Recent Comments

1. about 1 year ago on Lisa Benson

   to begin with as a resident of Bakersfield, I must point out that the Central Valley and central coast of California is not a desert, but the source of much of the produce available in the summer. Manny of the growers also produce crops in central and south America so the same products are available in the US in the winter. The mid west mostly produces grain which goes to animal feed or is exported. regarding, high speed rail, it has been a political boondoggle since day one. Land acquisition has caused most of the current expense and delay as each political entity in the valley has demanded that the route go thru their central area requiring huge land costs, viaducts, overpasses, below level excavations and relocation of other roads. To me a cheaper and more sensible alternative would be to route down the central median of I5 (land which is government owned) bussing or other transportion from the towns the 8 or 10 miles from the town centers to the rail stops.

2. about 1 year ago on Loose Parts

   come to bakersfield, we have authentic Basque, one French basque, One Spanish, one mixed Basque under new ownership

3. over 1 year ago on Wizard of Id

   same effect, but residents are there all day every day

4. over 1 year ago on Lisa Benson

   the real ‘question’ is are you willing to have Harris become President

5. over 1 year ago on Jeff Stahler

   at least the republicans have a choice.

6. over 1 year ago on Lisa Benson

   would be nice if you had the numbers to support that the rich do not pay enough. the rich do not make the tax laws, congress does. According to IRS stats, the bottom earners have 10% share of total income — pay -5% of taxes paid. the next group has a 19% share of income and 20% of taxes, the next group is even at 27%. the next group (500,000 – 1 million) have 7% of total income and pay 13% of total taxes. The next group 1 million+ has 16% of total income and pays 40% of the taxes. yes, I agree that there are people who make outrages amount of money (sports figures reality stars, etc.) but at least the business people with high incomes are people who manage businesses that provide jobs to thousands of people.

7. over 1 year ago on Moderately Confused

   that is a common problem for business owners, they devote so much time to keep the business successful that they have not had time to develop enough outside interests to keep them busy in retirement. If you are social enough, there are lots of activities out there — sort of like having to ‘work’ again.

8. over 1 year ago on Lisa Benson

   The Kern river which is often dry is considered navigable waters under EPA jurisdiction as several hundred years ago one could travel part way up it from San Francisco Bay by canoe. definitely a bit of overreach on EPA’s part. They also claim jurisdiction over land around a manmade cattle pond that if it overflows connects via an manmade ditch to a creak to a river which reaches the ocean

9. over 1 year ago on Jeff Stahler

   I once told McCarthy that he would make a good president. He had a real job before entering politics, good ideas, middle of the roader on most things, and understood the system among other things. His reply was not interested – he said that the best presidents would be state governors — they would have had a chance to prove that they were successful administrators, could balance a budget, reconcile different philosophies of government, etc. The president after all is the chief administrator of the bureaucracy and leader of the country. the job is to implement the law, not make it. The job of congress is to pass sensible laws that promote the good of the country. The job of the Supreme Court is to ultimately enforce those laws. Unfortunately, I am still waiting for that to occur in the present day.

10. over 1 year ago on Moderately Confused

    I know of people who lived like royalty, ran up over 1 million in debt with never planning to pay any of it, and then shafted the lawyer who filed there bankruptcy.