Recent Comments
Re: “Race-Baiting in Richmond”
Well, maybe the Black and Latino people in Richmond felt that they didn't think that affluent white liberals should be taxing them "for their own good."
Re: “The Good and Bad of William Bratton”
What Oakland needs are the very things that the Oakland elite - and the gangsters and their friends - most oppose - youth curfews and gang injunctions.
Re: “Why Oakland Needs a Federal Gun Control Law”
What Oakland really needs is a competent Mayor and Council.
Re: “Why Oakland Needs a Federal Gun Control Law”
I would ask the police for their actual data on these firearms. For example, Richmond made a great deal of noise about firearms in their city from being out of state - but when I asked for the actual data, they refused to disclose it and I heard through backchannels from an officer that every recovered firearm involved in any homicide he worked came from within California.
California has "strict gun laws" that are ineffective. The California man who went on a shooting spree in an Carson City, NV pancake house didn't buy his firearm in Nevada - after a great deal of media hyperbole about Nevada gun laws, investigators discovered he had acquired his illegal fully automatic rifle from illegal sources in California - and was already legally prohibited from owning any firearm. It seems he drove from his California home with his illegal in California firearm acquired illegally in California to commit murder in Nevada.
When police discuss "traced firearms" this means only a very small of the firearms they obtain. Many firearms are simply not traceable; others are obviously stolen. Not that long ago two teenage boys murdered a woman in the East Bay in order to obtain jewelry, cash, and firearms. Just what do you think they intended to do with the jewelry and firearms? Sell them on the black market to fellow criminals, of course.
The only people who obey firearms laws are the people who don't misuse them. The reality is that allowing all qualified individuals to obtain concealed carry permits doesn't lead to bloodbaths in the streets - it actually enables them to save their own lives. Look up "Nick Meli" and "Clackamas Mall" - or examine the very recent case of the Madera pharmacist who saved the lives of himself and his mother from thugs who came into his pharmacy shooting, and wounded his mother before he stopped them.
Re: “Drakes Bay Oyster Company Turns to Koch Brothers-Linked Group”
This is the old "guilt by association" smear tactic. When I was young, it was used to claim that the civil rights movement was "Communist" since some Communist Party members were involved in donating to the various civil rights organizations and participated in organizing.
It didn't convince me then, and it sure doesn't convince me now. It sounds like the usual nonsense promulgated by "reporters" who are really propagandists who will say anything to achieve a preferred goal. All that has changed is the preferred goal.
Re: “Drakes Bay Oyster Company Turns to Koch Brothers-Linked Group”
Would you be happier if George Soros were helping this family business?
The environmental study done did not take all of the facts into consideration, and used data from years that this family did not own the company.
I don't mind the jobs and business going to northwestern oyster farmers - Oregon is, after all, in the midst of a major depression - but I think that driving small, environmentally responsible businesses out of business is poor government policy.
All I've seen hear is a lot of guilt by association; let's face it, a drowning person would accept a life line from a Somali pirate if that were the only one available.