The Edge of the Cliff, Santa Monica Mountains National Park

I always love it when major media follows my lead on something I've written. In the original version of The New Common Sense, (See my very first post for an explanation.) I wrote an attack on U2 rocker, The Edge, and his foray into real estate development. On a ridge line over Malibu, with sweeping views of the ocean, The Edge, wants to build five McMansions, albeit, according to The Edge, eco-friendly McMansions.
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The Ouch! As reported in today's edition of the Los Angeles Times, (Remember when the L.A. Times was still a major newspaper?) columnist Steve Lopez points out that if The Edge was really that concerned about the environment, he'd stay in his already acceptable Malibu home and leave the mountain tops alone. Lopez couldn't agree with me more.
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If Lopez had actually read my original post, (And I'm not egotistical enough to think that he has.) he'd join me in my call for a Santa Monica Mountains National Park. Yes, it's time to preserve the Santa Monica Mountains in a new national park. There are many reasons to go for the much stronger level of protection than the current mish-mash of state and local parks; Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy holdings; and The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. To start with, and it's the single most important reason of all, the Santa Monica Mountains are a unique eco-system, found in few other places in the world, and the preservation of such an important habitat is exactly what National Parks are for. It also makes a lot of sense for us to stop allowing people to build in areas that are prone to both wild fires and landslides. Come on people! I don't have anything against the rich, but we can't afford to keep subsidizing their crazy desire to live in dangerous places. How many years must we pay an extra hundred million or so defending high end, stand alone homes, perched high on secluded ridges, as fires rage all around them. And while we're talking class war, what's so wrong with urban adjacent national parks that can be visited by people with bus passes?
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This isn't a crazy vision for the future of the Santa Monica Mountains. Draw a map and decide what should be preserved. Of course, Malibu stays, and so does the somewhat more downscale Fernwood area of Topanga Canyon. But other than that, as properties come on the market, the Interior Department should have first dibs to match the selling price of any property transaction. It may take twenty years, and judicious use of eminent domain laws, as well as take overs of local and state parks, to complete a Santa Monica Mountains National Park, but it's a better path to take than more, senseless, development.
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And while I'm on the subject, Tejon Ranch National Park, an idea whose time has come.
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Want a good laugh? The Edge has named his five McMansions. "Clouds Rest" "Panorama" "Shell House" "Blue Clouds" and "Leaves in the Wind." There's nothing more pretentious than a rich, middle aged man who calls himself The Edge. Come on man, follow John Mellencamp's lead and use your real name.

Huck

Pay attention. I'm about to do something I rarely do. I'm going to defend a Republican.
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Poor Mike Huckabee is taking it on the chin for his grant of clemency, while governor of Arkansas, to Maurice Clemmons, who killed four police officers in Washington state. Don't get me wrong, if this sends Huck's political career to the elephant's graveyard, I'll be quite happy. But, it is my opinion that we send too many people to prison; we send them to prison at too young an age; we keep them behind bars far too long. Huck was right to try and give offenders a second chance.
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While it appears that Huckabee was making clemency decisions based more on references to Jesus, than appeals to reason, it should be noted that the impulse to not throw people away, like so much garbage, is a right one. I just went out to the desert for a few days of hiking and while headed home, I made a couple of stops at convenience stores and fast food joints. I saw so many young people, some working the counters, and some customers, and I noticed how ill educated they seemed. As I noted in my last post, we once had one of the finest education systems in the world, but, then we made the decision to cut taxes and defund education, destroying the foundation of our society.
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It's been so many years since Ronald Reagan chose tax cuts over everything else, that these poor kids don't even realize that tax cuts for the wealthy few, has taken any future that they might have had, from them. We've now gone through several generations of young people that are fit for little more than menial jobs, drug abuse, and crime.
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Huckabee's mistake was not an impulse to grant clemency, but rather membership in a political party that has created the under lying problem. In supporting conservative economic policies that have wiped out several generations of the young, he and his Repug cohorts, have guaranteed that crime will rise, and that granting clemency will be an issue.

Ronald Reagan's Ongoing Attack on America!

There can be no other explanation! Ronald Reagan must have been an international secret agent bent on the destruction of the United States. The recent 32% tuition increase for California's UC system is the latest woeful example of Reagan's, evil, legacy.
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There isn't a reputable economist on the planet who will say that it's possible to have a modern economy without a well educated work force. There was a time when we, in the United States, understood that obvious fact. But then, along came Ronnie and his cohort, Howard Jarvis, who cared more about taxes than the long term viability of the American economy.
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It's hard to believe, but there was a time, not that long ago, when America had one of the finest public education systems in the world. Yes, it's true. Countries like Japan, actually sent educators to the United States to find out how we managed to provide a first class education for the majority of American children! What was our secret? It was very simple, actually. We were willing to pay for it! Ronnie, why did you destroy our future? Why did you insist that low taxes were more important than educating America's youth? Why oh why did we listen to your stupid ideas?
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At a time when it's more important than ever to provide college education for every student capable of doing the work, we've made a college education prohibitively expensive. In less than 50 years, we've gone from having free higher education in California to a college system that is so expensive that only the elite can afford it. That's Ronnie's legacy. He even ran for governor on a platform of ending free college tuition! Ronald Reagan, the worst disaster to befall the United states since the civil war!

The Crazy Guy at the Bus Stop in Burbank

My car broke down, and I had to take the bus home. There was a crazy guy at the bus stop, and these are some of the things he said.
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"I'm a millionaire. I can document it all. I own five houses but they took them all away. I want to go to heaven. I'm an army man. I've got to go on a secret mission. I shot him in the chest. If I have to I'll take the poison. I've been alone since four. Since I was four, at four. Four, four, four. I want to shoot myself in the head. They made me take pills but I knew they were against me. The CIA. My father ate things. Fuck the bus. Are you an army man? Not that army, this army. Leave me alone. I've been alone always. They took my shoes. I'm an angel."
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I can't believe there are those in this country who are opposed to national health care. I can't believe there are those in the United States who only care about taxes. If there weren't, the crazy guy at the bus stop wouldn't be so crazy and he wouldn't be sitting at a bus stop, in Burbank, at midnight.

Alraune Silent Movie DVD of the Week...

...or whenever the hell I get around to it.
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Alraune has to be one of the most lurid movies ever made. Prof. Jakob ten Brinken (Paul Wegener), a prominent geneticist decides to take on the nature versus nurture question head on. Using the semen of a condemned prisoner, he impregnates a prostitute and then raises the child as his own. Played with wanton abandon by silent star Brigette Helm, Alraune ten Brinken is first seen at a convent school where, to put it mildly, she has become a discipline problem for the nuns. Seducing a young admirer, the son of a bank employee, she gets him to rob his father of bank funds so that they can run away together.
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It doesn't take long for Alraune to find another man to do her bidding, a circus magician who quickly has her preforming as his assistant. Pushed aside, her young admirer, also finds himself working at the circus. A flirtation with the lion tamer also complicates Alruane's existence. The real change in her life comes when Prof. ten Brinken shows up. While his science experiment was entered into as an examination into the nature of human personality, Alraune does bear his last name and is viewed by the rest of the world as his biological daughter. Her behavior at the convent and then her circus career has brought shame on his name.
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The professor takes Alraune away from the circus. They take up residence at a resort of some kind. With the palm trees in the background, one can guess that it's on the Riviera. There Alraune seems to lead a more moral life. Courted by a Viscomte played by John Loder, she is surprised when the man she believes to be her father refuses the Viscomte permission to marry her. At first she agrees to elope with her love, but while packing, she finds ten Brinken's journal of his experiment. When she discovers that her life is a science experiment, she vows vengeance on the professor. At first she throws herself at every man she sees. If her behavior at the convent and the circus was questionable, her new life of sybaritic and sexual excess, is far worse. When she notices that her father seems to be not just shamed, but jealous, she seduces him. With Jakob ten Brinken under her spell she prepares to leave him behind, and just to make things worse, she walks out after he has lost all of his money in speculative investments. But the professor doesn't' want to let Alraune leave him. Rather she die than be with another man, he grabs a knife and peruses her. It is only the arrival of the professor's nephew, Franz Braun, who in the first scene of the movie hired the prostitute who carried Alraune, and had been summoned by Alraune so that she could know the truth of her birth, not necessarily found in the professor's journal, that prevents her death. Franz stops Jakob ten Brinken from committing murder. In love with Alraune, they leave together, leaving the professor to a life of loneliness and insanity.
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The version that I've written about is from a DVD purchased on eBay from one of the public domain dealers. This DVD looks to have been mastered from 16 or even 8mm elements pieced together into a single whole. My guess is that it was also a download from the Internet. There are some scratches, speckling, and many of the high lights are blasted out. Still, this is a remarkable movie, quite entertaining and until a better version comes along, well worth what I paid for it. I can't remember the exact price, but it was under $10. There is a fully restored version that has been shown, with German inter-titles in the United States. Should a restored version with English titles ever come on the market, I would recommend it. My feeling from watching this movie is that some scenes may be missing. With so original silent film events preserved, many of the greatest movies made survive, pieced together from elements from many different prints. Directed by Henrik Galeen. Written by Galeen from the novel by Hanns Heinz Ewers.
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This film is on my great movies blog, www.greatmovieslist.blogspot.com

Tour of California and Road Rage

At last, some details about the 2010 Tour of California, and it's looking pretty good for those of us from the southern part of the state. There is one stage that goes into Sierra National Forest that should have some nice climbs. What's really nice is that it starts in Visalia, which is a decent distance form the L.A. area, but not so far that it would be a multi-day trip. That particular stage ends in Bakersfield, a bit less than 100 miles from downtown Los Angeles. Speaking of downtown L.A. a time trial that doesn't leave the center city is a poor substitute for, as an example, the Santa Monica pier to downtown, but with subway and light rail it should be easy to get to. A circuit from Thousand Oaks, over the Santa Monica Mountains to Pacific Coast Highway and then back over the mountains to Thousand Oaks should have some nice climbs and fast descents. The route that looks the most interesting to me is Pasadena to Big Bear. The route goes past Crystal Lake, up route 39. That should be fascinating since route 39 is closed past the lake. The road is still there, but hasn't been used by cars for more than decade. The route does go through Wrightwood, so it has to be route 39 all the way. I'm guessing that the riders will be going through, or near Victorville, before climbing up the north slope of the San Gabriel Mountains to Big Bear. Finally, a summit finish.
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The L.A. road rage trial of Dr. Christopher Thompson continues. I'll never make the argument that we cyclists are little angels. I've seen far too much bad behavior from my fellow bike riders to write that! But, the Thompson case isn't a he said, he said case, it's about a driver who purposely stopped short in front of two cyclists. Witness, LAPD traffic investigator Robert Rodriguez has testified that Dr. Thompson told him that he did it to teach the two cyclists a lesson. One rider went over the doctor's car and rolled over into traffic. The other went through Thompson's car's rear window. I won't make the argument that the good doctor was trying to kill the the two riders, but he clearly meant to do some harm, and if found guilty, should do some prison time for what was clearly an assault with a 2,000 pound car on a couple of 20 pound bikes.
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I do have another blog about hiking, and cycling. I try and limit that blog to posts about actual trips, so I thought The New Common Sense a more appropriate place for Tour news and observations on the Thompson case. Anyone interested can check out Self Propelled at www.selfpropelled-wjy.blogspot.com/. Too, I've blogged about the possibility of a fourth grand tour in North America. Anyone interested in an imaginary Grand Tour of California can go to the archives and find posts published on 7/15/09, 7/20/09, and 8/3/09. For a post on the idea of a Tour of North America with rotating locals, go to 8/18/09. Hey, I needed a break from all of the political posts.

Master Plan?

Has this been Barack Obama's master plan? He must have known, when he became president, that the health insurance companies would fight any sort of reform and regulation, tooth and nail. From the start, the president held out his hand to the insurance companies, Republicans, and conservative Democrats, and from the start, they've been less than cooperative. But this week, things took a more dramatic turn, with the release of a manipulated study showing that any sort of government reform would actually make things far worse for our already intolerable health care system. Were the HMO's crowing in triumph over the body of a defeated Barack Obama?
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Well, if they were proclaiming victory, it may have been a little too early in the fight. Obama, on his Saturday radio address to the nation, came out fighting. The gist of it was that he had bent over backward to work with the insurers and they would have none of it. It looks as if the president is beginning a campaign to paint the insurance companies as enemies of the people, which, let's be honest, they are. What a great tactic. The health insurers, despite all evidence to the contrary, advertise themselves as caring, benevolent defenders of public health. Obama has maneuvered them into showing their true colors. The fight is a long way from over. (And in my opinion it won't be over until we have single payer.) But, the insurance companies have suddenly found themselves attacked by the most influential man in the world. And the theme of the attack is that he tried to be reasonable and work with the health care monopolies, and they just spit on the American consumer. Obama's call for the repeal of insurers anti-trust exemption is a great counter-offensive. Now, if he can do the same to bankers and credit card companies.