Santa Barbara Current : Voice of Reason

How the American Family Met Its Demise

Sun, 17 May 2026 13:31:13 GMT

I last wrote a piece sequencing America’s transition from a nation of faith-seeking, family-oriented pilgrims to self-seeking, nihilistic pirates. This transition has happened in other societies, and it has always been marked via the demise of the nuclear family construct by way of divorce, foregoing marriage in the first place, and childlessness, as observed by the renowned British anthropologist, J.D. Unwin, in his study of some 86 societies and civilizations. The transition is also marked by a loss of faith in, and duty to, God, along with the loss of rational thinking skills.

Many times, this transition has occurred because of relative success in the world that caused societies and cultures to drift away from their moorings and suffer shipwreck. Suffice it to say, what people refer to today as progress is really a renewed form of cultural suicide. Regarding America, this all began in the 1960s.

In this piece, we will view events and values through a lens primarily focused on women, highlighting the impact on intact families and the nuclear family structure that once served to create stability and prosperity in our culture in every meaning of the word.

Next week, we will take a look through a lens focused on men.

1) The pill and abortion served to “liberate” women from pregnancy initially, and childbearing ultimately. The fact that the women’s liberation movement considered the defacto antithesis of maternal instinct liberating, speaks volumes. Meanwhile, it also deleteriously affected child-rearing. Because “a woman’s place” was no longer “in the home,” the purpose and value of home life was upended. The raising of children by way of nurturing and the inculcation of values became subordinated to the oppositive value of leaving the home to find “meaning” in work.

2) The Equal Pay Act of 1963 gave women in the workplace the right to equal pay for equal work. Whereas, that sounds fair on the surface, the previous thinking was that men were heads of households and they needed higher pay because they had to support their wives and families at home. The subsequent lowering of pay for men now forced mothers out of the home into the workplace while displacing their extremely vulnerable children into preschools, which offer all the nurture of an orphanage, and after that, modern society created the phenomenon of latchkey kids.

3) The welfare system created in the 1960s financially rewarded mothers to have no man in the home even if they were married. What is worse, having a baby out of wedlock created a revenue stream for unemployed single women.

4) The women’s liberation movement not only encouraged women to forego child rearing, it also encouraged single women to begin families on their own and to pursue equality with men in the marketplace as a source of fulfilment. Thereby, stay-at-home wives and mothers began to be looked down upon as old-fashioned and oppressed.

5) The combination of the pill, abortion and the women’s liberation movement coincided with the free sex movement and shacking up. Sexuality triumphed over self-control and chastity. Per Unwin, when any society forsook prenuptial chastity, a form of human entropy evolved, that is, a gradual dissent into disorder. Why was this so important? Because it opened a pandora’s box that served to weaken the bonds of life-long absolute monogamy and fidelity.

6) No-fault divorce laws made divorce easy and quick, and courts favored mothers for primary custody, thereby leaving a significant number of children in a fatherless home, which is the leading indicator of nearly every modern social ill in our society today, including criminal behavior, suicide, homelessness, and drug and alcohol abuse.

7) God was declared dead; God-given maternal instinct was put on life support, and the results are in.

America’s Transition from Pilgrims to Pirates

Sun, 10 May 2026 13:30:37 GMT

I am doing a three-part series in recognition of our nation’s 250^th Anniversary. These three articles are, in my opinion, some of the most important information I have sought to convey in my 35 years as a journalist. I hope you will consider them carefully.

An Orgy of “Self”

Whereas our nation’s motto is still “In God We Trust,” in reality, we have fallen…

Election Reflections and Recommendations

Sun, 03 May 2026 13:31:21 GMT

Due to Gavin Newsom’s order that everyone receive their ballot by mail, your ballots may have arrived by the time you read this message.

I would like to share some of my personal recommendations for this election cycle.

For the governor’s race, I am leaning towards Steve Hilton, but I would be happy with Chad Bianco. That is to say, I am hoping that things are bad enough in our state that people will wake up and realize the current day Democrat Party has nothing to offer but more of the same, namely, the interrelated and cumulative impacts of inane policies and priorities resulting in the most unaffordable housing, gasoline, and electricity, not to mention the highest taxes, poverty, and homelessness, in the nation.

Our problem here in California, considering decades of failed leadership by elected Democrats, is that some people, namely Democrat voters and some Independents, are under the awful delusion that maybe the next Dem they vote for won’t be so bad. Let me tell you something. We haven’t had a good Democrat serving as Governor since Pat Brown. Having said that, Grey Davis would be an improvement over the likes of Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsom, or any of the Dems running for governor in this election cycle; the party is becoming progressively worse over time.

Here Are My Recommendations

For Congress, District 24, Bob Smith

For State Insurance Commissioner, Stacy Korsgaden

For State Superintendent of Public Schools, Sonja Shaw

For Attorney General, Michael Gates

For State Controller, Herb Morgan

For State Assembly District 37, Sari Domingues

For State Assembly District 30, Shannon Kessler

For Board of Equalization District 2, J. Brett Marymee

For Superior Court of Santa Barbara County, Luis Esparza

Local Races

For the following races, please be advised that some of these are going to be over in June. You can’t wait until November to decide who you want to vote for.

In SLO County, I am supporting Adam Verdin for 4^th District County Supervisor.

And Michael Erin Woody – SLO County Board of Supervisors, District 2.

For SLO County Clerk-Recorder, Vanessa Rozo.

In Santa Barbara County’s Fifth District please vote for Maribel Aguilera for County Supervisor.

For Santa Barbara County for Auditor Controller, please vote for Betsy Schaffer.

For Santa Barbara County Clerk, Recorder, Assessor, please support Melinda Greene.

In Conclusion

Have you ever done the math on our election process and its abysmal results in our state? There are approximately 22 million eligible voters in California.

A very large number of eligible people, three to four million, have never bothered to register to vote in CA, some 17%. In the general election of 2024, nearly 29% of registered voters did not vote, which equates to over 6.5 million voters. Add those numbers up and you have some 10 million people that are sitting out our elections regularly.

Here is where things get interesting. Of the 16 million who do vote, approximately 60% (9.6 million) of those continue to vote for the politicians that have been making a mess of this state for decades at every level of government, namely Democrats. That is, they keep voting for the party of regular debt and pension debt, high taxes, failing and undersized infrastructure, and decarceration, not to mention rampant waste, fraud, and abuse (rising to a cost of $17,000/yr per voter by some early estimates).

All in all, Democrats represent about 45% of the voters in CA, but control some 75-100% of elected positions, depending on the community (most all coastal communities are solid blue). In Santa Barbara’s south county, I don’t believe there is a single Republican on any city council. In our state legislature, Democrats have had super-majorities for some 14 years. Our state’s congressional delegation consists of 42 Dems, 7 Republicans and 1 Independent in the House of Representatives and two Democrat U.S. Senators.

Their stranglehold appears to be breaking, however: the GOP flipped three seats in the 2024 election (which is the real reason for the gerrymander of Prop. 50), and the CA Democrat Party has failed to unify behind a candidate going into this open primary.

Q. What would happen if the ten million residents sitting out our elections finally get fed up and weigh in with their ballots?

A. We could turn this state red in a flash.

California Corruption: Ideological and Otherwise

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 13:30:51 GMT

During this past Tuesday’s County Board of Supervisors’ meeting, Supervisor Laura Capps (she is now the ideological leader of the county supes), with the support of Supervisors Lee and Hartmann, approved some very extreme measures that violate our Constitution, at least in spirit, if not literally.

The worst measure approved by these three has do with a …

Government Imposed Political and Economic Self-Immolation

Sun, 19 Apr 2026 13:30:21 GMT

County Supervisors Laura Capps, Joan Hartmann, and Roy Lee are planning to shut down all oil operations in Santa Barbara County.

Why is this a horrible idea?

The number one reason California residents and businesses are paying upwards of $2 more per gallon than the rest of the country is because a multitude of CA politicians, including these locals, have …

The Sad State of Gavin Newsom’s California

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 13:30:50 GMT

Have you heard of the bombshell report titled “Gavin Newsom’s Empire of Fraud?”

What follows are direct quotes from the introduction to the exposé conducted by the think tank “The Manhattan Institute for Policy Research”:

California’s Cash Machine

The state collects some of the country’s highest income, business, and fuel taxes, and now spends more than $3…

The No Kings Movement, Then and Now

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 13:30:44 GMT

The original No Kings movement happened a little over 2,000 years ago when some leaders of a mob shouted to Pontius Pilate, “We Have No King but Caesar!”

Just a few days earlier, a multitude of people had welcomed Jesus as king when he rode into Jerusalem on a donkey colt, not as a conqueror, but as a sacrificial lamb. That day is known as Palm Sunday, t…

Gavin Newsom is a Pedophile’s Best Friend

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 13:31:46 GMT

Governor Gavin Newsom’s expanded Elderly Parole Program lead to the initial parole of convicted pedophile Gregory Lee Vogelsang

I recently warned parents about the dangers of social media, having to do with the fact that social media has been engineered to addict people, resulting in all sorts of emotional and psychological problems for children and teens. Earlier this week, it was reported that Meta and Google were found negligent in a social media addiction trial in Los Angeles, potentially setting the stage for dozens of similar lawsuits that have been brought against Big Tech companies.

Unfortunately, there are also some nefarious things happening in the world of online gaming platforms, where sexual predators hide hoping to lure children into some very dark places. One company, Roblox, is being prosecuted because the company allegedly misled parents about the safety of their platform.

How bad is it? Children as young as 13 years old can visit a virtual Epstein’s Island, strip clubs, and a Sean Diddy freak off!

These platforms, which are visited by millions of people who can remain virtually anonymous, make it extremely difficult for authorities to identify and apprehend the predators.

What’s even worse is that here in California and in other blue states, predators who have been caught and sentenced are eligible to be released from prison after only having served a small portion of their sentence.

As reported by Fox News, using California’s Megan’s Law website in 2022, the Daily Mail found that more than 7,000 sex offenders convicted of “lewd or lascivious acts with a child under 14 years of age” were released from prison within a year of being convicted.

Moreover, you can thank Democrats in Sacramento for giving one serial pedophile, Gregory Lee Vogelsang, a chance to reoffend even though he was given a 355-years-to-life sentence for sexually abusing children as young as five years old.

Due to a bill signed into law by Gavin Newsom, Vogelsang, who kidnapped and molested more than two dozen victims, could end up walking free after having served a mere 27 years of a 355 years-to-life sentence.

The bill (AB 3234) made it possible for a 50-year-old person who has served 20 consecutive years to qualify for a parole hearing.

Vogelsang, in November of 2025, was granted parole. However, after a hue and cry arose, the parole was temporarily rescinded, and the case was referred back to the Board of Parole Hearings for further review.

Another perv, David Allen Funston, was convicted in 1999 of kidnapping and molesting eight children in the Sacramento area and sentenced to three consecutive life terms. Funston was also granted parole under California’s Elderly Parole Program in February. Thankfully, however, just hours before he was due for release, law enforcement responded by slapping Funston with new charges stemming from an alleged child sexual assault that happened in Roseville in 1996.

Why did they wait to charge him on this case?

Because back in 1999, they figured he had already been sentenced to life in prison. But that all changed when he was granted parole.

Katy Grimes, of the California Globe, noted while reporting on these stories, that Newsom not only signed the heinous bill, but he also appointed or reappointed all the members of the California Parole Board. She also revealed that AB 3234 was a gut-and-amend bill passed in 2020 entirely on party lines without a hearing or notice to the public.

Gut-and-amend is a phrase used to describe a monstrous practice in our state legislature. Most every bill is typically heard first in various committees before it is voted for or against on the floor of the senate and the assembly. Gut-and-amend takes a bill that made it through that normative process and strips it of all language, replacing it with content that has never been heard or debated.

It should be called bait and switch.

Please call our local State Senator Monique Limon (916-651-4021) and the Governor (916-445-2841) and inform them that it is imperative they insist that individuals convicted of child molestation and other violent crimes do not receive early release, and that they be compelled to serve their complete sentences.

It is the only decent thing to do.

Apocalypse? It’s a Good Thing!

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 13:31:01 GMT

You say you don’t want a war with Iran? Well, you are too late! Iran has been at war with us since 1979.

A simple Google search reveals the following:

In 1979, Iranian students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

In the 1980s, Iran began using proxies like Hezbollah to target Americans abroad. Notable attacks include:

April 1983: Suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut killed 17 Americans.

October 1983: Truck bomb at the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut killed 241 U.S. service members, the deadliest attack on Marines since WWII.

1984–1985: Kidnappings and assassinations, including CIA station chief William Buckley, and the hijackings of U.S. citizens .

1990s: Iran-backed groups continued targeting Americans:

1996 Khobar Towers bombing: Truck bomb killed 19 U.S. Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia; Iran was found directly responsible.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad attacks in Israel killed multiple Americans, including bus bombings in Jerusalem.

During the Iraq War (2003–2011), Iran armed and trained militias responsible for at least 603 U.S. troop deaths. In Afghanistan, Iran supplied weapons and safe havens to select Taliban factions, contributing to attacks on U.S. and NATO forces.

2020–Present: Iran attacked U.S. bases in Iraq, causing over 100 traumatic brain injuries.

2023–2025: Iranian-backed militias launched over 180 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, killing, and wounding multiple Americans.

So, here we are in 2026. Why did we finally fight back? Despite all these deaths and injuries, Trump, with Israel’s help, finally attacked Iran because it was about to become a nuclear power. Why was that the tipping point?

Iran was not interested in obtaining the status of empire to obtain domination, but rather damnation, as it pertains to the rest of the world!

A brief history and explanation are in order here. All the major wars we have been involved in had to do with aspirations by foreign powers for empire. That would include Japan and Germany in World War II. Russia and the Soviet empire that created the Iron Curtain and a decades long “Cold War”, the very same empire that Putin is trying to recreate via his attacks on Ukraine. And of course, China has a goal of world domination by the year 2049 and they are well on their way by virtue of their so called “belts and roads” initiative that has already laid the groundwork for their hegemonic aspirations.

So, what about Iran? Well, the mullahs in Iran are of the Shiite faith. Their radicalized interpretation of their religion aims at destroying all non-believers via a divine mandate to usher in a day of apocalypse.

Apocalypse?

Sometimes War is the Best Way to Give Peace a Chance

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 13:30:46 GMT

President Trump asked the members of Congress, point blank, to stand up if they believe their first priority is the American citizen or immigrants.

He might as well have asked them if they support the people of Iran or its brutal dictators.

He would have gotten the same answer.

I don’t know of anyone who wants a war in the Middle East.

However, that is not …

Engineered Addiction to a Psychological Narcotic

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 14:30:16 GMT

Former Facebook president Sean Parker stated that the Facebook site “was made to consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible to exploit the vulnerability (the craving of social validation) in human psychology.”

That is a nice way to say the business model is based upon the vulnerability of humans to become addicted. Unfortunately, th…

Gavin Newsom’s Hobson’s Choice

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 14:30:35 GMT

The very liberal Washington Post had this to say in a recent editorial:

“Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the largest deregulatory action in U.S. history. It’s about time.

“Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1963 to regulate local pollution around the country, and regulators did that for decades. Then, in 2009, the EPA …

Why Government Keeps Running Out of Your Money

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 14:31:00 GMT

Two years after San Luis Obispo County Supervisors declared that road maintenance was no longer a priority, the SLO County Association of Governments wants to raise sales taxes to help maintain roads.

Talk about mixed signals!

The City of Santa Barbara is also planning to raise taxes. It is considering raising the bed taxi at hotels and motels, and worse,…

Help Stop the Proposed CA Tax on Driving

Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:31:11 GMT

If California legislators have their way, in effect, every road in our state will become a toll road, including your own driveway. That is because all those Democrats clamoring about the affordability crisis are simultaneously planning on creating a vehicle-miles-traveled tax or VMT.

A VMT would be a new tax that would tax you for every mile you drive. F…

Never Let a Crisis Go to Waste!

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 14:30:32 GMT

There are two burning questions having to do with the chaos and violence taking place in Minneapolis. First, how did so much fraud occur and no one in the government caught it, unless the government was intentionally ignoring the same? Second, why bring a gun with extra ammo to a peaceful protest? Like many Americans, I believe the answers to these two …

Sulphur Dioxide and California’s Medieval Redux

Sun, 25 Jan 2026 14:31:43 GMT

I once had the opportunity to meet Dixy Lee Ray, a highly respected scientist who was Rush Limbaugh’s science advisor, not to mention the first female governor of Washington, and the former chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission! She wrote a couple of books including “Environmental Overkill.” The premise of the book was that environmenta…

The Insular City Off the Coast of America

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 14:31:03 GMT

Just 38 percent of the adult residents of Manhattan are married, a figure about 12 points lower than that for the nation as a whole.

Fifty-one percent of Manhattan’s adult males and 48 percent of its adult females have never been married, a rate much higher than the national rate of 37 percent for men and 32 percent for women.

Among the 1.6 million reside…

The ICE Martyr and Other Weapons of Mass Effect

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 14:31:11 GMT

The dreadful truth? If Rachel Good had been murdered by one of the illegal alien killers ICE was seeking to arrest in Minneapolis, would anybody in her activist circle, including the media, be asking for justice? If they did, it would be a first.

The mission of our heroic ICE agents that has been lost in all the spin? As reported by Fox News: some of the…

Ché Carbajal and the Monroe Doctrine

Sun, 11 Jan 2026 14:30:38 GMT

Congressman Salud Carbajal channeling Ernesto "Che" Guevara

Even MSN will confirm that Donald Trump is not the first president who did not get congressional consent to carry out military actions in another country:

“In 1950, President Harry Truman used his authority to send U.S. troops to defend South Korea along with a U.N. Security Council resolution, b…

Minnesota’s Tim Walz and the Somalians are Rank Amateurs

Sun, 04 Jan 2026 14:31:29 GMT

A few observations and predictions having to do with the fact that no state in America is governed by, as it has been said before, “a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

As Katy Grimes reports for the California Globe (the best news website in CA!), “because the cost of living in California is so high, Democrat lawmakers think increasing the minimu…