Stephen Colbert has called out venture capitalist Vinod Khosla for blocking public access to Martins Beach. In a short Colbert Report segment (embedded below) on the challenges facing "Wealthmericans," the comic-commentator spoke up for the difficult choices facing him and his fellow plutocrats:
We need to be away from your 'normals,' which is why I was so inspired by an innovation in exclusivity pioneered by Vinod Khosla, a Silicon Valley billionaire and Barack Obama vindaloo. Khosla owns 53 acres of beachfront property on the Pacific Coast, but because of some rule that you can't buy the ocean, the unwashed masses kept up-washing on his beach near his property. So he took action...
(A "Barack Obama vindaloo"? Can anyone help us interpet that?)
Khosla last week lost a lawsuit challenging the Martins Beach closure, which led immediately to that access being restored. This week, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure that would permit the state to use eminent domain to guarantee future public access to the beach.