Poetry
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San Diego Beer
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Sheep and Goats
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— San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego
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Tin Fork
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Under the Radar
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Unforgettable
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Your Week
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Ian Anderson
Thomas K. Arnold
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Dave Good
Marty Graham
Moss Gropen
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Dorian Hargrove
Garrett Harris
Ken Harrison
Patrick Henderson
Tam Hoang
Eve Kelly
Dryw Keltz
Eva Knott
Thomas Larson
Ken Leighton
Matthew Lickona
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Bill Manson
Scott Marks
Bob McPhail
Walter Mencken
Joseph O'Brien
Sheila Pell
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This Week’s
Reader
This Week’s
Reader
Get Off the Bus, Gus
Sadly, these kinds of cut-backs in services are going to be the story of 2010. Did you hear about Blacks Beach lifeguard service?— January 10, 2010 12:03 a.m.
Jerry Don't Surf
Sadly, these kinds of cut-backs in services are going to be the story of 2010. Did you hear about Sunday bus service?— January 10, 2010 12:02 a.m.
Big Jetty O.K.
Nice report. Glad to hear Big Jetty is still cranking. Fingers crossed that the sand movement will help, not hurt.— January 9, 2010 11:51 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
SDaniels, you're right about the honesty of this piece, and the author's ability to turn a phrase - both are engaging. Perhaps would be admirable in fiction. But this isn't fiction, it's real-life, featuring real people right here in San Diego. People who work in public service. It's fair for the author to critique their on-the-job performance and to describe the surroundings accurately, but the personal digs are tacky and tasteless. Perhaps this beef's not so much with the author as with her editor. The author's ethical lens may be fogged by what she's going through. But I wish her editor would have done some more editing. In any case, after another read of the article, I have a new appreciation for its ending. Do you get why Smoky is laughing? The author says she doesn't know what the joke is, but her article communicates it well.— January 9, 2010 11:16 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Eva, as I explained in my post, I'm not looking for any kind of example on the personal anecdote level. Those anecdotes are useless. What these welfare critics need to provide to make their case are things like studies, news reports, demographic data. The fact that the critics can't point to anything suggests their viewpoints are driven by animosity, not facts.— January 9, 2010 10:50 a.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Mindy, your comment is offensive beyond belief. My wife's mother was on welfare for a few years in the 1980s after her husband left her with four young children. Without child care available for her toddlers, and no one else to ask for help, there was no other option. The welfare payments weren't much - just enough to eke out an existence in a L.A. ghetto. But without that support, she and her four kids would have been on the street. Overall, Mindy's whole comment sounds just like the BS that Ronald Reagan and Co. spread in the 1980s...images of people on welfare driving Cadillacs and laughing all the way to the bank. Of course, the real-life examples of welfare queens are few and far between (if you have any proof besides personal anecdotes and recollections, please share). In the absence of legitimate proof (news articles, case studies, census data, etc) these types of accusations add nothing to the debate, though they do give us insight into the accusers. There is validity in the assertion that welfare can create a cycle of dependence, which is a problem. But not one to be solved with sweeping generalizations like Mindy's. As for "A welfare investigator once went out to a house to find the client had three mint-condition, classic cars on the property." So the investigator promptly noted that the person was not eligible for welfare, right? Sounds to me like the system worked in that example. If the example is even real. More likely, it's as phony as your fantasies of romancing Michael Jackson.— January 9, 2010 8:58 a.m.
Foggy Nightfall Down By The Pier
For more funky surf tunes from The Professors, check out their website: http://www.theprofessorslounge.com/— January 9, 2010 8:25 a.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Altius, kudos on your spelling acumen. But a person's spelling skills are irrelevant in 95%, maybe 99%, of jobs, are they not? In fact, as George W demonstrated, a person can be President of the USA without even knowing how to pronounce words correctly, let alone spell them. Did you vote for him? As for your summation of the real problem here - political hacks addicted to spending other people's money - what's the solution?— January 8, 2010 12:38 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Dubs, are you now saying that whatever happened 25 years ago wasn't fixed? That doesn't jibe with your original comment, where you said the perpetrators were arrested and charged. Or are you condemning any system in which some bad behavior once took place? I could bring up any number of cliches to point out your error there: don't let bad apples spoil the bunch, don't throw babies out out with the bathwater, don't let the perfect be the enemy of good, et cetera. Or I could just say give me a break. BTW, you seem to think that by mere observation, as you drive by people on your way to the freeway, you can identify who is on the rebound and who isn't. If so, they could use your special powers at HHSA...you could save them a bundle on verifying people's eligibility.— January 8, 2010 12:29 p.m.
I never thought I'd become a welfare queen
Duhbya, a hazy recollection of someone committing a crime in the mid-1980s? Are you serious? How does that apply here? As for your late model cars theory, it could be that, like the author of this article, the folks you observed were doing all right before the bottom dropped out from under them. And like the author of this article, they might be embarrassed about asking for help, hence parking "as far as 3 blocks away" (are you sure it wasn't 4?). But you're implying, of course, that people are gaming the system. Which is an assertion that requires much more proof than 25-year-old personal anecdotes.— January 8, 2010 9:12 a.m.