SOUND OFF
| Saturday, Jul 11 2009 08:54 PM
Last Updated Saturday, Jul 11 2009 08:54 PM
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Editor Mike Jenner and The Californian staff welcome your comments and suggestions. To offer your input by phone, please call 395-7649 and leave your comments in a voice-mail message or write to soundoff@bakersfield.com. Please be sure to include your phone number so we can call you if we need more information.
Reader: The headline of Friday's Californian read:
POLITICALLY
INCONSISTENT
Conservative county gets more services than it pays in taxes
This again serves to illustrate that this socialist newspaper is biased toward the socialist system, conversely, works, through subliminal articles like this, to influence people into falsely believing that the capitalist free enterprise system is bad, and critical of those that work and pay taxes for those that are not only here illegally, but also least deserving of America's amenities, so defined by your own headline above.
The definition of a liberal (socialist) is that they want to have their cake and eat it too!
For those utopian, slow-learner, unable to think for yourself, easily swayed by anything you hear negative about America, type minorities, and who want a free ride, want it "both ways."
You can't be both critical of conservatives who pay taxes, and not be critical of illegal aliens that pay no taxes! Both groups enjoy the same amenities! I and about 200 million other American citizens would like you to run an article in The Californian with the following headline:
POLITICALLY
INCONSISTENT
Illegal aliens get more services than they pay in taxes
This is again why your newspaper is shrinking in circulation. Begin printing news that encourages readership to appreciate America and encourage society to work to preserve the American way of life, and your advertising will return, and readership will increase, and you will make more money. Maybe you don't want to make more money. Oh, I understand, you then know you'll be taxed more, and you don't want that. You see how socialism works? It discourages everyone from working hard and succeeding, for they know that they will be punished (taxed) more heavily.
-- Ken Baird
Jenner: Whoa.
The story that enraged you was about Modoc County, which gets more in state services than it pays in taxes.
The story pointed out the irony that the county is politically conservative and most residents are ideologically opposed to state dependence or support. A sidebar showed the same phenomenon is taking place with Kern, which also tends to vote conservatively.
The story was not critical of conservatives or of people who pay taxes.
Beyond that, how does this story lead you to believe The Californian is a socialist newspaper opposed to free enterprise or capitalism? And we don't appreciate America?
Here's the deal: We publish stories about issues because we think our readers might want to know about them. Period. There's no subliminal plot to overthrow the government. And reporting on a problem or an issue doesn't mean we're endorsing the problem or the issue.
As for the cost of illegal immigrants, we've tried to assess this in the past, and there's an excellent Los Angeles Times story on this very topic on Page A4.
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Reader: Thank you for printing the whole page of The Declaration of Independence in the July 4 paper. I was inspired, after reading it again, how much I had missed all these years of the many, many reasons why America had to declare independence from England.
And with our current president, I don't think he is helping our country in any way.
-- E. Robinson
Jenner: Thanks for reading it, and for writing. I believe it should be required reading for every American.
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The last two winners of Eye Cook, The Californian's annual celebration of amateur chefs, wrote in response to a Sound Off letter last week accusing the contest of being biased toward expensive, gourmet food.
2008 Eye Cook champ and 2009 judge Emily Falke: As a former Eye Cook winner and judge, I want to thank Jennifer Self and her staff, who have done a terrific job of launching a sophisticated cooking contest in Bakersfield, a city that often suffers from and is ridiculed for its lack of culture and style.
I don't agree that exotic and savory dishes such as this year's winning gnocchi in a mushroom and truffle sauce caters to the upper middle class.
Actually, aside from some of the mushrooms, it is a peasant dish made from flour and potatoes. Recession or not, we can still cook and savor original and specialized dishes, and what may appear to cost a lot is not necessarily the case, what with the abundance of Internet discounts and specialty markets.
In this year's top three main dishes there was pork butt in a pita, which was rustic, simple and savory. Against that was an elegant Kobe beef filet, laid on a bed of coleslaw often associated with picnic food.
Both came in second to the gnocchi. All three chefs were inventive and mixed high- and low-cost ingredients.
This was also the case in the appetizer category, where a basic nacho went Asian when topped with gourmet Ahi tuna.
These are the signs of new and inventive chefs and is what Eye Cook is looking for. Expense is not a criteria or part of the rules.
The event is also free to the public and highly participatory, offering live cooking and an abundance of food to visitors. It is well-attended by people from all backgrounds who rejoice in good food.
2009 Eye Cook champion Beth Ramone writes:
Can't we all just get along ... in the kitchen? Is Bakersfield a town whose taste in food doesn't reach farther than meatloaf and country-fried steak (as yummy and comforting as those dishes are)?
I have so many friends whose sharing of their heritage and ethnic diversities in food have allowed me to expand my own food knowledge and make me strive to try new things in cooking.
As far as the cost of my recipe -- all items purchased for this dish (outside of the mushrooms) were bought at Fresh & Easy. Super inexpensive. As for the mushrooms, as I stated in the recipe, you can use any varieties you like -- all button or crimini would be quite tasty. And most of the wild ones are available at Vons in fresh or dried form at a low cost.
Truffle oil is available locally, is pretty inexpensive and a little goes a long way. My one splurge was a black summer truffle for $15 and so far I have made: truffle salt blends as gifts to friends, grated it in several dishes for an amazing earthy taste, used it twice for the competition and still have almost half left. The cost of my gnocchi dish and the per-plate-cost range is $2.50 to $4 if used as a main dish.
I bet a fabulous meatloaf will cost that or more!
How we look at food and who we are feeding should be based on the love of making something for our family and friends that we're proud to serve. That will always mean I'll be looking for the best quality ingredients no matter what I'm cooking, and those are often found in my own backyard.
Yes, Doris, I, too, have a garden.
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Reader: On July 8, there were 132 dog ads listed in The Californian classifieds. When will The Californian take a stand and stop taking these breeders' ads? If you were truly interested in "helping" with our huge problem of finding homes for unwanted companion animals, then you would step up and take a stand against breeders.
What is a breeder anyway? Isn't this just a more politically correct name for puppy mill?
I have tried to educate people about the practices of these people but someone always seems to "know someone who breeds dogs and they would never treat them in a bad way." Let me say this: Companion animals are not products. Trafficking in live animals is wrong. It's as wrong as trafficking in humans.
What happens to the animals they can't sell? Do they just keep them? No, they do not.
They either dump them on the animal shelter or they destroy them themselves.
If The Californian won't take a stand, after all, they are paid to run these ads, then we need to rise up as a community and run these people out of our town or make laws to stop them.
You cannot just attack this problem in one area and expect to accomplish anything. We talk and talk and wring our hands, yet when it comes down to it, we really don't care about the senseless killing of 20,000 companion animals each year in this county.
When you have several hundred perfectly good animals languishing in your animal shelter, yet you continue to allow people to breed more animals, there is something terribly wrong.
-- Penny Byrd
Jenner: I agree with you that there are far too many animals born in this community. But I don't agree with your blanket condemnation of every dog breeder.
As I've said here in the past, we're at a loss to see how we can detect "overbreeding" and differentiate fairly the responsible breeders from those who are not.
And I would argue The Californian has not only "taken a stand" on our animal overpopulation problem, but has been a leader in exposing the problems -- and in seeking solutions.
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Reader: I'm very upset about the Roger Simon column you put in Thursday's paper about Sarah Palin. This isn't a political opinion. This is a gutter mouth insulting a decent woman. I can't believe The Californian has stooped to putting this kind of garbage in their paper. Thank you.
-- Terry Gunderson
Jenner: Roger Simon, the chief political columnist for Politico.com, wrote in his Thursday column that Palin "sinned" by violating two "political commandments:" Thou shalt not surprise the media and thou shalt not upset the pooh-bahs.
Simon relied on satire in writing the column. He said some harsh things about the media, about the party elites, and yes, about Palin.
I'm sure you weren't the only person who found it objectionable. I'm sorry you were offended by it -- but I thought his comments were within the bounds of fair political comment.
