LETTERS (Continued from page 8)
ers blooming at the Santa Barbara Cemetery. Yeah, it’s a weed, but it’s a beautiful weed. I might need to work on the phrasing, but there’s a lesson here. Dan Seibert Santa Barbara
Not Too Short
I disagree with John Cleese’s nasty comment about Daniel Craig as reported in Richard Mineards’ column (“Mineards’s Miscellany” MJ #22/10). I think Daniel Craig is the best James Bond since Sean Connery. Pierce Brosnan might be taller and may be better-looking, but he just doesn’t get James Bond the way Mr. Craig does. Besides, Craig is a better actor and so... buff. And, he looks very cool in a white tuxedo. I hope he does at least one more James Bond film and hopefully has a better script to work with. Elena Marvel Montecito (Editor’s note: Hmm, it sounds to me that you prefer a ruggedly imperfect man to a pretty boy with panache, which has nothing to do with either man’s acting abilities but everything to do with his screen appeal. – J.B.)
Water, Water, Everywhere
In my 2011 novel A Truthful Myth (presented at Tecolote Book Store back then), I began the story with a young chemical engineer at the fictitious Montecito University inventing a bench-top model, which he later successfully scaled up, of a novel desalination plant utilizing unique methods of powering it with wind and solar energy. Quite an invention. Fiction then, but the formula for the future. Since that story, San Diego placed a billion-dollar desalination plant on-line in December 2015, the largest of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Californians already pay the highest income taxes and sales taxes along with the highest gasoline prices in the country. Eventually, they will get used to paying more for water, their most essential nutrient. That’s a big Pacific Ocean out there, and I am confident that in time the innovators will come up with even more efficient ways to utilize that great resource. The Southwest will thrive! Roger Colley Santa Barbara (Editor’s note: There can hardly be a question that at some time in the not too distant future, our water will come from the ocean at our doorstep. Why it has taken even this long to figure that out is something historians will probably ponder as well. We like your optimism and believe it is not unwarranted. – J.B.)
20 MONTECITO JOURNAL
It Takes an Idiot
I am hereby suspending my campaign to become America’s next Official Village Idiot. Never have I encountered such a rich crop of worthy opponents. Will the last person over the wall please turn out all the lights? Sol Morrison Montecito (Editor’s note: Just curious, are the “rich crop of worthy opponents” current Santa Barbara City Council members who seriously considered removing 85 parking spaces from Micheltorena, or are you referring to a larger picture? – J.B.)
Raccoons Got to Go
This was sent to me by a friend in Yuma, Arizona. He didn’t know who wrote it or where it was sent from. I thought I’d send it to you, as I believe it concisely articulates the frustration of the American people and why they are voting for Donald Trump in droves. Many people have asked me if I support the Republican Party. Here is a letter I sent to the RNC; you be the judge. Dear Representative, From the time I was able to vote, I have voted Republican. I am 80 and have a great deal of respect and influence with hundreds of senior ballplayers who also network with thousands of others around the country. I received your questionnaire and request for money and strongly agree with every question, as I have since Obama was elected. Unfortunately the one question that was missing is: “What have the Republicans done for the American people?” We gave you a majority in the House and Senate, and you never listened to us. Now you want our money? You should be more concerned about our votes, not our money. You are the establishment, which means all you want is to save your jobs and line your pockets. Well, guess what? It’s not going to happen. You can shake in your boots when I tell you our movement is for Trump, and he hasn’t asked for a dime. You might think we are fools because you feel Trump is on a self-destruct course, but look beyond Washington and listen to the masses. Nobody has achieved what he has, especially in a state like New York. If you really want to know how the majority of people feel – and this applies to both Democrats and Republicans – read below, it says it all. You’ve been on vacation for two weeks, you come home, and your basement is infested with raccoons. Hundreds of rabid, messy, mean raccoons have overtaken your basement. You want them gone immediately. You call the city, four different exterminators, but nobody could handle the job. But there is this one guy and he guarantees you to get rid of them,
so you hire him. You don’t care if the guy smells; you don’t care if the guy swears; you don’t care if he’s an alcoholic; you don’t care how many times he’s been married; you don’t care if he voted for Obama; you don’t care if he has plumber’s crack... you simply want those raccoons gone. You want your problem fixed. He’s the guy. He’s the best. Period Here’s why we want Trump: yes, he’s a bit of an ass; yes, he’s an egomaniac, but we don’t care. The country is a mess because politicians suck, the Republican Party is two-faced and gutless, and illegals are everywhere. We want it all fixed. We don’t care that Trump is crude, we don’t care that he insults people, we don’t care that he had been friendly with Hillary, we don’t care that he has changed positions, we don’t care that he’s been married three times, we don’t care that he fights with Megyn Kelly and Rosie O’Donnell, we don’t care that he doesn’t know the name of some Muslim terrorist. This country is weak, bankrupt, our enemies are making fun of us, we are being invaded by illegals, we are becoming a nation of victims where every Tom, Ricardo, and Hasid is a special group with special rights to a point where we don’t even recognize the country we were born and raised in. We just want it fixed, and Trump is the only guy who seems to understand what the people want. We’re sick of politicians, sick of the Democratic Party, Republican Party, and sick of illegals. We just want this thing fixed. Trump may not be a saint, but he doesn’t have lobbyist money holding him back, he doesn’t have political correctness restraining him; all we know is that he has been very successful, a good negotiator, he has built a lot of things, and he’s also not a politician; he’s not a cowardly politician. And he says he’ll fix it. And we believe him, because he is too much of an egotist to be proven wrong or looked at and called a liar. Also we don’t care if the guy has bad hair. We just want those raccoons gone. Out of our house. I feel this is why people that haven’t voted in 25 years are registering to vote this year. The raccoons have got to go. For myself, the clincher, as to why I’m going to vote for Trump is because Miley Cyrus has vowed she is going to leave the country if he gets in. So, go Donald, go! Larry Bond Santa Barbara (Editor’s note: We like your thinking. There are probably a great number of people threatening to leave the country if Mr. Trump is elected president and it would be “good riddance” for most of them. It’s not unusual, however, to feel that way, as I threatened to leave the country if Mad Max: Fury Road was voted “Best Picture” during this year’s Academy Award presentation. Although the film received a half-dozen awards, they were for makeup, costumes, editing, and sound, all reasonably deserved. But the film was a brainless exercise in stupidity; profes-
• The Voice of the Village •
sional wrestling matches have better plot lines. Lucky for me, the Academy voted for Spotlight, which did deserve it. – J.B.)
Recycling Danger
The idea is slowly getting out. Next time you are passing through the new entrance to Cottage Hospital, look down to see the sidewalk. Is it wet with recycled water? Are your feet tracking that into the building? If so, how long has this in-tracking been going on? Is this water and its constituents then aerosolized by internal traffic and cleaning staff, as well as lawn sprinklers and does that aerosol enter the air system? Do the precautions for hyper filtration in the operating theaters sufficiently clear the air? There are papers on the failure of these precautionary systems in the medical literature. Does any of this make a lot of sense? This is a series of questions that some would rather you not consider, but there it is. If you had not seen the papers on Santa Barbara’s recycled water that confirm the risk, then they are listed below in a recent Los Angeles Times piece. The Harwood paper is a peer-reviewed presentation of the WERF paper (00-PUM-2T) that came out in 2004, about when the seismic retrofit EIR study on the hospital was in discussion. The Harwood paper and the WERF study included the recycled water produced by the City of Santa Barbara. The head of the City’s planning commission had suggested during early design that the hospital stub out sewer laterals that were capable of hooking to pretreatment equipment. It appears such a request was not initiated. There is a major body of literature that was presented to the City at that time documenting a potentially serious issue with public health and recycled water. We presented pictures of the City’s recycled water at the time, showing disk-diffusion plates with bacteria resistant to 11 of the 12 challenge antimicrobials in the Kirby Bauer. That series of discussions on what was found in the water seems to have had no effect. Does the hospital have stubbed-out capacity for pretreatment? Is the contamination of entryway traffic presenting a risk? Who is looking at this? It had been presented to the local, county, and state decision-makers, but what did they do with the information? The Fahrenfeld paper is current. It is an extension of my early work with Dr. Judy Meyer, head of medical microbiology at SBCC. Her work was undertaker for several years, and she also was not heard by those in charge. Dr. Edo McGowan Montecito (Editor’s note: You certainly raise an intriguing issue and it’s one worth exam•MJ ining more closely. – J.B.) 17 – 24 March 2016