Bee_Opinion's blog

Only seven people had voted at LaLoma Grace Brethren Church in the first 90 minutes this morning. Not a promising sign, but then there's a universal prediction for low turnout. Too bad.

What are you seeing so far this Election Day? 

-- Judy Sly

The Modesto council is going to have to cut more than $12 mil from the city budget for 2009-10, so we're inviting reader input on this question:

What are the city services that we can't live without?  Even within the police and fire departments, what must be saved and what can be trimmed? 

The mayor is going to prepare some articles for us, and I'll invite him to read your responses.

Budget hearings start May 18. I'm sure there will be the usual folks there with the usual comments. I'm guessing that new faces with new questions and new ideas would get considerable attention from the council.

-- Judy Sly

Former Modesto City Councilman Bill Conrad has returned to military duty and is Afghanistan. He's preparing an oped piece for us.

Today, he was quoted in the front page article of Stars & Stripes. Enjoy! 

-- Judy Sly

If you are attending or have attended a tea party in the Modesto area, please feel free to post what's going on -- numbers of people, signs, etc.

I'll check out the tea party at Tenth Street Plaza a little later and file my thoughts.

-- Judy Sly

Anyone want to offer a prediction on how many people will participate in the Tax Day tea parties locally?  I received an e-mail and a call in response to my Sunday column, available here, but that's it.

I know the anti-government-spending sentiment is widespread, but will it translate to people actually showing up at a tea party? Or doing anything beyond being angry and frustrated?

I plan to check out the Modesto tea party, in Tenth Street Plaza. Anyone who attends others, please feel free to post reports from those vents.  

-- Judy Sly

The April Fool's Day tradition is alive and well at Modesto Junior College, where the weekly Pirate's Log newspaper featured some remarkable front-page headlines on April 1.

I was on campus Wednesday evening, picked up a paper and spotted the foreclosure headline first. What the heck, I thought at first, wondering what story we here at The Bee had missed. Then I saw a headline about the Tully Road parking lot project being disrupted by the discovery of bones. I finally had it figured out with the photo showing a stack of beer kegs, with the announcement that the campus was having a big kegger party to celebrate the restoration of its full accreditation.

I can scarcely remember my days at the U of O, but I think we came up with some of these kinds of stories as well. 

So congratulations to the Pirate's Log staff for adding a little levity in this time of gloom and doom. Oh, and I did notice you had some real news on the back page and working in from there.

I am troubled by the mean spirit that shows up in online comments -- mostly on stories but occasionally in The Hive as well. Often, though not always, the nastiest comments are posted by people using either fake names or no names. Is there a correlation?

Is this their real personality? Or do they feel free to rant because they are not identified or identifiable?  More important, does this anything-goes attitude on the Web carry over to people's interactions in person and in public? 

One of my colleagues thinks it does. She suggests that people it's OK to call each other idiots or racist names on the Internet, and somehow people are more inclined to do it in public settings as well. She witnessed such an incident recently at the post office.  Another possibility: eople are just so angry about the economy, that they feel justified in ranting at small annoyances? I welcome your thoughts.

-- Judy Sly