This will be the last post on the Liberal Atheist Vegetarian blog. I’m not leaving the Register, but I am taking on expanded duties with my “regular” gig here as researcher, meaning the LAV blog is coming to an end. You’ll still be able to access all the old posts and links, there just won’t be any new ones.
I want to thank you all for reading — be sure to check out the other Register blogs (especially Total Buzz and Gluttonista) to get your fix of local Liberal, Atheist and Vegetarian news.
Irvine-based Veggie Grill announced this week on their website that they’ll be opening their Second Irvine location, at the Irvine Spectrum, November 21.
The newest location, the third for the company, is opening according to schedule. Ground was broken in August on the storefront near the Carousal Court and Barnes and Noble store, with a November launch date “in time for the holiday season”. The company had also said in August that they hoped to have seven locations by the end of 2009, but so far no specific announcements have been made.
The Spectrum location joins the original Irvine spot, which opened at the University Center in November 2006, and the second location in El Sugundo that opened last year.
By now, we all know Barack Obama was elected President - but there were quite a few other races that were of interest to the LAV community. A rundown:
Proposition 2: Treatment of farm animals — Passed. I’m a bit surprised by this one — honestly, I thought the usual “Oh, it’s just animals” crowd would run away with it, but it looks like the opposite happened. With almost all precincts reporting, it’s up 60% to 40%. I guess threats of mystery Mexican salmonella weren’t enough to scare the masses.
Proposition 8: Define Marriage as between one man and one woman — Passed. Another surprise, though I’ve learned to never underestimate the power of churches with money. Heavily supported by the Mormon Church and California evangelicals, even Hollywood money couldn’t fight back the hate. The silver lining here is that lawsuits have already started, and this thing could stay in the courts a long time, during which gay marriages will likely continue. In a disappointing trend, however, similar measures in Florida and Arizona also passed.
46th House District: Cook (D) vs. Rohrabacher (R) — Winner Rohrabacher. This went down pretty much how I expected, though it’s a shame, as I believe Cook would have made a fine member of Congress. This would have been a Sanchez-Dornon level upset, and put a strong environmental and church-state separatist into Congress. Dana had to fight, though, so 2010 might yield a different result.
North Carolina Senate: Hagan (D) vs. Dole (R) — Winner Hagan. Atheists nationwide started paying attention to North Carolina’s Senate race last week when incumbant Elizabeth Dole strongly implied her opponant, Kay Hagan, was an atheist. The Sunday School-teaching Hagan immediately filed suit for defamation and libel, and the attack backfired for Dole, who dropped in the polls and lost handily. This marks the first time since 1960 that there is neither a Bush or Dole is in a national office.
I was going to write up something like this, but Total Buzz did all the work for me:
The fate of a nation hangs in the balance as millions of voters decide who to send to the White House.
In California, the definition of marriage, the treatment of animals, the political turf of future legislators all will be decided — and everything you need to know to make your decision and follow the results will be offered at OCRegister.com/election.
Right now you’ll find a full voter guide with every county, city and school district race, every candidate, every agency, from the smallest school board to Orange County’s largest municipality.
Read our lead-up coverage on the issues. Peruse our blogs, such as Total Buzz. You can also click on Follow The Money, a database of all the presidential contributions by state and in Orange County. Don’t know where to vote? You can find your polling place on our easy-to-use searchable database. Crave more debate? Read our special links to opinions Left, Right and Libertarian. And if you feel like engaging your fellow readers, hop onto our user forums.
Beginning at 6:30 election morning, Precinct Watch will kick into gear on our Watchdog and Total Buzz blogs. OCRegister.com/election will monitor and get to the bottom of any problem affecting the polling places, from long lines to equipment failure to lack of paper ballots.
At 9 a.m., Chapman University students will begin blogging on elections in the city of Orange. As the national races take shape, the Register will carry the best of the wire dispatches.
Around 5 p.m., the first results will start coming from the East Coast — and you will find them here at OCRegister.com/election. We’ll also feature an interactive map showing the national results, state by state. Look here for the latest results in presidential, congressional and initiative races. Special attention will be given the battleground states.
At 8 p.m., the Register’s election coverage goes into full swing, with local results expected to come in. We will carry city by city results on the local races as well as an interactive map on how Orange County cities voted in the presidential race. Results will be updated as fast as we get them. And don’t forget that each city also has a homepage that will give you up to the minute information on where you live.
The Register’s election crew looks forward to spending election day with you.
You’ll hear this a lot, but this really is an important election for a lot of reasons. Hopefully the news and political junkies (like me) out there can get their fill. To make sure it doesn’t get lost in the parade of links up there, we’ve created a great list of liberal blogs with latest posts, all in one place. Check it out, and happy electioning!
The Liberal Atheist Vegetarian loves voting - having my voice heard, being involved in my government, and helping to shape the world I live in. In reality though, too often I’m faced with a huge list of initiatives, school board members and judges I really don’t know much about. I don’t want to vote “wrong”, but it can be hard to know how to vote right.
Enter the voter guide.
Everyone seems to be putting one out. Political action groups, neighborhood associations, political parties, groups pretending to be political parties, and even religious groups. They’re fairly helpful on our propositions (The Courage Campaign’s guide lists their choices as well as other progressive group’s picks, for example), but in terms of local races, it’s hard to know who to vote for.
Until now.
The most useful voter guide I’ve found this year isn’t put out by a liberal group, or a coalition of atheists. The generically named electionforum.org has a “Christian Voter Guide” for every Southern California county, including Orange, with a list of recommendations for the Propositions, judges, Congress, State Senate and Assembly and local offices.
While you probably shouldn’t vote 100% against the guide, they do a very good job of “recommending” school board and local officials in terms of “values voting” - and that’s someone you can vote against if you don’t want a Christian perspective on things, especially your school board. It’d be great if atheists put out a guide, but until they do, this will do fine.
At last night’s discussion on her history as an atheist Lobbyist, Lori Lipman Brown hinted that while there’s only one “out” atheist in Congress (Democrat Pete Stark of CA’s 13th district), plenty of others are “friendly” toward the lobby, and there may be as many as 20 other non-theists in Congress, but not willing to make it public. Elizabeth Dole, fighting to keep her Senate from North Carolina, thinks she found one:
The already-contentious North Carolina Senate race took a brutal turn Wednesday after incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole released a television ad suggesting challenger Kay Hagan is “Godless.”
“A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan,” the 30-second ad says before showing clips from members of the group declaring God and Jesus do not exist.
“Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money,” the ad’s narrator also says. “What did Kay Hagan promise in return?”
I’m laughing about the whole thing, but I don’t have a stake in that election. For atheists, though, there’s a lot to be mad about. First, that calling someone “godless” is an insult — the term is used repeatedly in the ad. Second, instead of saying “No, but it’d be OK if I was”, the purportedly godless Kay Hagan instead felt it necessary to list her Christian “credentials”. I doubt she’s one of the 20 non-theists either way, but really folks — atheists aren’t that scary.
If you’re the type that enjoys political ads, you can watch the video here.
With my annual Halloween party behind me, I finally had time yesterday to check out the new Mother’s Market in Santa Ana. My first impression? “Unfinished”.
To be fair, the store hasn’t had it’s “Grand Opening” yet — that’s scheduled for November 8. And while you can certainly do a full shopping (and spend quite a bit of money), it’s obvious that there’s still a lot to be done.
Most noticeably, the “kitchen”, or restaurant, area is walled off and inaccessible. Some “fresh” items are available, but most won’t be until the store is completed. On my trip I also noticed that some foods are in multiple locations, with no rhyme or reason — there are two distinct cheese sections, with some products in one location, and some in both. The same is true for certain “snack” and pasta items. There were also quite a few bare shelves. Forgivable, sure, but still strange.
In terms of a shopping experience, if you like Whole Foods, you’ll probably like Mother’s. Both are large, well-lit stores with a huge variety of natural, organic, and vegetarian foods. Mother’s has a bit more of a “grocery store” feel to it, at least for now — there are fewer specialty offerings, especially compared to the massive Tustin Legacy Whole Foods. This isn’t entirely a bad thing, though — my comparisons showed 10-15% lower prices on many items at Mother’s. There’s also a lot of non-overlapping products at Mother’s compared to similar stores, so on your way home from Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, but before you hit Sprouts, you’ll need to make a stop here. Variety is a good thing.
For a more detailed overview, check out the Fast Food Maven’s preview of the store, or the store’s website. Even unfinished, I’ll be heading back soon.
