Extra

Public Crimes 

Mark Jackson's adaptation of Schiller's Maria Stuart, about the battles (political and personal) between Elizabeth I and her cousin and prisoner Mary, Queen of Scots, at the Shotgun Players' Ashby Stage has been much reviewed, so I'll just say that it's a (non-capital) crime to miss it. 

Schiller is Germany's Shakespeare; in fact, his Macbeth translation was so powerful that it remains the standard text in Germany 200 years later. Like Shakespeare, he explores the issues of the powerful by portraying them as the same issues (jealousy, love, power) that inform our own lives. And like Shakespeare the issues are as relevant today as they were when they were written. Since it's in translation, you don't have to struggle through Elizabethan English. Modern dress and setting also reduce obstacles to appreciation (and to the costume and set budget, which helps explain the absurdly low $17-$28 gate in this intimate theater with perfect views from every seat). Several heavy pauses staged at the very moment when I had lots of interesting processing to do; that's one of many signs of this play's astute direction. 

Due to unceasing demand the run has been extended through Sunday, and a 1 p.m. Sunday matinee has been added to the regularly scheduled 5 pm show and weekday 8 pm shows. It's highly unlikely you'll have an opportunity to see any Schiller around here ever again. 

Dave Blake 

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State Parks Initiative 

My fellow Californians; I am not happy with you. I'm not talking to the minority who voted for the State Parks initiative, but rather the majority of you who voted against it or didn't bother to vote at all. 

Let's look at the deteriorating state of our once lovely parks: campgrounds closed, restrooms locked or too filthy to use, roads in need of repair, infrastructure crumbling. 

Now, think about the 18 bucks a years it would cost to bring them back to their past glory. What is 18 bucks a year? You spend more than that each month on your latte or mocha. You spend more than that each month so you can send pointless texts to your friends while driving seventy on the crowded freeway. You spend more than that each month on additional tips because the waitress was cute and smiled at you. You spend more than that each month when you buy the twenty dollar bottle of wine because your tastes have become too sophisticated for the eight buck bottle. You spend more than that each month when you buy an appetizer, knowing that the main meal is more than a grizzly bear could eat. You spend more than that each month when you get your hair styled, when it could be cut for half the price. 

This vote is what happens when "cheap" runs headlong into "selfish." 

A couple of months ago I camped in a North Dakota state park. Beautiful, clean, well-maintained, free hot showers. California, once America's cutting edge state is now so far behind North Dakota that we can no longer see the dust they kick up. 

Now, go have a five buck latte and whine to your friends about the rude columnist who made you feel bad. 

Meade Fischer 

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Open letter to the California Public Utilities Commission concerning their response to the discovery that the Director of the Smartmeter program, William Devereaux, had been caught spying on the anti-Smartmeter movement (cf. SF Chronicle, 11/9/2010). 

To the CPUC: 

The following was reported in the San Jose Mercury, 11/10/2010, concerning William Devereaux's spying on the anti-Smartmeter movement, for which he has since resigned. 

"It is of serious concern to the CPUC that a senior PG&E official may have been involved in unethical behavior," said CPUC spokesperson Terrie Prosper. "We are investigating the allegations to ascertain the facts, and to determine whether any laws or regulations were violated, and whether sanctions are appropriate." 

But the CPUC has allowed, and fostered the project that Mr. Devereaux directed, which was to install devices on people's houses that for some people are a source of illness, ill health, and malaise. And the CPUC has ignored this fact, and turned a deaf ear on the hundreds and thousands of complaints about this imposition. 

To the extent that the CPUC not only allows but guides PGE's installation of Smartmeters against the wishes of individuals and property owners, the CPUC is itself guilty of unethical behavior. In other words, the CPUC's "concern" about Mr. Devereaux's spying on the anti-Smartmeter movement is wholly hypocritical. 

How do individuals know that their ailments, such as insomnia, headaches, and other things, have their source in the Smartmeters? Because when they wrap the Smartmeter in aluminum foil, thus shutting off their exposure to its microwave emissions, their ailments disappear. 

I strongly urge the CPUC to end its hypocrisy by ending its own unethical behavior, and listen to the people it is duty-bound to protect against precisely the detrimental effects of such technology. 

Steve Martinot 

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Most Moronic Post-Election Analysis I've Seen Yet 

So the Dems lost because they weren't leftist enough ? What are you smoking, Becky ? The Dems lost over 60% of the white vote, only college brainwashed white women supported them and that just barely. 

California was the exception only because four million white middle class voters have fled from here since 1990. So the remaining voters elected four tired old Party Hacks over four RINO Republicans. 

And guess what, Jerry Brown is going to do the nasty in the progressives' southerly orifices big time. He'll probably cut more than Meg ever could and Meg flipflopped on almost every issue as a cogent analysis in yesterday's Mercury News demonstrated. 

If it wasn't for the Blue Dogs there NEVER would been a Democratic House in either 2006 or 2008. If you lib morons are stupid enough to retain the same failed leadership of Pelosi, Reid and Obama for 2012 then look for the same results. 

Oh yes I know, Becky, that silent leftist majority has once again failed to show up at the polls for the 44th year in a row. Just keep the blinders on and listen to another lecture by Pope Noam, that tribune of the Peepul as he drives his Lexus back home to lily white Lexington. 

As for Kamala Harris she's the worst DA in Frisco since the last leftist held that job. It really has nothing to do with the death penalty which is very rarely enforced here in California. She's simply an incompetent leftist ideologue. Don't bother to introspect, just keep blaming everyone else for your bad judgment. 

It wasn't just the Likudnik nuts who put you out of the print business, it was your many bad stands on many issues. Wake up or go the way of KPFA. After 40 years in the Oak-Berk Zoo I'm be glad to be out of there. 

Al Blue
 

Ukiah 

Cut Military Spending 

Please stop paying out all this money for defense; we do not need it, what we need is to support human needs, education, health and welfare. 

Hilary FitzGerald-Nicholson