Comment Archives: stories: Columns & Blogs
Re: “The Fountaingrove Winery”
There's a lot of info. about Nagasawa and Thomas Lake Harris in the library Annex here in Santa Rosa. I've been doing research on this too. Nagasawa spent several years growing up in Scotland and may have formed long lasting connections there which he may have later used when he ran the winery after the Brotherhood of the New Life fizzled.
Re: “Rohnert Park's 50th Anniversary 'Celebration'”
Actually we had a founders day parade every year in "A" section and a event in "A" park every year when I was a child in the 80's and 90's it did not move until mid to late 90's when they moved it to the current route, then they lost funding and stopped it all together for many years.
Re: “Rohnert Park's 50th Anniversary 'Celebration'”
Well that's one way to look at it I suppose. Another would be to enjoy the day with your family and feel fortunate that your city is putting on any event at all. I'll go with option 2 and leave my cynicism and looking down my nose for another time.
Re: “The Real Genetics”
Your article is short and makes bold statements. There is a massive amount of scientific evidence to back it up and the cat's out of the bag as far as GMOs among people that know and care about the quality of the food they eat.
However, many people will be fooled by the folksy propaganda put out by these hundred billion dollar transnational corporations. The online newspapers in the interior of the state and in L.A. are full of banner ads with headings like this:
"My dog food has to be labeled but not my steak"
"Your right to know" crossed out and replaced with "your right to sue"
"This pizza has to be labled-this one doesn't"
Simplistic messages to simplify a complex issue and get people to vote for their own destruction. Unfortunately, most of the votes in the state are in places where the misinformation is targeted.
Don't take this campaign for granted folks, they'll spend any amount of money to defeat Prop 37. Imagine that this is the most vital campaign of your life and work accordingly.
Mr. Smith, thank you for your work. Here's a link to your book which I bought. I'll never buy conventional food again until and unless it's labeled. I don't want this to be a commercial for your book. I've donated mine to the library after reading it. Notice the subject headings. One can learn as much as they want about this subject online and for free.
http://www.seedsofdeception.com/genetic-roulette/65-health-risks/
Re: “August 13: South Park Summer Day and Night Festival at Martin Luther King Jr. Park”
Great event! Thanks to all of the performers, vendors, community organizations, recreation and parks, santa rosa police, and the DIG Youth Leaders who worked so hard to make this event a success.
Re: “Going Grey”
Give credit where credit is due:
Remember, Art Ludwig invented and designed most of these systems, wrote part of the greywater plumbing code, got the law passed and these Janie-Come-Latelys act as though they invented
the concept.
Here's his incredibly educational website:
http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/laundry/
Re: “Letters to the Editor: Aug. 29, 2012”
Tuesday Sep 4th, 2012
At age 33, Ralph Reed was the Christian Right’s wonder boy.
He was anointed in a 1995 Time Magazine cover story as the “right hand of God” for spinning the trust of conservative Christians into political gold. It was Reed who built the Christian Coalition of televangelist Pat Robertson into a powerful arm of the Republican Party.
But Reed fell from grace in 2006 after he was implicated in the biggest Washington scandal since Watergate. His pal and colleague, the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty to defrauding clients of millions of dollars, some of which had landed in Reed’s pockets as well. The money spigot was now wide open. Abramoff was being paid millions as a lobbyist. Reed was being paid millions to dupe his fellow Christians.
He says he intends to build the 21st century version of the Christian Coalition, with an annual budget of $ 100 million, five million members, full-time lobbyists in all 50 state capitols, and an enormous database. The pharisaical ultra-conservative, hard-Right support he receives comes largely from a hard-core of misled, fanatically anti-Communist, fundamentalist, evangelical, bigoted, self-righteous religious minority, as well as from the vast silent majority, of the indifferent, couldn't-care-less, self-indulgent, self-satisfied. That fact is these fanatical religionists also consider themselves above the law and the courts and the freedoms of the people and willing to commit any crime in the name of national, religious or so-called family security!
Ted Rudow III
Re: “Say It Ain't So, Joe”
I'm sorry to break it to you, but TJ's hasn't been as honest about their "story" as you think they have. In fact It's quite the opposite.
Fortune Magazine reports "'Fortune obtained a copy of a standard vendor agreement, which states, "Vendor shall not publicize its business relationship with TJ's in any manner.'
Why the lockdown? Former executives say that Trader Joe's wants neither its shoppers nor its competitors to know who's making its products."
Here's the link: http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/20/news/companies/inside_trader_joes_full_version.fortune/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote
Not supporting the GMO Initative isn't surprising considering that one of their chip vendors is Lays (owned by PepsiCO).
Re: “Say It Ain't So, Joe”
I love TJ so it's painful to read this- but thanks for forcing us to look clearly at our stores and force them to be accountable.
Re: “Letters to the Editor: Aug. 15, 2012”
Actually, the Philistines were not what is today. The Palestinians today, Palestinians are Arabs who moved in later. The Philistines were more closely related to what used to be the Lebanese, which were the Phoenicians, the to be the Lebanese, which were the Phoenicians, the ancient Phoenician Empire of traders, and they were actually more closely related to Hiram, King of Tyre, and some of them, although Hiram was more of a friend of Israel at that time, the time of David.
So the Philistines and their five famous cities used to occupy the coastal plain of Israel. Gaza was one of the major cities--the Arabs still live there-- of course Israel has now incorporated the Gaza Strip into Israel. It's now a part of the occupied territories, and they've just stolen away the whole country! It was called Palestine by the Romans, in Latin, & came from "Philistia," which was the name of the country way back under the Philistines. It was the name of the country for thousands of years till the Jews came along.
Ted Rudow III
Re: “Aug 17: Manhattan Transfer at Uptown Theatre”
Also playing in Santa Cruz, Sunday the 19th, should be great!!
Re: “Tex Wasabi Finishes 7th”
I know Bohemians. I grew up in a Bohemian neighborhood and I hung out with many real Bohemians. You sir, are not a Bohemian :)
Re: “Bad Bus Business”
The checkpoints were established by a treaty- Oslo- and are in compliance with International law. (A treaty is the highest level of international law, until it is superceeded by another treaty) Before the checkpoints, over 10,000 Israelis were maimed and killed in an outbreak of violence known as the second intifada. Before the onset of suicide bombings directed towards Israeli civilians, the borders were wide open. Want them open again? Encourage the Palestinians to sit down and negotate with the Israelis, with no pre-conditions. As inconvienent as the checkpoints are, attacks against Israelis have decreased by over 90% since they were instituted. They are a non-violent way to save lives until there is a real and lasting peace. It is an extremely hard thing to balance- protecting the lives and security of one group of people and the freedom of another. The answer is peace- and peace will not come with finger pointing and pressure on one side alone. Both sides must work together to accomplish this goal. That is why I, as a progressive activist stand firmly against this one sided pressure campaign . Peace is a two way street, and the Palestinians (and their Sonoma County enablers) MUST take responsibilities for their side in this equation.
Re: “Bad Bus Business”
Veolia's busses aren't for "Jews only", however, they are instrumental and complicent in Israel's system of apartheid and segregation. It's system of permits, checkpoints, walls, barriers and transportation of settlers (that is against article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention) onto settlements that are considered illegal internationally and within the United States. Veolia obviously does not care about the welfare of a people under a MILITARY occupation who have little rights to exercise and no freedom of movement (one of many "freedoms" not had). It is insulting to hear that many believe signs in three languages is enough to prove that a country is morally competant and does no harm. The fact that there were signs in English and Xhosa did not prove my experience with residents of Khaylitsha Camp, South Africa (2008) to be a joyous and celebrated occation. Veolia runs its busses on roads that cut into the occupied territories and cater to Israeli settlers and certain Arabs who may be lucky enough to attain the proper permit that is made most difficult in order to keep them oppressed (http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/2004…). You, Robin Cantor, can also take a look at a Wall Street Journal article this year that focuses on the resistance of women in Israel who have been forced to the back of the bus (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405…). Your statement that public transportation is Israel is not segregated...think again. In Veolia's case, however, although they may not directly segregate their own buses, they run their business that is supports a racist, heinous, disgusting, unfathomable system oppressing the native Palestinian population.
Re: “Bad Bus Business”
It wasn't just that Arabs and Jews rode the buses together- half the engineers employed by Veolia were Palestinians- and half their bus stops were in palestinian areas. I can't imagine anything less segregated. A heavily edited an biased video is meaningless- can you show me a sign that says "Jews only"? I have not seen a single sign like this anywhere on line- if there were one, surely some one would have photographed it by now. If these facilities were Jews only, are you saying all the photos of a fully integrated system al over the web are fake? At the hearing, they showed exactly the opposite of what you claim- a company and a country going out of their way to provide essential transportion to all segments of the society.
There is no segregation on public transportation in Israel, and Veolia is simply be using as a pawn to give you a venue to bash on Israel. I cant believe youd be willing to have 80 neighboors lose their jobs to push your bigoted one sided agenda
Re: “Bad Bus Business”
If you'd like to see what I saw you can see the video I shot here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pbEN6lNkZ0… .
To learn more about the segregated roads you can read from Israeli Human Rights group B'Tselem here: http://www.btselem.org/maps
Re: “Bad Bus Business”
I was at the hearing. Photos were shown of Jews and Muslims crowded together on public transportation. Photos were shown of signs and schedules in English Arabic and Hebrew. Frankly, its hard to pretend that these facilities are segregated when all the evidence indicated that they weren't.
Re: “Letters to the Editor: Aug. 8, 2012”
Vultures
But a small group of vulture funds have been trying to divert that money into their own pocket. How Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s former firm, Bain Capital, and others have used private equity to raise money to conduct corporate raids. "It’s just a scheme to take a cash-rich company and move all that cash to a few actors — typically it’s the executives of the target company and the executives in the private equity firm — and then you force everybody else to pay."
Wall Street scandals — including a decade-long Wall Street scandal that drained money from every county and state in the United States — and notes not a single bank executive has faced individual consequences. In Libor, it was 16 banks acting in concert to rig the international interest rates. What this one was was a number of the world’s biggest banks colluding to artificially suppress the amount of money that cities and towns earned on their municipal bond service.
The Libor, scandals trillions of dollars, and not a single person has had to have any individual consequence. So you talk about all those settlements. Those are all paid by the company and by the shareholders. Not a single person since 2008 has gone to—has been indicted, has gone to jail, has spent a day in jail, or has paid any kind of money out of his own pocket. And until there’s any individual consequence, it’s really a license to steal. If you can’t go to jail for rigging an $800 trillion market, what can you go to jail for? This is the result of a selfish, greed-driven society. They've hardened their hearts for so long and are so blinded by greed and hypocrisy that they don't even hear the pitiful pleas of these poor suffering ones.
Ted Rudow III, MA
This Week's Issue
Re: “Romney, Victim Shaming and Medi-Cal-Induced Guilt”
Is there any doubt that a Romney administration would favor the rich and increase the income gap in our country? Mitt is a pariah in Mormon Clothing and will stop at nothing to expand an empire of greed for the rich in this country by expanding tax cuts for the 1% of the wealthiest Americans. He’s out to gut the Middle Class for every red cent he can get. Will his sacred Mormon underwear grant him the protection and money to buy this election? See for yourself as Mitt dons his tighty-whities sent down from the Good Lord Himself at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2012/05…