Odorless, Colorless, and Harmless

Earth’s oceans breathe in carbon dioxide when it gets colder and exhale carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it gets warmer. This happens because cold water absorbs more CO2 than hot water, and that is why Coca-Cola quickly loses its fizz when it gets warm.

Al Gore yelled “global warming fire” on a crowded planet because he did not know how to interpret an Earth temperature vs. atmospheric CO2 level graph, and he convinced himself that the very molecular basis of all life on Earth – carbon dioxide – is a dangerous pollutant. Gore pretends to know our weather future based on his limited and faulty understanding of climate science.

Carbon dioxide is an odorless, colorless, and quite harmless trace gas that makes up just .04% of our atmosphere. Increasing atmospheric CO2 levels by burning fossil fuels is a good thing because plants eat CO2, and more CO2 makes plants grow faster, bigger, and more resistant to drought. Satellite data show that Earth has gained significant amounts of new plant growth because of increased atmospheric CO2 levels. This greening of the Earth has caused bigger crop harvests and faster timber growth.

Carbon dioxide has no significant effect on Earth temperatures, and that is proven by the ancient ice core records. Politicians are feeding us scare stories because they think climate fear will get them votes, and the news media has historically loved tales of doom as they increase profits. Even prestigious universities have climbed on board the climate change bandwagon in order to gain grant money and to be politically correct.

For the real facts on the natural and never-ending planetary flux of climate change, please watch “Climate Hysteria” on YouTube.

Christopher Calder 
Eugene, Oregon

(Editor’s note: Mr. Calder bills himself as a “non-profit food security advocate” and has probably sent this to many publications, though we haven’t seen it printed anywhere, so decided to offer our space to spread his message. – J.B.)

Keep Dick Shaikewitz

We are very much concerned about the platform of the three Water District candidates that are part of the Committee for Montecito Water Security. Their ideas about recycling wastewater and signing a contract with the City of Santa Barbara for desalinated water for water security sound good. But, our understanding is that these will cost many millions of dollars for many years. Nowhere do these candidates say how they plan on paying for all of this. We are concerned that our water bills will greatly increase.

The drought, with State restrictions on how much water we can all use, has already caused our rates to go up. The Water District seems to have found enough water. Why push our bills even higher? We plan on voting for Dick Shaikewitz, a 12-year incumbent, and not the three candidates. The Water District boards that he’s been on have never failed us. They have done all they could to keep rates as low as possible during the worst drought that California has ever had.

Robert and Elizabeth Manger
Montecito

(Editor’s note: The current water board – which we consistently defended during our most recent drought – kept “rates” low by dunning customers outrageous fines for “over-use,” even though that over-use was unintentional and completely accidental. There ought to be a better way, and the Committee is suggesting just that: a better way. – J.B.)

By Any Other Name

If it wasn’t so serious, it would be impossible not to laugh out loud at our representatives. A mailer arrived from Salud Carbajal at the height of the fatuous Democrat attacks on Brett Kavanaugh. It never mentions [Carbajal] is a Democrat. Please print this to remind readers he stands for the worst of everything about Democrats.

He claims he can work across the aisle. Salud, why not start by persuading Dianne Feinstein to try that? Reach her at (202) 228-3954. Excuse anonymity, but Montecito is the World Capital of limousine liberals and I still want to be invited to their expensive, elitist parties.

Chicken Little
Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: We like Mr. Carbajal, personally, but he is a Democrat, and you can bet he’ll go along with everything his party suggests, recommends, or mandates. Much as his Republican opponent, Justin Fareed, will likely go along with his party’s wishes. One must choose one’s position and vote accordingly. – J.B.)

Bob’s for Bob

As a member of the District’s Finance Committee, I reported to the board on the status of the necessary financing to ensure the District would have the funds necessary to complete a list of capital projects deemed to be mission-critical to the District’s efforts to provide the kind of service expected by the community and mandated by federal and state regulations. These funds were used for capital replacement-improvement projects including new laboratory and maintenance buildings, over 25 miles of sewer main rehabilitation and lining, lift station refurbishment, and a new sewer force main. While on this committee, I encouraged the board to analyze the opportunity for refunding the existing bonded indebtedness. The analysis showed that the District could decrease the maturity term by seven years, remove the requirement for a reserve fund, and take advantage of lower interest rates. The board’s decision to proceed with this refunding is resulting in savings of approximately $4 million. The District’s current Standard & Poor’s rating is AA+.

When the community was faced with the disastrous events of the Thomas Fire and the Montecito debris flow, I joined with the board to immediately authorize emergency repair funds and to coordinate with first responders. When access was granted, the District moved swiftly to correct the damages by completing permanent repairs, as well as making provisions that would prevent service disruptions in the event of future weather occurrences. FEMA and insurance coverage will result in the recovery of over 80 percent of the funds expended on the damage repair.

I consider my activities on the Montecito Sanitary District to be a significant contribution to the community. My active involvement in making the recommendations and suggestions that resulted in board policies and decisions has directly benefited Montecito. I believe my continued service on this board will further the communication with the Water District as it moves toward identifying a project for recycled water. I have the commitment, experience, and accomplishments to be a benefit to the community as a returning member of the Montecito Sanitary District Board.

I would appreciate your vote in this regard.

Robert “Bob” Williams
Montecito

Save the Animals

Our vote-by-mail ballots are starting to arrive, with lots of races and ballot initiatives. If you care about healthy food and animal welfare, don’t overlook Proposition 12. A YES vote for Prop 12 is a vote to level the playing field for California’s farmers and improve the lives of millions of animals across the U.S.

Ten years ago, Santa Barbara County voters overwhelmingly supported Prop 2, which banned cruel confinement for laying hens, veal calves, and pregnant pigs in California, giving farmers seven years to transition to the new standards. Even so, some farmers have tried to avoid compliance. Prop 12 would clarify minimum space requirements to ensure that farm animals get the conditions that voters supported. Further, it would extend the same requirements to products raised in other states but sold here. That means California farmers wouldn’t have to compete against cheaper, more poorly produced eggs, veal, and pork from other states. And it means that California consumers would be able to count on all such products being raised in conditions less likely to result in food contamination.

In addition to the greater risk of food contamination, intensive farm operations pose serious environmental risks: just ask the people living near giant pork operations after Hurricane Florence hit, or neighbors of the battery cage operations, where over three million chickens were killed and their corpses were washing up in people’s yards. Humane, appropriate housing for farm animals is healthier for humans and less of an environmental risk. And it grants the animals that feed us some basic quality of living conditions.

So when you see that ballot, look for Prop 12 and vote YES — for California farmers, for our health, and for the animals.

Lee Heller
Summerland

Vote for Committee

Your outstanding coverage on the upcoming Water and Sanitation District elections continues to be quite informative. As a Montecito taxpayer, I am disappointed in the priorities of the incumbents on both District boards. We need a diverse water portfolio, which includes recycled wastewater and desalinization. These projects increase our control over the water supply that we need and reduce the pollution we are sending out to the ocean off Butterfly Beach.

Instead of embracing these projects, the Sanitation District incumbents continue to blindly push ahead with construction of a new $3.5-million building to house about 16 employees at the only remaining vacant space on the lot. Where will we put the recycling plant? Will the property tax payers be forced to pay even more? The Water District incumbent has continued to use fear of Agent Orange and high costs as irrational excuses to avoid joining the rest of the State in the pursuit of recycled water strategies.

Contrary to Mr. [Richard] Nordlund’s provincial assertions in last week’s MJ suggesting a power grab, the real goal is making these boards work together to serve our needs as a community regardless of where money may currently be held between them as we bear the total cost of running both Districts. The incumbents have a fiduciary obligation to spend our money in the public interest, and they continue to refuse to do so.

I have met each member of the Montecito Water Security Team. Its platform is a simple roadmap to our future: 1) bring recycled water for irrigation, 2) stop the needless dumping 500,000 gallons a day into the ocean, and 3) complete the desalinization agreement. Implementing these strategies will bring water security to Montecito and improve the quality of the water we send to the ocean. The intelligence, talent, and experience that each team member brings to the slate is exactly what Montecito needs and deserves for its future. I support the Montecito Water Security team: Ken Coates, Cori Hayman, Brian Goebel, Dana Newquist, and Woody Barrett.

Michael J. Davenport
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Just as a point of clarification, the Montecito Sanitary District does not “send pollution” just off Butterfly Beach. While we too bemoan the loss of hundreds of thousands of gallons of water daily, that water has been treated and, though not officially potable, can hardly be called “pollution.” It is just water that could and should be recycled. – J.B.)

With Judy and Dick

I’ve received correspondence admonishing me to speak out in another way on water. It was mentioned that my letters have been too technical for many in the general public and that I should just endorse candidates who I respected for their demonstrated deep and well-rounded knowledge of the issues, a dedication to solving our problems, and a very high level of integrity. Of the candidates meeting this, in my mind, are Judith Ishkanian with the sewer board and Dick Shaikewitz of the water board.

Dr. Edo McGowan
Montecito

CNN Coming Around?

A recent CNN political analysis of Trump’s presidency could easily have been (80 percent) written by a White House speechwriter. Its only major defect is in insisting Trump’s approval numbers are only 40%. Rasmussen puts the president’s approval numbers at 51%. 

Set that defect aside, here we have a major conduit of mainstream media bias against Trump and Republicans (CNN) saying unequivocally that the unorthodox Trump presidency is among the most consequential and substantial on record. The man delivers on his promises, says CNN. He promised strict-constructionist judges for the appeals circuit and Supreme Court. He’s delivered above expectation on both. He guaranteed a robust economy driving the world back toward American global leadership. His success in this area is absolutely without precedent.

The analyst said President Trump will be on the campaign trail every other night through November 5, and that he has a right to brag to the American voter that he has done what he said he would do – and not just in those two areas – and we have an obligation to listen.

I don’t think this is where the Left thought the country would be 31 days before the midterms six months ago.

Donald Trump is driving the national political narrative…

…by first persuading the Republican Party to be a Trump Party. He’s made a shrewd, cunning politician out of Senator Mitch McConnell!

Everybody likes success and victory.

All Democrats can do right now is stand on the sidelines and watch in abject awe.

David S. McCalmont
Santa Barbara

(Editor’s note: I have been in Europe for nearly two months and have tuned in to CNN International for updates. This is quite a different operation from CNN in the U.S., as it is almost a strictly “news” station and delivers most of its reports objectively. They do revert to form on occasion by inviting some of the same talking heads that appear regularly on their U.S. counterpart, but then I simply put the channel on mute until the real news returns. In other words, they do a pretty good job of delivering bi-partisan news broadcasts most of the time. Perhaps they’re rethinking their U.S. operation. If so, it would be a real treat for us all and probably a ratings boost for them. – J.B.)

Amazonification at Work

There is no doubt in my mind that Amazon.com has led to the decimation of retail on State Street, from mom-and-pops all the way up to big department stores like Macy’s. The convenience and the pricing are tough for people to resist.

Well, well, well. Look who just leased 1001 State Street. You guessed it: Amazon. I consider this site the premier location in Santa Barbara. I look at it like the Fifth Avenue or Park Avenue of Santa Barbara. Two million dollars or about is a large sum for a yearly lease, but it might just make sense.

I hope this is the second coming of State Street. It definitely won’t hurt the city’s tax coffers. If nothing else, they have obtained about 18 parking spaces in a city that is doing its best to remove parking spots, and for that matter, cars. 

Steve Marko
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Funny enough, the long-running South Park television series dealt with this situation some years ago, before Amazon virtually demolished brick-and-mortar retailers, though the blame then was with Wal-Mart. The South Park kids and parents spent an episode tracing the death of retail in their town and came to the realization that the culprit was… the townsfolk themselves, who shopped at Wal-Mart rather than their local store because of the cheaper prices. Amazon is just the latest manifestation of this kind of retail suicide. – J.B.)

Down with Nation-States

Thank you for posting my “patriotism” letter. I read your comments and noted your understandable Croatian sympathies. Turns out, I have a very good Serbian friend since circa 1974 and a more recent Croatian friend since circa 2004. The Serb I met through our common interest in competitive running; the Croat thru road cycling. I like both of them, though I have a stronger connection with the Serb. They never met each other, but when I spoke to either about knowing a Serb or a Croat, the other would bristle. As you know, the history in that region is rife with conflict. The Croatians sided with Nazi Germany, but I’m not taking sides, as neither Croatians nor Serbs are entirely innocent in an historical context.

My Pollyannaish wish would be to see an end to borders and nation-states. A libertarian world where the rights to life, freedom, and property are inviolate and universally accepted. Where civil disputes are settled in local courts staffed by local people according to their local customs and laws. An eventual dissolution of borders and nation states, which are ever-changing in any event. Exception: I would have no problem with recognition of former states-countries-ethnicities-races, et cetera, and a continuation of peaceful sports competitions between them. Couldn’t do without the World Cup or the Olympic Games, could we?

Final note: I see hopeful signs for Ms. [Paulina] Conn, as she questions why siblings are separated in public school. Maybe that will lead her one day to question the entire system itself. 

Steve King
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Apologies to Mr. King, whose missive went on at some length about “patriotism,” but space did not permit us to include that portion of his letter. – J.B.)

The America That Was

I remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. I was on my way from a history class at the University when someone on a bus station said that there were some terrorist attack in the United States and I should hurry home to watch the live broadcast on TV. I remember that I was really shocked, not by the news of another terrorist attack, but by the obvious happiness about it of the person who shared this news with me. Why was he so weirdly happy about it? And he was far from the only one feeling the same way.

Seemingly the whole crowd on the bus, the neighbors at my apartment building, strangers in a grocery store, drivers in slow Moscow traffic – everyone I had met that day were quite happy to see America bleed and suffer. But why?! I remember seeing people falling out of windows pushed to death by the unbearable heat and then the endless footage of the falling twin towers on my TV, burying the thousands of victims alive. It will be in my memory forever. The sad, dramatic picture of the fallen empire… That day I realized that most of the people in my old country had that naturally inbred hatred of America. But 17 years later and after 12 years in the U.S., with sadness I am realizing more and more that America hates itself even worse.

The morning of September 11, 2018, I served my third-grader kids their usual breakfast and told them that today was a sad day in the history of their nation; 17 years ago that day the biggest terrorist attack in history had happened. Four planes were stolen by Islamic terrorists that altogether took lives of almost 3,000 Americans. My kids started asking endless questions, but in the frenzy of the busy morning I didn’t have much time for answers as I had to feed them, dress them, and drive them to school, where I hoped they would get all the information about that horrible event from their teachers.

But I was so wrong.

When they got home, I was very surprised that at school they did not even mention 9/11. Wow! I had to sit with my kids, show them the age-appropriate pictures of the true heroes: firefighters, first responders, and the simple people from the streets that were able to go back to the burning and failing building and sacrifice their lives for someone else in need and begging for help: the true American heroes as they were. I played to my kids the calls from the passengers of flight 93, the messages of pure love and appreciation of life, the messages of brave heroic passengers who fought back and were able to prevent the plane from crushing into White House and avoid other civilian deaths.

I told them that the people of this kind were proudly called American heroes and deserved to be remembered forever. My kids were touched, needless to say, and they were very proud to be a part of this unity of people called the Unites States of America. If I were able to explain the meaning of that to my kids, why was it that so many schools in America obviously did not want to do so? Does this event have no meaning to and impact on the American history to even talk about any more? Is it even important?

Ironically, the day of the attack our history teacher at the university told us some facts about the first World War and how it all started. 

Let me remind you: 

“The assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28 June, 1914, set off a chain of events that led to war in early August 1914. The assassination was traced to a Serbian extremist group that wanted to increase Serbian power in the Balkans by breaking up the Austro-Hungarian Empire.”

One event, one death, caused the spark that brought the whole World War “fire” to life. They teach it everywhere in the world, they name names, nationalities, they want us to forever understand the importance of this event.

But why 3,000 American deaths caused by 16 fanatical Islamic terrorists are suddenly different? That event gave a start to a different war. The War on Terror. And it is not a metaphor, this war got the USA in Afghanistan, where real and not metaphorical people have died. So, why is one historical event of 1914 is more important and noticeable than the fresh bleeding would of this great nation?

And the answer is: America apparently does not like and care about itself. People are constantly trying to fight for someone’s rights abroad but not their own in their own great country. Remember that security drill on the airplanes? Put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then help the others. America must learn to put its needs first, love its nation’s history, praise its real heroes (not like certain Nike-touting football players), and learn to be not ashamed of being strong and powerful.

America does not owe anything to anybody; America owes to itself. I truly hope that my kids will have a chance to be raised in the country that will not perish in real trouble for the sake of insane political correctness and shame to name things the way they are, I hope my kids will be raised in the country where the priority of taking care of its own people and its own land will be at the top.

P.S. Yesterday I saw this message on the Internet and think it is the nation we are all looking for. Take a read: “I miss the America of 9/12. Stores ran out of the flags to sell because they were being flown everywhere. People were Americans before they were upper-lower class-Jewish-Christian-Republican-Democrat. We hugged people without caring if they ate at Chick-fil-A or wore Nikes. On 9/12, what mattered more was what united us, than what divided us.”

Please, do not forget your great history because that’s what makes a great future.

Lidia Zinchenko
Montecito

Same Old, Same Old

The talk in your recent Letters of Judge Kavanaugh being “presumed guilty” and the “tyranny of the Democrat Party,” the rage about requiring restaurants to give straws only to those who ask for them — these people are truly living in a world far different from my own.

Let’s get some things straight. No one will ever know what happened to Dr. Ford the night she was assaulted. Something did happen to her, most people agree. Was Judge Kavanaugh involved? If he and Mark Judge say they weren’t there, the question is unprovable. I’m a Democrat. Hear me say I don’t presume him guilty of sexual assault. I can’t. There’s no evidence.

There is, however, plenty of evidence that he lied straight up quite a few times in his testimony to the Senate. He lied, or dissembled, or evaded, call it what you will, about whether he drank to vomitous excess as a teenager, unless you believe that ralphing boast referred to an overdose of spicy food. He lied that he was of legal age to drink. He wasn’t. He lied about the cute “alumnius” reference to Renate, unless you believe that the other dozen or more similar yearbook references to the young woman’s sexual availability were also signs of respectful affection. She didn’t think so. He lied that, before September 23, he had never heard of Julie Swetnik’s accusation about gross behavior at Yale when there are actual text messages from early in the summer that discuss his secretive efforts to get people to agree it never happened.

Of greater importance, perhaps, than defending himself from a question, not a presumption of sexual assault with a blizzard of falsity, Judge Kavanaugh lied to the Senate about the work he did in the Bush administration. He lied about his work on Pryor’s nomination. He lied about his work on Pickering’s nomination. He lied about his involvement in the decisions about torture; about his access to emails stolen from Democratic Senators. These are documented. You can see emails to him and from him about these matters.

But none of those lies mattered to the Republican Senators. It didn’t matter to them that they would not be allowed to see evidence of the extreme partisan work he did in the Bush White House, evidence that might suggest he lacked judicial temperament and lack of bias or provide further evidence of his prior lies.

It didn’t matter to the Republicans that the FBI was instructed by the White House counsel to go nowhere near any one or any evidence that might gainsay Judge Kavanaugh’s choirboy impersonation, if admittedly a choirboy with rage issues, fantasies of conspiracies and a willingness to make goes-around-comes-around threats.

Getting a time-tested reliable Republican operative onto the court, where he can defend the oligarchic dark money behind the Judicial Crisis Network (which spent millions backing him), where he can protect the criminal president from investigation or consequence (watch him vote to overturn 150 years of precedent when Gamble is argued this term), where he can return American women to back-alley medical procedures and consign gay relationships to second-class status, where he can protect the minority’s ruthless gerrymandering of states like North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, and Kansas — that was all that mattered to the Republican bare majority.

Those Republican Senators represent about 42 percent of Americans, but Democratic Senators representing about 58 percent of Americans didn’t quite have the votes to keep this unprincipled man off the highest court in the land. (That’s some Democrat tyranny for you, Ms Thorn.)

The unprincipled ascension of the dishonorable liar and partisan ideologue Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is going to do more damage to America than most people now foresee. The Republicans may have gotten him on the Court, but they have threatened the Republic and the Constitution in so doing.

I weep angry tears for my poor country, which may be torn farther apart. I’m afraid Judge Kavanaugh is right that what goes around has a way of coming around, and it’s not going to be pretty when Democrats fight back.

See you in November.

Cotty Chub
Montecito

(Editor’s note: Well, your first few sentences actually seemed reasonable, but then you went into your all-too-tired-and-typical rant. To understand what happened to Justice Kavanaugh, all one has to do is Google “Nancy Pelosi Wrap-Up Smear,” which is a 36-second explanation by Ms Pelosi of the often successful “tactic” of spreading an unsubstantiated smear, getting the press to write about it, and then using it to spread the accusation as “news.” Here are her exact words: “You want to talk politics? It’s called the wrap-up smear. You smear somebody with falsehoods and all the rest and then you merchandise it. And then you [the press] write it and they’ll say, ‘See it’s reported in the press that this, this, this, and this,’ so that they have that validation that the press reported the smear, and then it’s called ‘a wrap-up smear.’ And then I’m going to merchandise the press’s report on the smear that we made. It’s a tactic, and it’s self-evident.” I believe Republicans will do just fine in November, in the face of this kind of cynical crap. – J.B.)