June 29, 2011 (San Diego)--The US Supreme Court made two important health care rulings last week.
The first ruling was that consumers harmed by the use of a generic drug cannot sue the drug manufacturer. Generic drugs are copies of drugs which are out of patent. This means anybody can manufacture these copycat drugs, and often quality control can become a problem. Another problem is because many of these drugs are made in India or China, issues of counterfeit drugs become an issue.
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June 24, 2011 (San Diego) – 3 Backyards tackles one of my favorite movie subjects: A seemingly quaint, picturesque small town that masks a dark undercurrent. This foreboding, unsettling subtext is displayed in the opening title sequence, which is set against an ironic canvas of woods, houses, cats, and hummingbirds,
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June 20, 2011 (Boulevard)--We observe at every news show and every news stand headliners about three types of people: victims, predators, and others [counselors, officers of public safety, family and friends]. While ghoulishly fascinated with the horrifying acts of predators, we feel sympathy for the victims. But what is even more important is to feel a burning determination never to be a victim yourself and to learn how to deter the bad guys. We need to make it so by learning strategies to be safer. We need to teach others in our circle of influence.
You can train yourself to be alert at all times to what is going on around you. This training applies to driving, to walking, to parking, to walking into your home, to stepping outside to take out the garbage. People who live in nature and in rural places have an edge on city dwellers because danger can come from one wrong step – like on a rattlesnake.
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Simple, easily do-able ways to increase your money management skills
By Nancy Clement
June 24, 2011(La Mesa) - Congratulations to the new 2011 East County college graduates and best wishes for your future! One important thing to think about is even though the job market is not the best right now, it is turning around, you have skills, and talents that only you can contribute--so do not let the negativity you hear, see or read in the media stifle your career goals.Our society needs your creativity and contributions.Remember:“Incredible things happen…when you hold on to your Dreams” Bergsma 1990.
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June 1, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – Most companies that have a marketing plan tend to market on a similar type of schedule every year – perhaps they have a winter campaign to kick off the new year, a summer campaign to boost business during the slow season, and a holiday campaign to maximize their share of consumers’ holiday spending.
All that notwithstanding, how about marketing for a different reason altogether? There are thousands of designated observances, commemorations and celebratory days that are just asking to be used as an excuse for marketing.
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May 1, 2011 (San Diego’s East County) – There’s an old saying that 50% ofa business’ marketing expense is wasted. The question is, which 50% is it?
Admittedly, it can be difficult to track the success of a marketing campaign; even more so given the fact that most micro to mid-size businesses don’t set a specific goal, don’t put a definite call to action and/or don’t develop a metric that will allow them to measure the ROI and/or ROO on a given campaign.
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June 20, 2011 (San Diego) – If Henry Jaglom made a movie about a young man’s sexual discoveries the result might have been something like Twelve Thirty. Jaglom didn’t direct it, but it feels like a Jaglom film. It’s talky, self-indulgent, shot with a handheld camera, and is a supposed deep character study. All that's missing are David Proval, Zack Norman, and a liberal use of the zoom lens.
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June 18, 2011 (San Diego) – After watching Korkoro I fondly recalled the stories of my Uncle John and “the Gypsies.” When my sisters were little, he would warn them about the Gypsies and how they wouldn’t hesitate to snatch them while they slept. If you left root beer outside, maybe my sisters would have a fighting chance.
If only Korkoro was as interesting as these stories.
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June 19, 2011 (San Diego) – I was at a movie theater recently when a friend of the projectionist asked me if I knew any jokes. I leafed through the “books” of my mental library trying to find one but I couldn’t. I was content to let him rattle off a series of jokes and listen. Later that day I remembered a few jokes that I found funny. But even then I wouldn’t have told them.
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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.
June 7, 2011 Just about everybody cheats slightly on their taxes. Whether it is failing to report income, fudging on the value of donations to charity, or forgetting to report outside gifts or gratuities, most people lie a bit and get away with it. But Congressmen and Federal Employees should be held to higher levels of honesty. Does that mean a Federal Judge can conveniently forget hundreds of thousands of bucks in income?
Apparently, if you a Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, the answer is "Yes!". Justice Thomas's wife took over six hundred thousand bucks from a Conservative "Foundation" and neglected to report it as income. That is not exactly a "rounding off" error. This man sits on the US Supreme Court! And he did this for five consecutive years!
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June 10, 2011 (San Diego) – The Tree of Life isn’t merely a movie. To call it an experience would be putting it mildly. It’s films like this that make me say, “This is why I go to the movies.” Only one other movie elicited such a response from me since I’ve been a film critic and it happened to be the best film of 2010: Gaspar Noe’s Enter the Void.
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June 5, 2011 (San Diego) – Most comic book movies that are the first in a franchise feel like a feature-length first act. I had this feeling with X-Men and Spider-Man. They’re good movies but they functioned more like set-ups for X2 and Spider-Man 2, which also delivered the goods better.
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June 3, 2011 (San Diego) – Ever since my mother died there have been times when I've imagined my mother’s spirit being around me. I fantasize being able to speak to her, telling her how I feel, asking her what it’s like on the other side.
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June 3, 2011 (La Mesa) - Sally Gary is the author of the new $Best Freebies, Bargains, Deals & Steals in San Diego book, 9th Edition. This is a MUST Have book for your home library! Her ideas will enable you to have more fun and to save more money this summer. She generously shared her list of favorite FREE things to do in San Diego. Now you will never be at a loss for what to when out of town company comes to visit you, just open the book and you will find countless, terrific ideas. Enjoy!
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Sport gives new meaning to term "Surf Dogs" -- and gives local dogs and their owners a cool way to beat the heat
June 1, 2011 (San Diego) --Whoever said you can only have fun with your dog on land has never tried surfing with their dog. Some dogs don't want any part of it and others LOVE IT!
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June 1, 2011, (San Diego) – For over a year and a half I’ve been reviewing theatrical releases. Last month I introduced the Netflix Streaming Pick of the Week, a column that spotlights worthy cinema available on Netflix Watch Instantly.
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May 31, 2011 (San Diego) – I have a fear. This fear trumps snakes, spiders, heights, even death. It occurs at parties, especially of the birthday variety. It makes its presence known at the grocery store’s floral department. Despite their light and rubbery nature, they instill trepidation greater than public speaking. I’m talking about globophobia.
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Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.
May 23, 2011 (San Diego) – Today’s Netflix Streaming Pick of the Week is inspired by this year’s Cannes Film Festival, which wrapped up yesterday. The film world has been abuzz with Cannes fever including, but not limited to, Lars Von Trier’s controversial Hitler remarks and the Palme d’Or going to Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.
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May 20, 2011 (San Diego) – There are terrible bad movies and there are good bad movies. The worst bad movies are devoid of any ambition. Those tend to be the most offensive. With good bad movies, I at least get the sense that the filmmakers tried to make a good movie, even if they didn’t succeed.
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May 21, 2011 (San Diego) – Rubber is a portmanteau of the films of Luis Buñuel, David Cronenberg’s Scanners, and the road movie. It requires not only the largest suspension of disbelief but it necessitates putting any attempt at logic back into the furthest reaches of your mind. It is an utterly ridiculous movie but I enjoyed it for exactly that reason.
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May 17, 2011 (San Diego) – A couple of months ago someone e-mailed me an article. A team of scientists used gene mutation to create Autism in mice. The study, which was published in the science journal, Nature, could potentially lead to a cure for Autism or reverse it. But you know what?
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May 16, 2011 (San Diego) -- Citing budget concerns , the State of California (and the U.S. federal government) are studying plans to turn over California's most precious beaches, lakes, and forests to private entrepreneurs who will rent California's own land back to its citizens for a profit.
Seventy Califiornia state parks are slated for permanent closure, including Palomar Mountain State Park and San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park in San Diego County. Once the title to these pristine and irreplaceable lands is clouded by contract law, do not expect the public to ever see them again for free.
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May 9, 2011 (San Diego) – In my review of Thor, I wrote that X-Men (2000) established the Marvel comic book movie formula commonplace in the last decade. It couldn’t have done it without this week’s Netflix Streaming Pick of the Week. That movie is Superman (1978), the prototype for the modern superhero movie.
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May 6, 2011 (San Diego) – The good news: Thor delivers the goods you’d expect from a Marvel comic book movie. The not-really-bad-but-could-be-better news: Thor delivers the goods you’d expect from a Marvel comic book movie.
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May 8, 2011 (San Diego)--The rise in nationalism surrounding the death of Osama bin Laden is curious to me. It demonstrates just how easy it is to put out a story and have Americans believe it. In all of the discussions showing the history of September 11, none of the news casters have said anything about Tower Seven falling without being hit. They point to bin Laden and people accept that as truth. They accept his death as truth even with no body and a story that changes moment by moment.
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May 6, 2011 (San Diego) – The Princess of Montpensier is a movie that demands your utmost attention. I barely wrote down any notes out of fear I’d miss something important. The entire film hinges on every line of dialogue and every character’s actions. This likely explains why the two hour and nineteen minute running time flies by rapidly.
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May 6, 2011 (San Diego) – Looking at it one way, Meek’s Cutoff is an absorbing and spellbinding film. Looking another way, it can be aggressively boring. I viewed it from the former angle. Meek’s Cutoff presents one of the year’s biggest challenges so far to people’s attention spans. My severe ADHD, however, was no match for it.
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May 3, 2011 (San Diego) – Today marks the debut of East County Magazine’s newest column. In addition to writing film criticism, I will pen a biweekly column about another subject I’m equally passionate about: Autism. I am qualified to talk about the subject for a good reason: I am Autistic myself.
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By Brian Lafferty
By Sharon Courmousis, Sacred Rocks Reserve
Is Marketing an Expense or an Investment?
By Brian Lafferty
By Brian Lafferty
By Walter Davis
June 7, 2011 Just about everybody cheats slightly on their taxes. Whether it is failing to report income, fudging on the value of donations to charity, or forgetting to report outside gifts or gratuities, most people lie a bit and get away with it. But Congressmen and Federal Employees should be held to higher levels of honesty. Does that mean a Federal Judge can conveniently forget hundreds of thousands of bucks in income?
By Brian Lafferty
By Brian Lafferty
Sport gives new meaning to term "Surf Dogs" -- and gives local dogs and their owners a cool way to beat the heat 
By Miriam Raftery (guest columnist)
By Brian Lafferty
By Brian Lafferty
Nothing but the Truth!
By Brian Lafferty
By Brian Lafferty
By Brian Lafferty
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