OPEN TOPIC

Tom Suttle had the idea that some of you would like a string opened that was a little less topic-oriented, so I've posted this open topic blog for anyone who has items they would like to address in open forum. If this works, I'll post more of them. Enjoy!

Public transportation

The population of Riverside at the time of the 2000 census was around 255,000, The projected population for Murrieta is 110-140,000. The Riverside Transit Authority was started in 1975 and began operation in 1977. That being said, are there any plans for public transportation here in the land of the monster SUV? Perhaps more bus lines than the twice daily commuter link to Riverside would spare many parents from having to drive their kids to and from school each day or around town, which would in turn relax the traffic load on many of the worst intersections on Washington, the Clinton Keith overpasses at the 15 and 215, and surface streets in general. If Murrieta contracted a public transportation system or created their own, would anybody use it?

Space Shuttle revisited

Now this is more like it (follow link), Nasa has decided to return to the Apollo-type space capsule and an eventual scrapping of the space shuttle, banishing it to the lemon-lot, as it were. The astronauts will be launched atop a single solid fuel shuttle booster, with ejection seats in the capsule in case there are any problems. The solid booster seal is what let go and took out Challenger.

ETHICS

The city council is to discuss a code of ethics for Murrieta tonight a half hour before the council meeting. You mean they didn't have one already?

A few points...

(1.) The Valley Funeral Home has had its license suspended due to complaints about their service. Old man Sykes was buried in Laurel Cemetery yesterday Sept. 14. Connection? none. I just wanted to mention it.

(2.) My pet goat will be distributing large wads of cash to the great unwashed along the gulf coast to try to salvage his near to fatally wounded ratings. It's going to take a lot of bread and circuses to buy himself out of this one, but, like the credit card commercial says, "It's not as if I'M paying for it."

(3.) With Dubya's low ratings at the moment, it is not surprising that the insurgent elements in Iraq have turned up the heat. Al Qaeda has begun to make their involvement in these attacks less discrete. Houston, we have a problem.

(4.) After reading about the difficulty that Julian Charter Schools is having providing a safe place to load and offload children at some additional classroom space they require, it seems that privatization of education is still subject to some of the restrictions that public schools are. This makes me ask the question: with privatization of schools, will the money saved thereby involve curtailment of certain government protections that kids in the public school system currently enjoy, like governmental overwatch?

(5.) Apparently the Murrieta library is going to have to consider making some compromises regarding the amenities offered due to budgetary constraints. Perhaps we'll get a better library if we find some way to privatize the library system.Unfortunately, there is likely no profit in running a place for storage of knowledge, freely accessible to all.

Supreme Court Chief Justice

As the attacks on FEMA, cronyism in the Bush administration, and fears of inadequate disaster response in America continue to monopolize headlines, I think it is important to note that the Supreme Court nomination process to confirm John G. Roberts as the new Chief Justice is still very much a relevant issue. Roberts is a conservative jurist and I think that his appointment should be delayed until the hurricane Katrina furor, like the south coastal flood waters, has subsided.

I was unaware that the newest appointee to the court would automatically assume the Chief Justice post. It would seem seniority on the bench would be a more effective way of guaranteeing experience at the top job in the Supreme Court.

Frivolous eminent domains

The Rancho Water District wants to build some water tanks in DeLuz and they have already acquired a 20-acre parcel to build it on, yet the district still wants to place an eminent domain on 5 additional acres of avocados belonging to Bill Burmeister of Temecula. They have already admitted that they don't really need his property unless they build a seven million gallon facility, but they just want to grab his land just in case and "sell one (of the two parcels) if it's not needed" prudent advice, but if they are unsure of whether they will even need his land, what right do they have to arbitrarily confiscate it from the rightful owner?

Old Town association?

Maybe Old Town Murrieta should form an association, but Rex and the CofC should not be a part of it, not even in formation. These Old Town business owners are finally recovering from a lean year, so naturally we should sock them with association dues. It's just our way of saying Danke.

Another question: Why must Murrieta always exactly copy Temecula? As I've said in other posts, Murrieta as a unique town with its own personality. So what comes next, are we going to pretend we have wineries?

Garage sales

Would someone please explain to me why it is important to regulate garage sales? A new regulation up for vote of the council would limit people's freedom to post garage sale signs and it would confine garage sales to only certain months of the year. Does Murrieta REALLY need more regulation of garage sales? It would seem like the City Government and the CofC is so worried about Murrieta's image that pretty soon this place will be so squeaky clean and wholesome that real people won't be able to live here.

If Murrieta is going to write tickets for posting garage sale signs, then political and real estate signage must also be subject to citation. Whats fair is fair. And in case anyone didn't notice, the weather is very dry and sunny here, so why would garage sales be limited to certain months? If you have a perpetual garage sale like the one on Ivy between Washington and Jefferson, you have tha ability to cite for urban blight, so why do you need another regulation?

I would like to suggest that revenues from citations be earmarked for charity, so that the City couldn't be accused of creating new regulations and writing tickets solely for the benefit of the City's coffers.

When in danger or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout

The federal government took five days to respond to the crisis in New Orleans, NOAA knew in advance the vulnerabilities of the levees and deforestation around the city. What happened was predicted in detail, yet the federal emergency response took five days. The damage is so severe that Dubya cut short his vacation and took advantage of some good photo ops in the aftermath zone, sleeves rolled up, ready to get to work, to take charge. He avoided visiting the refugee camps, however. There was complete lawlessness in New Orleans that forced the unprotected rescue workers and hospitals to limit their response to the emergency. Why did it take "my pet goat" so long to protect American citizens? Was he too hurt and bewildered over Cindy?

The Bush administration has really dropped the ball on this one. His people have failed to place a ceiling on gasoline prices and they have failed to respond to a disaster on par with the Malaysian tsunami, but on continental U.S. soil. In this day of supposed homeland security, Katrina has given this country a serious wake-up call. Can we expect any quicker a response here on the west coast in the event of a natural or man-made disaster?

New Orleans

Is there anything on the shelves in a Wal-Mart that is worth more than a human life?

The descent of New Orleans into barbarism after the storm surge of Katrina took a surprisingly short period of time. There are still people injured, trapped, or starving amongst the remains of the town and gunfire has hampered rescue attempts and made relief and evacuation unsafe for both rescuers and evacuees.

So why would troops be mobilized to protect property that due to storm damage, is useless? There are still people in the superdome and throughout New Orleans that need to be rescued. Because of looting, rescue workers have been re-assigned to protect the people from violent looters.

This is clearly a situation that requires harsh measures towards anyone caught looting, but the priority should not be merchandise, the priority should be to rescue and protect survivors.

Darwin who?

The DNA evidence that is used so much on television to catch criminals might also be able to dis-prove creationism. Easily denied by fundamentalists, the monkey wrench thrown into the gears here is that the chimpanzee has natural immunity to many diseases like malaria and diabetes. As in the suppression of stem cell research, will the choice between science and "God's will" continue to retard futher advances in healthcare?