who knows what tomorrow may bring

If for just one moment you could step outside your mind
And float across the ceiling, I don't think the folks would mind

isn't it ironic that the glory days of the News-Press, publisher Thomas Storke outed the John Birch Society in the area....the Birchers were ultra-conservative anti-gov't racist white folks and have a great deal in common with the Tea Party birthers...Birchers and Birthers...and isn't it ironic that Wendy P McCaw owns today's News-Press and supported Orly Taitz, the Birther Queen, the last time she ran for public office! fear is what these people use to justify invasions of sovereign countries..I think Wendy P McCaw is a member of the John Birch Society...
 
 In 1961, after the
John Birch Society attacked the Eisenhower administration and U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren as being communists, Storke responded with a caustic series of editorials in the News-Press which won him popular acclaim as well as a number of prizes. These included the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism, for Editorial Writing in 1962, the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College....

Eisenhower warned of America's Military Industrial Complex sticking our nose in everybody's business...but of course we never seem to learn....

and no mention of Edhat founder Peter Sklar's death in the News-Press..oh Wendy, you're such a class act

but I can see why..the News-Press online presence is very weak...as I look at Tomorrow's News Today...WTF does that mean? how do they know what tomorrow's news is?


oh and I see embattled and shamed ex-Carp city councilman Joe Armendariz wrote a letter to the News-Press...Joe is still director of the shady nonprofit Santa Barbara County Taxpayers Association...I guess these guys will never learn...but anyway Joe wants everyone to know he's concerned about students and their welfare and some members of the SBCTA are board members of our community schools! oh really..I'll have to look into that...but Joe..before you preach, you need to deal first with your own family issues which show up in the civil and criminal court calendars on a regular basis..that's wasting taxpayer money, Joe!!!

and then they got a pic of a couple of clowns mixing drinks for at a restaurant bar for the next DUI....

bartenders are now called "mixologists"....now that's just silly..  I call them simple-minded drug pushers...

love in vain

I got a thing about Doris Day....

I don't think it's thing for her, a thing about her..well maybe I had a thing for her but I could never quite figure her out....I've seen her films and heard her songs....it doesn't help to bring her into focus though..it's makes things more muddy, for me anyway..

is she a goody-two shoes or a naughty- no shoes?? huh, can you answer that? I didn't think so..

so I'm waiting to watch the Carp City Council meeting and they're in a long recess...the new council will be sworn in tonight and the lone gal, Kathleen Reddington, lost her re-election bid..so it's all guys on the council now..BUMMER!! c'mon ladies, run for office so I don't have to look at five ugly men!!

speaking of Carpinteria...
crimes around the corner.....maybe the new city council can look into this!

1300 Cravens Ln
Carpinteria , CA 93013-3082 Verified Address

Reported: 11/27/2012 by Crime Reporter: 6250
Crime Report #: 8510380
Source: Santa Barbara PD

M HS11357(B) Possess Marijuana 28.5 Grams Or Less
M PC242 Battery

assault and battery and mary jane possession..this is where the proposed Green Heron Springs project was supposed to happen...the architect Scott Ellinwood also was on the Carp ARB when his project was approved..something weird is up with this guy..stay tuned


but anyway I'm watching on TV and they play these little jazz songs while I wait..one of them was "You Smell Good"..a couple of white crooners trying to sound like jazz..what an odd song...

then on comes "In Love, In Vain"...well I've never heard that song before but it was pretty cool...the voice was familiar..I think it was Doris Day! she sounded really good...

I think Doris is an enigma....she can be bad or good and by bad I mean bad, you know what I mean... BAAAAAD! in a good way

so I ordered a CD from Amazon....a bunch of songs that I'll listen to...and maybe get to know Doris Day a little better....or maybe not

Top Hat

I read  Edhat alot and think it's an important place to find news....a kind of bulletin board of the latest issues....it's a stark contrast to media outlets with agendas like the News-Press...as a matter of fact, Edhat is another outlet blocked from the News-Press computers..so much for Wendy's freedom of the press

so with Edhat
I get to pick and choose stories to read...

I don't like the board nanny but that's the owner's right..to police the atmosphere if he chooses without being heavy-handed

so when I saw that
Edhat's founder Peter Sklar died, I was saddened....it was clearly something needed that he brought to the online community...undoubtedly the most popular site in Santa Barbara media....often accused of "aggregating" but that is just silly..

anyone accusing
Edhat of being an aggregator is just jealous....

Edhat simply provides links to stories and a chance to comment on many issues where others would not allow comments...

Sklar had a great idea and the vision to follow through and bring it home...

 talk about leaving a legacy!

on the ranch

the toy run on Sunday at Santa Claus Lane provides a place to continue our story....

After about fifteen years working in a highly complex and secret gov't job, I was finally able to buy a place of my own in 1996 less than a half mile from Santa Claus Lane. I’d been in Carpinteria since the early 1990’s, living on the ranches in the foothills. I was thrilled to find a place so close to them. I certainly started to appreciate the history of Carpinteria listening to some of the stories from the ranch owners. I lived on the Young Ranch where John and June Young had a beautiful rustic spread and a colorful party every Christmas for the tenants..June was big and coool, but tough as nails! She had a loyal following among the ranch dwellers! and I found out later that she was the same June who invented Santa Claus Lane!! duh...I didn't even know that when I met her....she also invented the Big Yellow House...talk about a Renaissance woman!!

I also lived on the huge Rancho Monte Alegre in an old pink house with a bunch of cats to keep the rats at bay. The rats dined on the big, fat, tasty avocados and had taken up residence in the attic of the pink house. I heard them at night crawling around and scratching and they unnerved me. Well, one day I noticed a Tabby cat hanging around the house and living underneath it. She’d pop her head out when I went outside to do some gardening (the owners dropped the rent if I did some chores). The rats were too clever for my attempts to get rid if them, so I started leaving food out for the cat to try to enlist her help. I called her Big Mama....She ate the cat food-in- a- bowl and started to trust me and we became fast friends. In no time she was in the house monitoring the rat situation. After a week, I had no rat issue..just the ones she brought in from the orchards to show me. Sometimes she’d bring one in alive, let it go and then go off somewhere leaving me to fend for myself!

Her offspring added to the merriment...
Five or six cats coming and going, some would disappear. I figured they ran away or maybe the coyotes got them. I’d hear the coyotes yapping at night with the sound of the highway in the distance..I was enchanted by the music! But, cats are independent and I had zero control over them. I did learn a lot from them, however. As I watched them, I realized they were fearless. They’d stand up to any ranch dog, raccoon, or possum. Mainly, they’d just watch with detached bemusement the raccoons wander around at night. I remember warm summer evenings under a full moon, watching the cats and raccoons cast long spooky shadows as they foraged in the avocado orchards. I’d go out to get as close as I could, and they barely noticed me! It was wonderful! Big Mama and her sons and daughters taught me more about nature that anyone before or since. I had her for three years and then she died of a heart condition..I cried like a baby..over a cat! Spooky was hers and was my favorite cat of all time..what a character he was!!!

Music from Big Pink

the the old pink house was previously inhabited by Ollie Carey until she died right in it. She was the wife of Harry Carey, Sr. and they both showed up a lot in the old TV westerns, of which I am a big fan. I heard great stories of parties on the ranch in the 1950’s with Robert Mitchum and John Wayne..and Ollie serving drinks from her little cottage. Rumor had it a former Playboy centerfold lived on one of the ranches. I may have seen her. I may have given her a ride in my truck, too. I may have..☺

I felt the ghosts moving thru those old houses most every night. (or maybe that was the rats before I snagged a ranch cat). The owners of Rancho Monte Alegre were a little nutty. After a few years living there, one of the ladies kept banging on my door at about three o’clock in the morning, telling me to turn my lights on outside, like Olive Carey used to do!!

Finally, I left Rancho Monte Alegre or was kicked out when they got bored with me! Nevertheless, this was the essence of Carpinteria, rustic and rugged, and I wanted to protect it...

I know why the caged bird sings

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

the coyote whisperer
my close encounter with an albino coyote and his pal yesterday got me to thinking..folks kill these wild dogs for sport and trophies...well wasn't gonna kill them two varmints lessen they were gonna kill me...or meybe if'n I was hungry..then it's ok to harvest an animal...but no way kill for sport of trophies..or for "biodiversity"...all the folks who are in on all the killing at the Channel Islands should be in jail..the NPS, the Nature Conservancy...all and any of them who were behind the bloody massacre on the islands should be in jail...

and here's one more...

ok so the Environmental Defense Center has elected a new president according to the Independent..the guy is Peter Schuyler and that name rings a bell...oh yeah I went to Laguna Blanca with him...I remember Peter as a good student and mindful of his wealthy & influential mom and dad and respectful to this elders unlike me who told some of the older folks trying to guide me to take a hike a few times....

but Schuyler was an ocean kinda guy...Peter was a little odd social-wise  but this was Laguna Blanca in the 1970s after all...Laguna had ok teachers and a good oceanography program... except the French teachers were bad..they sucked eggs...non-union and the worst teachers I've ever had..

the best French teacher I had was in Santa Barbara Junior High....and I see France has taken the lead and pulled out of Afghanistan and supported statehood for Palestine...C'est Bon!!!

so Laguna was kinda fun but eventually I got kicked out because I was like a caged bird and I had to sing..so they kicked me out! sent me home one day for long hair an inch over my collar..whoooo..an inch!!

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

the administrators were dumbasses so our relationship just died...I had to live my life on my own terms and my terms were SEX DRUGS AND ROCKNROLL BABY!! but all Laguna wanted was conformity/obedience even though there was a big pot bust there..about three or four students were involved..all very nice kids but the administraion made a big deal out of it....the kids stayed and graduated after things calmed down.....



anyway, Schuyler has apparently gone to the dark side at the EDC and with affiliations listed such as the corrupt killers at the non-profit  pro- BP oil spillers Nature Conservancy, the completely unnecessary Council of Invasive Plants and so forth..geez just the folks I've been yipping about for years...we are all native to Mother Earth so this biodiversity/native only/ mantra is a scam... a money making machine..a cult.....

like Laguna Blanca!

call of the wild

so I'm out on a hike today on 150....THANK GOD!!!

I stand on the ridge and in the valley below I see a couple of dogs...walking across the pasture..at first I thought they were just ranch dogs but nooooo..they are two coyotes....oh boy..I ran back to the car and got the binoculars...and took some shots with the camera..geez I gotta spring for a real camera with a focused zoom..

 

anyway I watched these two amble, stop, look up at me, then mosey on off through the bush to the creek...they were awesome and so wild looking.. the one on the left was weird looking.. pale white- like an albino..kinda scary too...but beautiful...my kind of dogs....
 

even cowgirls get the blues

shuckin' and jivin'

ok is Nancy Crawford Hall leaving the publishing biz or is it a rumor started by the News-Press.. uhh, I got some issues: why didn't she just sell the paper? no takers that's why and do you know what? I own the name SantaYnezValleyJournalblog.com...I haven't decided what to do with it yet but you can have it Nans, for the right price

but Nancy mentioned something about the National Parks Service fight with an oyster company that caught my eye..specifically the Drakes Bay Oyster Company...I have to wade through the bs to find some facts but it boils down to a lease not extended to the shuckers even though Diane Feinstein tried to negotiate a deal....this is all happenng in Marin County and I went to the local media to see the story...ok so Ken Salazar the Interior Czar denied the permit as per a 40 year agreement with the original owners..the operation would stop and the area would be returned to pristineness...

the new owners, the Drakes Bay Oyster folks don't think they should honor the contract and should get another 10 extension permit to operate their business

http://www.marinscope.com/mill_valley_herald/article_8bb38a68-3f14-11e2-81e0-001a4bcf887a.html

Nancy called out Salazar because he wears cowboy hats...
"I find it insulting that the head of NPS U.S. Interior secretary Ken Salazar is always shown wearing a cowboy hat. He represents nothing of cowboy culture of honesty, courtesy, kindness and God-fearing values. Take it off and stop insulting good people; you’re not one of us!"

hahaha...

so on points Nancy keeps losing her arguments when she tosses in this cowboy ethos nonsense....remember, John Wayne was an actor, not a real cowpoke... and Annie Oakley was pretty homely but Calamity Jane was a hard drinkin'- mule skinner- sorta gal!

and....this oyster business is a little different than the Channel Islands fiasco..Nancy Crawford-Hall family SOLD OUT to the gov't when they could have stayed and fought and kept ranching on Santa Rosa Island....but the Nature Con and the NPS bought them out and now we got nutjobs running around on the island trying to save one species by killing others!! it's a never ending process that requires never-ending donations from really gullible people....

this pisses me off to no end but is a lesson in real estate..be careful who you sell to....or you could get stuck with a situation like the News-Press and Wendy McCuckoo, the Miramar issue, the Channel Islands....there's a difference between selling and selling out or so I'm told....

well I don't know what will happen in Mill Valley but I'd favor the extension...and the Oyster Co can keep doing business...if they lose the lease, they have no one but themselves to blame...and that ain't no jive