December 2006
Monthly Archive
Thu 28 Dec 2006
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Stephanie Kirchgaessner in New York with the Financial Times reports that Polar bears should be classified as a threatened species because global warming could cause their habitat to melt away, the Bush administration said on Wednesday.
The iconic arctic animals were being threatened by receding ice, said Dirk Kempthorne, secretary of the Interior Department, who stopped short of calling for an investigation into the causes of climate change, saying the issue was beyond his department’s remit.
Read the entire story here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f673569a-95ff-11db-9976-0000779e2340.html
Wed 27 Dec 2006
A number of months ago, the City of Santa Clarita initiated a two tier park fee system at some of the City’s parks to penalize those in the un-incorporated areas around the City. Some that live in the City and even other states seem to feel that this is just because the residents of the un-incorporated areas do not “pay taxes to Santa Clarita”.
In a recent column that Darryl Manzer wrote for the local fish wrap, he chastises some of us who live outside the City of Santa Clarita for complaining about the City. He writes that; “if they don’t live inside the city of Santa Clarita, don’t pay taxes to Santa Clarita, don’t want to talk reasonable about annexation to Santa Clarita, then they should just stop complaining about Santa Clarita”.
I completely disagree with Manzer and other individuals who think this way for the mere fact that residents in the un-incorporated areas are contributing tens of millions of dollars in sales tax revenue to the coffers of the City. This is one reason why a complete economic impact study needs to be done on the contribution that, at least, the West Ranch communities have been making to the City annually.
What would the City managers think if everyone in the un-incorporated areas just stopped shopping within the City of Santa Clarita? Or better yet, what if there was an effort to not buy new cars and other big ticket items in the City? That type of action would have a devastating impact on the City.
So, for anyone to say that the residents just outside the City don’t have a right to speak out about various issues that impacts them is just plain ridiculous. Especially coming from a guy like Manzer who lives in the Tidewater area of Virginia! It is becoming increasingly clear that Mr. Manzer is a mouthpiece for other interests in the City that don’t have the guts to speak for themselves.
I also need to take offense with Darryl’s assertion that some us “don’t want to talk reasonable about annexation”. This is simply not true; the West Ranch Town Council had started a series of meetings with the City regarding annexation two years ago. It was the City that did not want to follow through on scheduling continued discussions. Annexation is a complex topic that can not be taken lightly and will require intelligent dialogue.
Unfortunately, it appears that Mr. Manzer is in the same camp as Councilman Frank Ferry in that he believes that residents in the un-incorporated areas around the City should just jump blindly into annexing in to the City. That seems to be what he means by “talk reasonably about annexation”.
Although I don’t agree with Darryl’s recent column, I do have to thank him for his recent piece that my friend and neighbor passed onto me. It highlighted the fact that before any new annexation discussions were to start up again we will absolutely need to have an economic impact study done on exactly what financial contribution the residents of the un-incorporated areas are already making to the City of Santa Clarita. This type of economic information should have an important bearing on any annexation discussions. That was no lump of coal for us living outside the City or for us bloggers; it was a present, thanks Darryl!
Dave Bossert
Commentary
Tue 26 Dec 2006
It was very disappointing for Chuck O’Connell, the West Ranch Town Council Sunset Point Liaison, to discover graffiti prominently displayed on the 2 roll up back doors of the vacant Good Guys building. The back doors face the northbound traffic on the heavily traveled The Old Road at Pico Canyon Rd in West Ranch.
It was the Town Councils understanding that Comp USA was to take appropriate action, as good corporate citizens, to prevent this from happening again. The question posed to the County was; how quickly could this graffiti be removed because the Christmas holidays are upon us?
The County Department of Public Works (DPW) responded a short time later with a “All taken care of” message via email. Mark Caddick with the County was able to expedite the graffiti removal in time for the Holiday weekend thanks to the quick notification from Mr. O’Connell.
Tue 26 Dec 2006
Alex Dobuzinskis, staff writer for the Daily News reports that moving her insurance moving to Santa Clarita, company to Santa Clarita was both good and bad for JoAnne Lindsey. It was 1989, and to the black businesswoman, the city seemed overwhelmingly white. She felt welcome in the city, and her business thrived, but she missed being with other black Americans.
Now, with more black people things are changing. Lindsey recently joined a newly formed group: the Black Business Committee. Read it all here: http://www.dailynews.com/santaclarita/ci_4900292
Mon 25 Dec 2006
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In the coming year, we are looking forward to the continued growth of the West Ranch Beacon. The news, the commentary and the service it is providing residents of the West Ranch communities and the Santa Clarita Valley has been unparalleled. The response across Santa Clarita has been truly amazing!
One of our main goals for this on-line “newspaper” is to have it evolve and be shaped by you; our readers. Your input and comments over this past year have been very much appreciated, please keep them coming. We will, in turn, continue to improve and grow the content of our electronic journal.
To all of our loyal readers and those that are just discovering the Beacon, we wish you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Best Wishes,
West Ranch Beacon Staff
Mon 25 Dec 2006
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Eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York’s Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history’s most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
DEAR EDITOR:
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, ‘If you see it in THE SUN it’s so. Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
VIRGINIA O’HANLON.
115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET.
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! How dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.
Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.
You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest man that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. No Santa Claus! Thank GOD! He lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Sun 24 Dec 2006
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Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
~Robert Frost (1923)
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Sun 24 Dec 2006
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I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.
~Charles Dickens
Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful. ~Norman Vincent Peale
Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart. ~Washington Irving
In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank. People passing each other on the street would say ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’
~Dave Barry, “Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide”
And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. ~Dr. Seuss
Sun 24 Dec 2006
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No one really knows. What is known is that Christian leaders in 336 C.E. set the date to December 25 in an attempt to eclipse a popular pagan holiday in Rome that celebrated Natalis Solis Invincti, or “Birthday of the Invincible Sun God,” on the winter solstice. One mid-fourth century church theologian later wrote “We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made it” [ref].
Originally, the celebration of Christmas involved a simple mass, but over time Christmas has replaced a number of other holidays in many other countries, and a large number of traditions have been absorbed into the celebration in the process.
Sat 23 Dec 2006
On Thursday night December 21st the Stevenson Ranch Community Menorah was toppled over and stomped on by vandals. Half of the Menorahs candle bulbs were broken as well as bulbs that light up the Menorah base.
The Menorah was put back together with new bulbs and re-erected on the lawn at Holmes Place and Stevenson Ranch Parkway by a community volunteer before sundown. Friday night marked the last night of Chanukah in which Jews worldwide celebrate the Festival of Lights.
Apparently sometime after 10:00 PM on Friday night the vandals struck again. This time they seriously damaged the Menorah by bending, twisting the metal portion of the display. Once again a community volunteer, with the aid of Sheriff Deputies, was able to bend the Menorah back into shape.
Both incidents of vandalism were reported to the Sheriff’s department and two separate reports were taken. According Deputies who responded on Saturday morning after the second attack, the report was being elevated to possible Hate Crime status. The case will be turned over to Detectives for follow up.
Sat 23 Dec 2006
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The Financial Times Eoin Callan reports from Washington that US consumer spending was buoyant going into the holiday shopping season as price pressures eased and fresh data showed Americans continuing to reach for their wallets.
Core inflation was flat for the first time in four years, while consumer spending accelerated with a rise of 0.5 per cent last month following an increase of 0.2 per cent in October, according to government figures on personal income and expenditure.
Read the full story here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/de8afd94-91c7-11db-a945-0000779e2340.html
Sat 23 Dec 2006
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According to a very old tradition, the original Saint Nicholas (Santa Claus) left his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries. The girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry.
There was a kindly nobleman whose wife had died of an illness leaving the nobleman and his three daughters in despair. After losing all his money in useless and bad inventions the family had to move into a peasant’s cottage, where the daughters did their own cooking, sewing and cleaning. When it came time for the daughters to marry, the father became even more depressed as his daughters could not marry without dowries, money and property given to the new husband’s family. One night after the daughters had washed out their clothing they hung their stockings over the fireplace to dry. That night Saint Nicholas, knowing the despair of the father, stopped by the nobleman’s house. Looking in the window Saint Nicholas saw that the family had gone to bed. He also noticed the daughter’s stockings. Inspiration struck Saint Nicholas and he took three small bags of gold from his pouch and threw them one by one down the chimney and they landed in the stockings. The next morning when the daughters awoke they found their stockings contained enough gold for them to get married. The nobleman was able to see his three daughters marry and he lived a long and happy life.
Children all over the world continue the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings. In some countries children have similar customs; in France the children place their shoes by the fireplace, a tradition dating back to when children wore wooden peasant shoes. In Holland the children fill their shoes with hay and a carrot for the horse of Sintirklass. In Hungary children shine their shoes before putting them near the door or a window sill. Italian children leave their shoes out the night before Epiphany, January 5, for La Befana the good witch. And in Puerto Rico children put greens and flowers in small boxes and place them under their beds for the camels of the Three Kings. Up until lately, it was traditional to receive small items like fruit, nuts and candy in your stocking, but these have been replaced in the last half-century by more expensive gifts in many homes.
The tradition of a lump of coal in the stockings of naughty children comes from Italy.
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