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Opinion
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- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Tom McHale died of an overdose. The real story is that he was found to have suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
This disease is caused by repeated concussions, and once it starts, without any further trauma, the brain begins an inexorable decay that always ends in death.
McHale was a nine-year veteran of the National Football League. In fact, the biopsied brains of five other NFL veterans who died between the ages of 25 and 50 showed evidence of the same malady.
Additionally, there are more than 120 one time NFL players who are plaintiffs in lawsuits claiming the NFL did not do enough to make them aware of the dangers of concussions.
For many years, the NFL denied concussions in football games had any connection to future brain injuries. (As of 2010, warning posters appeared in all NFL locker rooms.)
There is more to this story: The average NFL player, whose career lasts about four years, will live about 20 years less than the average American. And, it appears that the more that you play, the sooner you die.
Clearly there is something hypocritical about Sean Peyton being punished for rewarding “cart-offs” to the sidelines by Roger Goodell and the NFL, who, by denial and neglect, contributed to cart-offs to the morgue.
As the character Mercutio said in Romeo and Juliet, “A curse on both their houses.”
Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Dave Gebhard
I would suggest for safety sake, on Lakeshore Boulevard north of Lakeport, areas where reflectors are installed are godsends, but the areas without street lights or reflectors are big pools of darkness. Where is the roadway?
I would think that reflectors would be a safety feature, along with bicycle paths.
When I moved here 21 years ago, it was with the intention of riding bikes to town, a feat I find too dangerous because of the lack of adequate bike lanes.
I realize lights are economically out of the question, but reflectors?
Dave Gebhard lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Anthony Farrington
I want to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge and thank Rick Coel, Director of Community Development, his staff and Chernoh Excavation for the recent demolition of the “Red Monster” which was an old blighted and dilapidated structure that was located on Soda Bay Road near the Edgewater Resort, and the Soda Bay Market.
This structure was a magnet for transients and the buying and selling of illegal narcotics.
By removing this structure, the community will be free of this health and safety hazard; and the potential for crime in this neighborhood will be dramatically reduced.
Of course, the removal of this structure would not have been possible without the support of my fellow colleagues on the Lake County Board of Supervisors.
With the recent redistricting of our county’s supervisorial districts, the communities of Soda Bay and the Riviera Heights are now part of my supervisorial district – District Four.
To date, we have had our road crew doing street sweeping and cleaning out drainage culverts. In addition, our director of the Department of Public Works Scott De Leon and his staff are currently working with the board members of the Riviera Heights to complete some of the road improvements that Supervisor Brown championed.
I look forward to working hard for my new constituents in Soda Bay and the Riviera Heights just as I have done over the years for my entire district.
So that I continue to remain accessible and available to my constituents, I also want to take this opportunity to provide my new county email address and phone number. My personal cell number is 707-349-1698; and my email address is
Once again, I want thank my staff and my colleagues for all of their support during this transition!
Anthony Farrington lives in Lakeport, Calif.
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- Written by: Randy Ridgel
My disagreement with Obama’s policies generated a blizzard of liberal evaluations of my ancestry, character and mental abilities, some concluding I’m crazy. One fellow in Clearlake Park elevated me to idiot.
Realizing that liberals are known for compassion, and observing that we idiots need love too, I plead guilty.
But we idiots notoriously lack self-control so here I go again – this time on Obama’s performance as military commander-in-chief.
I once described Clinton’s assuming the government and the military as handing a computer and a box of hand grenades to a clan of baboons – and the editor printed it. But I wouldn’t dare say that in these politically correct times. (I later apologized to baboon clans.)
Democrat Carter deposed the Shah and installed Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran. That has cost enormously in lives, including, indirectly, those of 911.
Republican Bush’s invading and holding Iraq was a brilliant move to isolate Iran and promote uprisings there.
When an uprising came, Obama dithered. Naturally, slaughter in Iran followed. Now, to satisfy his leftist political base, Obama has prematurely removed American troops from Iraq, leaving it to disintegrate and largely fall to Iran.
American forces found Osama from information gained by Bush’s waterboarding – a scary but harmless procedure.
Obama could have blown the mission with his hand-wringing and dawdling, but after the Seals success, from Obama’s press release one could believe he had personally led the mission. Meanwhile, his attorney general is working on indicting those who authorized the waterboarding that found Osama.
Regarding Afghanistan, Obama acted just like Johnson in Vietnam: Despite Bush’s success with the surge in Iraq, Obama compromised politically and sent half the troops the generals requested for the Afghan surge.
Just as predicted, we don’t have the troops to fight the war and simultaneously pacify the towns. Our efforts are unraveling and Obama is looking for a way to cut and run there, too.
On our Mexican front, I marvel at “Operation Fast and Furious” in which we released a raft of firearms to see what would happen to them.
When it turned into a murderous disaster, President Obama and his Attorney General Holder became Sgt. Shultz: “I know nothing.”
My last job in the Navy was overhaul manager for cruisers and destroyers, Pacific. I’m trying to imagine that I diverted some nuclear armed ships, not to a shipyard, but to North Korea – without the president’s knowledge – to see what would happen.
Now try to imagine my bosses, ComCruDesPac, CincPacFlt, Chief of Naval Operations and finally the president saying, “Shucks, we didn’t know old Randy did this.”
Bull!
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.