rwneill comment-26118 2010-05-03T14:12:06Z 2010-05-03T14:12:06Z Kati Garner's photo is excellent...award-worthy...with the dark, threatening storm clouds closing in over the site, suggesting the political climate in the City below. Tall, heavy, cumulo-nimbus thunderheads which at any moment could unleash a hailstorm complete with lightning bolts & awesome wind shear currents that could easily topple the Caterpillar line of earth-moving equipment like toys in a sandbox... rwneill 2010-05-03T14:12:06Z rwneill comment-8495 2009-05-29T04:30:36Z 2009-05-29T04:30:36Z I, too, enjoyed the time spent on the River Walk in San Antonio. I remember it more vividly than the Alamo. Ms. McClean makes a good point. Other than Ol' Sac, we seem to be trying to hide our rivers rather than making them a focal point of city planning. Interesting article & thanks to the people who shared their answers to an excellent question. rwneill 2009-05-29T04:30:36Z rwneill comment-8371 2009-05-27T04:33:54Z 2009-05-27T04:33:54Z I've never been convinced that Shockley was a "racist". He was first & foremost an applied scientist/engineer. Like Einstein, his politics were oddball, perhaps naive, and he could be far left on one issue & far right on the next. His notion that human genetics should be centrally planned to enhance the intelligence of the species through the generations by applying scientific principles had been the central theme of the popular novel "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. In that novel, humans were supposedly happier precisely because they were pre-programmed genetically prior to birth so that they would love the jobs they would ultimately end up doing for their whole lives. They wouldn't have to waste time trying to "find" themselves or their ultimate purpose/contribution in the world. "Although Shockley was concerned about both black and white dysgenic effects, he found the situation among blacks more disastrous. While unskilled whites had 3.7 children on average versus an average of 2.3 children for skilled whites, Shockley found from the 1970 Census Bureau reports that unskilled blacks had 5.4 children versus 1.9 for the skilled blacks. Shockley reasoned that because intelligence (like most traits) is inherited, the black population would, over time, become much less intelligent countering all the gains that had been made by the Civil Rights movement. Shockley's published writings and lectures to scientific organizations on this topic, such as the National Academy of Sciences, were partly based on the research of Berkeley psychologist Arthur Jensen, Cyril Burt and H. J. Eysenck. Shockley also proposed that individuals with IQs below 100 be paid to undergo voluntary sterilization." Shockley donated substantial quantities of his own sperm to a sperm bank with the hope of brightening the prospects for future generations. This is not racist but a mis-placed belief, spawned in the social turmoil of the 1960s & only after he had been in a very severe auto accident, that somhow a world of high-IQ persons of all races & both genders would miraculously yield a BETTER result overall than mere random reproduction among lower-IQ, lower-skilled contributors to the human species. Perhaps you can leave the name of the park as it is & just write Shockley off as an eccentric old coot who survived a nasty traffic collision in the days BEFORE seat belts even existed... rwneill 2009-05-27T04:33:54Z rwneill comment-7914 2009-05-20T05:07:38Z 2009-05-20T05:07:38Z Interesting points. I've never read 'Mein Kampf' nor is it likely to happen anytime soon. Same with 'Das Kapital'. Whenever I see the word "bourgeois" I konk out & lose focus completely.. Something from my childhood, perhaps. At the end of the day, though, it may be that trying to place The Fuhrer on a rational, political spectrum may be like trying to determine whether Charlie Manson is Left Wing or Right Wing, but in both cases the term "Wacko" does seem appropriate regardless of the Wing... rwneill 2009-05-20T05:07:38Z rwneill comment-7907 2009-05-20T03:53:57Z 2009-05-20T03:53:57Z San Diego voters made the switch to a Strong Mayor system for a 5-year trial period beginning January 2006. They did so amidst a slew of scandals (not "crises" per se). One of those involved the Weak Mayor & at least one Councilmember accepting $$$ contributions in exchange for promises to change the city ordinances so that patrons of exotic dancing establishments could touch the dancers. There were shortages in the pension fund, FBI & SEC investigations, federal grand jury indictment of pension board members and loss of bond ratings sufficient to sell any municipal bonds at affordable rates. The Council-Manager system is susceptible to these sorts of extreme hanky-panky because responsiibility is diluted among the individuals who comprise the decision-making authority and it is much easier for those holding power to avoid accountability to the voters & bamboozle investigative journalists. It would put greater pressure on Kevin Johnson to PERFORM than he will otherwise experience by remaining merely a Weak Mayor & Junior Member of the Strong City Council. The Strong Mayor system is patterned after the system chosen by our nation's Founders & by all 50 States: a strong executive accountable directly to the voters with checks & balances provided by a City Council & Manager. Though Sacramento isn't facing the sea of scandals that San Diego faced in 2005 from its Council-Manager system, a switch to the Strong Mayor system, at least for a trial period, is worthy of voter consideration for increased accountability to the voters by a single indivdual. rwneill 2009-05-20T03:53:57Z rwneill comment-7901 2009-05-20T01:18:59Z 2009-05-20T01:18:59Z Myth: Hitler was a leftist. Fact: Nearly all of Hitler's beliefs placed him on the far right. Many conservatives accuse Hitler of being a leftist, on the grounds that his party was named "National Socialist." But socialism requires worker ownership and control of the means of production. In Nazi Germany, private capitalist individuals owned the means of production, and they in turn were frequently controlled by the Nazi party and state. True socialism does not advocate such economic dictatorship...Hitler's other political beliefs place him almost always on the far right. He advocated racism over racial tolerance, eugenics over freedom of reproduction, merit over equality, competition over cooperation, power politics and militarism over pacifism, dictatorship over democracy, capitalism over Marxism, realism over idealism, nationalism over internationalism, exclusiveness over inclusiveness, common sense over theory or science, pragmatism over principle... rwneill 2009-05-20T01:18:59Z rwneill comment-7830 2009-05-19T13:39:25Z 2009-05-19T13:39:25Z Every one of the proposition Titles is misleading & deceitful. Whoever wrote those titles did so in a spirit of deceit, attempting to hide the true meaning of the underlying legislation, thus justifying a NO vote on every one. Prop 1F will pass, however, by a huge majority, though many would rather see it reduce or completely eliminate Legislator pay when a budget deficit exists or Legislators fail to pass a balanced budget on time instead of merely 'freezing' Legislator pay in a "deficit year". So voters may want to consider casting a Hanging Chad YES on 1F. rwneill 2009-05-19T13:39:25Z rwneill comment-7823 2009-05-19T04:03:17Z 2009-05-19T04:03:17Z It may soon be even easier to not vote. County Voter Registration & Election officials foresee budget cuts eliminating expensive, labor-intensive polling places altogether, leaving only one option for voters to cast their ballots: stop by the nearest Voter Registration office to pick up a ballot, fill it out & mail it in. Permanent Absentee Voters will still have their ballots mailed to them. Not to worry, things WILL continue to change whether you vote or not. As Right Wing Wacko Adolf Hitler once said..."Once the people have chosen me, why must they choose again & again & again?" rwneill 2009-05-19T04:03:17Z rwneill comment-7772 2009-05-17T03:26:42Z 2009-05-17T03:26:42Z The uncertain cleanup costs may be just what's prevented any sale of that land since the days of railroad cars bustling around the outskirts of Sacramento. The cleanup costs for the former McClellan Air Force Base to be transformed to the McClellan Business Park were enormous & took years, leaving untold numbers of displaced workers to find a new path in life. This "plan" will have to be based on extensive soil sampling by qualified contractors (jobs), just as I witnessed at McClellan. The developer who built the new building at 500 Capital Mall (George Tsakopoulos) had to first pay for asbestos removal, demolition & cleanup of the building formerly at the site...which was once filled with industrious Sacramentans toiling their lives away at the jobs from which they were ultimately displaced from, retrained from, retired from & otherwise left behind from to find their own new path in the cold, cruel changing world. Correct me if I'm wrong, Ms. Hurt, but I believe these EPA "Brownfields" funds are from President Obama's American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. Change is what we voted for & change is what we're getting. Fearful, frightening change...departure from the warm, fuzzy reliability of predictable Status Quo ad infinitum. As Scarlett O'Hara would say...'Oh, Rhett! Whatever will become of me?'. But if this miserable, useless plot of land is successfully reclaimed, it may one day be worth a great deal in the City's portfolio. And, if I were younger, I might consider learning the skills involved in becoming a Brownfields Reclamation contractor, a promising "Green Job" of the future... rwneill 2009-05-17T03:26:42Z rwneill comment-7618 2009-05-14T04:07:50Z 2009-05-14T04:07:50Z I like you're inclusion of Supervisor MacGlashan's Pollyanna-like fantasy that President Obama will ride to her rescue in shining armor on a gallant steed called 'Stimuli', showering the Board chambers with tens of millions of Obama bucks & bring an end to the insufferable headaches she is being forced to endure with all these dreary & dismal budgetary facts. rwneill 2009-05-14T04:07:50Z rwneill comment-7563 2009-05-13T05:04:57Z 2009-05-13T05:04:57Z According to Wikipedia... An E-meter is an electronic device used in some forms of the Dianetics and Scientology auditing. The device is a variation of a Wheatstone bridge, which measures electrical resistance. It is formally known as the Hubbard Electrometer, for the Church's founder, L. Ron Hubbard. The Church of Scientology restricts the use of the E-meter to trained professionals, treating it as "a religious artifact used to measure the state of electrical characteristics of the 'static field' surrounding the body". The meter is believed to reflect or indicate whether or not the confessing person has been relieved from spiritual impediment of his sins". It can only be used by Scientology ministers or ministers-in-training and does not diagnose or cure anything. The E-meters used by the Church of Scientology are manufactured at the Church of Scientology's Golden Era Productions facility. rwneill 2009-05-13T05:04:57Z rwneill comment-7526 2009-05-12T03:59:34Z 2009-05-12T03:59:34Z I'd like to see a greater contrast between the text & background...a darker shade of gray on the white background. The text that's bold & the blue bolded text are no problem but to read the articles comfortably I find my eyes consistently being drawn closer & closer to the screen, straing my neck muscles as my head invariably closes in on the text, and still not enjoying a truly comfortable read. Maybe I'm just getting old, but my optometrist says no cataracts yet... rwneill 2009-05-12T03:59:34Z rwneill comment-7310 2009-05-07T03:56:17Z 2009-05-07T03:56:17Z Skeptical points raised above are valid. Just opening an e-Suggestion Box is not enough without genuine application of necessary follow-up steps in the process, including recognizing promising input when it appears & acting upon or implementing that promising input diligently & in good faith. History shows that the most promising ideas emerge from humble grass roots input, almost never from the entrenched, powerful illuminati. One historical example to bear in mind is the 1970s idea to have bank customers wait in one, single line for the next available teller back when bank customers had to choose which teller line to join (among many) & risk being stuck behind someone with multiple, time-consuming transactions while customers arriving after you were in & out having been fortunate enough to select the quickest line. That idea originated from a Teller. It was RECOGNIZED by the Suggestion Box overseer as meritorious & it was IMPLEMENTED without any balking by supportive Bank of America managment. It was SO successful the Teller was awarded a $25,000 bonus & went on to revolutionize businesses nationwide that provided a service to customers who had to wait in lines to reach the customer service representative, including the airline industry. Any failure in but one of the ingredients will ruin the whole thing, just as sprinkling one pinch of sand into the cake-baking ingredients spoils the whole cake. rwneill 2009-05-07T03:56:17Z rwneill comment-7213 2009-05-06T04:39:29Z 2009-05-06T04:39:29Z Thank you, Mayor Johnson, for making this opportunity available to citizens of Sacramento. I agree it has great potential for participation in City government by those, like me, who have no other alternative for participating that offers such convenience & practicality. I know from reading thousands of comments to SacBee articles that there are many intelligent citizens out there with valuable contributions to offer. I hope this new forum achieves even a fraction of its huge potential. And I hope your enthusiasm & energy for the coming pursuit of excellence in Sacramento City government endures throughout the certain, economic recovery ahead. rwneill 2009-05-06T04:39:29Z