Sacramento Press, you rock. THANK YOU for having the GUTS to stand up to hate  today when you rolled out a first-of-its-kind zero tolerance anti-abuse policy and christened it by banning one of the region’s worst offenders.

Geoff Samek (the Sac Press employee and community leader responsible for implementing the new policy) I would love to buy you lunch. Name the time and place and I’m there.

Please visit Sacramento Press and express your approval of their historic legislation.

My response to the article:

Wow major kudos to Sac Press! What great news for the city, too. FINALLY neighbors now have at least one media site to respectfully express their opinions without fear of being assaulted. I understand Sac Bee will soon be doing the same. This is a major victory for the region and I for one am very thankful.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT attacking Bbbmer. I have no interest in that and never have. Heck I have tried to meet him in person and buy him coffee! This is an attack on his BEHAVIOR and the behavior of anyone who injects ad hominem character assassination into public debate.

Sorry but anyone who is a champion of civility does not condone or enable the behavior of ANY individual who routinely slanders and belittles people for their religion, their weight, their appearance, their intelligence quotient, their writing style, their word choice, their mental health, their ethnicity, and a litany of other completely OFF TOPIC and OFFENSIVE things that contribute absolute NOTHING to the common good. Sorry but you will NEVER convince me otherwise so don’t even waste your time attempting to.

Such behavior does not promote progress, it blocks it. ANY individual who routinely sabotages discussion threads on the info superhighway with vitriolic hate speeches and personal attacks are like Macaulay Caulkin’s character in The Good Son. That is, they stand on the overpass and drop objects onto the freeway that hit oncoming cars. Drivers are blinded. Cars spin out of control and smash into each other. People get hurt. The authorities (moderators) spend countless hours and money cleaning up the mess. And the positive flow of traffic is stopped, leaving other travelers backed up for miles waiting for the mess to get cleaned up. That is not progress. That is PAIN. And that is precisely what those who routinely assail others represent for scores of people .

How anyone cannot understand the need to ban disruptive people is beyond me. Are these people new to group discussion? Are they incapable of empathizing? Perhaps they are the same people who wouldn’t attend a neighborhood crime prevention meeting simply because “the criminals don’t bother me.” In my opinion these people are not part of the solution either.

To address some points made …

“It smacks of censorship, scapegoating, cowardice, and caving to your advertisers and pols”

First, shouldn’t we reserve words like “cowardice” for anonymous posters who engage in character assassination? We don’t tolerate uncivil, unsavory, and hate-fueled behavior in physical forums and we should not tolerate it in virtual ones either. Time to clean up the internet and make it safe for people to share their views without fear of attacks. Period.

” especially given the post election timing, political opposition to this users views, and the strong viewpoints expressed and the invective aimed at this particular user, especially after your softball interview with the mayor. Period. ”

Oh come on. MANY people agree with this person;s views. You are making him out to be a victim–which I have to tell you is so psychologically perverse it’s hard to process. If anything he is the suspect not the victim. He is the one assaulting people, not the other way around.

“What is the victim here supposed to do, but fight back, which he seems to have done very, if not too, effectively. ”

VICTIM? Have you ever even read what he has written? Have you no empathy for the people he has assaulted for no other reason but because they have views opposed to his own? Defend himself? Against what? All people have tried to do is make friends with him! No one wants to be enemies with this guy. I have seen countless people try to make peace with him only to be assaulted again for attempting to. I don’t know what game you are watching dshorenstein?

“No, this seems like something more than is discussed here, and I’m highly suspicious of your motives.”

Then you haven’t read the things this person has posted here and on SacBee…

In any event. I have nothing but respect for Geoff . It takes a LOT of courage to “come out” and stand behind your words and actions with your real name. More and more I agree with the Bee’s Melanie Sill (senior VP) who will not correspond with anonymous users. Melanie has an acute understanding of how anonymity has degraded the quality of discussion on the internet, and thankfully so does Sac Press.

To all those who post anonymously, consider “coming out.” You’ll be happy you did, and you will be contributing to the solution and not the problem.

I am really looking forward to discussing the issues here with all of you.. in peace. It will be so nice to disagree with one another without the hate mucking up our collective growth. Sac Bee, please follow Sac Press’s lead.

Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

[Ray sits in Starbucks with his staffers discussing the upcoming election and reviewing various press releases]

Ray [pointing to screen print of a blog on the table in front of him]: What’s this business by this Cosmos feller from News and Review saying someone bought my name? Who are these people? How is this possible?

Staffer2: Yes sir, in a nutshell someone appears to have bought your  name on the web.

Staffer [impatient]: Uhh bought your DOMAIN name sir, not your actual name of course.

Ray: Are you two telling me I have been the victim of identity theft?

Staffer2: Technically yes.

Staffer: Technically NO.

Ray [exasperated]: Yes or no!!?

Staff [glaring at staffer2]: NO!

Ray: That’s it get the chief of police on the phone right this instant.

[Staffer2 dials and hands the phone to Ray.. Staffer glares at his colleague]

Ray: Yellow…. who is this? Oh hi Chief it’s Ray… hey listen I have a code red emergency and I’m going to need you to send a few units–maybe even SWAT– out to Natomas.

Chief: What in the world are you talking about?!

Ray: Someone. People. They stole my good name. It’s all over the news.

Chief: What news? I haven’t seen anything.

Ray: The uhh…  [looks at screen print again] the NEWS..  all the newspapers.. I’m looking at a headline about it RIGHT NOW by the Cosmos feller.

Chief: What do you mean they stole your good name? They pulled YOUR campaign signs now too?

Ray: No no no. They literally went and bought my name on the black market on the internet… probably for thousands of dollars for all I know.. and the SPOA may even been in on it too.

Chief: Yeah maybe the pipefitters too, huh?

Ray: Listen, no offense, but I don’t speak your cop language. Here, talk to my staffer [shoves phone at Staffer]

Staffer: Uh hi Chief well apparently someone bought the raytretheway.com on the internet and Mr. T is hot about it.

Chief: WOW!! That’s amazing!!

Staffer: What, that they bought raytretheway.com?

Chief: No that it was available to begin with!

Staffer: Yeah well…

Chief: What did they put on the site?

Staffer: It’s an empty, blank, white slate with absolutely no substance whatsoever.

Chief: Ironic.

Staffer: Not funny.

Chief: How about this, tell your boss I will send Mayor Johnson’s security detail over. I think they are out on lunch right now. Keep your eye out for a big motorcade of black SUVs with tinted windows ok? Ha ha ha!

Staffer [feigning importance]: Sure thing Chief, we’ll talk to you later, thanks for your help [presses end and puts phone on table]

Ray: Well?????? Are they sending units over here? Maybe we should suggest canine units too? That could make a big impact. Show these  people we have teeth.

Staffer [grabbing coat and helping Ray to his feet gently]: You bet sir, they are sending the units. Lots and lots and lots of units, ok?

Ray: SUPER! So I’m going to get my good name back right??

Staffer2: Technically YES sir.

[staffer sneers at staffer2 behind Ray's back and mouths the words  "shut up!"]

Just thought I would make good on my promise to Casey Kirk of Sacramento Press. Casey emailed me and said she had removed a comment of mine from an article about how the economy had impacted local small businesses. I posted a comment stating we (small businesses) really need to help andpatronize each other as much as possible. I added that if anyone needed web development or graphic design to email me at joejoesacramento at gmail dot com and I would work within their budget.

Casey emailed me and stated my self promotion was in violation of SP’s comment policy. I replied back “So much for helping each other, huh?” in good fun of course. I also invited Casey to come promote SacramentoPress.com anytime on my site free of charge.  I’m glad to help drive traffic to the Sacramento Press site.

Now, is it just me or do they seem a little uptight over there at SP? A week or so earlier Casey emailed me to inform me another one of my comments there had been removed because by using the term “playing grab ass” to describe how Robbie Waters and Robert King Fong rudely talking to each other on the council dais (while a member of the public was speaking)  I was suggesting homosexual relations between the two men… ??  I can not make this stuff up.

Anyway, the Sacramento Press is a GREAT web site for local news and regardless of their gestapo commenting policies they are a great asset to Sacramento (PS: Casey I didn’t mean anything by using the word “asset” here I promise–I truly love your site!). And yes I know Casey is just ‘doing her job.’ And a damn fine job at that!

Of course this is all in good fun..

First, it’s interesting how many Christians criticize the Bee for writing  “Christian bashing” articles. I observe nothing of the sort. To my knowledge, the Bee has never maintained the isolated cases on which they have reported are representative of widespread pastoral “abuse,” nor have they ever cast Christianity in a negative light for that matter.

As far as I’m concerned, the people who are labeling these recent articles “anti Christian” are clearly not reading them objectively. In this tumultuous era of economic crisis, I firmly believe matters regarding one’s money, investments, tithes and so forth are important to discuss openly and honestly.  Furthermore, in those cases where one has abused one’s position and is funneling, extorting, coercing, or picking money out of the pocket of another,  I think it highly commendable that a news organization should choose to expose them.  I say BRAVO Sac Bee and Jennifer Garza. Nice work.

Second, the responses to these articles are very disheartening.  It’s truly disappointing to see how many people have written Christianity off entirely because of A) the deplorable  actions of a few; or B) the philosophical musings of both antiquated and modern atheist doomsayers who have successfully convinced them all religion is a fraud, “opiate”, fairy tale, and/or diabolical  “saw”-grade puppet show on the part of its purveyors.. without ever having personally surveyed the religious landscape and investigated the claims both for and against God, and the necessity of His church in society.

I won’t turn this website into one on cosmology, metaphysics, and theology, but I will say this: Don’t believe everything you hear or read on EITHER side. On the nontheist side, people like Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins make some riveting  points, but if you bother to read their critics, you will find their philosophies are rife with error and conflict.  G.K. Chesterton said, “Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies simply because they become fashions.”  Amen to that. On the flip side of the coin, we should be just as weary of preachers of prosperity who stomp  up and down their mega stages in their mega churches preaching the exact opposite of what Jesus preached about the storing up of earthly riches.

Third, despite what you may have been led to believe, the brand of Christianity I practice (which is Roman Catholicism), is NOT about being served. Au contraire. It is about SERVING OTHERS. We practice what we believe to be the centrality of Christ and that is that he came to “serve, not to be served.” (Matt 20:28). ANY institution that seeks to be SERVED, or preaches that its members should seek to be served, is not practicing Christianity. They are practicing something, but it is not Christian. Clearly Christ was a servant leader and to model him is to serve others selflessly and without desire for recompense.

Finally, I don’t know about other churches, but mine does not wish to “control” people.  What it wishes to do is UPHOLD the sixty-centuries-old  moral law that has clearly served as the bedrock for the civil law that secures our FREEDOMS and prevents our society from descending into anarchy. That some institutions cannot be supported does not in any way, shape or form translate to “we hate you” as the Bill Mahers of the world would have us believe. They simply mean “We love you, but we can’t support your propensities because they are opposed to the moral law.” As G.K. Chesterton said, morality REQUIRES that we draw the line somewhere. That is reality, not hate.

Yes, I am fully aware–and sharply REBUKE–those rogue leaders of the church who– like police officers, doctors, dentists, school teachers, politicians, presidents, movie directors, daycare providers, and many others–fell to temptation and abused their positions of authority. And yes, I am fully aware that some zealots of the early church (both Catholic and Protestant) lost their way and many people suffered as a result. I get it. But those things–while admittedly atrocious in scope–do not tell the whole story.  In fact they don’t even represent a grain of sand on the beach that is the twenty-centuries-old story of Christianity, and it is gravely dishonest to represent that they do.

In the final analysis–at least from this Joe’s perspective–the actions of the few (and they ARE a mere few over the course of the TWENTY CENTURIES the  church has existed) do NOT represent the beliefs and behavior of the many, most of whom have contributed immensely to the common good and played a substantive role in the miracle that is The United States of America.

A commenter who responded to the Bee’s story stated “Religious people scare me. Spiritual people inspire me.” He/she always states this same thing in response to every religious article the Bee posts. This comment always gets lots of supporting votes. But I submit while it’s a nice sounding byte, it’s outrageously fallacious and ignorant because “spirituality” is the quintessential by product of RELIGION!

Spirituality is religion’s goal. Saying you love spiritual people but hate religion is like saying you love orange juice but hate oranges. It is nonsensical. Whether he or she likes it or not, the “spiritual” people this person adores so much are deeply religious. They may not label themselves as such, but by nature they are.

On a parting note, the Bee asked local conservative radio personality Eric Hogue to weigh in. He suggested people “read the Bible.”  While I think that’s a great idea, at the same time it is dangerously incomplete. One should not only read the Bible for themselves, but they should also get a great bible handbook (I love “What the Bible is All About” by Dr. Mears) and find a great Christian mentor to help them along with questions, and so forth.

Here’s to the true Christian religion.. not fanaticism.. not fundamentalism.. not extremism .. just plain old LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF golden rule-based religion that accounts for all the spiritual good in our country–if not the world–today.

At last count, there were no less than 801 major media articles about this big snafu–that’s not even counting  thousands of others from little bloggers across the web. Have you read some of them? Little and big bloggers alike have raised some highly intriguing questions. Most of them are centered around Obama’s NON fastidious reasons for firing Walpin.

I’m no mastermind (obviously), but even I can tell a smear job when I see one.

“Norman Eisen sent a letter to McCaskill, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, describing Walpin as “confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions” during a May meeting. Eisen said the behavior led board members to question his capacity to serve….”Mr. Walpin had become unduly disruptive to agency operations, impairing his effectiveness” and lost the confidence of the board, Eisen wrote…” -Associated Press

LOL. Confused.. disoriented.. impaired.. disruptive…. ?? Are they talking about Charles Barkley, or the inspector general?

Then there’s the matter of how the Obama administration handled Walpin’s termination. Obama himself previously backed a bill that helped to safeguard against politically-motivated terminations (which many are calling Walpin’s firing)–then he goes and hastily fires an inspector general with no warning whatsoever? Not exactly presidential behavior..

“Walpin was advised last Wednesday that he had an hour to resign or be fired. Later, he was told he was suspended for a month after which he will be terminated…” -Politico.com

Any way you slice it, Obama’s hasty firing of Walpin seems incredibly dicey; and more importantly, at least for us here in little Sacramento,  Mayor Johnson’s reputation continues to take on water, and one has to wonder if he is beginning to seriously regret ever throwing his name in the mayoral hat. Wasn’t it Richie Ross who warned that if Johnson ran for mayor it would be the worst decision of his life..?

We know Johnson’s a fierce competitor and all, and we know he thinks politics is a “dirtier game than basketball,” and we know he doesn’t “take anything personally,” but I can’t help but wonder if he will reach a point (if he hasn’t already), where he goes, “What the $#%@ was I thinking??!” If I were in Johnson’s shoes, I would have already reached and passed that milestone a long time ago.

Well, he  wanted national recognition, he got it. Growing up, my mom and dad always used to warn, “be careful what you wish for.” I’ll say. The news just keeps on coming for KJ. Too bad it’s not centered around his accomplishments, and is instead centered around potential scandal, potential favoritism, potential dirty politics, potential secrecy and potential cronyism unbecoming of a public servant. I emphasize the word “potential,” because once again we don’t really know the whole story.. again..

Honestly, it’s hard to tell what is true and what is not. It’s difficult to even have an opinion because any dirt involving public officials is generally mopped off the public stage as quickly as it arrives by attorneys, spokespeople, and other “officials” who are paid to protect the reputations of those they serve.

Remember the days when Sacramento wasn’t on the map? There was rarely a pot of $#@% worth stirring, but at least the valley air didn’t always smell like foul play.

“This Saturday, the division-leading River Cats are offering special Family Pack deals (click here for tickets) to go along with the Sutter Health Fireworks after the game. Fans can purchase a Family Pack which includes Tickets, Hot Dogs, Cokes, Chips, Dessert and tickets to Fairytale Town and the Sacramento Zoo (minimum purchase of four family pack tickets required).Saturday’s game is just one of many attractions coming to Raley Field during this eight-game homestand that begins Tuesday night.”

God I love baseball. How could you not? It’s so .. American. I just adore the sound of the bat meeting the ball sqaurely (crack!). That sound smacks of hot dogs, beer, and twilight games basking under the bright lights while the best of the best (and Manny Ramirez), duke it out on the field. I just love it. I played throughout my childhood and just could not be more thankful to my folks for the experience. Every time I smell fresh cut grass I think of coming down to Sacramento for all star game tourney play in the heat. River Cats games take me back to that nostalgic place in my mind. I’m looking forward to catching more than a few games this season.

Times have sure changed, haven’t they? Even though Little League is still around, not much else remains from yesteryear. Seems everywhere I go I am standing or driving next to someone who is either texting, yacking on their cell phone incessantly, playing a video game or now Tweeting. Sigh. Twitter is the new Napster apparently. 80 million users now or something ridiculous like that. And all for what? So people can tell each other what they are doing.

My wife cracks me up. I said, “aren’t you going to get on Twitter?” She said, “No one cares what I am doing, and I don’t care what they’re doing either.” Ha. I love that. And it’s true. Unless you’re someone who truly has something noteworthy to share, why bother? Facebook is kind of the same thing, albeit a bit more unnecessarily complicated. You’re going to your grandma’s to change her bedpan?  You’re a true saint. Feel better now?  You’re craving Rocky Road ice cream? Awesome, I never took you for a plain vanilla type. Does that validate you? You’re going to Redding this weekend for a gastroenterology conference for your work. Wow, you are .. deep. Don’t forget to post a photo album when you get back!

All that said, I have a Facebook and a Twitter. I update them from time to time for grins . I log into Facebook once or twice a month to see what people are saying/doing. Can’t think of a time yet where I read something that changed my life for the better. And that’s just it about all these digital distractions…. what value are they? In most cases they’re not benefitting people; in fact their diverting their attention away from where it really needs to be… like on the road in front of them..  crrrrunch.

“I DON’T HAVE A F’G TWITTER… WHY WOULD I USE TWITTER??? I ONLY BLOG 5 PERCENT OF WHAT I’M UP TO IN THE FIRST PLACE. I’M SLOW DELIVERING [INFORMATION ABOUT MYSELF] BECAUSE I’M TOO BUSY ACTUALLY BEING CREATIVE” – Kanye West in his blog on 5/12/09″

I don’t care much for Kanye’s music,  but I hear what he is saying. I mean, don’t people have lives to lead? Some people are on Twitter and Facebook and YouTube and whatever else all day. Wasting away. Yes, I fully understand how Twitter can be used for good … preachers spreading the word, teachers updating students, health care alerts, etc, I get all that. What I’m talking about are the hordes of people who are wasting away tweeting about their new hairdo… or who’s on Oprah tomorrow. It all seems so… vain.

Pretty soon we’re going to see Twitter addicts crying their eyes out on Oprah, sharing their “story” of how Twitter led them to cheat, lie, steal and leave their spouse. LOL. Pathetic…. and right around the corner…

Ahhhh I must be getting old.  Perhaps the “er” suffix will be a bad omen for Twitter. Sure was for Grokster. [Actually it's AMAZING Shawn Fanning, inventor or Napster, never paid through the teeth to the RIAA; instead he got rich and is now living the life of Riley. Many college students. old folks, and dead people  weren't so fortunate]

Tweet THIS! Crrrack!  “….oh and Gibson hammers it…..  back, back, back, back…. and it’s outta here!! Kirk Gibson homers! The Dodgers have won the world series… steroid free!!!!!!!!!”

Chuck D of Public Enemy is arguably the greatest rap artist of all time–at least in this observer’s opinion.  Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, the “Rebel without a pause” Chuck crafted some of the most blistering word assaults on conditions in America since the 1960’s peace movement. Of the voluminous library of sound bytes that have been sampled, stolen, and cited from Chuck D’s body of work,  it seems none have been called on more frequently than a single sarcastic question he boomed in a song called “Bring the Noise.”:  “How low can you go!?”

If that question is still an open one, we may have a 2008 nominee in the Sacramento Bee’s recent so-called investigative report series titled “Suspect Soldiers” that has been published over the course of the past couple days and drawn Chuck D-like manifestos from angry readers who think the Bee is completely out of line with the article, especially while the country is at war.

Today the Bee got dirt low when it published the bios of 16 United States military veterans in a “before and after” type format in support of perhaps one of the dumbest, most superfluous questions in the history of print media:  “Suspect Soldiers: Is there a link between postwar stress and crime?”

To the outrage of its reader base (clearly reflected in the piles of digital hate mail that have been posted after each article of the report), the queen bees at the hive must have somehow reasoned that by publishing the names, birth dates, mug shots, and personal details of less-than-honorable U.S. soldiers, they would  be providing battle weary readers–many of whom have lost loved ones in the Iraqi war–a valuable service.

Because “after all,” they must have reasoned over bagels and cream cheese, “our readers are complete buffoons who don’t know anything about the effects of war, the types of people who sometimes slip through the recruting cracks, and the morons running our military branches. They need people like us to expose these scumbags and teach them a lesson about the effects of war. Our readers are way too stupid to make the connection between the effects of war on the human psyche. They need us to spell it out for them. This could be the story that puts on the radar of CNN.com and other major news web sites that never link to our articles!”

Isn’t it just like the Bee to grossly underestimate the collective IQ of its reader base? Remember their outrageously moronic advice to readers prior to the this year’s mayoral primary? They suggested residents vote for a no-name candidate to force a run-off between the two principle candidates on the strength that such a delay would allow voters a better, more qualified look at the candidates.

Of course they assumed readers were too stupid to put two and two together and identify their hidden agenda: buying more time so they could print more anti Kevin Johnson articles, and ensure the results of the St Hope investigation (which the hive has made out to be the Watergate scandal), were on voter’s minds as they headed to the ballot box. Wrong AGAIN. Voters went completely against the paper’s advice and Kevin Johnson won easily with a 10% advantage over the incumbent.

Truly, if the Bee is going to start publishing national-based investigative reports, it needs to focus on the CAUSE of the war problems (BUSH) and not the many EFFECTS of his war-happy decisions.

WE DON’T WANT YOUR STORIES ABOUT OUR SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN unless they honoring them for their sacrifices. We understand WAR IS HELL. OUr brothers and sisters are dying every day. We are spending $4,000 per U.S. household to fight a war we don’t even approve of. We don’t need you or any other news organization feeding negative stereotypes about our servicemen and women, especially *WHILE WE ARE AT WAR!!!!!!!!!*  If ANYTHING, try getting out of your cold-hearted uber liberal world and sympathizing and empathizing with them.  When you post these kinds of stories you are treading Jane Fonda-colored waters, and I assure you these stories will never cause anything more than lost readers, canceled subscriptions, and  angry tirades like this one.

[My apologies to my former Univ of San Fran prof Ricky Desoiza who would rap me over the knuckles if he knew I was using "we" and "us" in a rant like this  ]

Try sticking to the stories that matter most to Sacramento residents right now: sympathy and support for our troops, public safety concerns (try posting mug shots of the criminals right here in Sacramento!!), the fires, air quality, the economy, child abuse (which I commended the Bee for reporting on), the failed commitments on the part of the city to New Sacramento residents, malfeasance at city hall, culpability of elected officials in improprieties connected to city departments, the actual track record of the sitting mayor, and so forth and so on.

I would say the Bee can not go any lower, but I’m certain I would be putting my foot in my mouth again in the future.. and the taste of my soles is getting nasty.

The entire premise of the series is absurd because the psycho test could be applied to ANY situation where human beings are assembled–for the purpose of defending a country … or fixing a freeway for that matter. It’s called the BELL CURVE. Sac Bee should check into it before they single out the U.S. military for their next sociology dissertation.

Here’s a glimpse at it for the stats-challenged: http://classes.kumc.edu/sah/resources/sensory_processing/images/bell_curve.gif

The Bee should stick to something more in alignment with their collective IQ’s… like NAIL GUNS

OK, I am not claiming to be clairvoyant, but my unpopular opinion about the Bee’s tabloid-style election coverage, and speculation about it being driven by plummeting readership, seems to have had some legs after all. Granted, Bee writers’ knife-like election season missives—and the subsequent public backlash—are symptomatic of a much larger perception problem that has been simmering for years, but they sure didn’t slow the inevitable march towards extinction.

In recent months the Bee has alienated a large number of readers by publishing slanted op-ed pieces disguised as front page “news” articles. One needn’t look further than the glamor-shot stories they published about Heather Fargo, high atop her city hall perch dressed in gold like a regal public servant hard at work—despite her all time low approval rating around the city and well documented suspect use of public funds and dismal attendance record (which the Bee strategically reported months before the vote so it was no longer in voters’ minds on election day).

In talking to people around the city, perceptions of the Bee seem to range from “boring” to “biased,” neither of which are perceptions a struggling newspaper should find acceptable in the digital age. But alas, the Bee buzzes onward aimlessly, unfazed by their own abysmal approval rating, honing their offensive style of tabloid reporting and placing links to their columnists’ misinformed flammable soliloquies on the front page of their online edtion.

I’d love to sit here and tell you I feel sorry for the Bee because they provide a much-needed public service for news-thirsty Sacramentans, but unfortunately I can not because whatever good they have done has been overshadowed by their indiscretions.