Wading In

No license, no liquor By Kelvin Wade April 29, 2010 Recently, two liquor stores in Fairfield were busted for selling alcohol to minors. And last week, a convenience store merchant in Vacaville was cited for selling to minors in a sting set up by a grant from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. In the Vacaville case, the clerk even checked the minor's driver's license before making the sale. I can relate to that. There was a liquor store on North Texas Street that me and my buddy Chumly would hit on the weekend when we were underage knuckleheads. The woman behind the register was super friendly and never carded us. We'd go in, joke around with her and leave shortly thereafter with 40 oz. bottles of malt liquor and plenty of smokes. One time we went in and she told us that the police were cracking down on sales to minors. She felt that her store was under surveillance. By this time, we'd already loaded the check stand down with beers and cigars. She said somethi...

Can't vote to legalize? Decriminalize By Kelvin Wade April 22, 2010 The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo took place at the Cow Palace in Daly City during the weekend. It was the first such show to allow on-site pot smoking. Expo-goers could learn about growing, buy hemp-related products, buy brownies, check out bongs and vaporizers and discuss marijuana laws. A doctor was on site to issue temporary recommendations for $99 so expo-goers could smoke in the on-site medicating area. Expo CEO Bob Katzman was reported as saying, 'We're exercising our rights as patients to peacefully gather.' Really? Was that what it was? A medical seminar? There are just a few things I'm wondering about. Did expo-goers have trouble seeing in the Cow Palace with all the black lighting? Was the Grateful Dead playing over the arena speakers the whole time or did they mix in some Ziggy Marley and Snoop Dogg? Finally, I wonder if Frito-Lay and Hostess ran the concessions. I get that there ...

Doubling down on hype Fairfield Daily Repulic By Kelvin Wade April 15, 2010 Have you seen the ad for KFC's new Double Down sandwich? The Double Down consists of two white meat chicken filets, two pieces of bacon, two pieces of Monterey and PepperJack cheese and the Colonel's sauce. The tag line is that it's so meaty, 'there's no room for a bun!' As soon as I saw the ad for such an irresponsible, indulgent, cardiac killer of a sandwich, I knew I'd have to make the sacrifice and review it for the masses (and hope my nutritionist isn't reading this)! From the television commercials, the Double Down looks massive. But when I opened the box I had the same disappointed feeling that Michael Douglas' character had in the movie 'Falling Down' when he received a squashed hamburger that bore no resemblance to the plump, juicy Whammy Burger pictured in the advertisements. The Double Down had breasts that looked like they came from a Cornish Game Hen. Th...

Fairfield Daily Republic It's time to go nuclear The Other Side By Kelvin Wade April 08, 2010 With the tragic deaths of the miners in West Virginia this week and the realization that coal provides 50 percent of our electrical power in America, perhaps it's time we consider giving nuclear power a larger role in our energy policy. France has 58 nuclear power plants that supply 76 percent of its electric power. When OPEC quadrupled oil prices in 1973, the French, who used oil as their primary energy source, moved to nuclear power to make themselves more self-sufficient. Now in the U.S. when someone mentions nuclear power, we think, 'Three Mile Island.' Our national nuclear hysteria began on March 28, 1979, when the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station near Middletown, Pa., suffered a partial core meltdown. It didn't help that 'The China Syndrome,' a movie depicting a nuclear meltdown, was released barely two weeks before the incident. No one was killed...

Fear now driving our politics By Kelvin Wade April 1, 2010 Change has come to America and America is afraid. New York Times columnist Frank Rich recently wrote about how changing demographics really fuel Tea Party rage. And while he loses credibility when he compares bricks thrown through Democratic offices with Kristallnacht, the anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany, his overall thesis hits the mark. It's not a surprise that a recent Quinnipiac poll found that most Tea Partiers are white (88 percent) and worried about the direction of the country (92 percent). But why are mostly whites attracted to this movement? And why so angry and threatening over an issue like health care? Could it be that they believe America is being lost to minorities and that 'Obamacare' is a big welfare giveaway to them? Hispanics, America's largest minority group, make up 15 percent of the population. But according to recent studies, Hispanics accounted for 50 percent of America's growth b...