Run, Annie, RUN!

Oh, Lordy, the Annie The Dog story took a turn for the weird when Kitty Crockett of Atascadero submitted a California Public Records Act to find out who adopted the dog, Annie, formerly owned by Chuck Hoage. The document had been redacted but one reference to the new adopters slipped by so, according to the Tribune, only three people outside officials, that is, now know who the new adopters are – Chuck Hoage, Dave Congalton and Kitty herself. And she has promised not to tell anyone else.

So, good luck with that. Knowing how crazed people have become over this matter, precious police resources are now being used to beef up patrols in the new owner’s neighborhood, and County Counsel Warren Jensen is warning the public that “any member of the public who uses or disseminates the information we inadvertently disclosed could be held liable for civil damages for doing so.”

Is it time for Annie’s new owners to enter the witness protection program?

No SLO High

Aw, too bad. people suffering with cancer who want to use doctor-prescribed marijuana will have to settle for calling local providers and getting home deliver because there will be no medical marijuana clinics in Nipomo.

What tickled me about the Trib story was this: a parade of local residents screaming about all the crime they say will arrive with the dispensary – O Gawd! Hide The Children! The Children!! – coupled with testimony from Sheriff Pat Hedges that there are no studies showing that clinics are “crime magnets” and Supervisor Bruce Gibson noting that he could find no evidence of that linkage either. But he was worried that there was a gymnastics studio near to the proposed dispensary and he was undoubtedly worried about the young people in the gym being lured into a life of crime and sin, forgetting, of course, that I’m betting all those young kids in that gym likely already know how to score pot on the street. Don’t need no fuddy-duddy dispensary.

Ah, and so our drug insanity persists: No evidence needed, just fears and, of course, the children! the children!

Dear America, Drop Dead

What is it about Americans that make them hate themselves so much they want themselves and each other to get sick and/or dead? Case in point, New York Times story, “U.S. doesn’t require vaccine for egg salmonella.”

“Faced with a crisis more than a decade ago in which thousands of people were sickened from salmonella in infected eggs, farmers in Britain began vaccinating their hens against the bacteria. That simple but decisive step virtually wiped out the health threat.”

Let’s repeat that: Britain wiped out salmonella in eggs as a health threat ten years ago. Apparently, the English don’t hate themselves and don’t want to get themselves sick get sick or die. Very strange.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. the FDA decided there wasn’t “enough evidence to conclude that vaccinating hens against salmonella would prevent people from getting sick” so decided “not to mandate vaccination of hens – a precaution that would cost less than a penny per a dozen eggs.”

One penny per dozen of eggs? Nope, not for Americans. Let us get sick and die. We don’t want no regulations on our food. We’re Americans and we hate ourselves, especially that guy over there! So, eat up America! It’s breakfast Russian roulette time!

Who Is That Guy, Again?

Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck has organized a Lincoln Memorial gathering ostensibly in support of military families (fine print on the website notes that all donation moneys will FIRST be used to pay for the rally, then what’s left over – if any – will go to the “military families.”)

Noted the L.A. Times, in June, on his radio program, Beck announced “The government is trying to now close the Lincoln Memorial for any kind of large gathering. This may be the last large gathering ever to assemble at the Lincoln Memorial. Historic, historic,” he intoned dramatically.

Said the National Part Service, “There is absolutely no attempt or move on the government’s part, nor specifically on the National Park Service’s part to close off or to restrict free speech or any 1st Amendment activities on or below the step where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood to give his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech on Aug, 28, 1963,” National Park Service spokesman Bill Fine said.

“Asked to explain the pundit’s statement, a Beck spokesman declined to comment.”

Translation? Glen Beck is a big fat liar.

And if you want to get a good look at perfect examples of “gullible fools,” tune in to the media coverage of this event. And keep a close eye on the “donated” money. You know, the money that’s supposed to go to “military families?” Right. That money.

Yowsa! Yowsa! Step right up.

Grover Norquist Wins State Senate Seat!

Good old “get government small enough to drown in the bathtub” Grover Norquist won Tuesday’s election for state Senator for our district. So, unless there’re other changes in the Assembly or Senate, we’ll see more gridlock as the state slowly sinks in the west. But that’ll be o.k. Last year, Grover, when facing a choice of compromising on some budget issues or seeing California crash and burn, chose crash and burn. I’m sure the same thing will happen again. But, that’s what the voters wanted, so that’s what they’ll get.

Oh, wait, did I say Grover Norquist? I meant Sam Blakeslee, but same difference.

The Russians are Coming!

Great photo on the front page of today’s Tribune. A “yacht” looking like a battleship parked outside the Morro Bay breakwater while the owner, a 38-year-old Russian tycoon billionaire visits the central coast and has a private tour of Hearst Castle.

Looking at the photo I could only think of Tolstoy’s observation that behind every great fortune is a great crime. And “business tycoon” involved with Russia’s recent “experiment” in “capitalism,” involving oil pipelines and coal and gas producers & etc. are no exception. That gang of enterprising cronies that rose after the fall of communism made our own historical robber barons look like pikers. Ah, God bless the child .

Annie Time Again

The saga of Annie, the dog that was lost, got adopted, original owner arrives, new owner refuses to give her back, continues anew with a new column by the Tribune’s Bill Morem and another spate of letters-to-the editor. The consensus seems to be that maybe Animal Services screwed up, [previous] owner Chuck Hoage and the [new] owners did everything by the book but things still got messed up and now it’s up to the new owners to “do the right thing” and give Annie back to her “real” owner.

That his hasn’t happened and instead there has been absolute silence as to WHY this hasn’t happened, is likely what keeps this story going. A mystery into which, Rorschach-like we can pour our own concerns and values. But there also seems to be a overlying larger issue best expressed by Carol Tell of Santa Maria’s letter to the editor asking “Why is it so hard for people these days to do the right thing?”

That simple question is certainly reflective of our zeitgeist – all around us we see evidence of People Behaving Badly, from sleazy, greedy, selfish Wall Street thieves, to sleazy, selfish demagogues flogging phony issues just for their political gain, and ugly Nativist Know-Nothing bigotry spilling all over the body politic, sleazy cost-cutting corporate greed whose results have oozed all over the gulf coast, while good people who have always tried to do the right thing lose their homes, lose their jobs and go broke. Our present reality is a vision filled with fear and greed and lust for power, none of which can even vaguely be described as “doing the right thing,” or even behavior that speaks to our better natures.

And then there’s Annie. A small four-footed symbol of so much that has gone so wrong in our world. With so many people asking, How can we make this right?

And only one family can answer that question. And, to date, their response is . . . silence.