Opinion

Bowling over a San Marcos story

Was it me? Or was it the dart store? Whatever it was, every time I thought of going to the dart store, it was closed. My grand plan was to get a dart, throw it at a map of the greater San Marcos sphere of influence and produce a column based on the people at the place where the dart landed. This was an homage,…


Uninformed and malicious voters: Thanks for NOTHING

In the grand theater of nations, nothing matters now but the ruin we have invited upon ourselves. Neither the evident decay of reason nor the depths of ignorance; not the tempest of unbridled emotions nor the campaign built upon venom and folly; not even the absurdity of schemes so unworkable that only malice could defend them. None of it mattered. Behold the man: the candidate…


Camp Pendleton Marines go boom, Vance detail shelled

You can’t say America doesn’t know how to celebrate a birthday. For the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary down at Camp Pendleton, they decided to party the old-fashioned way — with artillery. A 155-millimeter shell was fired in salute. It didn’t quite wait for the finale. Somewhere between ignition and impact, it skipped the schedule and dropped shrapnel on the California Highway Patrol detail guarding Vice…


Store deadly San Onofre nuclear waste or else, already

September 30, 2025 may mark the day communities in Southern California first took initiative to protect themselves from deadly nuclear waste stranded indefinitely at San Onofre. With Irvine Mayor Larry Agran spearheading the effort, a Special Study Session of the Irvine City Council convened on Sept. 30 to address the risks of 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel (SNF) stored in temporary…


Harmony Grove, my foot: When San Diego County officials call it ‘progress,’ keep a fire extinguisher handy

Fire doesn’t care about zoning. A bridge won’t save you when the hills already are burning. Harmony Grove? Try irony grove. The San Diego County Board of Supervisors did it again. Five officials in a bright, air-conditioned room downtown on Oct. 1, 2025 voted yes—unanimously, naturally—to build a brand-new suburban fairy tale called Harmony Grove Village South. You’d think, from the name, they were approving…


Neighbor to neighbor: Vote YES YES YES on Prop 50

Let’s show up and do the work. Ain’t no superhero comin’ to save the country from Donald J Trump, Project 2025, and the freaks around the White House. I’m not going to dilly dally and rehash the ‘debate’ around Yea or Nay on Proposition 50; either you are going to make a commitment to fight fascism on this level or not. Yes, it’s partisan, but…


Border Patrol goons racially profile San Diego migrants

Christian Ramirez was on his way to school 35 years ago when a Border Patrol agent approached him at gunpoint. Then just 15 years old, the San Diegan was apparently handcuffed on the streets of the Nestor border community, wrongly and racially profiled. Ramirez recalled the incident in a Facebook post recently after the Supreme Court broke with lower courts in a major immigration enforcement…


Letter from Memphis: Tyrants must not stand unopposed

I have left the Daily Memphian. They refused to run my column this week. Too critical of Trump, they said. Trump is not, NOT local, they said. This week, of all weeks, Trump is not local? Enough, I said. When a paper censors its columnists to align with management, that paper ceases being a paper. Regardless of your beliefs, all beliefs must be served and…


Three Dot Lounge visits Rancho Santa Fe: $20 ice cream pints, crying about the spilt Inn and foie gras lawsuits

We are going to consider a few outstanding three-dot items stripped from below, well below, today’s sundry headlines. But first, a reminder and salute about he who pioneered the three-dot way… It’s been 25 years since famed San Francisco journalist Herb Caen (1916-1997) died. For journalists and San Franciscans, Caen was a superstar. Known as “Mr. San Francisco,” his columns were a vital piece in…


They threw me out of Bill Clinton’s office

“Ooh, let me get it back, let me get it back,  Let me get it back, baby, where I come from It’s been a long time, been a long time,  Been a long lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely, lonely time. Yes it has” — Led Zeppelin Yes, it’s been a real trip — and way too much Linda Tripp although Sarah Paulson’s got to get numerous…