Becky Johnson

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Live Oak mobile home park receives facelift, courtesy of Santa ...

Becky Johnson wrote: "I thought roads, sewers, water supply, and garbage collection are the REAL jobs of City and County governments. Then, fire protection and public safety." ROY McALLISTER WRITES: "Curious...I don't see education or pampering the homeless in your list of "REAL" govt services. Have you finally sipped from the cup of reality this morning, or are you just manipulating your argument to fit your battle du jour?" BECKY: Education is the responsibility of the School Boards, not City Council or the Board of Supes. City and County government's primary responsibility and raison d'etre is to provide roads, sewers, water, and to collect garbage. Homeless services due fall under their obligation to protect public health and to promote the general welfare. What I find astounding is that year after year these bodies cannot even maintain or repair our roads. I mean, isn't that like their first duty?  (1 hr ago | post #35)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin

BECKY: "...out of doors at night (surely an activity which does not require regulation) DBS WRITES: "We've been over and over this; (A) There is no sleeping ban. It's illegal to camp outdoors within city limits. Sleeping with a blanket is completely legal. I do it every night." BECKY: It is illegal to SLEEP out of doors or in a vehicle anywhere within the City limits of Santa Cruz. If you are homeless it IS a ban on sleeping!! Your willful ignorance and your support for this human rights abuse qualify you for the Ebenezer Scrooge award!  (1 hr ago | post #133)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

6,000 seedlings found at clandestine pot garden in Big Basin

CRAIG WRITES: "Why are you dragging out comments from six months ago to fulfill your attention needs. You must not have a protest to go to." BECKY: Talk about combative! You chew me out for posting on a thread that YOU HAVE DETERMINED IS TOO OLD. Then you post on that same thread!! TWICE!  (1 hr ago | post #132)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Santa Cruz gadfly loses in court, again: court ruling is second...

PROVERBS C26 V3 WRITES: ""Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even two hundred and fifty shekels, and of sweet calamus two hundred and fifty shekels..." BECKY: And I SAID that in some translations it is MIS-translated as "Calamus ". It's not. It's Cannabis. " "In 1936 Sula Benet (a.k.a. Sara Benetowa), a Polish etymologist from the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw stated that: "In the original Hebrew text of the Old Testament there are references to hemp, both as incense, which was an integral part of religious celebration, and as an intoxicant"(B enet 1975). Through comparative etymological study, Bennett documented that in the Old Testament and in its Aramaic translation, the Targum Onculos, hemp is referred to as kaneh bosm, which is also rendered in traditional Hebrew as kannabos or kannabus. The root "kan" in this construction means "reed" or "hemp", while "bosm" means "aromatic ". This word appeared in Exodus 30:23, Song of Songs 4:14., Isaiah 43:24, Jeremiah 6:20, Ezekiel 27:19. In 1980 the Hebrew University in Israel confirmed Benet's identification of Kaneh-Bosm as hemp, and the respected anthropologist Weston La Barre(1980) referred to the Biblical references in an essay on cannabis." found at: http://www.defendi ngthetruth.com/art icles/10447-cannab is-bible.html  (1 hr ago | post #323)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

DBS WRITES: "Giving our Jewish Mayor and the City Council a Nazi Salute AFTER having been warned once previously, is NOT the same thing as watching a movie." BECKY: I think the "Nazi salute" is used quite effectively and dramatically in the Sound of Music. But GAIL says it is ALWAYS innappropriate. So glad we have GAIL around to tell us when to not exercise our 1st amendment rights!! CORRECTION: Christopher Krohn is not Jewish. Nor is Fitzmaurice. Later, Fitzmaurice said that IF his wife (who IS Jewish) had been at the meeting (she wasn't) she WOULD have been offended!! I hope you still think your $114,000.00 was well spent defending this guy!  (1 hr ago | post #61)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

GAIL LEVEY WRITES: "BJ, what a FINE example of your inability to discern fact from fiction." BECKY: Oh, "The Sound of Music" wasn't based on the Von Trapp family? And Norse WAS actually saluting a real Nazi? Who can't sort fact out from fiction? Obviously a Nazi salute carries an immediate and obvious message which has the effect of mocking abuse of power. I think that's a very appropriate use of the gesture. Certainly better than blind obedience to over-reaching authority.  (1 hr ago | post #58)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

CRAIG WRITES: "I think if you read the decision you'll see that Robert had made the gesture previously to certain council members. He had been told it was rude and disruptive."{ BECKY: Actually, Mayor Fitzmaurice had ejected Norse previously from a meeting for making the gesture from the back of the room. Norse left, but later regretted complying to what he considered an arbitrary and possibly unconstitutional ejection. that he had been previously warned does not jackboot his silent gesture into a "disruption ". Fitzmaurice had also shut off his mike previously for saying "fuhrer" and "flunky" . And outlawed "naked sock puppets" so Norse saw Fitzmaurice's edicts as personal and overbroad. Fitzmaurice also walked out on Norse once denouncing him as "anti-Catholi c" and on another occasion organized an impromptu walk-out calling Norse "racist" . Villifying Norse has apparently been a mission of Fitzmaurice's.  (2 hrs ago | post #57)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

SANITY RULES WRITES: "You can not egg someone on with racial slurs and hateful speech without being cited for it." BECKY: If Norse had been standing in the same location and held a sign that said "You're acting like a bunch of fascists" (the meaning of his gesture) would he have been cited? So why was he arrested for his fleeting, SILENT gesture if not for the personal animosity demonstrated by Tim Fitzmaurice?  (2 hrs ago | post #56)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

GAIL LEVEY WRITES: "Not only did he disrupt, he trivialized a dark chapter in history by hijacking a symbol of great evil and hate simply to further HIS self promotional dag and pony show - which HARMS the people he CLAIMS to support." BECKY: Actually, Fitzmaurice stated why he made his point of order and called for Norse's ejection. He said he was intervening because he found Norse's action to be offensive "to the dignity of the body." He did not say that Norse had disrupted the meeting.  (2 hrs ago | post #55)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Robert Norse: City Council silencing dissenting voices

GAIL LEVEY WRITES: "Finally, it is NEVER, not EVER "appropriate " to offer a Nazi salute." BECKY: So you are against showing "The Sound of Music" then?  (4 hrs ago | post #49)

Santa Cruz Sentinel

Santa Cruz gadfly loses in court, again: court ruling is second...

DBS WRITES: "You even claim it's in the Bible.(sure thing whackjob)" BECKY: It is. But you have to go back to original Hebrew texts. It's one of the four ingredients in the annointing oil, spelled KNBS in Hebrew (Hebrew has no vowels). So KNBS is cannabis. the passage is found in Exodus 30 and is translated into English depending on the Bible to "fragrant cane" or incorrectly to calamus, which is an entirely different herb. The other 3 ingredients are cinnamon, myrrh, and acacia which grows prolifically in the Santa Cruz area and is considered a pest. Apparently I know the Bible better than you do, DAN.  (23 hrs ago | post #298)