We have been very happy here, and indeed, the issue of Mondo Cult that is up for all those Rondo awards was produced right here on the Monterey Bay (even with all those vampires on the Boardwalk!).

Yesterday, Tuesday, the 27th of February 2013, something terrible happened in our community. Now, all you city dwellers will say big deal—it happens every day here in NYC or Oakland or LA or Chicago—but it doesn’t happen every day in Santa Cruz. And even if it did, it would still be a big deal because lives were lost.

The loss of a life is a big deal.

In this case, the people killed were two plain clothes detectives from the Santa Cruz City PD. We didn’t know them. I have a passing acquaintance with the Chief’s wife and a couple of people on the force, but I didn’t know these people, though I’m pretty sure I’ve met Butch once or twice in the course of business.

This is the first time ANY police officer has been killed in the line of duty in Santa Cruz.

The first time.

And to add to this dismal circumstance, another tragedy has reared its ugly head and it must be addressed by all. That is what I mentioned earlier in this post. I heard today that a person who tends bar here in town commented that he is from Oakland and it happens all the time there. It shouldn’t be treated like such a big deal. People here are making too much of this situation.

It’s a damned shame that the death of the people who are putting themselves in harm’s way on a daily basis has become so commonplace that people like the bartender are immune to the shock of it. Have we, as a culture, become so deadened to the heinous waste of life that we can speak of it in such a cavalier manner? Are we truly that unfeeling that the deliberate taking of a human life is “no big deal”?

Apparently, for some, that flat acceptance of murder has become ordinary. Perhaps—but it has not for me nor for David nor for the majority of the Santa Cruz community.

The shooter, one Jeremy Goulet, has apparently had a checkered history with law enforcement both here and in Oregon. A man with a history of arrests, known for his violent outbursts and before his death in a literal hail of bullets from the Santa Cruz PD, Sheriffs and countless other law enforcement agencies and personnel—he was under investigation for “unwanted sexual advances” toward a co-worker in a coffee shop. Yet with all his background—his own father is quoted as saying that Jeremy was “a ticking time bomb”—he was still walking the streets, spreading his unwanted attentions and when detectives came to his door, he shot them dead and ran.

As my husband would say, another nut with a gun.

I won’t even bother going into the gun control discussions, as it is my belief that it’s not the guns, it’s the nuts that get them that are the problem. Take away all the guns from reasonable people and the bad guys are still gonna get them. Be that as it may…

We extend our condolences to the friends, fellow law enforcement personnel and the families of Sgt. Loren Butch Baker and Detective Elizabeth Butler of the Santa Cruz City Police Department. We know there is absolutely nothing we can say or do to make this better, but we do give a damn. We do care, and we are so very sorry for your loss.

Jessie and David Campbell
Santa Cruz, CA

Among other things, how the hell do you remove Thomas Jefferson as an “example of an influential political philosopher”? The man wrote the Declaration of Independence for crying out loud!

What the hell goes in on the minds of these people?

Please, come in here and discuss this. Do you think I’m over reacting? Do you not think the Barbarians are no longer at the gate, but inside the walls?

Does anybody other than me give a damn about this?

God! Help me.

San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom is turning the streets of his town into parks where people can sit and drink coffee but no one can drive or park. Public transportation is coming to a standstill because of price hikes and pay cuts. All by himself, our Gavin is driving out the poor and making San Francisco a place for only the wealthy. Problem is, if the poor people can’t afford to live there and they can’t afford to travel to or around the city, who’s going to do all those nasty little jobs like scrubbing the floors in the mayor’s house? Mrs. Newsom? Who’s going to clean the toilets in the halls of the fabled San Francisco Stock Exchange? The brokers?

Good thing he dropped out of the governor’s race.

The City of Vallejo went bankrupt in 2008. There’s more violence in their streets now than in the streets of their close neighbor Richmond, CA. There aren’t enough police, firefighters or emergency workers to assist those people still living there.  In Salinas they look to be headed down the same road. There’s a gang war going on in those streets between the Norteños and the Sureños. These gang members shoot at each other with the usual collateral damage taking its toll on innocent bystanders and just to keep things interesting, they shoot at the cops as well.  At this point the city officials seem willing to let people die rather than admit that they can’t handle it and call in the National Guard.

It won’t be long before the gangs figure out how to organize themselves into a controlling force and take over the town. It might happen in Salinas, it might happen in Vallejo, hell! It might happen in Oakland. Get enough of these people together and the only force they won’t be able to stand against will be the US Army.

Armed insurrection?

You betcha!

And there sits Sacramento, arguing over bullshit while the State crumbles around them, warring over gay marriage and how else they can deny the citizens their civil rights. My personal favorite in the news right now is California State Senator Roy Ashburn (R), who was arrested on March 3, 2010 for Driving Under the Influence (DUI). The gentleman has apologized for his behavior. Of course he’s apologized, and yes, he’s sorry. He’s especially sorry that he – a well-known and oft quoted anti Gay Crusader – was arrested after leaving an establishment in Sacramento called Faces, a popular gay bar. Senator Ashburn’s male companion has not been identified. This should prove interesting.

Open carry permits for gun owners are available here in California. The Committees of Vigilance are forming up and down the coast and as usual there are plenty of loud mouths bellowing about how it makes them feel. On one news report, a woman claimed her right to freedom of speech to complain, “I don’t know whether these people are here to have coffee or to shoot everyone in the place!”  Hey! Jackass! If the gun is in plain sight, they’re there to have coffee. All these guns “in plain sight” make the poor dear nervous. Me? I feel safer knowing the citizenry is arming itself against the complete collapse of California’s infrastructure. If I’m going to remain a resident of California’s Central Coast, I can assure you, I’ll be armed as well.

A few months ago I suggested that California would be putting up closed signs at the various State borders.  It’s only gotten worse since I wrote those words. Don’t believe the television ads you see folks. There’s no money, there are no jobs, there is no education and you really don’t want to live here.

California is closed for business.

I understand peoples’ reticence and anger where donations are concerned; relief money sent to Haiti in the past seems to have disappeared into the President’s pocket. It’s not hitting its mark. That didn’t stop me from donating to the Red Cross a couple of days ago. At least where the Red Cross is concerned, if their books are to be believed (yes, I research the books of charities so I can make an informed decision – you can too, it’s the Freedom of Information Act that let’s you do so), 70% or more of every dollar actually goes right into the field with the volunteers. That’s impressive so they get my hard-earned.

The bottom line for me is, though politically I’m staunchly opposed to the regime in Haiti, the people there require assistance and a lot of it. Bless Couric and her staff for telling it like it is, as well as the USA Today people who also have a clear eye to reporting facts and not fiction or maudlin and heart-warming stories. What we require in these situations is fact. I don’t care what celebrities are on board with relief efforts, I don’t care if that idiot evangelist is bellowing about Satan – what I care about is getting money, knowledgeable hands, food, medicine, Marines and clean water to Haiti. If the Red Cross can do that – and they can – then I hope y’all will help them out.

NOTE: To send $10 via text, simply send HAITI to 90999. Carriers participating in the program are Alltel, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless, Virgin Mobile, Cellular South. If you require a receipt for your donation, you can get one here.

It is so plain that the man is in the pocket of the insurance companies as to be silly. If the health care bill as it stands is allowed to pass, then what damudbug posted in response to a forum topic here at Mondo Cult, will be reality, to wit:

Here is the Republicans’ health care reform program:

1)  DON’T GET SICK!!!

2)  DON’T GET SICK!!!

3)  IF YOU DO GET SICK-DIE QUICKLY!!!!!!!!

I didn’t make this up-one of the congressmen used it during a speech several weeks ago.

I have to say, when someone wants me to die, it makes me want to reciprocate……….

Fuck these assholes in the insurance companies!  They would just as soon see millions of folks (literally) DIE from lack of care.  As far as I am concerned, insurance in all its forms should be outlawed.  Rip the sucker down and start from scratch.  There has just got to be a better way…

The bottom line is that all people in this country should be covered by some kind of affordable health care. No one cares what they call it or how they do it, just get it done. Option, subsidy, whatever the hell – just get it done.

And is this folding of the tents on the liberal left reasonable? Is this what we elected to represent us on the Hill? Mr. Obama and his congress are a sore disappointment in this as well as some other things which I go into in the forum, but this health care issue is the absolute limit. I would rather see them table it and come back after Christmas and get the job done right than vote on it now when there is so damned much at stake.

Giving up now is nothing more nor less than giving in and keeping everything as it has been. That is not good enough. This country requires a change and Mr. Obama promised change in his campaign. The slogan “Yes We Can” has become a joke around this house.

Yes We Can what, Mr. President?

• Yes we can go back to business as usual?
• Yes we can let the citizenry of the United States go whistle for health care?
• Yes we can let one man represent the pharmaceutical lobbies in DC and squash any chance of legitimate reform?
• Yes we can continue to ignore the people in favor of lining political and corporate pockets?

Hey! Barry! I’m beginning to wish I’d never given you my vote. Not even a year in office and you and your majority Congress have folded in the face of one greedy, small-minded bullshit artist. I guess I’m not really angry with Joe. He can’t help being an asshole. He was born that way; but the tremendous lack of balls in the Democratic Senate and apparently in the Oval Office as well is more than a disappointment. It’s downright demoralizing.

Thanks a lot guys. If we all make it to the next election (I expect several of us may well be dead by then due to lack of medical attention) and things are as they are today, I can assure you, my vote will be cast elsewhere.

Breaking News: Nelson supports health bill after tough bargaining.

Whorish looking women. For crying out loud! That’s exactly what my mother said about Hammer Films! You know, those classic horror films we all (except for Tom Weaver) know and love? Do you hear yourselves? Not all of you, of course, but man! Some of you are carrying on like these mags are printing the Communist Manifesto and sneaking around trying to get your kids to not only buy them, but join the Party!

Didn’t we go through this with comic books back in the 50s/60s?

Congratulations to all those who find coverage of horror films to be bad for the children. Congratulations to all of you who don’t want your children to read monster mags because they’re too bloody/gory/sexy/nasty in your opinions. Congratulations for desiring censorship for the children. You have effectively become members of the Establishment that we (well, we being a lot of us but not all of us, obviously) fought against in the 60s and 70s. What are you gonna do next? Demand the burning of all the monster mags you don’t like so no one can read them?

Me? Over reacting? No. I don’t think so.

See, this is how it starts. One parent thinks the gore in say, Fangoria, is too much, so they don’t let it in the house. Then they learn that other mothers and fathers have done the same. So they form a group. And then they begin to write to parents they don’t know. And then those parents join the group. And then people with no kids who just don’t like gore flicks get into the group. Pretty soon you have a few hundred, maybe a few thousand people who are calling for the banning of Fangoria, and getting all angry and heated about it and bellowing “What about the children?” Pretty much screwing it up for the majority because they’re voices are louder than those of us who are busy sitting around reading our magazines and letting people live and let live. Well, I’ve never been known for keeping my mouth shut.

What about the children? I’ve printed this before. If you don’t know what to do with them you have no business having them. Teach them you dim wits. Let them learn from you and then as they grow, permit them to make their own choices. If they read a couple of issues of Fango – or whatever – one of two things will happen. They’ll enjoy it, and know it for what it is – a magazine about make believe — or — they won’t find it interesting and move on to something else. Don’t sell your kids short here. They’re no doubt an intelligent and curious lot. Most kids are. Protect them too much and you’ll wind up with a generation of mal-adjusted, socially inept and cringing adults.

Oh, wait! We’re already there, aren’t we.

We have, here in the States, a culture that has produced a generation of obese kids that sit around all day – in the house – playing video games. Again, not all of them by any means, but enough that childhood obesity has reached high enough levels that it’s being called a health crisis. When these kids aren’t playing games, they and their thinner counterparts, interact socially not in person, at parties or dances or hike or in the Scouts (boy or girl) but on Facebook, MySpace, FaceSpace, MyBook – name it. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of places out there. They hang out watching YouTube and think it’s great entertainment. Take these kids out and put them in a restaurant or a park and they don’t know what to do. If they can’t type it, they don’t know how to react. Look someone in the eye? Not a chance.

But again, I digress.

I am appalled to find fellow monster movie fans calling for the banning, wrapping and otherwise destroying of monster magazines because their children might see them. Things have come to a sorry pass, and no mistake. Yep, next thing we hear, someone will be bellowing that Brad Linaweaver is a Republican. Or that Arbogast can’t post on the internet anymore.

That’ll be a dark day.

That’s nice. Maybe we can go from being #42 to hitting the absolute bottom of the barrel and hit the #50 slot.

The U.C. Board of Regents voted today (11/19/09), to increase yearly student costs by 32%. Students from San Diego to Berkeley turned out in record numbers yesterday and today to protest this increase. I’m with them. As of now, it will cost a U.C. student over $10,000 per year, and that’s before room and board and before books!

Between the mess that health care has become and this ridiculous treatment of the students, California has apparently decided that if you’re not wealthy, you should leave the State. They side with the Republicans health care idea that says (in not so many words) that if you get sick, you should die quickly because we don’t care. The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave cares only for the almighty dollar and its citizens can just go to hell.

My God! There’s even a rumor abroad that Harley-Davidson might be sold to a Chinese company.

Does anyone else think this is totally fucked up besides me?

I think we should just put up a bunch of signs at the borders that say, “Welcome to California. Sorry. We’re Closed For Business. Try Arizona.” I wonder what the folks at Big Lizards think about this.

what is a VEGAN? A vegan (pronounced VEE-gun) is someone who, for various reasons, chooses to avoid using or consuming animal products. While vegetarians choose not to use flesh foods, vegans also avoid dairy and eggs, as well as fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or chemical products tested on animals.

why VEGAN? Veganism, the natural extension of vegetarianism, is an integral component of a cruelty-free lifestyle. Living vegan provides numerous benefits to animals’ lives, to the environment, and to our own health–through a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Okay, a worthy attempt and no mistake. So the old man and I are killing some time watching Anthony Bourdain’s wonderful No Reservations.  In this San Francisco episode, he visits Pirate Cat Radio, a studio space combined with a vegan café. Now, our Anthony is a maniac for pork.

1 : the fresh or salted flesh of swine when dressed for food

This from Merriam-Webster online.

So what is our intrepid lad doing in a vegan café for crying out loud? Well, there’s a latte they serve: The Maple Bacon Latte. Bacon. Huh? Oh! Well says DJ Monkey, this is refined bacon. So it’s okay.

Now, I haven’t been able to locate anything regarding refined bacon – other than various blogs about this particular episode and some scientific gobbledy-gook that I honestly can’t fathom – but based on the episode I just watched, your host at the café, DJ Monkey, says it takes approximately 10 pounds of bacon to produce 4 ounces of refind bacon. So okay. He says it’s okay because it isn’t flesh that they’re eating.

But it came from a pig! It’s not okay to eat a strip of bacon but it’s okay to refine 10 pounds of the stuff and call it vegan?! I can’t be the only person who doesn’t buy this crap. Bourdain himself asks quite plainly how they justify this. He really didn’t get any kind of answer, other than that it wasn’t actually flesh.

The look on Bourdain’s face was a study in disbelief, but he left it lie there and that’s okay too. For all I know, he’s blogged it and I missed it.  No doubt I’ll wander along now and see what, if anything, I can find. In the meantime though, I ask for your opinions on this. Is this use of all this pork to flavor a coffee drink against the precepts of Veganism, or am I being too specific in my definition.

Oh, wait! It’s their definition. Whaddayathink?

I love what DJ Monkey is doing with the whole studio/café idea, but I really dislike the iffy use of the term Vegan.

Myself, I’m a meat-eater and apply myself to my cuts of beef, pork, chicken, etc with gusto. I’ve nothing against the Vegans and like of this world and wish them well. I’m all for their desire to protect those who can’t protect themselves through no fault of their own. I do, however, take exception to trading on something noble like that to make a buck.

Hypocrisy?

Yes, I think so.

Do these young men and women who were killed deserve that honor?

Certainly they do.

They were learning, living and working at the largest military installation in the world and readying themselves to protect this nation in which I live. The soul of a warrior. A difficult thing to comprehend at times, how some will run in where, if you will, angels fear to tread. I’m all for them. God knows, if y’all expected me to pick up a gun and stand a watch, I don’t know that I’d have the stones to do it! So leave us also not have any question as to whether I support the men and women of the US Armed Forces. I do.

I support all of them.

If you’re going to fly the flag at half staff, then just fucking leave it there. Since before this nation was recognized as a country by Europe and the rest, we’ve been at war. Very rarely have we not had sons and daughters deployed ’round the world battling it out with somebody or other.

Where’s their lowered flag?

Everyone and his brother drags a teddy bear to the scene of a car crash. The US highways fairly glow with votive candles left at the scene of a wreck. Neighborhoods are awash in curbside memorials regarding the latest innocent bystander being shot to death at the hands of some jackass who thinks it’s cool the be in a gang.

If US citizens are so bloody concerned about remembering people who died untimely, then do it across the board. This country should be in a perpetual state of mourning for all the kids who’ve been killed in defense of this nation.

Fly it at half mast, but as I mentioned before – fly it there all the time.

In the last few decades I’ve watched the United States become a nation of uneducated know-it-alls whose feelings must be considered; at the expense of everyone else’s feelings I would point out. I would also note that the so-called Me Generation is growing in leaps and bounds. Pundits claim that came and went in the 1980 s. I heartily and loudly disagree.  Here in the 21st century, the sense of entitlement shared by so many undeserving individuals is a weeping sore on the ass of the Earth. But I digress.

Let’s get the flag up top again right away, or declare that Old Glory will remain at half staff until the crack of doom – or until peace actually settles on the land. I don’t think that will ever happen though. At least, not until the humans are all gone from the face of the planet.

What is WAMM? In short, WAMM (Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana) is a group that was started by  Michael and Valerie Leveroni Corral here in Santa Cruz, CA. These people do good works. They are a letter-of-the-law medical cannabis cooperative who grow their own and hand it out to their members. It’s the old joke about graveyards, people are just dying to get in; it’s no joke at WAMM. All members of WAMM either have a terminal or chronic illness whose symptoms are relieved by the use of cannabis. Do people pay for the smoke? No. People donate cash as they can and those who can’t get it for free. Usually those who can’t donate cash easily do something else for the co-op; bake muffins or cookies, volunteer in the office, help out in any way they can. Those who are too ill to do either simply get the medicine for free. Only members may receive the weekly ration and the weekly meetings are strictly monitored. If you don’t have your current ID with you, you don’t get into the meeting and you don’t pick up your weekly scrip.

Sept. 17th, WAMM patient, Robert Anton Wilson, picks up his weekly supply of Medical Marijuana in front of Santa Cruz City Hall and millions of people around the world. (Photo and caption from the WAMM website.)

It’s a phenomenal organization that has helped so many people in so many ways, including my husband. I stand tall and bellow loudly about how wonderful this collective is. Later on I will direct you to a film that was made discussing the day the Feds raided the WAMM garden and totally destroyed the crop, resulting in no medicine for the members for quite some time. I wasn’t involved with the organization then and don’t know how they got through it, but they did and every year around that time, WAMM puts on a festival in San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz, in an effort to give something back to the community that helped them through such a rough time. With the advent of smoking bans all over the place (smokers of any kind are second class citizens and have no rights – I know this because I smoke cigarettes), it has become necessary for WAMM to request an exception for legal medical marijuana patiens to be able to smoke in a designated area in the park for those 5 hours a year when WAMMfest occurs.

So much for the history lesson.

Following is a small sampling of the comments left at the Sentinel‘s forum regarding this situation.

Why don’t Mike and Valerie just invite all these people to their marijuana garden and sit around there and smoke themselves to death? We don’t need them doing so in town in violation of the law polluting the air for those who don’t want to inhale their second-hand smoke.

NO! No! No! No!
These people already feel they are above any law and have gotten away with breaking the law under the guise of “medical marijuana” which is a joke for about 95% of those who claim some medicinal value. You can’t tell me these people all need to sit around and self-medicate (or self-intoxicate is more like it) at the same time. Do people taking any other real prescription medication gather all at once to pop their pills? A smoking ban is a smoking ban……..PERIOD

And then there was… Cite one study showing smoking marijuana DOES NOT affect ones lungs or other organs. You can’t. Inhaling anything like cigarette smoke, and certainly marijuana smoke, has a detrimental affect on ones health. There probably has not been a study because anyone with common sense can figure that out without spending mill[i]ons of dollars.

You get the idea. And, in fact, a particular study was cited but this brainiac didn’t seem to be able to read any of the words. In fact, they kept on bellowing about second hand smoke when this government’s own study proved that:

The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer.

The new findings “were against our expectations,” said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years.

“We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,” he said. “What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.”

This from The Washington Post, Friday, May 25, 2006 as reported by Post staff writer Marc Kaufmann. The full story can be read here. This study was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.

I attempted to persuade these folks that if nothing else, they should consider it from the patients’ view point. I was ignored. Well, not completely ignored. I endured quite a bit of jeering after posting this:

I am the wife of a cancer patient who has chosen to use medical marijuana to help him through it. His doctors all agree that it’s a much better way to fight the reactions one gets from radiation et. al., and so it’s the only medication he is on other than said radiation. He has gained weight while undergoing treatment, if you can believe it, and is nearing the end of the doctors’ visits. Without the cannabis, it would have been an entirely different story.

For the record, I am 100% in sympathy with WAMM and feel they should be allowed to have their festival, with their two smoking tents, and any other things they wish to bring in there, without people who are uneducated and blind to change telling them what they may and may not do.

Santa Cruz has always been a place where people work and live together in harmony. It’s one of the reasons my husband and I moved here. Since living here however, we have found so many people, like several of you posting on this board, who feel that the rest of us must take a back seat to their morally unjust stances.

Just jeering mind you. No actual, substantial argument was presented to show how wrong I was. But I digress.

So, why are so many people who post on the Sentinel’s forum ignoring this information? It’s been around for more that 3 years. More and more States in this union are approving the use of medical cannabis. In fact, there are 13 States now. They are: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. 13 States. You know, this country was founded with 13 Colonies and based on the premise “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” Must I cite our Declaration of Independence for you? Perhaps for some of you not schooled in the States these words don’t bang inside your brains and so I will note that, that line is from paragraph number two of the Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America, adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776. Just in case you want to refresh your memories or even read it for the first time, you can do so here.

That document means quite a lot to me and I try, daily, to live my life based on these concepts put forth by our founding fathers. It would seem that others in this country do not. I think that’s a shame.

Some of us were in there swinging for the lifting of the ban. The bottom line on all this is that the ban was not lifted this year, but not because of the uneducated. The fact is, it never got on the agenda. While the request was made, apparently one must also request that the item be added to the agenda so it can be discussed. Just asking for an exception isn’t enough anymore. Now you have to ask for it and also ask that they talk about it!

At any rate, that’s why I don’t buy that newspaper. I can not abide the thought that I share anything with people who identify themselves as their moods strike them, as opposed to being strong enough to stand up, say, “Hi. My name is Jessie and I think you lot posting on the forums are a crowd of uneducated, malicious, narrow-minded cowards.” See, I use my name when I post. I don’t hide behind a pseudonym like, “The cow says mooooo….” Really. Some numb-nuts has that as their screen name on the Sentinel forum. Can you stand it?

Whether you agree with me or not is not the issue. Whether you’re willing to educate yourselves and put forth a valid and sensible argument is. And when I say sensible, I don’t mean running around and bellowing, “What about the children?” What about them?! If you don’t know what to do with them, don’t have them!

Jessie Lilley
Editor-In-Chief
Mondo Cult

(Click on the following link to see the movie mentioned earlier: The Cry Movie)