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Relay for Life -- Bakersfield a leader Lay off the old people, you NFL bruisers Scratching and rubbing, good feelings Female-only buses in Mexico City, but not Bakersfield A $200,000 ride to space, how nice How healthy are your dogs? Mother gives up newborn to Bakersfield fire station A $2,000 puppy stolen in Oildale How much of a hassle are fog delays? Fog, the thing I like least about Bakersfield July 06 August 06 September 06 October 06 November 06 December 06 January 07 February 07 March 07 April 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 August 07 September 07 October 07 November 07 December 07 January 08 February 08 March 08 April 08 May 08 June 08 July 08 June 06 May 06 April 06 March 06 February 06 January 06 December 05 November 05 October 05 September 05 Blog RollAsk The Californian Editorials Entertainment Eye of Bakersfield Faith Forum Fired Up! Inside Sports Neighbors Right Thinking Sound Off Talk of the Town 
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Here's wishing you a Happy New Year.
I don't know if you do resolutions. I don't. I'm a constant work in progress and right now my only resolution is to improve my tee-to-green accuracy.
I also don't do wild parties on New Year's. Watching a DVD and cuddling is happy enough for me.
But feel free to share any resolution or wild party you may have.
Peace out.
Posted by Steve E. Swenson
The devil is tempting me here, and I'm about to hold his hand.
A Bakersfield couple wants the City Council to ban smoking in public parks.
That's got to be a blatant assault on people's freedom to slowly kill themselves on a park bench.
Isn't it enough that they can't smoke in restaurants, bars and public buildings?
The devil tells me no. I'm nodding in agreement.
But smokers pay taxes too. A lot. Especially on those cigarettes they buy. Don't they have rights too?
Rights to...
I want to take a moment to wish you all a merry Christmas.
If you don't celebrate Christmas, then have a merry celebration of some kind.
My wife and I will have a cozy Christmas — I'll make her breakfast in the morning; we'll open presents and stockings with her daughter and my stepdaughter; we'll all go out a play golf; we'll cook a prime rib dinner and then we'll curl up on our couch and watch a movie. During the day, I'll call my son in Klamath Falls and my daughter in Phoenix....
At the morning news meeting, an editor felt conflicted about whether to tell her 5-year-old daughter the truth about Santa.
The daughter asked.
I'm a believer in telling the truth when they ask. Just like sex. Yes, Virginia, there is this procreation process.
But getting back to Santa, the issue really is can you depend upon mommy and daddy to be straight with you?
I'll give you a story in my own life. Not about Santa, but the Tooth Fairy.
I got a quarter under my pillow to...
Californian columnist Herb Benham has written a piece about a movement called GodMen which is aimed at portraying Jesus Christ in a more manly way.
The movement is championed by Brad Stine, a conservative comedian, who notes 60 percent of the people in church are women.
He attributes a shortage of men to Jesus being portrayed more as gentle and loving, plus hand holding in the pews and singing love songs to Christ. Stine thinks a more masculine experience would bring men...
Let me be the first to say this — how silly it is that you approved Christmas and Easter breaks to replace winter and spring breaks.
It's a public high school district you run, not a religious one.
You will find me in church on Christmas and Easter as well as most Sundays.
But you want find me on the Christian bandwagon that supports what you've done.
I'm pretty sure you could learn the difference in high school.
Feel free, blog posters, to say what you want about me or...
A New York Times story says Americans are messy people.
Well, welcome to my desk top.
The story says Americans buy billions of dollars worth of organizing things each year to help them cope with their mess and January is Get Organized Month.
That would imply mess is bad and you should feel bad about having one. (I don't, why should you?)
But the story says some people are embracing their mess.
Reporter Penelope Green says people in the messy movement confirm "what...
Plans to develop an 11,000-acre off-highway motor vehicle park near Round Mountain Road north of Bakersfield have been scrapped.
Daphne Green, deputy director of the state's Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Recreation Division said there were too many problems with the site and so she ended the plans for a park on Wofford Ranch.
She denied caving into environmentalists who are neither fond of vehicles or the dust and trails they create on undeveloped land.
She said Kern needs an off-highway...
Another person posted a blog on this topic, but no one can get to it because he kept his profile private.
So I'm posting it.
The fine print on the card says the $10,000 cost of the cards was paid for by the Keep Kern Clean Committee, which was set up by Sen. Dean Florez to fight sludge spreading in Kern County.
People contributing to that cause probably didn't think their money would be used to finance Florez' annual Christmas cards.
But Florez noted that he controls the...
Apparently you can't be a last minute shopper for Christmas trees in Bakersfield.
They've virtually vanished from the lots and stores.
Have you bought yours yet? Where did you go? Do you have any tips for last-minute tree buying?
Will you break down an buy a fake tree?
Posted by Steve E. Swenson
Parent Evelyn Mendez was shocked to learn her 4-year-old daughter goes to the bathroom in a room without stalls for the multiple toilets and where preschool boys saddle up in the same room at the same time.
Seems that the arrangment at Claude W. Richardson Child Development Center for children ages 2 to 5 complies with the state laws.
An adult is always there to supervise, also the law.
I'm with Mendez on this. I think there should be more privacy.
We had a chat about this...
Some say duct tape is one of the most usable products on the market.
But Bakersfield High School teacher Carol Humphrey got into a little hot water for using it to tape fingers and the mouth of a student who was disrupting class by thumping his fingers against his air-filled cheeks.
Some students took pictures of the incident.
She was put on paid administrative leave, and she found her way on the front page and radio and television news broadcasts.
I'm not sure I would have done...
Kern High School District board member Chad Vegas proposed that winter and spring breaks be changed to Christmas and Easter breaks.
I've been a Christian for 57 years. My reply is, "Get real, Chad."
You are not operating a church. You are operating a public school system. People can call the breaks anything they want, but the public school system needs to call them something without religious connotations.
Board member Ken Mettler said this can be done and is...
A study says men and women rate others in their own gender higher in attractiveness than the opposite sex does.
Put another way, men feel other men are more attractive than women think those other men are.
On average, men rated other men a third higher than women did. Women rated other women a quarter higher than men did.
This is based on a study by Sarah E. Hill, a graduate student in psychology at the University of Texas.
She said, according to a New York Times story by...
Right off the bat, let me say that one of my favorite shows on television is Crime Scene Investigation, Las Vegas.
But that show, the other CSI's, some Law and Order, NCIS, Criminal Minds and perhaps others that I don't watch have autopsy and other bloody scenes as part of their regular fare.
I've been around the block a few times on reality gore — police photos, autopsy photos and accident scenes.
I once saw a slide show by an Oakland forensic pathologist which showed...
We are in office Christmas party season.
This is usually a free meal at a restaurant, some door prizes, dancing and a little company
spiel.
Frequently, it's a chance to dress up and enjoy a little holiday liquid of the alcohol variety.
There are worse ways to spend evenings.
But it seems a healthy number of people — sometimes one-third to one-half or more of the workforce bypasses these events.
Do you go? Or don't you?
Why?
My personal belief is the...
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