Salem-News.com Odd Man Out articles

Todd Spitzer: Irvine`s Great Park Fiasco M.I.A. Politico

Former OC Supervisor, Assistant DA, State Assemblyman, And Macho Man Victims’ Rights Advocate Is Asleep At The Political Watchdog Wheel.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - An Open Letter To Todd Spitzer

Hello, Todd? Is there anybody in there? Just nod once if you can hear me, ok? The dream that was, it just doesn’t even remotely resemble this messy interlude. The old reverie’s kaput, and taxpayers are NOT comfortably numb, we’re really angry and frustrated and confused and wondering who’ll rescue us...

Governor Schwarzenegger: Environmental Buzz Kill

California's Eco-Future: "Hasta la vista, baby!"

(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) - Our "no problemo" Governor’s most recent failure, lost in an avalanched multitudinous legion of many, is an admitted refusal to properly seat our Regional Water Quality Control Boards to their fullest compliment and potential.

It reveals how truly ecologically hypocritical and phony he was when sworn in and still is.

Irvine-Corona Tunnel Is A Highway to Many Hells

A Tale of Two Counties That Ignore Biological Consequences.

(IRVINE, Calif.) - The “dig, baby, dig” crazies have taken over Southern California, matching their oil and natural gas drilling whacko friends in fantasy trade-offs that nonsensically create more problems than they solve.

After all, this is riotous Lotus or La-La Land, and no one typifies it more than those who think the next great concrete band-aid will be the one that instantly remedies our over-population hence traffic circulation problems.

Water Quality: An Exploration of the Myths, Lies and Misperceptions
Part I of a Two Part Series

“All is water.”
Thales of Miletus, Father of Western Philosophy

(LAGUNA BEACH) - This is going to be a two part series, so sit down, buckle up and get good and depressed! It’s about some disturbing technical aspects the public knows little about, concerns I’d like to share, and some unpleasant things I’ve learned about the world of water on my (now) 13-year journey.

Hope your food is settled.

Protecting Native Endangered Species Keeps California Beautiful
Southern Steelhead Trout

"What is now proved was once imagined."
— William Blake
"The truth is more important than the facts."
— Frank Lloyd Wright
"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over."- Mark Twain (attributed)

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Drought cycles that result in fresh water resource depletions, combined with increasing subterranean aquifer drafting down, renew the century-old battle in California to find a sustainable balance of protected wilderness and increased human population demands in my home state.

Eco-Warrior or Ego-Warrior?

How Mass Marketing Peddles Bogus Environmental Celebrities.

(LAGUNA BEACH) - Recently the media began covering the proposed sailing odyssey of David de Rothschild, heir to a British banking family.

98th MCAS El Toro RAB Meeting: A Year Older and None The Wiser

“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.”  Ambrose Bierce

 “Politics: Who Gets What, When And How” Book by Harold D. Lasswell

(LAGUNA BEACH) - The following is an update on the Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) for Salem-News visitors, and I’ve provided the two quotes above to let these same readers see where we’re headed in this, my second posting about the subject. I would remind readers that this is my impression of events, if you want the nitty-gritty technological conundrums, the depressing minutiae regarding why all of us are so confused and outraged, go to Salem-News archives.

WARNING: Viewing these pieces might be hazardous to your mental health, especially your sense of moral accountability!

How To Build An Environmental Activist

PART III (Conclusion)

(LAGUNA BEACH) - As I mentioned in Part II, after attending dozens of USACE and EPA-sponsored watershed workshops from late 1998 through early 2004, after traveling to several additional restoration conferences facilitated by professionals, the experts said that Aliso was toast, hopeless, could never get restored to health, hence never get funded.

The County of Orange, the entity that broke it, wouldn’t pay to fix it.

How To Build An Environmental Activist

PART II in a continuing series.

(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) - In October of 1999, after the TV and newspaper media began responding to our demand requiring the County to close this beach completely for recreation, the newly-formed consortium (Clean Water Now! Coalition) confronted Laguna Beach City Council requesting they take a more aggressive stance and litigate upstream polluters to protect our residents.

The Council blinked and the CWN!C co-hosted what was the first municipal meeting for this issue on November 9th, a greatly publicized and media saturated workshop with local ocean pollution as the sole topic.

How To Build An Environmental Activist

The first installment in a continuing series.

1998: In The Beginning...

(LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.) - In early 1998, my introduction into the world of environmental issues began with two seemingly unrelated subjects that eventually merged to both outrage me and set a match to my eco-zeal.

I had never been involved with, nor interested in any community problems let alone ecological ones. Never spoken at a public hearing, never written a letter to the editor either.