Some Opinion Bites to Chew Over With Your Breakfast
This can be read in about half the time it takes you to down two pieces of wheat toast, and yet provides twice the fiber.
* Is it just my imagination or are U.S. troops always being sent on dangerous missions just before Christmas?
* Someone could make a fabulous Sega Genesis game out of Orange County freeway construction. Call it “Daredevil.” Level 1: The Freeway Merge . . . Level 3: Continuing south on Interstate 5 past the El Toro Y without inadvertently exiting . . . Level 6: Getting to the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway from the Orange Freeway via I-5 (Hint: Beware of unseen merges or disappearing lanes).
* You talk about life’s bitter ironies: Supervisor Bill Steiner, who made a career of understanding children’s social issues, will see his tenure marked by severe cutbacks in social services. But lest anyone think the bankruptcy was beyond the supervisor’s expertise, you only need remember that Steiner, then the newest board member, was wary about the county’s investments and drafted a memo about it. Rats, Bill, if only you had circulated it!
* More interesting office pool than the Super Bowl: To the nearest $10 million, what will be the amount of the settlement between Orange County and Merrill Lynch?
* This just in from a colleague (and representing only one man’s opinion): Upstairs bathroom at Crystal Court offers “the best toilet paper in the county.”
* Let’s say, hypothetically, that newly elected Republican Assemblyman Scott Baugh had a hand in getting a friend to run on the Democratic side, just to hurt the Democrats’ serious candidate. If only for curiosity’s sake, I hope the D.A. asks Baugh, who had never run for office before, whether he thought of the idea on his own.
* A reader wonders whether the popular TV commercial, in which “Johnny” tries to con his dad, brother and girlfriend to get a Bud Lite, doesn’t send out the wrong signal about problem drinkers.
* Bob Citron’s lawyer says his client has suffered from a form of dementia in recent years. What does that do to Citron’s status as a witness against Merrill Lynch?
* Help me with this: Certain politicians think an isolated scene from the movie “Money Train” inspired copycat crackpots in New York, but they don’t think daily anti-government diatribes from right-wing radio commentators contributed to the Oklahoma City bombing?
* For those who can’t wait for the inept federal government to relinquish control to state and local governments, I submit the California Legislature and Orange County government as exhibits A and B.
* The “mandate” for Scott Baugh on election day: The 67th Assembly District has 208,000 registered voters. He received 21,000 votes, or about 10%. Total voter turnout was about 25%.
* Thank God they finally tore down the Pussycat Theater in Buena Park. Now, those crummy X-rated movies can get off the street and get back in the homes where they belong.
* I don’t mean this exactly the way it sounds, but I’m tired of seeing Fred Goldman on “Larry King Live.”
* On a recent visit to Nebraska, I stopped at a small-town school I attended and later at a duplex in Omaha where our family lived for a summer. Both the school and the half-street of duplexes had been torn down. It feels very weird to want to reminisce about a childhood moment and have to look at a parking lot instead.
* In case you’re interested: psychic Lydia Hiby will discuss and demonstrate her ability to mentally communicate with animals at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Learning Light Foundation, 1212 E. Lincoln Ave. in Anaheim.
* Why did I love Frasier Crane when he was a barfly on “Cheers” and not like him as the star of his own show?
* More Baugh: Just about the time I wonder if term limits have merit as a way of changing the faces, someone like Baugh gets elected, which makes me ask: If a total unknown can get elected solely on the pledge that he’ll vote the party line, why bother changing faces?
* And, finally, this from Portland, Maine, compliments of the Associated Press: “A man who barked at a police dog inside a parked patrol car was detained and ordered to appear in court on a charge of taunting the German shepherd.”
I hope they throw the book at him.