REGULARLY IN THIS SPACE I REFER TO PEOPLE AND EVENTS FROM CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY, roughly the period from the time of Homer in the 8th century B.C. to the decline and fall of the western half of the Roman Empire in the late 5th century A.D. My purpose is to demonstrate that, despite the sophisticated tools […]
Grant Cooke: Big Oil’s endgame has begun
Editor’s note: First of three parts to run on consecutive Sundays. “THE STONE AGE CAME TO AN END, not because we had a lack of stones, and the oil age will come to an end not because we have a lack of oil,” said Sheikh Ahmed-Zaki Yamani. The former Saudi oil minister is arguably the […]
Elizabeth Patterson: The transit revolution is here
AS MAYOR I REPRESENT BENICIA ON THE BOARD OF SOLTRANS (SOLANO COUNTY TRANSIT), which is the consolidated transit agency for Benicia and Vallejo. On behalf of SolTrans, I attended the RailVolution Conference in Minneapolis, Minn., last week. The other Benicia SolTrans board member, Mark Hughes, and SolTrans staff also attended. The conference was attended by […]
Symphony, board at odds over maestro: What is the best way forward?
IT HAS BEEN MY GREAT PRIVILEGE to attend almost every concert of the Vallejo Symphony Orchestra since I began writing reviews for The Herald five years ago. I continue to marvel at the skill, professionalism and overall quality of VSO productions, which consistently rival those of other, larger area orchestras. So I was disheartened to […]
Robert Shelby: A proper naming: Aerial guerilla warfare
SO FAR, NO ONE GIVES U.S. STRATEGY AGAINST ISIL ITS PROPER NAME: AERIAL GUERILLA WAR. Between congressional conservatives and President Obama’s team exists a war of ideas about war. The conservative idea, as usual, is rooted in traditional images reaching back through European history and practice to the Classical Era, even as far back as […]
Dennis Lund: Is the National Health Service subsidizing child abuse?
“There is no evidence to suggest that children are better off with or without a father,’ — Laura Witjens, chief executive, National Gamete Donation Trust, UK THOSE WONDERFUL BRITS ARE SAID TO BE leading the world in high-quality, affordable health care for women. As for the kids, well, perhaps not so much. It was recently […]
Opinion: Don’t kill the goose that lays the golden eggs
I support the Vallero Crude-by-Rail Project because there are no good, substantial reasons not to. There is less to fear and more to be gained by approving the project than by not approving it. Everything I hear and read from people who oppose the project is based on fear: fear of spills, fear of greater […]
Matt Talbot: Darn hippies
THOSE DIRTY HIPPIES ARE RUINING THE COUNTRY! There, I said it. Yesterday, after a bunch of those unwashed college students took over the administration building at Berkeley, demanding an end to the draft and the Vietnam war, well, I just got fed up.
Jerome Page: Love those friendly fracking neighbors!
TODAY I WANT TO BEGIN A REVIEW of some compelling material on the issue of fracking, that process whereby oil companies drill and inject approximately 700 extremely powerful chemicals into the ground to break up rock and open channels for oil to flow and become available for pumping. I always find it fascinating to have […]
Matt Talbot: No seasons in California? Look closer
I HEAR ALL THE TIME FROM FRIENDS who grew up in the Eastern United States that Northern California “has no seasons.” There is a sense in which that is true, of course. I was stationed in Indianapolis for a few months during my Army tour, and it was my first experience of what easterners refer […]