I know it’s not nice… But it’s funny anyway!

San francisco geyser v0 OL4RldfMiV6NIONHfntiChoWnvz 6LHAiFg9gINZr7EDue to the heavy rains in California San Francisco is experiencing “Sewer Geysers”

I’ve seen a couple of videos and they’re spectacular. 

I guess God got tired of looking at the filth and people shitting on the sidewalks and decided to flush the toilet.

San Francisco’s storm drains couldn’t handle the amount of rain and as the water backed up it looks like there was enough force to blow the lids off manhole covers. Maybe God is pressure washing the city?

When the sun comes out, the people still attempting to live in the city will have clean streets and no stench for at least a couple of days. This reminder of the beauty that once was San Francisco will probably be a bitter pill for the people to swallow when the city returns to it’s “New Normal” of shit, trash, and used needles in the streets.

Perhaps it will spur the residents of the city to raise hell with the city government.

Looking at the weather forecast I almost wish I had some business in the city. I’d like to see San Francisco as I remember it.

I wonder if the homeless encampments were washed away too? Will the governor pass out new cardboard boxes or will he leave that to FEMA?


Several new laws went into effect in California as of today.

SB 107: Sanctuary State’ for ‘Transgender Kids – Totally expected and I weep for those kids getting sucked into the Medical Machine.
AB 2098: COVID Misinformation
AB 2147: Decriminalizing Jaywalking Because of Racism
SB 1375: Allowing Nurses to Perform Abortions Without Doctors
SB 357: Decriminalizing Loitering for Prostitution
AB 257: State Control of Fast Food Restaurants ON HOLD This is just what we need, More Socialist control.

I am particularly amused by AB-2098.

Essentially this bill says that any doctor who spreads misinformation about COVID-19 can be punished by the California Medical Board. Okay… But what is misinformation about COVID-19? Do Doctors still have to say that the vaccines are safe and effective? Statistics from the CDC are showing that at least one part of that statement is not entirely correct.

The bill (which is now law) states that the FDA approved the COVID-19 vaccines. Well yes, under an Emergency Use Authorization. Text in the bill also states that the unvaccinated are more likely to suffer severe COVID-19, but recent information from the CDC appears to suggest that this is changing. There is also a Lancet report that I can’t access, the phenomenon is mentioned in a Washington Post article linked here.

This is not to say it’s completely inverted, but at some point, there has to be acknowledgement that the vaccines are not as effective as they were originally touted to be. Is it misinformation to say that?

The question then becomes can a doctor in California lose their license for reporting to patients truth about current research and trends, if that data conflicts with the actual text ensconced in a law?

I’m amused, because this is a prime example  of why you don’t allow politicians to engage in censorship in general, and the Medical field in particular.

Laws take a while to enact, in this case the law is in error on the day it goes into effect.

I can hardly wait for the first lawsuits from Doctors against the state because the Doctor is keeping up with the current research and runs afoul of the information clearly enumerated in the law.

I found the whole pallet of laws caused a WTF? Moment for me.

Giving someone a ticket for jaywalking is racist?

Say what? Apparently, people who jaywalk are often poor and can’t pay the fine. So jaywalking is now apparently legal. That’s going to work really well when jaywalkers start getting hit by cars. Not to mention the opportunity this presents to folks who want to win “The Ghetto Lottery” by stepping out in front of slow moving vehicles, especially vehicles that look like the driver is rich.

Nurses being allowed to perform abortions?

What could possibly go wrong in that scenario? Hell I get concerned when I’m having to deal with a Nurse Practitioner and honestly except in very rare circumstances I’d rather see a full fledged doctor because of the limitations on Nurse Practitioners. The kicker is that seeing a Nurse Practitioner is just as expensive as seeing a doctor so what’s the fucking point in that?

A 5 second spray of liquid nitrogen on a potential skin cancer spot is one hell of a lot more efficient and cheaper than a four week prescription for some weak assed drug cream that is a pain in the ass to work with or wholly ineffective in the first place. But a Nurse Practitioner isn’t allowed to use the liquid nitrogen because that’s “Surgery”.

An abortion is one hell of a lot more dangerous and invasive than a spritz of liquid nitrogen!

Loitering for the purposes of prostitution is okay.

But prostitution is still illegal? The state legislators just nibbled on the barrel there. Just make prostitution legal and be done with it. It’s gotta be racist, sexist, or some ‘ist’ to prosecute prostitutes. They’re just trying to make a living aren’t they?


I totally understand why people in “flyover states” read about California just for laughs.

I can hardly wait for my brother to call and tease me about living here and asking me why I’m still here.

It’s in good fun, he lives in a state the has some serious fuck ups too, but those fuckups are usually at an individual moronic person level, not the whole dang government.

Do you ever read Police Blotters, or Law Enforcement sites?

I do. I suppose some would say it’s morbid curiosity. Others might infer that I’m “Looking for trouble”.

I don’t look at it that way. I use this information to keep myself informed about the myriad ways that criminals work.

I’ve been interested in carjackings, follow home robberies, and street crime that I’m likely to encounter in cities.

Living near a large metropolitan area like Los Angeles, and knowing that we’re going to have a lot of Winter tourists in the small town I live in from that area, I just want to have a slightly heightened awareness of the possibilities.

After all criminals like to play in the snow too, don’t they? Some criminals might prefer to operate in an area full of visitors taking advantage of the chaos and confusion to steal from the unwary.

Some of the things that have caught my interest are “Bump & Rob”, “Follow Home Robberies”, and the clever ways criminals are inciting altercations as cover for theft.

Screen Shot 2022 11 15 at 4

There’s an article in Law Enforcement Today about a rise in Bump & Rob/Carjack accidents in MN. The article is here It’s interesting. The criminals bump into a victims car, then get out while the victim driver is collecting their wits. In the momentary confusion, the criminals point a gun at the victim and then steal his or her car with all the contents.

There have been similar incidents in Los Angeles. The MN police have gone so far as to issue public warnings. I doubt that Los Angelino’s will see warnings. The LAPD and City council seem to be far more interested in sweeping rising crime under the carpet.

“Follow Home Robberies have been reported in LA and the surrounding communities. Some of the more high profile follow home robberies have involved celebrities and people in wealthier neighborhoods around Los Angeles.

Recently, there was a rather shocking smash and grab in Cucamonga. That one got my attention because it was relatively close to my home. 

Reading about the methods of both, and some of the precursor behavior I feel, makes me a little better equipped to avoid the situation before I become a victim. That’s not a guarantee but at least I’m more aware of shady behaviors that might be leading up to something.

A follow home situation is unlikely given where I live. I doubt criminals will want to follow me to where Jesus lot his other sandal, and given the rural nature of my community, criminals might think twice, assuming that rural people would be well armed and more likely to give them lead poisoning. (Generally True!)

Smash and grab might also be less likely even during the Winter because avenues of escape are few and choked with traffic. Home robberies on the other hand might become more of an issue. It’s not uncommon to see strange vehicles in my neighborhood because of lost people looking for snow play areas or the ski resort. 

In Winter there are so many strange vehicles and people occupying rental properties it’s become difficult to determine who belongs where.

The point I’m making is be aware, keep an eye on your surroundings, and report shady stuff to the police. Depending on where you live, you might have quick response or as in my case, the police are at minimum 15 minutes away. If you know or suspect your’e being followed, don’t go home. Find a police station. In the case of bump & rob, keep your eye on the occupants of the other car until you determine they’re not armed. If you see a weapon and your vehicle is drivable, I’d say  leave. You other choice it to comply (as the MN officer suggested).

I’m gonna leave! I’ll call 911 as I’m exiting and ask where the nearest police station is. Yeah my car is covered by insurance, but lets face it, the insurance company is gonna try to put you in a roughly used gardening truck with what they pay out if your car is totaled.

If I didn’t live in California, I’d be more likely to greet a carjacker with a weapon of my own. Oh, to live in a constitutional carry state!

That’s another story…

This holiday season, keep your head on a swivel and be very careful out there.

Yes, I’ve been a looter

I and several coworkers were in the San Jose Convention Center during the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. We were presenters at a Technology convention.

Lomaprietaquake

After the quake we picked our way through the roof panels, broken machines, and shattered glass.

Once outside we quickly realized that everything was changed. The public transportation system wasn’t running. There was  small rubble in the roads, on the sidewalks, and some of the streets had cracked. In the distance we could hear sirens and see smoke. Later we learned the damage we picked our way through was nothing like the damage in San Francisco and Oakland but it was enough to make walking interesting.

We were all dressed in business attire. The ladies with me were in high heels and dresses. Standing there I realized that we were going to have to walk back to our hotel and connect with the rest of the folks from our company who were not at the convention center or who had left the center via different exits.

I explained my thought about getting back to the hotel to the ladies with me. After waiting a little while to see if there were others from our company wandering in the crowd, we set off on foot toward the hotel.

Picking our way through the loose rubble it became obvious that the ladies high heels were a problem. About a half mile from the convention center we came upon a shoe store. The windows were broken and there was no-one minding the shop. We entered the store and located sneakers in the proper sizes for the ladies. 

At this point we were technically looters. We’d entered a building without permission, we were actively “stealing”.

Both of the ladies left notes stating the SKU number, size, and description of the sneakers they were taking. Those notes also contained their names, and phone numbers, with a promise of payment. The ladies put in their notes, “Thank you!” We slipped the notes into the locked register drawer and left in peace.

Several hours later we arrived at the hotel to find chaos. The phones were down, the power was down, but the bar was open and the hotel was providing a free buffet of cold cut sandwiches. About an hour later, hotel maintenance was able to rig up a generator that powered the bar television and we got our first look at the damage in San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose. Later in the night power was restored to the hotel.

A day or two later, when the airports opened, our company flew us home.

Several weeks later, one of the ladies I was traveling with, got a call at her desk. It was the owner of the shoe store. My coworker called me and our other coworker over, then put the owner on her desk speaker phone. The store owner told both ladies that instead of asking for a check, he wanted to let them know he’d framed the notes and hung them behind the cash register. He’d done this because he couldn’t believe someone would do what we did and it gave him hope. 

We asked if the store had been looted further, he told us that the San Jose Police had locked the area down shortly after we’d been there so all of the local shop owners had suffered only minimal losses.

The lesson I learned is that taking something because you need it, and only taking what you need is very different from ransacking and cleaning out a place because you want a bunch of stuff.

According to the letter of the law we were looters. We could have been arrested and charged. We could have been shot and no-one would have thought anything about it.


Flash forward to this time in our history and I’d no more think of doing what we did than think I could fly. 

Fort myers comp

There’s something different in our country today. I can’t put my finger on it. It’s like there’s an overwhelming greed coupled with entitlement.

Now days looting is synonymous with stealing stupid stuff and stealing everything from a store. I guess looting has always been synonymous with these things. People don’t understand that just because something is “insured” doesn’t mean there’s no price.

I have a very different view of a mother stealing a can of baby formula or a loaf of bread and can of tuna, than I do people raiding a Best Buy. Yeah you stole a 65” flatscreen but it’s not going to do you any good with the power out. The mother on the other hand is obviously feeding her children.

So you cleaned out a Coach store and stole 50 handbags but what good are they?

I was thinking about these things in the wake of hurricane Ian. 

There are reports of looting in some areas of Florida. The problem is people looting a grocery store to feed hungry children are treated the same as the assholes who clean out a Best Buy. Someone taking one pair of sneakers is treated the same as someone taking 50 pairs.

These are not the same thing. In the moment though, police aren’t going to be able to differentiate the person who’s a criminal out of necessity and the asshole criminal who’s in it due to opportunity, and for greed.

I’d bet that most grocers would hand a mother a can of formula, a loaf of bread and can of tuna and not think about it. That’s serving the community. The grocer would probably be happy to pass out one or two items each, to folks who were orderly and asked nicely.

But when a mob of people breaks in after a disaster, taking entire cases of stuff for themselves with no intention to share, that’s morally wrong and speaks to a selfishness and greed that’s detrimental to the community.

For me personally I always thought there was shared moral code all Americans understood. An almost absolute definition of right and wrong. The past few years have made me question that belief.

I find myself asking what has happened to the country I grew up in. What happened to feeling like you could trust the intentions of others and take their stories at face value? When did we forget that lying is wrong?

I used to stop and help stranded motorists, I used to pick up hitchhikers, I used to buy meals for homeless people or folks that were down on their luck. Now I do none of that. It’s not because I don’t care, it’s because I can no longer tell if someone is really in need, or if someone is trying to play me.

When did we lose our way?

A more important question is, “Can we find our way back?”

I know that looting is going to become a problem in the coming days across Florida. I just hope that the police and everyone else is mindful that, some people are taking only what they need to survive or feed their children, and aren’t too quick to judge.