Category: Opinion

String is his thing Editor: With so much frightening news recently making me feel a bit off, I’ve moved into bringing new games for the young cat we’ve raised from a rescue infant to his present 10-month-old intrepid self. His name is “Buddy.” His desire to play games demonstrated itself at age two months when he learned to fetch a ball of crumpled paper, returning my throw with the ball in his mouth for me to toss again. Most cat owners know the power of a laser pointer in providing a moving target for their cat to pursue and attack. Our previous cat Sam became so addicted to the red dot that he would loudly beg for it to come out in the morning. I gradually withdrew the red dot at my wife Debby’s urging because she wanted a calmer kitty in the morning. Well, Buddy’s thing is string. I use a short length of frayed braided cord tied to the tip of a toy fishing rod that I manipulate around, up and down. Buddy never tires of chasing the string, sometimes leaping a few feet into the air in his pursuits. However like other addictions, I yearned for more than the string offered me. I’d get bored far sooner than Buddy, so I’ve recently returned to the laser pointer. I do this after Debby goes out for her morning run to prep for her...

Letter on Ballona Wetlands Editor: Contrary to Ballona bulldozer defender and pseudo-restoration expert David Kay’s fiction fest in the October 7 Argonaut, most of the California taxpayers’ Ballona Wetlands is not buried in “unproductive weed-infested fill dirt” thus necessitating killing all the wildlife for 10 years, cutting off public access and bulldozing virtually the entire site for 10 years and spending virtually all of $200 million for a solution in search of a problem. According to a report safeguarded by a local environmental library and accessible on the internet, 150 acres out of the state-owned 600-acre preserve is covered by clean marina mud. The land the state wants to spend the bulk of $200 million defiling is not damaged nor degraded at all, contrary to the state’s year 2011 locked-door archeo-geology report. In fact, this undisturbed land was not filled in because it was an island surrounded by lower lying wetland soil. Why the details are kept secret, you may ask, when their conclusion is that all the Tongva cultural sites are junk? Because the methodology and basis for these cock-eyed conclusions is being challenged in court by several environmental groups! In fact, the archeo-geology reports written by the prior landowner 30 years ago concluded that the 82 acres of land sought for the bulk of the bulldozing “appeared relatively undisturbed.” So Mr. Kay wants to use $200 million of...

Response to Walter Lamb’s letter Editor: Regarding Mr. Walter Lamb’s responses to my letter in the 10/7/21 Argonaut, here are my rebuttals, respectfully: 1. In my letter I never named Mr. Lamb’s organization, the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust, nor stated they are guilty of fiscal malfeasance (his words, not mine). Perhaps Mr. Lamb and his litigating allies would care to report to Argonaut readers the general amounts and categories of income for their organizations in year 2020, as well as the general categories of expenditures in that same year (overhead, labor, contract, and legal). What percentage of their income in any year was spent procuring expert scientific testimony and what “educational programs” of theirs do public schools partner with? Why is Mr. Lamb’s organization “Not Rated” by CharityNavigator.org, while Friends of Ballona Wetlands rates 100 out of 100? 2. Mr. Lamb asserts his organization has “successfully” sued developers of various nasty projects with positive results, but I beg to differ. His organization sued to stop Playa Vista, but whatever one thinks of it, PV was built. His organization joined litigation to stop the Ballona Freshwater Marsh at the Lincoln/Jefferson intersection, but it, too, was built and remains one of the premier birdwatching locations in Los Angeles. He spoke against and his allies sued to stop the state’s Malibu Lagoon Restoration, which also proceeded and has proven wildly successful in both...

Re: Cut down on letters, please Editor: No, no, no! Guy Shulman, I find letters usually have material every bit as interesting as articles! Please continue publishing them! Lisa Edmondson Los Angeles The scariest part of Halloween is the dairy industry Editor: Little scares me about Halloween or trick-or-treating. Ghosts, zombies, skeletons and witches have nothing on all the milk ingredients in candy and the frightening truth about the dairy industry. This is the industry that has spent billions convincing humans that drinking the milk of another species is okay. This is the industry that feeds millions of dairy cows in favor of feeding starving humans. This is the industry that creates pastures for dairy cows, which accounts for a substantial reduction of forestland and other wildlife habitats. Add to this that the digestive system of cows discharges large amounts of methane, and their waste discharges nitrous oxide, both contributors to global warming. This is the industry that perpetually impregnates cows in order to keep them lactating to produce milk meant for their offspring and then kills them off after they are “spent.” The dairy industry is more frightening than any Halloween nightmare. But we’re lucky. Our local supermarkets offer a selection of plant-based milks, cheeses and ice creams, as well as a colorful display of fresh fruits and veggies. And the dairy industry reporting slumping sales is just the treat we...