THIS IS NOT ABOUT INCOME INEQUALITY. Doesn’t involve Warren Buffett or the Koch brothers (er, not directly anyway). This is about oil train safety. Another crude oil train just derailed this past week, exploding cars dumped into the James River in Lynchburg, Va. Could have been much worse. A 100-car oil train right in town. […]
Jerome Page: Democracy, corporate style!
WE MOVE NOW TO THE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH of that ALEC-sponsored “solution in search of a problem,” the voter ID phenomenon. To see a graphic display of the recent growth of voter ID laws, go to “Flurry of Photo ID Laws Tied to Conservative Washington Group,” by Ethan Magoc (News21), published Aug. 12, 2012. Scan down […]
Matt Talbot: Democracy or empire? You decide
BEFORE IT GET TO THIS WEEK’S TOPIC, I want to mention something I wrote last week for which I would like to apologize. In describing the people with whom I served in the Army, I wrote: “Very few had more than a high school education; even fewer were widely read or thought deeply about U.S. […]
Jerome Page: A fresh approach to democracy!
SURELY ONE OF THE CONSTRUCTIVE AND STATESMANLIKE PROGRAMS being carried out by the Republican Party of the United States today is its effort to guarantee that our elections are free from the taint of “politics.” Wherever one travels, north, south, east or west, one encounters the strong hand of the GOP insuring against fraud, tightening […]
Matt Talbot: Anniversary of a broken covenant
So now we see how it is, this fist begets the spear Weapons of war, symptoms of madness Don’t let your eyes refuse to see, don’t let your ears refuse to hear Or you ain’t never going to shake this sense of sadness — Ray LaMontagne, “Hold You In My Arms” ELEVEN YEARS AGO, on […]
20 years later: Reflections on the end of apartheid and rebirth of South Africa
TWENTY YEARS AGO, AS THE MINUTES DRIFTED across the threshold of midnight and April 26 became April 27, a new flag was raised over South Africa. The old tricolor, with its static layering of three wide stripes, was lowered, and in its place rose a six-colored banner that seemed to lunge into the future. The […]
Jerome Page: Bulletins from the battlefield
Patriots, take heart, there are still a few out there who put principle and freedom ahead of surrender to the monolithic state. Consider the following from TPM DC, “Red States Hatch Plans To Block Obamacare Even If Dems Take Over,” by Dylan Scott, April 22: “Republicans are taking no chances when it comes to Obamacare’s […]
Bob Moore: Are California summer temperatures different?
ARE CALIFORNIA SUMMER TEMPERATURE TRENDS different from the rest of the mainland U.S.? Let’s look at the historical data. The 119-year maximum temperature record for California summers is shown in the first chart, and for U.S. summers in the second. Does the California record “agree” with the U.S. (year by year) over the 119-year period? […]
Opinion: Is Benicia’s Finance Committee still relevant?
By Lawrence Grossman, Dennis Lowry and Lee Wines THE PRESENTATION TO THE CITY COUNCIL BY THE NEW CHAIR of the Finance Committee on April 8 may have unofficially marked the return of the committee to its previous and practically irrelevant status characterized by city staff’s dominance of its activities. The new chair, Michael Clark, is […]
Is this really adios?
WHAT AM I MISSING HERE? Are Benicians just kittens in a burlap sack, down by the riverside, resigned to the inevitable? Let’s see if I’ve got this right. (a) We’re in earthquake country (see evidence of the Green Valley fault in terrain on the way to Cordelia); (b) We’re next to fragile wetlands (for spectacular […]