How to resolve AdBlock issue? 
Opinion
- Details
- Written by: Randy Ridgel
Public-private partnerships, where government directs industry, is actually not a new idea; it is a key element of what was called fascism. Fascism, or the more extensive government control, socialism, grew from the Hope & Change promised by Hitler, Mussolini and Linen.
Unfortunately, Hitler’s and Mussolini’s Hope & Change brought about WWII and the destruction of Germany and Italy. Lenin’s Hope & Change resulted in 70 years of poverty, misery and fear for the Soviet Union.
Examples of the efficiency of their public-private partnerships in the automobile world were the duct-taped Yugo and the smoke-belching East German Trabant which competed so successfully with the privately produced Toyota, Ford and Mercedes. Even today everyone in America yearns for a beautiful Trabant.
Our Hope & Change has produced the successful entry of our government into public-private automotive business and has already delivered the Chevrolet Volt - which caught fire while sitting in a garage.
We must admit that no other American-built automobile, from Model T to Delorean, has ever exhibited such a spectacular performance. The Volt is part of Obama’s air pollution reduction program, but we must ignore the smoke it produces while burning in the garage.
Unfortunately, the Volt produced more heat than Solyndra, the solar panel company, even though our grand and glorious leader in Washington had dumped over a half billion dollars of our money into it as it was going bankrupt.
Well shucks, that’s one of the beauties of government investment. If it’s someone else’s money: Easy come, easy go.
If you’re impressed with the efficiency of our past public-private partnerships, just wait till Obamacare kicks in. You haven’t seen anything yet!
Randy Ridgel lives in Kelseyville, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Karen Schaver
Dear Dog Owner,
The dog you dumped on the side of the road waited for you for weeks. I think you left him on the 5000 block of Highland Springs Road, and he stayed at the very spot he lost sight of you.
The week you left him there it was 27 degrees at night. Your dog looked like a pit mix. His coat is very thin as such dogs' coats are.
You left him out there because you didn't want him anymore. The thing is he didn't know that. He thought you were coming back to get him. The other thing is, he was undersocialized. He was afraid of people. You didn't raise him right at all. You didn't raise him well, and then you dumped him on the side of a road.
There were many of us who tried to get him to safety. People who drive that road to and from work stopped daily, offered food, treats, comfort. He would have none of it. He was certain you would come back. He didn't need us.
Animal control came during the day. Traps were attempted. Food was left. People stopped by. Nights were frigid.
Officer Morgan Hermann from Lake County Animal Care and Control told me the rest of the story. I noticed one day the dog wasn't there. When I went to work the next day I still did not see him. I waited a few days to call because I was afraid. I really didn't want to know.
Eventually I had to call Morgan.
I would like to say here that I believe that the puppy is better off euthanized than to live a marginal existence for a year or two with a person like you and then die a terrible death.
Seriously. Weigh the choices. A marginal existence and then to die, lonely, hungry, afraid and confused. What kind of life could this dog have had with a person like you? He knew what loyalty is, why don't you?
How can a person think that this death is better than being warm, fed and possibly adopted at animal control? If he had been euthanized at animal control it would have been because of people just like you who keep breeding pit mixes and in spite of the fact there are not enough homes for them all. If he had been euthanized at animal control, he would have died quietly, held by someone who cares, gently led to death.
Instead, one day your dog heard a car that must have sounded like yours. He followed that car for miles. After not leaving his spot for weeks, he followed that car all the way down Highland Springs Road to Ackley Road. There he was struck and killed by another car.
Your dog was killed by hope. Your dog was killed by loyalty. Your dog was killed by stupidity.
Karen Schaver runs Lake County Animal Services, www.LakeCountyAnimalServices.org, an award-winning Lake County, Calif., animal rescue organization.
- Details
- Written by: Darlene Fiscus
The EKS coalition of partners offers free tax preparation assistance to qualifying individuals and families making less than $50,000 annually in Lake County.
During tax season, IRS-certified volunteers will be working at community sites, and will also help connect residents to other community resources providing income support.
During the 2011 tax season, more than 1,300 tax returns were filed by volunteers in Sonoma, Mendocino and Lake counties, claiming nearly $2 million in total refunds for United Way of the Wine Country’s region.
Thousands more people qualify for this free service, but may not know about it.
In a time when individuals and families are working hard, but barely surviving, the EKS program can help them become more financially stable.
For more information about the EKS program and how you may qualify visit www.unitedwaywinecountry.org/eitc or call 800-325-9604 to schedule your free tax preparation appointment at a community site near you.
Thank you to everyone who makes the EKS program possible!
Darlene Fiscus is vice president of community benefit for United Way of the Wine Country, with offices in Santa Rosa, Ukiah and Eureka, Calif.
- Details
- Written by: Nelson Strasser
Then, we have the “known unknowns,” which are the things we know that we don’t know (for example, we know there are cars on Main Street, but we may not know how many, or exactly where they are).
Thirdly, Rumsfeld argued, we have the “unknown unknowns,” or things we don’t even know that we don’t know, and these are the ones that necessitate invading Iraq.
The philosopher, Slavoj Zizek argues that there is a fourth category that Rumsfeld failed to mention: the “unknown knowns.”
These are the prejudices we have, and the assumptions that we make, which we may not even be aware of.
I thought of this when I heard the government was very upset about the current scandal in Afghanistan.
I was thinking how strange it is that we are abhorred by our soldiers urinating on the dead bodies of Afghans, but shooting them aroused no ire whatsoever.
We assume shooting poor people in a country that we invaded under false premises 10 years ago is OK. Kill them, yes, but don’t pee on them.
Nelson Strasser lives in Kelseyville, Calif.