HALF A MILLION PEOPLE

V. Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;

R. For only in you can we live in safety.

People around here have said for years, "Why do people live in those places?"

Others build homes where mud slides just happen or waves wash things away. If you look at a map of fires in Los Angeles over the last 100 years, THE most burned place is Malibu!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has called it the "perfect fire" or megafires caused by the convergence of the driest year since 1898 and the worst winds in 20 years both caused by what the Christian Science Monitor says is climatic change . It is 10 times the size of the average forest fire of 20 years ago. The sky is orange, white ash is even here ... the sun and moon have other worldly looks to them...

The people most affected are home owners, upper middle class ... It is the worst disaster in San Diego County history, maybe the state -- a half a million displaced persons and 1500 lost homes. AND it is burning right near where it burned in '03. I can't imagine the lose those people must feel.

After the '03 fire, a statewide blue ribbon committee made a series of recommendations -- MOST of which has not been implemented. Fires are not the only problem that California faces, but doing any major infrastructure work, such as those in that report, means taxes and no one is willing to raise taxes.

And then there is our California National Guard. Half of them and their equipment are in Iraq! Now ain't that special!

That's my simplistic way of looking at it.