Another "suspicious object" menaces Irvine campus

Lasik Danbury
For the second day in a row, Irvine Valley College officials faced a “time of crisis” at the normally quiet Irvine campus, when, on Thursday, an object was found on a campus sidewalk.

On Wednesday, for over an hour, classes were disrupted by evacuations as authorities examined a canvas bag rolled up and taped to hold about two pounds of sand in the “shape of a hotdog.” The object was originally discovered in a closet inside IVC’s administration building and was immediately tossed out into the A-quad, whereupon it was instructed to “move along.”

When the object refused to move, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s bomb squad was called to the scene. At about 9:30 a.m., officers evacuated the four buildings surrounding the A-quad and, using a sophisticated mobile robot system, carefully secured the object and X-rayed it.

By 10:30, the object, which proved to contain only sand, was declared to be “unremarkable,” and students and instructors were instructed to return to their classes.


At about 2:00 p.m. today, at a location near yesterday’s incident, yet another object was discovered. College officials immediately cleared the area around it and poked the object with a stick.

Glenn Roquemore, president of IVC, then called the bomb squad to the scene, and again, the object was manipulated and examined using the mobile robot.

After about fifteen minutes, the object was declared to be “perfectly unobjectionable.”

Said Randy Sturgeon of the Sheriff’s Department, “I told the college president that if he found any more objects, he should just leave them there and try to forget about them.”


UPDATE:

Thursday's odds 'n' ends

RADICAL ART REMAINS "DISAPPEARED." You'll recall that, not long ago, a painting was stolen from a wall of the Humanities Center at IVC. (See pic.) Given that it was the only object stolen, that more valuable objects were left unmolested, and, finally, that the work had a "radical" theme (concerning the plight of Latino men in California), it is reasonable to suppose that it was stolen--and subsequently destroyed--by a right-winger who was offended by its message .

As you know, the opponents of free speech and academic freedom on college campuses these days are a rude and crude bunch, and they aren't leftists; more often than not, when there's a brutish or ruthless freedom-stomping incident afoot, the culprit is a right-winger, like that UCLA knuckle-dragger who sought to pay students for recordings of "radical" professors' lectures.

The latter effort flamed out in a blaze of inglory. The knuckle-dragger lost most of his high-profile conservative supporters (Al Rantel, et al.), and he's having more trouble than ever acquiring "dirt" on left-leaning professors.

As far as I know, to date, the painting that was taken from the Humanities Center has not been recovered.

Today, I ran into Mr. Eugene Debs, who is familiar with the work and who offered me the following drawing of the piece for use in the blog:


In an effort to recover the piece, Mr. Debs will post signs around campus that display his drawing and the following message:


A HANDICAPPED HANDICAPPED RAMP. Last week, we learned that several members of the board of trustees intend to spend as much as $20,000 (total) of taxpayer money to "conference" in sunny Florida in a fancy schmancy four-star hotel (March).

In the meantime, back at the colleges, there isn't enough money, evidently, even to maintain walkway safety!

Consider the "handicapped" ramp for the CEC temporaries at IVC. It's rotten and full of holes! Check out the pics:




I took these pictures a week or two ago. Last I checked, nothing's changed.

Hey, fixing the ramp isn't expensive and it isn't rocket science. Go buy some wood, cut it to size, and hammer it in. Then paint it. My old pop could do it for about a hundred and fifty bucks. Give 'im half a day. Sheesh!