FDR, QUOTING AN OLD ENGLISH JUDGE, liked to say that “necessitous men are not free men.” That is to say, if I control your access to the basic necessities of life, and in particular if I use that control to influence your behavior in ways that touch upon politics, can you really be said to […]
Joel Fallon: The Gold Rush and the Oil Rush, a sad parallel
BY THE 1850s, IT HAD BECOME INCREASINGLY DIFFICULT FOR SMALL-SCALE MINERS to find and profitably extract gold from California’s gold country. That’s when big-time operators moved in with hydraulic technology. Sediment, washed away by their high-pressure hoses, dammed or clogged riverbeds and lakes. Rivers’ courses changed. Agriculture was threatened in the Central Valley. Conflicts over […]
Crewmember Report: Benicia, California, Spaceship Earth: Jane Goodall and ‘The Way Forward’
JANE GOODALL CELEBRATED HER 80TH BIRTHDAY ON APRIL 5, and on April 6 I had the wonderful opportunity to film her at Dominican University of California. With her co-author Gail Hudson and Elaine Petrocelli of Book Passage, Goodall had a conversation about her latest book, “Seeds of Hope.” In his forward to the book, author […]
Matt Talbot: Overstating fear of government
I KEEP HEARING THOSE ON THE RIGHT SAY the biggest obstacle on the road to prosperity is a lack of confidence on the part of business owners — that the only thing preventing so-called “job creators” from hiring all those unemployed workers out there is the grim prospect of government action — that is, anything […]
Dennis Lund: A reflection on black Americans’ historical response to adversity and the failure of modern black leadership
“Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.” — George Washington Carver BORN A SLAVE AT THE TAIL END OF THE CIVIL WAR, George Washington Carver was raised by Moses Carver and his wife. As former slave owners turned benevolent guardians, they saw to it that the baby […]
Valero puts safety first for the community, employees
IN RESPONSE TO A LETTER TO THE EDITOR last week in The Benicia Herald, I want to correct the most important misinformation the writer shared with the newspaper’s readers. It had to do with the suggestion that Valero would put profits above safety. Nothing could be further from the truth. As a Benicia resident and […]
Jerome Page: The perils of reality denied
FIRST, A (PARTIAL!) PAUSE FROM THE UNENDING AND UNENVIABLE TASK of responding to those folks who feel that denying reality (climate change) often enough and cleverly or vehemently enough will release us all from the heavy burdens of that future reality. I want to acknowledge a debt (of reader pleasure) to two outstanding columnists, Carolyn […]
Matt Talbot: Using the Dems’ majority to achieve enduring progress
AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL, the Democratic Party’s agenda is effectively crippled by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Because of Republican gerrymandering in the wake of the last round of redistricting in 2010, winning back the House is an uphill battle for Democrats in the best of years, at least for the time being. In my […]
Jerome Page: Science versus the corporate world
FOR SEVERAL YEARS NOW I HAVE BEEN ENDEAVORING to make my pitch for sanity in our handling of the issues related to global warming. I have a huge stockpile of pieces, many hundreds, dominated by the opinions and the research — much of that the very basic research of the most qualified climate scientists in […]
Are U.S. summers getting hotter?
THE LOUD AND ANGRY FOLKS continue to shout that rapidly increasing temperatures mean “We’re doomed!” But what do the facts show for the U.S.? Let’s look at U.S. summer temperatures for the last 119 years, 1895 through 2013. Why look at the summer temperatures? Well, if it has been getting hotter and hotter over the […]