Cutting power isn’t the answer
Where do our Santa Barbara city and county elected officials stand on the issue of the electricity utilities’ craven plans for arbitrary power outages during high fire risk conditions. Do they care that thousands of people will suffer greatly as a result? Would these proposed outages even be considered were it not for lawsuits brought after the Paradise and Thomas fires?
Paradoxically, the unintended result of the utilities’ proposed actions will be a slew of lawsuits brought against them for substantial damages unnecessarily inflicted on a vulnerable populace. To think that giving advance notice to those about to be affected will absolve them of what they might consider unintentional consequences is hogwash.
It is not in the public interest for elected officials to appease the utilities. With the absence of push-back when they tested the waters with their outage plans, the utilities have become emboldened to carry them out. There are ways to protect utilities from lawsuits that blame them for the fires caused by sparks from electric power lines, but arbitrary and unnecessary power outages are not it.
Joseph Stapen
Santa Barbara
Government competition
We are being crushed by government spending and their ever-increasing taxes. We have no more to give! Every time I turn around, I see more government agencies and departments that all have their hands out for more fees and taxes.
Take a minute or two to investigate government salaries and benefits. Government has no competition to weed out the useless, inefficient and failed agencies. Business competes every day to succeed, which makes them efficient and hopefully prosperous. They go out of business if they fail. Government wants to control business, but there is nothing to control government.
If government had any competition, I’m sure many agencies and departments would shut down, allowing me a few more bucks to live on.
Michael C. Schaumburg
Santa Barbara
Get rid of Carbajal
Re: Caroline Abate’s commentary (Voices, Sept. 1): She asks a question, “Do each of us have the courage and political will to finally reject the perverse, violent, and deviant ideas of liberal progressivism?” I say yes.
Let us start with voting out Rep. Salad Carbajal. Approximately three years ago, at a county town hall meeting about abortion, Mr. Carbajal was praising and adoring Planned Parenthood’s plan to sell baby parts. He was approving of one of the vice presidents of Planned Parenthood to sell baby parts so she could buy herself a Lamborghini.
Mr. Carbajal cares so much about the sanctity of life, the only thing that’s going to help is to get rid of all the guns. Mr. Carbajal, people in large trucks run down and kill people; fentanyl from the open borders kills people; machetes on
our streets kill people; and yes, Planned Parenthood kills people in their clinics.
Mr. Carbajal cares only about ideology and ramming his ideology down our throats. When are good people going to break their silence and realize this representative is a fraud?
Tony Krejdovsky
Goleta
Was it really necessary?
I know that I’ll probably get some flak for asking, but here’s my question: At the press conference following the Conception tragedy, on the dais and behind the various speakers, we had our representatives at the federal, state and county levels, all wearing expressions of solemn concern. What, pray, were they doing there? What did they have to contribute? Did any have special knowledge of marine matters, or firefighting, or any relevant subject? Were they there to share some public sorrow with the bereaved relatives, friends and coworkers of the dead and missing?
Or was this just a photo op, an opportunity to get in the way and get their photos in the paper and on TV? Actually, I’ve voted for and supported some of these people, but I just don’t think that their presence was necessary.
Des O’Neill
Santa Barbara
What really happened?
My condolences to the families of lost ones who were on the dive boat Conception. What I want to know and what makes one very suspicious is why were all five members of the crew awake and on deck at 3 a.m.?
I do hope the Coast Guard and local and state police question each under a polygraph testing machine.
I used to dive for years off boats, and never once on a weekend dive were all the ship’s crew awake and on deck. There is something not being told here, and they, plus the owner, should be held 100% responsible for the deaths of all those on board.
Jon Fleischer
Hemet
Boat tragedy defies logic
Thirty-four passengers all asleep at the same time? Not one up and about, smoking or drinking on deck? Inconceivable, and very, very strange. And this fire had to start after all 34 passengers were asleep? It couldn’t have started at 8, or 10 the previous evening, or maybe 7 the next morning, but only after all 34 passengers were “asleep”?
Implausible is an understatement.
Neil Feinstein
San Diego
It was just another day
August 31 was just another day of mass shootings. Add five killings and 21 wounded to the list. Since 2012, when the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings took place, almost 2,300 children and adults have died at the hands of demented killers, plus another 8,400 wounded — all in only seven years.
Is there a way to stop it or at least slow it down? Of course there is — through effective gun control legislation. We all know legislators who shy away from any form of such legislation are simply doing their job and earning their salary from the nation’s top gun lobbies. In this country, we get what we elect.
Next time you go to the polls, check to see if the person you want to vote for has accepted any campaign money from the gun lobby. The gun lobby includes the National Rifle Association and their friends who certainly oppose mass killing, but also oppose any legislation that could curtail them.
The founding fathers experienced no mass shooting of civilians because they had no AR-15s, AK-47s, bump stocks or high-capacity magazines. What are assault rifles for anyway? Shooting defenseless wild animals? Defending against untamed natives? Scaring the neighbor’s cat off the back fence?
Maybe we should go back to the Revolutionary War days and restrict modern-day killings to those who pack heat in the form of flintlock rifles. After all, weren’t the Revolutionaries the authors of the 2nd Amendment?
Bill Livingstone
Goleta
Time for a reality check
Every time there is a mass shooting by a deranged white male, the left springs into action. It blames President Trump, the NRA and average Americans.
Never mind that year after year there are mass shootings in big cities like Chicago, even though there are strict gun laws. Criminals and gangs can always get guns.
Then, too, what about background checks? The last shooter in Texas did not pass a background check, but still got ahold of a gun.
Going forward as a nation, we must do better. The left and the media must stop creating gun hysteria and politicizing gun violence. Politicians, citizens, churches, the media and mental health providers should work together to find commonsense solutions to curb gun violence. At the same time, we should remember the 2nd Amendment was created to protect Americans against an overpowering government.
Don Thorn
Carpinteria
