Saturday, July 14, 2007

Welcome!

WELCOME!
Welcome to my blog! I hope to have input from visitors and I will try to keep your interest with subject matter that is thoughtful and interesting.

Our TV show is on cable in Santa Barbara and we have been on Channel 17 for nine years. The show is interesting and we have guests and the phones are always open for comment from viewers, both pro and con. We will be back in early September and trust that those of you living in the Santa Barbara area will join us.

HOW NOT TO BE A PARENT!
Interesting story in the S.F. Chronicle today about a little 4-year old boy that drowned at Great America's water-wave pool. The child's mother blames Great America "for not doing their job".

My question: What is a 4-year old child doing in a pool that ranges in depth from 2-feet to 6-feet without his mother at his side? It is a sure bet that this little boy didn't know how to swim. When the mother started to fret about where her son was after ten minutes, she sent another child to look for him.
The fault for this child's tragic drowning lies directly at the feet of the mother.
Many in our society are too eager to blame others for our own mistakes. This is one of those cases.

CITY OF SANTA BARBARA COPS OUT!
This drowning story makes me recall the drowning of Katie Janeway in our local city owned pool a few years ago. The city has parents sign a Waiver of Responsibility" absolving the city of negligence. In Katie's case she was an epileptic girl 14-years old and she was supposed to be monitored by a specific
young woman assigned to watch her at all times. Her monitor was at the shallow end of the pool and Katie dived into the deep end of the pool and drowned. Katie's parents sued the City of Santa Barbara for gross negligence to the tune of $200 million dollars. The case is winding its way though court appeals. The question to be answered is whether a signed waiver can release the the city from gross negligence. In this case, I believe the parents are not to blame, but the city is! I believe that the City of Santa Barbara will lose this case, and they should!

NON-FREEDOM OF SPEECH ALIVE AT THE NEWS-PRESS!
The Santa Barbara News-Press keeps soliciting letters and op-ed pieces from readers, but the request has one slight caveat. The paper will not print letters or op-eds that are adverse to Wendy McCaw, the paper's owner or the paper itself. In other words: "We will print only favorable comments about the News-press in the News-Press. In the News-Press, freedom of speech is only available to the paper's comments. Readers: Shut up!

IRAQ WAR
We lost this war in the summer of 2003, when President Bush elected to send the Iraqi Army of several hundred thousand men home with their AK-47's, but with no way to earn a living. The Commander-in -Chief also allowed millions of rounds of ordinance to be unguarded and stolen. This ordinance is killing and maiming our kids by the thousands. We are no longer in a war. Our brave man and women are the targets of dozens of groups of Iraqis that we cannot even identify. Our troops are in a battle just to stay alive. The only way to even try and pacify Iraq is with our entire military of 500,000 troops. This is not going to happen. BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA'S DROUGHT AND LAWNS!
There is no arguement that Southern California is in a record drought that will only get worse. Over 50% of our water is used for lawns! IT IS TIME TOTEAR OUT EXISTING LAWNS AND REPLACE THEM WITH FOILAGE THAT IS DROUGHT FRIENDLY AND TO NOT ALLOW ANY NEW LAWNS. We are either going to have green grasses or empty glasses.

2 comments:

Sayed said...

I fully agree with Ernie on Iraq war. This mission was condemnd to fail because from the very beginning it was not serving the USA interests. There are also rumors that some arab goverments only supported the USA on Iraq because they knew the outcome of this war. And now no body can talk about democracy in the ME. USA lost it credibility there (sad reality)and that is exactly what they aimed for. Pulling out american troops will not solve the Iraqi problem but will surely rescue the lives of many american soldiers. USA should help Iraq to be at least a safe state again not only for its own citzens. This is the minimum the USA should do as it destroyed the iraqi state and as the administration of the USA was the war initiator. This should happen in a different peaceful way. Surely it will not be an easy way.

Ernie'sBlog said...

Thanks Sayed!

Bush has led our country into several bad options in Iraq, all of which will have terrible consequences.

We are like a man waiting to be executed who is asked how he would like to be finished off! No matter what we do in Iraq, we lose!