Innovation taking place at MiraCosta

Concerning John Van Doorn's little tantrum about recent events at MiraCosta College ("Behold! Yon scandal passeth on," Jan. 10): As a reporter, doesn't he realize that much more is going on at MiraCosta than what happens to catch the media's attention? Community colleges are where much of the innovation in education is occurring.

If John took the time to drive up the hill this week, he would find that MiraCosta is hosting a cutting-edge training institute in educational technology for community college instructors from around Southern California. Can you say, "Flash," "voice over IP," or "podcasting"? The experience might temper some of his smug disdain for the "habitually quaint" faculty that he would expect to find there.

Richard Rowley

Oceanside

Unfair story on gangs at El Camino High

The Jan. 13 story titled "Gangs are a part of life for Oceanside students" was insulting to El Camino High School students and staff, as well as Oceanside's citizens. To say that "Every day is a battle" is absolutely untrue. The North County Times chose to greatly exaggerate the effect of gangs on the general student body and ignore a great deal of the facts in order to sensationalize the story.

My daughter is a fair-skinned blond student at ECHS. Her friends include Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders. The world could learn a great deal from the way that they recognize and appreciate each other's diversity. These are students who take honors courses, play in the band, participate in sports and numerous other activities. … They graduate to go on to prestigious universities, the military and productive jobs.

… These students know that gangs exist, along with drugs and all of the problems that plague our society. However, for the vast majority, these problems do not play a factor in how they manage their day-to-day affairs. Contrary to what was said … 99 percent of students would never consider bringing a weapon to school. To cherry-pick the facts that you chose to use in your story is shoddy journalism.

Robert Cartin

Oceanside

Stop falling for global warming

Weather report, Jan. 19: San Diego, 46 degrees, Los Angeles, 41 degrees, Phoenix, 44 degrees. Global warming? I have an ignorant friend in Encinitas. He communicates to me endlessly that the ice caps are melting in the Arctic. "This is due to human-hatched global warming," he chimes as he zips up his Carhartt jacket. He is able to say this with a straight face. I ask him how the ice caps melted before there were people to pollute and before there were Lincoln Navigators to resent. He doesn't have an answer. He just knows that we have to do something right away or else. Or else what? What is the else, and when should I trade my Ford truck in for a sailboat?

Folks, stop with the global warming nonsense before we are categorized as the biggest buffoons in the history of modern-day man. This hysteria ranks right up there with the world is flat, leeches cure disease and our financial world will collapse on Jan. 1, 2000. Greedy scientists have you chanting like George Orwell's sheep in the book "Animal Farm," "four legs good, two legs bad." They are billion-dollar snake-oil salesmen and all you simpletons are embarrassingly falling for it.

Rob Thompson

Carlsbad

Embedded reporters

I am pleased by the recent fine reporting and columns concerning the Spanos development scam for Oceanside. We are being snowed by clones of Manchester, in and out of the Oceanside City Council.

Another step for fine reporting in the North County Times might be the establishing of embedded reporters for Oceanside gang supporters, such as social workers. The recent article about gang terrorism at El Camino High School was fine. The rebuttal by the school administration claimed gang violence was being kept off campus. Wonderful how cooperation with the gang culture is supposed to make school administration look good.

Local cable television gives us continuous coverage of criminal gang activity in our state prison system. This never actually mentions our Oceanside school campuses, either.

Vincent Morrison

Oceanside

Bush's hubris, and abortion

Contrary to Bettie Heldring's opinion (Letters, Jan. 18), Bush's warrantless wiretapping was declared unconstitutional by a federal judge. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales didn't formally plead guilty to the charge but has, in effect, pleaded no contest; henceforth, warrants will be obtained from the FISA court as required by law (check the news).

Also, in response to Heldring, I didn't say Bush had any foreknowledge of prisoner abuse, although I wouldn't be surprised if he did. What I said was he condones torture: He did then, and he does now. It's well documented. For this one reason alone, I will never have any respect for Bush.

Further, there's no evidence that Bush's efforts have prevented any major terrorist attack on the U.S. There is evidence that his efforts in Iraq are generating even more terrorists. I'm not afraid, but I certainly don't feel any safer. Finally, I never said the Constitution legalizes murder. It does legalize abortion. The belief that abortion is murder is just that ññ a belief. Logic and science dictate otherwise. I'll leave further comment to the others Heldring is rebutting.

John Terrell

Fallbrook

Condo density contributed to disaster

The Escondido City Council policy of "How many condos can we cram on the head of a pin?" contributed to the recent Escondido fire disaster.

Let's rebuild, but let's do it smarter with less condo density. Of course, that won't make the council members' developer friends happy, which is obviously their first priority.

Robert Tormey

Escondido

Sprinter delay won't matter

With the announced possible delay of the maiden voyage of the Oceanside-to-Escondido Sprinter commuter rail train, along with it [being] already more than $100 million over budget, people who care or who have paid any attention should not be surprised. The Sprinter will be just another subsidized taxpayer's burden, like the necessary public transportation, but practically empty, Breeze buses that already travel the surface streets.

Any extended time before the Sprinter becomes operative should not make that much difference, except for the relatively few who are conveniently able, or those who may choose to access its use.

I hope I turn out to be wrong about this, if only to vindicate the infinite wisdom of the perpetrators.

Henry Sanford

San Marcos

Right can't be taken seriously

Debra Saunders and the cheerleading conservatives who continue to drape themselves in self-righteous patriotic blather should take their own advice and cork it ("Boxer's personal hit on personal price," Jan. 20). She and her Fox friends have been wrong about this disaster in Iraq from the beginning, while those on the loony left, ridiculed and branded as traitors, were right. At this stage, two-thirds of the people have had enough of this experiment in terror and have finally begun to stand up and point to the smirking, naked emperor atop the white elephant in the middle of the Oval Office.

Saunders and her like-minded legion of utopian faithful (O'Reilly, Hannity, MoveAmericaForward and a host of cable/talk-radio gasbags) will continue to look under any available rock for WMDs, a nuke, an evil liberal, or anything that will justify their blind allegiance to civic incompetence, political chicanery and criminal malfeasance. The acorn that fell on their tiny heads on 9/11 has convinced them that the sky is perpetually falling. Like Chicken Little, none of them deserves to be taken seriously.

John Musser

Vista

We no longer live in a democratic nation

Twelve percent of the country supports escalating the war in Iraq by extending some soldiers' tours and returning others more quickly. Twelve percent. The president will do this anyway, and the Congress will gripe and do nothing. We no longer live in a democratic nation.

Garth Gregory Hansen

Escondido

A better idea

Re: "Sorry, wrong number" (Editorial, Jan. 12): I'll say upfront, I'm not a telecommunications expert. I would think one solution would be to change all cell phones and, in the future, assign the new prefixes to cell phones; all cell phones would use the same assigned prefix, different from the land lines.

Since it seems that cell phone use is growing faster than land line, it makes sense to assign new prefixes to cell phones rather than changing the land line numbers and, then again, possibly change again in five years.

There probably is someone, a private citizen, who may even have a better idea. The current ideas would seem to have a huge impact, not only on private citizens, but also on businesses.

Richard Devon

Oceanside

Don't pass on bad quotations

Frank Thurlow's (Letters, Jan. 17) asserts that Sherman Deforest is correct in saying the word "God" doesn't appear in the Declaration of Independence. Wrong. That document's first sentence refers to "Nature's God" and the second paragraph mentions the "Creator." These were typical ways of referring to a supreme being by 18th-century Deists such as Jefferson, Adams, Madison, Paine, Franklin, Allen, etc.

It's the Constitution that doesn't mention God. It also doesn't feature the words "Christianity," "capitalism," "privacy," "political parties," "Cabinet," "separation of powers," or "separation of church and state." Yet who would deny that all of these are highly important in our democratic republic?

Mr. Thurlow quotes G. Washington (supposedly in 1796): "It is impossible to govern the world without God and the Bible." Washington never said it. Words similar to these were concocted years after our first president's death by James Paulding in his 1835 biography of Washington. And consider this: Washington never aspired to "govern the world." Please, people. Can't we stop using phony quotations? Avoid the ones you can't document from the person's writings or the public record.

John George

Carlsbad

Surge: An impetuous onset

"War is hell," a paraphrase of what Gen. William T. Sherman said a few years after he had ravaged Georgia in his march to the sea. Fortunately, Sherman's side won that war. Yes, war is hell, and that's what we are in now: hell. It is because our dittoheaded generals and their civilian counterparts followed a shock-and-awe policy, much like Gen. Nathan Forrest's one of "Get there fustest with the mostest." Fortunately, Forrest's side lost that war.

Now, as an astute military tactician like our president (I was a Navy seaman second class), either commit 500,000 men and fight the war for real or tuck our tail between our legs and get out. You say we don't have 500,000 men (Why?). Or that we can't desert our friends (What friends?). And that we have to stay the course. What course? Well, we've stayed their course with over 3,000 dead and tens of thousands maimed and mangled.

Now, with this new surge policy, those figures will skyrocket ññ and for what? Prestige? Oil? There's no reason for us to fight in another side's civil war and be damned by both sides. Let them kill each other. Not us.

Harry Titus

Oceanside

Stonegate's rush to develop

With the proposed idea of a city-sized, wide development called Stonegate being put on top of the beautiful Merriam mountains in our rural San Marcos community, what overshadows the people's minds in our community above all else is how greed for more profit can come before all matters of safety. This is also the same community that was left in the dark without any knowledge of a fire safety plan that was approved in private by the county Board of Supervisors and this developer during the holiday time when they were supposed to be closed.

… These kinds of decisions being made during a time when none can object to anything that this development wants to dream up next is truly outrageous. We must continue to take a stand on this as members of this community structure and not let something as detrimental as Stonegate go into existence.

Now more than any other time is the time to voice concerns and take actions toward preventing a 2,700-home, grocery store city-type development that will be kindling for the next horrific wildfire storm. This will only be a setup for a fiery disaster waiting to happen.

April Yahne

San Marcos

Cooperation may lead to solution

I have been a resident of Escondido for four years and have been satisfied with the mayor and City Council members who represent this city. However, I am alarmed by the strong negative attitudes that have been voiced in the North County Times by residents and nonresidents alike.

Our mayor and City Council members are here to serve the city and do not deserve the disrespect of people who do not agree with their decisions. The right approach should be to amicably express their dissent, and I'm sure the mayor and City Council members would listen. Nothing is achieved where hostility exists.

I have been involved both physically and financially with homeless shelters. But the burden that is placed on the few shelters that exist should not be entirely placed on the citizens of these few communities. … We have far too many affluent areas that have not participated in helping the street people, and they have the wherewithal to do it.

Another problem of concern is the illegal immigrant situation. This would not be our problem if every person would write to the president and legislature. They have created the problem and they should fix it now and it should be done with dignity. …

Jane McNamara

Escondido

Israeli ethnic cleansing? Give me a break

Mr. Bob Harvey (Letters, Jan. 20) accused Israel of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and terrorism. Israel has existed as a nation since 1948. If ethnic cleansing was their goal don't you think the job would have been done years ago? Is Harvey aware that there are many Arabs living in Israel? Does he know that those Arabs are treated the same as Israelis and have totally free medical care? Does he? Is he aware that when the rockets came into Israel during the war in Lebanon there were places in bomb shelters for Israeli Arabs as well as the Israelis? Terrorists? When was the last time an Israeli went on a Palestinian bus and blew him or herself up with women and children as his or her main target? What is the first thing that comes to your mind when suicide bomber is mentioned? An Israeli?

If one doesn't like Israel [one should] stand up like a man and say so. And if one doesn't, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn. Another $100 will be sent to the Jewish National Fund, thanks to Harvey's letter.

Alfred Marton

Poway

A surge of baloney

I often wonder if I live in the same world as some of your letter writers. I read crap about the worst economy in 50 years, but I see busy, prosperous people eating out and driving newer cars.

I remember the reports from Iraq that the Iraqi army and police had melted away. Now the baloney template is that we disbanded them. Your Jan. 17 edition contained a long dissertation about accountability. I wonder what I have been looking at for the last few years as a parade of administration officials trooped up to Capitol Hill to answer increasingly inane, impolite and insulting questions from the likes of Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer. …

I wonder if anyone listens to the president as he tries to enunciate his goals over and over. I wonder about Republicans jumping ship to save their seat instead of standing up to save their country. I wonder about the same politicians who previously clamored for more troops who now say they'll fight the president's new plan, maybe cut off funding. Why? …

If we listen to the messages of apathy, appeasement and ignorance, someday, we'll have terrorist strikes in every major city of this country. … Don't lose your nerve and hide your head in the sand. Fortress America no longer provides a shield.

William Ficere

Escondido

Lincoln cartoon was offensive

Substitute an image of Martin Luther King for Abraham Lincoln and a motel for a play and Stephan Pastis, cartoonist of "Pearls Before Swine" on Jan. 16, finds himself never having another comic published. I am offended and infuriated by his tasteless, ghoulish sense of humor. I am more offended by your publishing it next to "Zits," "Dilbert" and "One Big Happy," which I'm sure many children read.

I am an avid 55-year reader of the funnies and I have never read a more offensive, insensitive strip. Please, for the sake of your reputation, discontinue this horrible cartoonist. Abraham Lincoln is a revered and honorable American; he deserves better.

Fred Tilley

Menifee

War hurting us financially, too

Being disgusted with the Iraq war, I asked several people about their estimates about the monthly cost. The answers ranged from several million to $4 billion a month; my estimate was $2 billion.

The Pentagon last week published the monthly cost at $8.5 billion. If we add the $200 billion or so already spent, it is easy to see the monetary damage it is doing to our nation. A further unfortunate fact is that as individuals there seems little we can do to correct the situation: The president seems too arrogant and the Congress too pusillanimous to help.

Emil Hurtik

Temecula

Letting Moss go is a big mistake

What in the world is the Murrieta City Council thinking? From what I have learned, Lori Moss has provided a very high level of service to the city of Murrieta. Letting a leader go with a vision and the smarts to get from here to there is absolutely nonsensical. Ms. Moss has had the best interests of a rapidly growing community in mind and her dedication to making Murrieta a better place to live has been exemplary.

Let's hope her next employer has an IQ in the triple digits.

Steve Ledder

Sun City

Temecula is getting too big

I work at Temecula Valley High School and I was wondering why so many readers want more people to come to Temecula? Sure, it's good for the businesses, but this is our city. Don't you already hate the traffic in Temecula? What can the city do about that? There are enough people in the city already.

When I moved to Temecula, sheep roamed where the mall now sits. Don't you think the city has come along enough? The number of people has grown so much that you can't go to the mall without it taking like 20 minutes.

I love the city just the way that it is. I don't want a bunch of people filling the streets. Plus Temecula gets enough tourists with the wineries.

I have lived in Temecula for seven years and I have seen it advance so much already. My family moved here from Oceanside to get away from all of the chaos and crime. The thing that I loved about Temecula was how laid back it was. Not anymore. When I read The Californian lately, all this crime is in Temecula and Murrieta. More people are committing crimes in Temecula and I'm sure that the increasing rise in the population has a lot to do with it.

Priscilla Roberts

Temecula

Moss is one of Murrieta's finest servants

I cannot believe the City Council is stupid enough to fire City Manager Lori Moss! She is one of the best city managers the city of Murrieta ever had. She has done more than any city manager to promote the city of Murrieta. She is loyal, honest and, most of all, caring with all the residents of Murrieta.

She has been involved with every civic organization that Murrieta has and has only done good things by them. Not too many city managers work as hard as she does. You will not find a better city manager with the caliber of diplomacy that she has. Her leadership style is beyond compare with any city manager I have ever worked with.

The city is making a big mistake letting Lori Moss go. The city will end up paying more for a new city manager that will not work as hard as she does and will not provide the high credibility that she provides the city.

It is now time to put the dirty politics to bed and hang on to one of the best city managers that Murrieta ever had!

Jim Kelly

Murrieta

A terrible site to build a quarry

In response to Mark Mush's column ("Quarry here is all cracked up," Jan. 18), I, too, went with many others on the tour Granite gives to the Indio quarry.

It was indeed clean, dust-free and quiet. In fact, the "Merry Maids" could have just left. It was indeed the "model home" of quarries.

Of course, because it is a sand quarry and there is no blasting, the rock helps! Since this tour was for people to view what a quarry should look like, the incentive might be to keep it nice and clean?

Next, we went to the actual site of the proposed quarry. It was, as most of the hills are, beautiful, wild, free … with possible evidence of Native American history. It was not the place to dig a giant pit by blasting and pulverizing ancient rock into dangerous silica dust.

Looking down from where we stood , we had a bird's eye view of southern Temecula, Redhawk, Wolf Valley, Old Town, Temeku Hills and Rainbow. To the west was De Luz. That was insight. As the wind blows goes the dust.

I easily envisioned 1,600 truck trips per day onto Interstate 15. Doing the math you come up with one every 55 seconds; unthinkable!

Now that Realtors have to disclose the proximity of a proposed quarry, how do you think that will affect potential buyers?

It is unacceptable to even consider building this so close to residences. What were they thinking?

We take this personally.

Jerri Arganda

Rainbow

Web Comments:

Moss' vision didn't overlap City Council's

An article Wednesday on reaction to Lori Moss' departure from the city manager's post in Murrieta elicited some remarks:

Open doors

mori: What a dysfunctional government! (The) new council can't even work with (the) manager to come to a decision on direction. So what really went on behind closed doors? Open the doors so the public can really decide what's going on.

Class act

Murrieta Loss: It is a great loss to the city of Murrieta to lose an individual the caliber of Lori Moss. She deserves a city council that will leave her alone, so she can get the job done. Best of luck to you, Lori. You were a class act in a city that has none.

An oxymoron

Concerned: Vision and the Murrieta City Council? Now there's an oxymoron!

What do they want?

Confused: When the city was incorporated, it was done so that we wouldn't be taken over by Temecula. Now, everyone in Murrieta wants to be like Temecula. What do the citizens really want?

Move forward

Who Cares: what Seyarto thinks. He's history. Hopefully, a new city manager will move the city forward as it was supposed to have been doing all these years.

Too many mistakes

Happy: Lori Moss was given too much power and made too many mistakes.

Clean house

Bob: Now, that the leader of the pack is history, maybe the three remaining musketeers (deputy city managers) will soon follow in her footsteps. Clean house and get ethical people to run the city.

Tremendous skills

Good Luck Lori!: Lori, you have tremendous skills. Wish you the best for the future!"

Democrats, Republicans polarized over Bush speech

Readers respond to our Jan. 24 story President George Bush's State of the Union speech Tuesday night receiving mixed reviews among local Democrats and Republicans.

Not my president

Mike: "What has W. done for me. Not a thing not a single thing has this president done for me. In this speech he talks in circles full of fluff then talks if Iraq. I don't care about Iraq. I care about the United States of America. If he care so much of Iraq I feel that he should go there and be their president for he sure isn't mine!"

Starting to look familiar

John: "21,000 troops won't do the trick. What we need is some Democrat for president in office to really increase the problem and make it last 20 or so years. Sound familiar? Good ole Lyndon Banes Johnson. 'I won't send our boys to fight a war that their boys ought to be fighting' LOL. The whole thing is beginning to look familiar; 200 thousand might do the trick."

Insincere speech

El Guero: "Great speech. Too bad he didn't mean any of it. Except the part about wanting to kill more U.S. soldiers by sending them to Iraq. That part he meant."

Bush has quit the fight

GFN: "I just got the feeling that GWB just quit. He's overwhelmed and really doesn't know what to do. I was stunned that he regurgitated the same empty promises. The only real step was the 20% reduction in oil usage, but I don't believe he will follow up on it. He has us in a terrible bind in the Middle East and he doesn't have the management skills to lead any sector of the government. Honestly, Mr. Bush should just leave; resign now and give the U.S. a chance to begin to dig out of the morass we are in. This whole mess is sad to watch."

Oceanside mayor's position on regional committee questioned

Readers respond to our Dec. 24 story about Oceanside Mayor Jim Wood passing up an opportunity earlier this week to have an Oceanside official serve on a powerful regional transportation committee. Wood said he did what is best for the city and region.

Wood made right decision

Jay: "I'm not a big supporter of Jim Wood, but it sounds to me like he made a decision for the good of ALL the people in the SANDAG jurisdiction. What makes this an 'us against them' situation? We all live in the same transit district. Sounds to me like a local politician was upset that he didn't get an appointment to a position which, in politics, is like adding another item to your resume They use it more as a merit badge when running for the next position. Too bad Feller and Kern will have to show us what they got without the help of another committee position."

Wood does disservice to city

Wood is determined: "to kill the Melrose project and the interchange to Ranch del Oro. He knows that Kern, Chavez and Feller support it, so he won't place one of them on the transportation committee in a lead role. Wood is doing a major disservice to the residents of the city because of his political promises to a few. Traffic will be a total nightmare within a few years and Jim Wood can take all the credit (BLAME) for it. I hope everyone remembers stunts like this during the next election!"

No glamour on SANDAG

Randy: "SANDAG positions do not have the glitz and glamour of negotiations with billionaire Chargers' owner Alex Spanos."

Cows out of the barn

OMG: "Unbelievable - Mayor Wood 'doesn't have enough time' to be an advocate for the largest city in North County, on the most important regional committee? And then he votes AGAINST a fellow council member? Transportation issues and funding are the No. 1 concern of voters in every single nationwide poll. Too bad, the cows out the barn, and he's run over to our neighbors pasture."

It's all a plot

SANDAG: "Way to go mayor, this regional government stuff is for the birds! It is a plot for Hillary to take over San Diego County before the presidential election. You're the right man for the job, Mayor Wood, you have got my support."

Gov. opens assistance center in Escondido

Readers respond to our Jan. 24 story about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announcing that Escondido would get one of several temporary "one-stop" assistance centers aimed at helping agricultural workers who may have lost their jobs because of freezing temperatures that have hit the state.

Tax money to U.S. citizens

Greg in Oceanside: "I don't have a problem helping agricultural workers, just as long as they're U.S. citizens. I don't want any of my tax dollars being given away to illegal aliens."

Send illegal workers south

Roberto: "Hopefully, they are just going to help the agricultural workers who are in the United States. They can help the illegal ones simply by painting an arrow on the sidewalk pointing south."

Jobs Americans won't do

john: "Who is to blame the illegal workers or the 'American' contractors Would you take a low-paying job where you barely make ends meet or a job that the 'Americans' are willing to give you where you could survive? If legal people were out looking for these jobs they would have them! But since they aren't, someone has to do it!"