{"id":2244,"date":"2009-03-20T00:23:17","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T08:23:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sparselysageandtimely.com\/blog\/?p=2244"},"modified":"2023-12-14T21:13:57","modified_gmt":"2023-12-15T05:13:57","slug":"meditations-while-in-a-miwok-cemetery-concerning-the-news-of-west-marin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/?p=2244","title":{"rendered":"Spring meditations in a Miwok cemetery concerning the news of West Marin"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"100_1656\"The Miwok Indian cemetery at Reynolds<\/strong> (where Tony’s Seafood is located; <\/em>the restaurant’s white buildings can be seen in the background) \u00a0<\/em> From 1875 to 1930, Reynolds was a whistlestop on the narrow-gauge railroad, and numerous Miwoks lived nearby. A few of their descendants still do. The cemetery belongs to the Miwok Rancheria in Graton, Sonoma County<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"100_1653\"Today, of course, is the first day of Spring<\/strong>, and wildflowers have begun blooming around the plastic flowers that decorate each cros<\/em>s.<\/p>\n

Now that it’s Spring, “the time has come,” as the walrus said, “to speak of many things,” and I’m going to speak my piece about a couple of West Marin news stories that I’d like to see get more coverage. Both have interesting ramifications.<\/p>\n

The first occurred last week when an IRS agent shot himself in the leg<\/strong> while at a practice range in Tomales. Other than brief Sheriff’s Calls in The West Marin Citizen<\/em> and Point Reyes Light,<\/em> the incident wasn’t covered in the weekly press.<\/p>\n

The Marin Independent Journal<\/em> gave the story greater play, noting that the gun was a .40-caliber Glock and that the target range is open to the public Thursdays through Mondays for $10 per person. The IJ<\/em> even went so far as to report the 19-acre range at Alexander and Tomales-Petaluma roads has a county use permit through 2016.<\/p>\n

\"100_1665\"<\/p>\n

A Miwok inscription near the entrance to the cemetery<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But the real story of the shooting<\/strong>, which no paper has covered, is the handgun itself. Why? Glocks don’t have external-switch safeties. If you squeeze the trigger, they fire.<\/p>\n

This might be an appropriate weapon for a liquor store owner who presumably doesn’t have time to release a safety when bad guys burst through his door their guns a’blazing; however, I would think that criminal investigators, even those working for the IRS, probably have a smidgen more advance warning when there may be a need to start shooting people.<\/p>\n

I first heard about the problem with single-action Glocks from new-media consultant Dave LaFontaine of Los Angeles, who previously was an investigator for a law firm with law-enforcement clients. As it turns out, there’s been quite a debate<\/a><\/strong> in recent years over whether law enforcement officers and others can safely carry Glocks. The rules for law enforcement apparently vary from state to state.<\/p>\n

Critics complain that if you holster or unholster a Glock pistol with your finger on the trigger, you may well shoot yourself in the thigh, as numerous people have done. In fact, it has happened to enough people that a<\/strong> DEA agent has even been caught on video accidentally shooting himself<\/strong><\/a>. Now there’s a lead for the press to follow up on.<\/p>\n

\"100_1660\"<\/p>\n

Gravemarkers in the Miwok cemetery are mostly Catholic crosses, but there are also military plaques and this bicultural memorial<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here’s another story for the West Marin press<\/strong>. As was noted in my last posting, Mark Allen of Inverness Park was lead cameraman for a segment of 60 Minutes that would air Sunday evening. The segment profiled Alice Waters of Chez Panisse, who is leading a “slow-food” movement. It turned out that Mark had a cameo appearance in the segment, with the Berkeley chef hand-feeding him Mexican food at a farmers’ market.<\/p>\n

The Bay Area, perhaps to no one’s surprise, is also home to a “slow-sex” movement, The New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a><\/strong> last Friday. At the forefront of this movement, The Times<\/em> says, is One Taste Urban Retreat Center, which it describes as “a coed live-in commune dedicated to the female orgasm….<\/p>\n

\"100_1663\"“The heart of the group’s activity, listed cryptically on its Web site’s calendar as ‘morning practice,’ is closed to all but the residents. At 7 a.m. each day,” The Times <\/em>reports, “about a dozen women, naked from the waist down, lie with eyes closed in a velvet-curtained room, while clothed men huddle over them, stroking them in a ritual known as orgasmic meditation,\u201d \u00a0‘OMing,’ for short.<\/p>\n

“The couples, who may or may not be romantically involved, call one another ‘research partners.'”<\/p>\n

Heading the South of Market commune, which is now four and a half years old, is a former art gallery owner named Nicole Daedone. While obviously intrigued by her, The Times<\/em> quotes a former resident as saying Ms. Daedone exerts too much control over residents’ personal lives, and she herself acknowledges, “There’s a high potential for this to be a cult.”<\/p>\n

However, Ms. Daedone adds, partly to keep that from happening she’s moved out of the commune and in with her boyfriend, Reese Jones. The Times<\/em> describes him as a “venture capitalist\/geek,” a “braniac who sold a computer-software company he founded, Netopia, to Motorola for $208 million.”<\/p>\n

Why should the West Marin press pay attention to all this<\/strong>? Because The Times<\/em> also reported that “Mr. Jones… makes financial resources available to One Taste, including helping to buy a retreat in Stinson Beach.” Who, what, when, where? Of course the weekly press should cover this One Tastefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Miwok Indian cemetery at Reynolds (where Tony’s Seafood is located; the restaurant’s white buildings can be seen in the background) \u00a0 From 1875 to 1930, Reynolds was a whistlestop on the narrow-gauge railroad, and numerous Miwoks lived nearby. A few of their descendants still do. The cemetery belongs to the Miwok Rancheria in Graton, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":623,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2244"}],"version-history":[{"count":105,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40023,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2244\/revisions\/40023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sparselysageandtimely.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}