BARBWIRE by ANDREW BARBANO Pirate Laureate of the High Desert Outback of the American Dream

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Last year was bad enough as we flung ourselves back to the future of driverless cars, pilotless drones and rudderless politicians.

So where do we go from here? How about—>

—>DRONE PROMOTING AND AEROBIC SMOKING: Last week came mass e-mails selling spray-on weight loss, the most outrageous diet promise this side of amputation.

Now come healthy cigarettes. (Is smoking aerobic?)

"Stay healthy while smoking," promises an ad from XOCigs. (XO, as in kiss your lungs goodbye?)

"Looks, feels and tastes like a real cigarette." It also hooks you on nicotine.

"Claim your exclusive XO cigs kit! Act now, supplies are limited!" (Beware anyone who uses lotsa exclamation points.)

Everything old is new again. John Wayne once appeared in ads for "healthy" Camel cigarettes and died of lung cancer.

XO marks the spot. Be careful. It might attract drones.

"Do you think there will be a drone hunting season alá Colorado?" wrote Tom Hudson in response to last week's Solar-powered insurance drones from hell.

"Maybe the governor had to promise a No Drone Season to get Nevada in the running" for designation as a predator guinea pig. (Submit corporate welfare applications ASAP via Amazon.com.)

The state needs money, but how far will the Sandoval administration go? Drone hunting licenses? Aerial banners? Fuselage ads, perhaps?

Unlike birds and bunnies, will drones be allowed to shoot back?

Will there be penalties for feeding drones like the laws against feeding bears?

Will honeybees sue for trademark infringement over ownership of the brand name?

What about drone proliferation? Will activists raise moral objections to drone population control?

Will protests spread to animal shelters that advocate birth control?

Do the Little Sisters of the Poor who busted Obamacare spay and neuter their pets?

Maybe we should just ice a cold one, light up, sit back and leave drone development to Utah.

They're into bees, right?

TRANSITIONS: We lost friends last year. On New Year's Day came word of the Dec. 22 passing of 30-year Circus Circus-Reno baker Roy Whoit Howard, 74. The affable union man served as Culinary Local 226 delegate to the Sparks-based Northern Nevada Central Labor Council/AFL-CIO where he sat as a trustee on the umbrella labor body's executive board.

[UPDATE: At the Jan. 8 CLC meeting, Todd Koch, Business Manager of Painters & Allied Trades Local 567/DC16 and President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Northern Nevada/AFL-CIO, called for a moment of silence in memory of Brother Howard.]

Rock star Jello Biafra informed Nevada about the loss of Washoe Valley native Cimber Weaver, 52. The founder of a series of music shops (The Wave, The Cave, Insurrection Sound) died on Nov. 9 in Oregon following surgery.

I knew him in his younger days as manager of Straw Hat Pizza in Reno's Shoppers Square.

[UPDATE FROM A READER, a Nevada attorney: "Thanks for the shout out on Cimber Weaver. He was my boss at Straw Hat while I studied for the Bar Exam.  Later, he was my roommate and friend of over 25 years."]

DON'T FORGET: Say adiós to Vivian Freeman—>Celebration of life Saturday 18 Jan. 2014 at Washoe Democratic HQ

RENDER UNTO CESAR: Northern Nevada César Chávez Celebration XII happens on the great labor leader's birthday, March 31, 2014.

Commit for tickets and tables now at CesarChavezNevada.com before prices increase.

I'm planning a TV special about César Chávez's days in Nevada.

Stay tuned.

ANTE INTO THE GAME: Support the new season of Barbwire.TV by putting your money where my mouth is.

PayPal monthly subscription software is now operational at the website.

A thousand thanks to those who already responded.

Keep sending show suggestions.

Current frontrunners include (pardon the pun) wild mustangs as canned goods, education,  i-Guns and gay Olympics with César Chávez in Nevada recently surging.

  Please forward additional ideas or vote on the above.

  I encourage you to donate to the cause at Barbwire.TV/

The medium that shapes public opinion needs at least one refuge where it is not filtered through the distorted green eye shades of prissy corporate accountants for whom profit is the only priority; where self-censorship is the journalist's normal work environment and where all sins of omission are tacitly encouraged and forgiven with the wave of a balance sheet.

This is important.

We've got work to do.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

WEB EXTRAS...

HONOR YOUR DON. Keep sending comments supporting legendary Nevada photographer Don Dondero (1920-2003) for the Nevada Press Association Hall of Fame.

His life's work appeared worldwide, including the Tribune and most probably every newspaper in Nevada.

Enlist in the campaign to install Big Don.

Please send me your memories and endorsements via e-mail or to P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

The Barbwire got the late Reno Gazette-Journal columnist Guy Richardson elected in 2012.

Let's double down.

Be well. Raise hell. / Esté bien. Haga infierno. (Pardon my Spanglish.)

____________
Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, chair of the Nevada César Chávez Committee, producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration, first vice-president and political action chair of the Reno-Sparks NAACP, labor/consumer/civil rights advocate, member of Communications Workers of America Local 9413/AFL-CIO and editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. Check local listings for other Nevada cable systems. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us. Barbwire by Barbano has originated in the Daily Sparks Tribune since 1988.

Smoking Guns... Liberal reasons to oppose liberal positions and policies Guaranteed to irritate all points of the political spectrum DAILY SPARKS TRIBUNE 12-26-2010 Let's persuade Apple to start making i-Guns here Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-24-2013 Sparks Tribune Enron II: Nevada's Battle-Born Toxic Event Indigence and indigestion from ingestion of Warren Buffett's buffet Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-6-2013 Sparks Tribune Updated 6-7 and 6-17-2013 ...and more ammo.. Nevada Day Required Reading The Lady in the Red Dress The Barbwire's classic Nevada Day column written in 1983 The compleat history of the Silver State in 500 words SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE? Sparks Tribune 10-31-2013 and previously Barbano on the Barbwire plots new TV season Barbwire Special Web Edition / 10-21-2013 Barbwire: Nevada not really a state No, we were not Battle Born in Kenya Top 10 reasons Nevada lives in the 19th Century Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-17-2013 Sparks Tribune Low-income penalty: Nevada socks it to the working poor BARBANO: Nevada is one big company town Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 State of Health National health care comes up against a very sick state. WHAT'S IN IT FOR US? Dennis Myers / Reno News & Review 10-10-2013 USA at crossroads: New Deal or new Confederacy? Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 10-10-2013 Sparks Tribune UPDATE—>Bill Moyers: Shutdown is simply secession by other means We Don't Need No Education The continuing Barbwire series ...and more ammo yet The Post-Dated Recession: Pay me now or pay me later Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 9-6-2012 Daily Sparks Tribune The Post-dated Recession By Joshua H. Silavent / Daily Sparks Tribune / 5-3-2011 Union decline and rising inequality in two charts by Colin Gordon Economic Policy Institute / 6-5-2012 Used in journalist Mark Robison's extensive Hard Labor: Nevada unions tout role in helping workers, firms, economy (Sunday 2 Sept. 2012 Reno Gazette-Journal, page one, Reno Rebirth section of the print edition). Union men Jim Burrell, Paul McKenzie and Guy Louis Rocha did the movement proud. Not included in the RGJ online edition. WOMEN AND UNIONS — ORPHAN MAJORITIES The Barbwire Labor Day column Reno Gazette-Journal / 9-3-2012 Nevada Press Assn. Better Newspaper Contest HAT TRICK: Barbwire takes first place three years in a row. The winning entries Suing for Schools: The 20-year shuck Expanded from the 2-21-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune Click here to view the show on your desktop RED flags flying low over Sparks Expanded from the 1-10-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune The wrath of self-righteous racism Expanded from the 11-8-2009 Daily Sparks Tribune Government contacts Nev. congressional delegation Nevada Legislature State of Nevada Secretary of State Carson City Clark County City of Las Vegas Douglas County Reno City Council Sparks City Council Washoe County Commission Washoe Registrar of Voters The campaign against forcibly-paid newspaper obituaries And they wonder why the newspaper business is dying?   The Dean's List    The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites. RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006 The 2009 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners Tony the Tiger & the flaky NFL Barbwire / 11-30-2008 Deregulation is never having to say you're sorry Barbwire / 8-3-2008 Nevada: A good place to visit, but do you want to live here? Barbwire / 6-15-2008 The 2008 first-place Nevada Press Association award winners The price of a piece / 6-17-2007 Boxing Pandora /9-23-2007 The Lady in the Red Dress 10-28-2007 1997 Pulitzer Prize entries The life and times of Travus T. Hipp The best who ever was

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Copyright © 1982-2014 Andrew Barbano

Andrew Barbano is a 45-year Nevadan, editor of NevadaLabor.com and JoeNeal.org; and former chair of the City of Reno's Citizens Cable Compliance Committee, He is producer of Nevada's annual César Chávez Day celebration and serves as first vice-president, political action chair and webmaster of the Reno-Sparks NAACP. As always, his opinions are strictly his own. E-mail barbano@frontpage.reno.nv.us.

Barbwire by Barbano moved to Nevada's Daily Sparks Tribune on Aug. 12, 1988, and has originated in them parts ever since.
Whom to blame: How a hall-of-famer's hunch birthed the Barbwire in August of 1987
Tempus fugit.

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