In a normal time and as part of the vacation fun, Smith would have taken her kids on the Ship Island Excursions ferry. But, Smith said, “We were one of the 40, 000 who opted not to go to Ship Island because I did not want them [kids] to see the mess. They normally have 50,000 people take the excursion boat a summer. This year they estimate 10,000.”

I am not just sure what a degree in literary journalism enables you to do but I do not recall ever seeing a job listing with that requirement. What Antonia Rivera now has along with her degree is an arrest record that she can show to her prospective employer. Not a good choice for her to make.

Earl Hamilton

Anaheim

•••

Antonia Rivera, a grad student, is now touted as a hero for being here illegally. What is our country coming to? Why isn't this young lady, who no doubt is a good person, spending time and effort trying to become a legal citizen of this country that has given her so much?

Why is she so proud and unconcerned to the point that she can sit in our country's capitol with banners saying "Undocumented and Unafraid"? Why was she "well received" in the offices of three U.S. senators? Why aren't advocates for the illegals of our country trying to get them to become legal citizens through the proper channels as millions have before them?

All the "Dream Act" will do is get them something for nothing, which unfortunately has become the norm in our country. Why work for something when I can protest and have it given to me?

Folks, try doing this in any other country. Ms. Rivera, try doing this in Mexico and see how "well received" you are. Ms. Rivera, you were brought here illegally when you were 6 so you have had 22 years to become a citizen. Why haven't you? Have your parents become citizens?

Why not, if not?

Gary Arneson

Huntington Beach

•••

If Register writer Brian Rosenthal thought his article on the arrest of illegal immigrant Irvine graduate Antonia Rivera would get sympathy, he was greatly mistaken. So this woman, whose parents came here illegally, got a first-class education and decided to put it to good use by protesting our laws and getting arrested in Washington, D.C.

I would suggest a better way for her to use her education (provided by U.S. taxpayers) is to return to Mexico and help to fix its economy, poverty, crime rate, illiteracy and endless corruption. Of course, I doubt she will do that anytime soon.

Hopefully the U.S. immigration service will do its job and deport Ms. Rivera as soon as is practical.

O. Faria

Huntington Beach

The power of Palin

The liberal left complains that former Gov. Sarah Palin is not fit to hold national office (i.e., the presidency).

Obviously, something must be working because otherwise, liberals wouldn't waste so much ammunition on an unworthy target.

Burl Estes

Mission Viejo

Innovate out of recession

If Americans built the railroads, the massive dams (during the Great Depression), our phenomenal freeway/highway system across the country and took men to the moon, as well as other great feats of engineering and innovation we have in this country, why can't we innovate, construct, convert and sell (to other countries) alternative energy and fuels?

Where is that American "know-how" that once made us great? Sadly, I don't hear any politicians of either party offer any solutions, suggestions or programs toward this goal only criticism, lies and Washington gridlock. I'm sick of it, and I'm sure other Americans are, too.

We cannot expect any economic recession/depression to be fixed overnight. But, why aren't we creating jobs in the alternative fuels/power industry? For example, I read that if all rooftops were painted white (like you see in Greece) that the temperature inside the buildings would cool, reducing the need for A/C in hot weather. This equals money saved, the buildings more energy efficient.

Like in the Depression, fix this country and create jobs. Write your politicians; suggest job creation ideas since they don't seem to have any of their own.

Cynthia Schultheis

Long Beach

The O.C. Enquirer?

Why don't you just change the name of the paper to The O.C. Rag? How many times do we have to read about a next-door neighbor aspiring to become a "Sexiest Guy" [Front Page, July 20]? When does this become news?

Is there no other news going on in the county, state, nation, world, that would merit the front page of a newspaper? No wonder the newsprint is going out of business.

Larry Cummings

Buena Park

The Mideast small print

Sometimes a lot of information is missed by not reading the small print. For instance, a small article on Page 6 ["Israel readies anti-rocket dome," World, July 20], informed us that Israel readies their anti-rocket dome. A necessity, should you reside within rocket distance of 100 million "religion of peace" followers.

Within the last three days, Muslim fanatics carried out six major suicide bombings; Syria revoked the wearing of the niqab (full Islamic veil) for students and teachers, and my favorite; "Hamas bans women from hookah smoking" [World, July 19]. Ihab Ghussein, Hamas' Interior Minister said, "It harms the image of our people." Trust me Ihab, it wouldn't matter if your people smoked or burned, it can't do much more damage to the image of your people.

Mike Berkus

Villa Park

Brown's accomplishments

Letter-writer Al Kakita's letter ["Wrong-way Brown," Letters, July 20] is ridiculous. Kakita chides Brown as a professional politician who has no real accomplishments other than getting elected to various positions and being less than effective in any office he has held.

If this were the case, why was he elected all to these various positions including two terms as governor of California?

Doug McCobb

Fullerton

Missing the political point

In response to letter-writer Carolyn Lopez ["No vacation for the U.S. Economy," Opinion, July 21]: As far as the vacation, I don't care, but Carolyn's comment shows her lack of attention to current events. Nobody is legitimately blaming Obama for starting the fiscal mess; he's at fault for exacerbating it, many times over. Many of your fellow Democrats are beginning to see this; check the polls. Sounds like you voted and "tuned out."

Bill Bushek

Coto de Caza

WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Letters to the Editor: E-mail to letters@ocregister.com. Please provide your name and telephone number (telephone numbers will not be published). Letters of about 200 words will be given preference. Letters will be edited for length, grammar and clarity. 

Following on from just-style's recent report predicting tomorrow's apparel manufacturing industry, this sister title looks at tomorrow's clothing retail market. This think-piece report is about the whole of clothing retail, now and in the future. It is an analysis of where the consumers' money will be spent. Accordingly, it has been split into broad price, merchandise and geography segments. These are:

    *      Price (luxury; mass; value).    *      Merchandise (women’s outerwear; women’s underwear; menswear; childrenswear; accessories).    *      Regional geography (North America; Western Europe; Japan; Middle East; BRICs).

The main question that the report poses is whether the financial crises of 2008-2010 have created a paradigm shift in the behaviour of consumers, retailers and brands, in what is now a differently constructed business and political world.

Extract: Retailers’ behaviours have been erratic, not to say schizophrenic since October 2008. In turn, we witnessed:

    *      an immediate reaction to dramatic falls in demand by a wave of offers;    *      a realisation that SS09 would be heavily overstocked;    *      a savage reduction in purchases for AW09;    *      a ‘play it safe’ merchandise choice approach to SS10;    *      for AW10 some have prepared for recovery; others have banked on double dip recession.

In this situation, the report considers four future drivers of the industry.

Following Chapter 1's Executive summary, Chapter 2 Introduction describes how the report will address the main question posed - whether the financial crises of 2008-2010 have created a paradigm shift in the behaviour of consumers, retailers and brands.

It answers the question by providing:

    *      the nature of the luxury, mass and value markets in Chapter 3, with the use of price-fashion matrices;    *      the economics of the apparel market in Chapter 4, with the use of luxury, mass and value cost structures;    *      the segments of the apparel market in Chapter 5, with the use of merchandise categories, fashionability and price points;    *      a hypothesis for the future and an analysis of four major issues: polarisation, e-commerce, green and supply chain in Chapters 6-10;    *      a forecast of future hotspots by merchandise categories, fashionability, price points and regions in Chapter 11. Here, this chapter provides historic and forecasted % share of the global clothing retail market by clothing segment and price point.

This report provides an essential insight into how the recent downturn has left the world clothing retail industry, its effects and where the industry will likely head out to 2016.

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The statement was published on the official website of the of the HRW.

Human Rights Watch called on Russia and the international community to press the de facto authorities in South Ossetia to bring those responsible for the attack to justice and to foster a normal working climate for civil and political activists in the region.

The statement was published on the official website of the of the HRW. The organization has responded to the attack on independent journalist in Tskhinvali Region, who was brutally beaten up by the puppet regime authorities a few days ago. The journalist is held in VLadikavkaz hospital due to the permanent pressure even after the violence.

`We are appalled by the attack on Tskhovrebov and deeply concerned about the safety of activists in South Ossetia,` said Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. `A prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation is needed to bring the assailants to justice.`

`Whenever there are credible grounds for suspecting official involvement or acquiescence in acts of ill-treatment, the authorities have a clear legal obligation to make sure that an effective investigation is conducted that is capable of establishing the extent of any such involvement and bringing those responsible to account, Human Rights Watch said. Human rights law prohibits the use of immunity to protect officials from accountability for acts of ill-treatment,` the statement says.

Timur Tskhovrebov, editor of The XXI Seculare independent newspaper and founder of the Iron Republican Party in South Ossetia, was attacked by approximately 10 individuals, allegedly including three members of the South Ossetian parliament, on July 24, 2010. The assailants reportedly threatened to kill Tskhovrebov because he had signed a joint appeal with Georgian activists urging those involved in the United Nations-sponsored Geneva consultations, a negotiations platform established after the August 2008 war, to make the humanitarian needs of the local population, including their security and freedom of movement, a priority. Tskhovrebov was hospitalized with multiple injuries.

Rustavi2

Andrea Larrabee of SuicideGirls.com recently conducted an interview with KORN frontman Jonathan Davis. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

SuicideGirls.com: How did the BP boycott come about?

Jonathan Davis: That thing started out, for me, just seeing what was going on. I was just disgusted with that company. Myself, personally, I wasn't going to buy any of their products. I told my management about it and they're like, well, let's boycott it if you feel that strongly about it. So we started the whole boycott just to send a message to those companies. If enough people don't buy their products then they'll feel it. We're not going to put them out of business or anything, it's just [about] trying to say that you need to be held accountable for destroying these people's lives. Why didn't [they] spend that extra money to make sure that this didn't happen? Hopefully by us doing that — and we're getting more and more bands that are joining everyday — it'll send a message to those oil companies to spend the money to make sure it doesn't happen again. Because it's only one well - there's hundreds of them in that gulf, and thousands in the whole word. They need to be held accountable to make sure the safety measures are there.

SuicideGirls.com: This kind of corner-cutting seems to be something that's endemic in the whole industry. I don't know if you remember the Exxon Valdez spill that happened 21 years ago.

Jonathan Davis: I remember that as a kid, yeah.

SuicideGirls.com: That was basically caused because Exxon were too cheap to repair or replace a broken sonar on the tanker. And the situation after the spill was exacerbated because the company was too cheap to implement safety measures they'd already promised were in place which were a condition of operating out of the port in Valdez. Two decades on, we've learned nothing, and are dealing with a similar but far worse situation.

Jonathan Davis: Well, BP, basically, if they'd have spent seven million more dollars and two more days this would have never have happened. It's just them being cheap.

SuicideGirls.com: What do you mean by that?

Jonathan Davis: It came out on air that if they'd have used a more expensive — the proper — concrete, which would have cost seven million more bucks and an extra two days for them to pour it, that that wouldn't have happened. All that stuff, it's just retarded.

SuicideGirls.com: If we're going to prevent anything like this happening again in the future we have to penalize BP today as a deterrent for other companies who might be tempted to put profits above safety. And it feels like BP have left us to clear up their social and environmental mess, while their priority clean-up-wise appears to be sucking up the oil so they can sell it.

Jonathan Davis: Yeah. Like they had the idea to funnel it into a tanker. They're worried about the fucking oil and not the people [whose livelihoods] they've destroyed. I mean they've got more money than god — we'll just pay everybody and everything will be fine. But there's no amount of money that these people could get. Some of those places [that have been affected] have been around for hundreds of years. They've been passed down from family to family — like this oyster factory on the gulf coast I saw. This guy, his dad gave it to him, and his grandfather, and his grandfather before that. It's been like a hundred years. And they're going to have to close their doors because they don't know what's going to happen, if the oysters are going to be ruined forever.

SuicideGirls.com: Knowing what happened after the Exxon Valdez disaster gives me huge cause for concern with regards to this spill. I mean those affected by Exxon Valdez were originally awarded a $5 billion settlement, but the oil company, because they had deep pockets and they could, appealed and appealed against it. After being held up in court for years, the settlement was ultimately reduced to $507 million, and it took two decades for the first payments to reach those who were entitled to it, by which time people had committed suicide, succumbed to illness caused by the pollution, and their livelihoods and those of their children had been destroyed. The money got there way too late to help, and it just seems like the same thing is going to play out this time.

Jonathan Davis: It probably will because those companies are untouchable. Obviously the government's not going to do anything about it because [the politicians] make back door deals with them. The bottom line is oil is our life. Our wars are fought over it. Everything is surrounded by this stupid fucking brown shit that comes out of the earth...[It's something that] everybody has a vested interest in so it's up to the people - us - not just sit by and let shit happen and depend on our government to work it out. It's on us to do something.

SuicideGirls.com: You talk about oil being our lives, but really the wealth generated by it only benefits a tiny percentage of already obscenely wealthy Americans. I had a very profound experience a few years ago when I went to Norway for the Øya Festival. While I was there I learned that a massive percentage of the country's oil wealth goes back to the people. The money pays for health care, social services, education, and the arts. Meanwhile, the oil companies drilling in California don't have to pay any royalties to the local or federal governments - even though the oil is being sucked from beneath land that belongs to all of us. And we have a bankrupt state.

Jonathan Davis: I know, it's ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. There's countries in Europe and all around the world, people got it together. It just seems like here, in the States, it's so fucked up. I see it first hand because in the town I live in, where we did the "Oildale" video, there's hundreds of pumps around in Oildale but it's the most impoverished, fucked-up place I think I've ever been to. All these people who live near the oil fields, they don't receive anything. They're poor, it's overrun with drugs, it's disgusting, and if we [got] something out of it it'd be amazing. Just the fact that in Norway, they've got social services, art, everything — fuck! I want to move to Norway.

Read the entire interview from SuicideGirls.com.

Korn star Jonathan Davis wanted to kill himself while recording the band's latest album - because producer Ross Robinson drove him to the brink of madness. The rockers teamed up with Robinson, who worked on their first two albums, to record "Korn III : Remember Who You Are".

Davis, who has been on anti-depressants since he quit drugs 12 years ago, was constantly tormented by Ross in the studio, as the producer forced him to open up about his ultra-personal lyrics. The frontman admits he fell into a deep depression and "wanted to die" - and became convinced Robinson was "sticking a knife" into him at every opportunity.

Davis tells Kerrang! magazine, "Making the record was sheer f**king hell. It was one of the most difficult things in my life. It was f**king torment. (Ross) put me in a place I didn't want to be. He put me in a horrible depression where I wanted to kill myself again. It was f**ked up. He was just pushing my buttons, tormenting me and f**king me up."

"He'd find out everything that my lyrics were about, then he'd use that s**t as ammo while I was singing. I got back into a position where I trusted him, but then he abused the s**t out of (that trust) and that killed me... He was sticking a knife deep into my heart. It was f**king brutal. He's a motherf**ker. I literally got to the point where I wanted to die. (Bandmates) Fieldy and Munky were worried sick about me. I lost a whole lot of weight, I couldn't eat, I was rotting away."

Davis also claims his wife was brought to a recording session by Ross - and the producer forced him to sing a highly personal track to her face. But the traumatic experience had a happy ending - Davis managed to quit anti-depressants after pouring out his emotions on the record.

He adds, "I feel better than I have in a long time and I think it's because of this album. I've been on Prozac for 12 years and I'm off it now. I know what it feels like to be excited and sad again. I haven't felt like this in 12 years; I'm like a giddy little kid."