Third in a series. With rent control in the air again on the City Council agenda a week from Monday, Vice Mayor Mehaul O’Leary flipped both of his thumbs onto the tabletop. “The kind of rent control that Santa Monica traditionally has had is not what Culver City needs or wants,” he said. Speaking of traditions, Mr. O’Leary attached a thought he commonly employs in sensitive situations …
It Ain’t No Accident
The quietest truth to slowly leak out of Ferguson this week is that the two-thirds black community was wired to explode, regardless of the grand jury decision. The nationwide protests were as meticulously, frantically planned as a Broadway show on life support. The “amazement” and “disappointment” that the entire left-wing choir chirped was as phony as their artificial sadness.
All of the Ficus Trees Need to be Pulled at Once, Green Contends
Fifth in a series. By Jerry GreenEditor’s Note: As Carlson Park Coalition leader Jerry Green concludes his critique of City Hall’s perceived low-priority attention to problem-causing ficus trees, we present the final installment of Mr. Green’s address to the City Council at the Nov. 10 meeting. He is explaining how the ficus tree problem in his neighborhood can be resolved.
VA's McDonald Has Failed Our Veterans
Judge S. James Otero claims that he does not have jurisdiction in the ACLU's filing of the temporary restraining order to stop the illegal construction of the Hollywood amphitheater at the Los Angeles VA. As a result, the ACLU has filed another temporary restraining order with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Note how the VA and Veterans Park Conservancy manipulated, finagled and abused the “rule of law” by purportedly canceling the “sharing agreement” and then entering into a separate “revocable license” to avoid …
Moderately Suggestive: Thoughts on Slightly Salacious at WLAC’s Fine Arts Gallery
Anyone hoping for nerve-tingling titillation or grand displays of erotic prowess from the West L.A. College Fine Arts Gallery’s latest show would do well to recall its title: Slightly Salacious. There are nudes, yes, as well as insinuations, but nothing outrageous enough to work up a good froth over. The exhibit offers no incentive to re-chart well-trod topographies in an attempt to delineate pornography from art, although I wonder to what extent the question even holds any interest in this worldly age. What Slightly Salacious does offer, however, is …
How We Divided Thanksgiving Into Two Equal Parts
Dateline Dayton – I hope everyone was able to find something to be thankful for on Thanksgiving, even if this isn't the best of times. I don't know where yesterday went. My first project was to get all the papers and binders I had next to my chair put away. Each night I been going through papers I have put aside for filing or placing in binders. Wednesday night I thought I had the project completed, when I found two more file folders full of items to be reviewed. When I completed that task, I still had a lot of …
iPhone 6 Fun
I really wasn't going to get the iPhone 6 – until I heard about the rebate program. Getting a $200 rebate for my iPhone 5 and, therefore, not paying anything for the iPhone 6, was too good to be true. What do I like best about the iPhone 6?
Happily, She Is Tuning in to a New Kind of Weather
Dateline Jerusalem — Frank Sinatra's Stormy Weather describes my day wading through the rivers of my town as the lightning, thunder and deluge of water rain down from the skies of Israel. I really feel like A Rainy Day Woman. I realize Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall. Where I live, though, in the center of the country, Israel has received the highest concentration of rainfall. According to the Israel Meteorological Service, central Israel has been bombarded with …
Ferguson: When Emotion Overwhelms the Information, Justice Suffers
As the ability to record high definition video is in everyone’s pocket, and surveillance camera systems are installed in our businesses, homes, government buildings and public spaces, video and audio recorded by this technology is showing up more often as evidence in both civil and criminal courts. What happens when these recordings are not merely used as evidence but also as entertainment?
New Sheriff Confident That Calm Will Prevail
[Editor’s Note: County Sheriff-elect Jim McDonnell issued the following reaction to the Ferguson grand jury decision.]The frustration we have seen in Ferguson demonstrates what can happen when a divide develops between government — through one of its most vital agents, law enforcement — and the community it serves. It is why community policing and engagement must not merely be something we do. Rather, it must be …