Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Orange County right-wing lunatic watch

"My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives."
—Howard Ahmanson, Jr. (Quoted in the OC Reg, 1993)

Yesterday, our pal Gustavo Arellano (of the OC Weekly) posted about his curious recent correspondence with Howard Ahmanson, Jr., a religious extremist and pal o’ Tom Fuentes’. I seem to recall that Arellano once described him as the most important Orange Countian you've never heard of. (See Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. responds to Weekly query.)

Evidently, Gustavo had written to Ahmanson, asking him questions about, among other things, (1) Ahmanson’s contributions to the CAPO Unified School District's wacky “reform” trustees (who have received financial support from a “back to basics” [aka “we hate public education and teachers unions”] organization, Education Alliance, which received seed money from Ahmanson and on whose board SOCCCD board prez Don Wagner sits) and (2) Ahmanson’s take on the Newport Beach's St. James Episcopal Church situation—they’re currently homeless owing to their support of a homophobic Ugandan Bishop. Ahmanson was a member of that church.

Amazingly, Ahmanson responded, implying, among other things, his love of Ry Cooder's Chavez Ravine CD!

Evidently, Ahmanson has no problem with the Ugandan lunatic. Nevertheless, for other reasons, he’s moved on to another church.

● There's a new "progressive" blog in Orange County. It's called Orange County Progressive.

Yes, progressives. In Orange County. Strange, isn't it?

Roy's obituary in LA Times and Register: "we were lucky to have you while we did"

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