STAN ANDERSON isn't a bad guy. He was right to be angry that I'd taken liberties with his press releases announcing the County's Republican Central Committee meetings. But he didn't realize I was trying to help him. Really, who reads press releases? But if they're livened up a bit, heck, everyone's eye is arrested. Here's the latest announcement from Stan, which reads, “Republicans to Meet in Willits. The Mendocino County Republican Central Committee will meet Saturday, August 25, 2012, 10am-Noon at 235 Haehl Creek Court, Willits. For further information contact: Stan Anderson, 707-321-2592.”
BUT IF IT'S FLESHED OUT a bit, elaborated on, vivified here and there, Stan might get a few more people showing up. To that end… IT'S NOT STAN'S fault that the party of Lincoln was long ago taken over by lunatics, the coup now complete with the bland sociopath Romney, an offshore patriot, and a Randian nut pie being the grand old party's standard bearers. The times are a topsy-turvy for a fact, and anyone who thinks Ayn Rand was (1) a good writer and (2) an inspirational political figure well, this country is in deeper trouble than even us pessimists have thought.
DO YOU REMEMBER the 15th smartest person in your high school? The kid who never quite got it? The girl who got straight A's but would give speeches at pep rallies about how important it was for “everyone to stand up for the kick-off”? The guy who campaigned to be sophomore class treasurer? They grew up to be Randians. Or thought the novels were “really good even if I don't like the ideas much.”
I'VE NEVER MET a Randian who wasn't deeply crazy, and if you'd like to help make them foam-lipped crazier, point out that the old girl herself, that great Government Is For Sissies multi-millionaire who grabbed every possible government benefit for herself that she could, including all the tax breaks the rich have come to assume they have a birthright to, plus Social Security and Medicare benefits. Rand was basically a Fox News Republican. That always gets them sputtering. Intellectually of course, the logical next step for a Randian is Mein Kampf which, incidentally, is a lot better written than The Fountainhead.
WHERE WERE WE? Stan Anderson. Mendocino County Republicans. In Mendoland, Stan and his party are like polar bears in the melting Arctic, an endangered species swimming in a rural sea of Me First liberalism that even irritates lib-labs like me, and I'm one of them. Kind of, because deep down I know that in the crunch Mendolib is as large a part of the overall problem as the Romney-Ryan people, because the only Americans who vote anymore are comfortable people, people happy with what they've got, people who will kill to keep it — active Democrats and Republicans, in other words.
ON MOST OF THE ISSUES involving economics, there's no difference between the two parties. They're both wed to THE MONEY. On social issues the difference is stark. Libs are generally nicer to women but, as graduates of Mendocino County's Big Naked Solstice Parties, more likely to hop your wife (or husband) if the opportunity arises. Libs are also blithely for abortion, legalized dope, prison reform (unless they're a crime victim), racial equality (in theory) —if black people had repeatedly rampaged through Oakland like white Occupy has, the libs would have called out the National Guard with shoot to kill orders — pro labor except for wine industry labor, pro-government and non-profits because the libs occupy all these jobs that pay well but don't demand much in the way of real work; pro gay marriage because most of the gays who want to get married are solidly, securely middleclass. Liberals are for this stuff because it doesn't cost them anything.
THE BIG DIFFERENCE between the two parties is the Republicans will exacerbate ALL the looming catastrophes, environmental and economic, while the Democrats will explore Canadian citizenship. People who struggle, which is at least half our population, are screwed whomever is elected.
ROGER MOBLEY'S resignation from Planning and Building has prompted the usual flurry of insincere well wishes from County CEO Carmel Angelo, but Mobley's family lives seven hours to the south and it was always fairly clear Mobes was merely passing through. Recruitment for the Director's position closed a couple of months ago, but no decision has been made to appoint anyone in his place, as Angelo vaguely talks of re-structuring the office. Mobley joins the list of department heads — Water Agency head Roland Sanford, former Planning Chief Nash Gonzalez, librarian Melanie Lightbody, Ag Commish Tony Linegar, Chief Probation Officer Wes Forman, Public Defender Wes Hamilton, and several personnel managers — who have gotten out in recent years while the getting is still good.
SANFORD, by the way, lives in Santa Rosa; he's out the door on Thursday and is back sometime Monday. He runs his own consulting business on the side but, of course, Mendo being Mendo, he'd been hired back as a consultant here, too.
MS. LIGHTBODY'S husband lives in Oregon and she, too, spent a lot of time on the road.
PHONY CLAIM ALERT! Megan Lowery said she was attacked by bats last week during a yoga retreat at Oz Farm near Point Arena. She says that she and several other yogis, out of fear that they'd been attacked as they slept by rabid bats will now have to undergo a series of “painful” rabies shots that aren't covered by their insurance. However, the Mendocino County Health Department has said the bats got at the yogis through open windows. Ms. Lowery said she was fully prepped on bat hazards and her windows at Oz had been closed, suggesting that the bats were already in the room when she and a roommate turned in. She claims Oz had forewarned them what to do if bats buzzed them at night, a warning Ms. Lowery claims implies that bats were in her belfry, so to speak.
MS. LOWERY said she had puncture marks on a couple of her fingers and her roommate's wrist was bruised with puncture marks in the bruise. On their second night at Oz, Ms. Lowery and her roomie say they were again buzzed by bats and she was forced to spend the night on a couch in the Oz kitchen while her roommate slept in her car. The upshot of the bat attack, Ms. Lowery says, is $3,000 in rabies shots that her insurance carrier won't cover. She claims Oz said they'd pay for the shots but have since reneged. She also claims that Oz's management was aware that bats can get into the cabins but have failed to do anything about it. THE EPISODE remains under investigation. But hey! aren't rabies shots un-painful these days? And how do you know a bat bite from, say, bed bug bite?
NO SOONER had Calfire declared the big Lake County Fires contained yesterday, but a new one started in remote, heavy timber about ten miles northeast of Covelo that CalFire is calling the “Pass Complex Fire,” which started yesterday (August 18) and is already at 520 acres (including a nearby 10 acre fire) which is already 10% contained. 255 firefighters from CalFire, Covelo FD, USDA, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and several inmate crews are at work with 4 bulldozers, 2 airtankers, 2 helicopters, and 2 water tenders. No evacuations are planned so far. The hot, dry weather is causes Calfire to “anticipate significant growth” of the fire and there’s no estimated containment date set.
WE DON'T WANT iron maidens installed at our parks so it's important to stop them from being installed at neighboring Sonoma Count's parks: “The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors (BOS) will be voting this upcoming Tuesday, August 21st, on a resolution regarding the fees collection system (the "Iron Rangers") proposed by the California Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) to be installed at Sonoma County's major beaches. Your attendance at the BOS chambers this Tuesday is valuable, demonstrating your support of a Sonoma County resolution that the DPR proposed project is inadequate and untimely. Attendees are encouraged to be at BOS chambers, 575 Administration Drive, Room 102A in Santa Rosa for item 12 of the agenda; the meeting will be called to order at 8:30 am. It will be important to have as many people as is possible attend; please pass this information on to fellow citizens.
A summary to the BOS can be downloaded at http://sonoma-county.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=20&meta_id=93959
Copy of the BOS resolution can be downloaded at http://sonoma-county.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=20&meta_id=93961
In addition, a link to this resolution has been posted on the Surfriders blog.Not only can it be downloaded from this site, but it provides much additional information relevant both to the issue of Iron Rangers, but to other coastal issues. http://www.scsurfrider.blogspot.com/ This is especially noteworthy in that it marks the end of Public Comment (as required by CEQA), otherwise here defined as the submission of letters of concern by the public to Sonoma County's Permits Resources Management Department. Please submit your comments on this matter to PRMD, c/o David Hardy (Project Planner), RE File CPH12-0004, 2550 Ventura Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95403. You can email David at david.hardy@sonoma-county.org, or you can call him for details at 707-565-1924. Comments must be submitted by August 21, 2012. Copy of DPR's July 31st application to Sonoma County can be downloaded from http://www.surfrider.org/sonomacoast/permitapp.pdf
A GUN RIGHTS READER sends us some of the latest material circulating among the gun guys and gals in the aftermath of the shootings in Aurora, Colorado and the Sikh temple shootings in Wisconsin.
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