ojai news at The Ojai Post :: blog, newspaper, events in Ojai, California

what is that creature? anbody know?

an infant koala??

Lemur!

Very bright eyed and bushey tailed creature !

The truck thing is really bad. It's my understanding that these are just a local family running this business, I think they have some orcherds in the area also. So instead of getting our gravel from our local people and local business we are now going to be getting it from some big corporate gravel entity way out in palmdale some place. Not only are we hurting local business but we are increasing our "carbon footprint" not to mention wasting gas because now we have to truck gravel from great distances at great expense. Seems really stupid to me. I think some of you need to consult with your gurus and see how they would sum up the situation. Feels like bad karma to me ! Instant or not.

Dear Brian -

If by living locally, you mean Norwalk, and if by having "orcherds" you mean selling guns to felons out of Compton based Boulevard Sales & Services and American Hay and Mercantile in Oak View, both raided by Federal agents of the ATF, then yes, that is your understanding.

This seems like an attempt to villify this family. I'm suppose to believe that they are up there in Cuyama Valley running guns to the local hermit gang? Let's just talk about their gravel business and put aside anything else for the moment, I am not familiar with any criminal laws that they have broken, for all I know maybe they just want to run alegitmate business and they had a crazy cousin that did something stupid. What is so criminal about delivering gravel in a truck. Again, speak to your spiritual leaders about the altruism of your position.

This seems like an attempt to villify this family.

You brought it up. I just posted a link.

Ok, I read all the bad stuff about the guy who just died with respect to the gun sales. I don't know who is going to be taking over the business but maybe this would be a chance for them to do something legitimate. In any event if they didn't have all this baggage looking at simply the gravel issue, the fact remains that we will now be forced to get gravel from Palmdale, and that will cause more pollution and wasted fuel. Would you still feel the same way if they had a side business giving massages instead of selling guns to criminals?

I've explained my complete support of the Stop The Trucks Coalition multiple times, and why their work is important, from an environmental, economic and social standpoint. I've also expressed admiration for the unanimity by which this position is supported across varied interests, including local business, local government, county government and social, community and environmental groups. I don't feel I need to revisit it, when it is well-documented across multiple threads. 'nite, Brian.

Brian: You consistently come off as being uninformed, outgunned and incapable of intelligent discourse. You are the perfect rep for the crime family. 0-19 and counting. You'd have better luck going 1 on 1 with Jordan - his knees are pretty wobbly these days.

Tyler: Once again, I am impressed by your patience and tolerance. Where and how did you learn to be so gracious with the mentally challenged?

Spaz, why always the condescending dick?

Fine, I wasn't aware of the gun sales issue. Do all mine operators also sell guns? It's unfortunate that they have been involved in that. The larger problem is that for some reason all the gravel quarries around Ventura have been closed. I think this is what promped someone to look at this quarry in Cuyama as being a possible economic venture, unfortunately they sound like bad people. What I think everybody is missing is that this would never have even been an issue if the other quarries around Ventura were usable. Why do we have to go all the way to Palmdale to get gravel?

Another thing, what about when they start work on removing Matillaja Dam? What about the truck traffic that will be produced during that? That project is suppose to last 6 or 7 years. Is anybody going to have a problem with that?

Brian,
That is certainly a big question. The additional truck traffic seems to be a necessary evil….the pain of righting a wrong. I know that there were also considerations to run some sort of flume or slurry pipe all the way to the ocean…unless we can come up with a good local use for a whole lot of silt.
Personally, I could never fully understand why they did not just continue to notch the dam and let the silt work its way downstream but perhaps it would end up in Casitas with much of what else comes down river or cause damage to downstream systems.
That said, I hope that some others shared my satisfaction in seeing those great steelhead photos last week. All of those blowhards who raved about there not being any steelhead in the river for years; how the fish ladder was a huge waste of money; how the last Ventura River steelhead is history….they were suddenly quiet. The natural world can usually restore itself, at least on the small scale, if we can manage to get out of its way for a few minutes.
For me, the necessity and perhaps inevitability of Matilija dam trucks makes the gravel truck issue even more acute. How many trucks can this valley handle?

Not sure how this became a truck discussion when there are a plethora of other threads for that purpose. This little lemur kinda freaks me out but is so cute!

Lisa took the words right out of my mouth.

Tyler, maybe there should be an open thread that is always visible somewhere near the top of the home page (not sure how to do that--just a thought)

I was noticing that the day you posted that open thread with the gorgeous photo of the orchard there was only (I think) one comment (mine, which was a question about the photo). Then this Open Thread disappeared from view...maybe there's a better way, if you got my drift!

Back to the lemurs --I love them! Have watched some amazing shows about them on National Geographic and PBS...

The reason there is a truck discussion here is because Howard censors all differing views.

But that creature is very bizzare indeed. He must have been looking at Tyler.

OK - I'm glad that got cleared up! I am unable to play videos at work and was racking my brain trying to figure out a possible connection between lemurs and the truck situation.

Has anyone been to Madagascar to see these creatures in person? It's definitely on my list as a country to visit! But I'd better hurry - the rainsforest (and many species of animals, including those on the endangered list) are being destroyed at a horrifying rate.

Sorry to bring up the truck thing again, but the canard that Brian raised about the environmental damage that will be done because the only place to get gravel is in Palmdale is flatly wrong. The vast vast vast majority of construction requiring that particular building material is occurring in Los Angeles, Eastern Ventura, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties. South and East of us. With that understanding, Palmdale is at least 20 miles CLOSER than Cuyama. Also, when trucks drive down grades on serpentine roads, they have to use low gears which burns lots more fuel than simply driving down the 14 at top speed in high gear.

That's not a Lemur. That's a chupacabra.

Chupacabra's are evil, that thing is a nice guy.

SPK, Wrong again, what about the aggragate we use locally, that is the whole point of my argument. The aggragate that we use localy now has to come from Palmdale. It is used for roads and other construction applications. The fuel consumption going down hill is less, when they use their low gears a truck uses the compression in the engine to slow it's speed due to the force of gravity , you ninny.

I thought chupacabra was a yoga position.

Brian,

I understand your argument. But compare the uses of that building material region wide and consider just what percentage Ojai makes of that whole. If it's above 1% I'd be very surprised. Those mines in Cuyama are not open for business for Ojai or even Ventura's sole benefit. Those truck loads are going the extra miles to LA and the inland empire, and they're going down the 33 and even out the 150 to the 126 as a result.

So, in a cost benefit analysis with regard to environmental factors, your argument is extremely weak. I suspect you only posited it because you were trying to tweak the the noses of the majority of people on this blog who tend to have environmentalist sensibilities. You'd do better with an economic/class argument about the independent truckers who are trying to make a living and the utter failure of the neo-liberal, neo-conservative, Corporatist, Milton Freidmanesqe, Chicago School, trickle-down, voodoo economics that have been destroying this country for almost 30 years. Although, because of the inherently NIMBY nature of the trucks issue, that argument, which I've advanced in the past, has been met with deafening yawns.

Does George Lucas know that chupacabra lifted THX's copyrighted material?

Arguing with Brian

mommy issues: Takes one to know one

phalarope,

That's really great! Too gruesome for some, but hysterical. Thing is though, I kind of like arguing with Brian even though it's impossible to sway him. He's the perfect foil and other people get the benefit of the extra info as people try to reason with him.

I almost peed in my pants over that cartoon ! How did you know I actually do that on my keyboard.

I think everybody would be suprised at how much aggregate material is used right here in our local area.

BTW I can totaly see the argument for not running a lot of trucks down the 33, the fact that these other sources have been shut down is closely related to the problem as a whole.

spk - I don't think the majority of that material goes to LA. If it did it would be a shorter route to go the 5.

spk: yeah, brian is a good foil. He seems to enjoy his role of fall guy for the rethug mindset and we certainly can thank him for being such an accomidating punching bag.

This is the closest thing to an open thread so I'll post this here. It seems that according to the most recent polls Clinton would lose to McCain while Obama would trounce him. That's exactly what I've been saying all along.

Let's all hope that the super delegates don't decide to overturn the will of the people. If that were to happen, you'd see those numbers for Clinton drop by at least 10 more percentage points in the general election in November.

I wonder if LTOR or any of the other Clinton supporters out there can defend the Clintons in their desire to change the rules, after the fact, and now seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida?

spk, do you still foresee this thing getting settled without turning the democratic party into what many are now predicting -- a train wreck?

(spk, i posted comment 27 without having seen your number 26)

I seriously doubt the Clinton's will nuke the Democratic Party by allowing the Super Delegates to subvert the will of the people. It would be suicide. I think she'll bow, possibly before Texas to retain some national power because polls there are going the same way as the last 8 democratic contests. Obama 60-70 Clinton 40-30. It was a good run, but it's time to give it up.

"Be Very Afraid"
What an appropriate title for this "closest thing to an open thread!"

Keep her in so we can win.

The repub mantra !

Bill Clinton is going around on the campaign trail calling Hillary "a world class change maker." Yikes! Did that come directly from a PR firm or what?

Ouch! Here's another poll that confirms what I've been saying for some time. Clinton will lose if she finagles the nomination. Unlike the Zogby poll I posted yesterday, this is from SUSA. They have nailed every primary and caucus thus far while Zogby failed miserably in New Hampshire and California. However, the Zogby poll was nationwide while this one is targeted to Wisconsin. This is a good poll because it breaks it down as to who is voting how. Pay special attention to the Latino(they call it Hispanic in the poll) vote. This has been a reliable segment of the electorate for Clinton, especially here and in Nevada, but it looks like they vote overwhelmingly for McCain in a McCain/Clinton matchup. 81% McCain to 13% Clinton. Not a good sign.