By Carolyn Plath REMAIN CALM. There’s still time to see all the Academy Award-nominated films before Feb. 24. So you can make informed decisions on your ballot, of course! Priorities people! Some of us are conscientious. Some of us make a concerted effort. Even if it requires a marathon. Or two.
Global warming? Facts, please
By Rick Ernst LET’S HAVE AN HONEST ASSESSMENT of this man-made global warming hoax. By way of terminating the argument that man is the cause of climate change on this Earth, I wish to make a few observations. First, a statement of fact. Carbon dioxide is a natural gas produced by all living things.
Counseling Matters: Who’s your ‘GG-WAG,’ Wayne?
By Rob Peters APOSTLES OF THE NRA’S Chief Executive Officer Wayne LaPierre have applauded his recent scientific proclamation. Armed with longstanding, profoundly moving sociological and organizational studies — too evaporative (and vituperative) to mention — Wayne’s data declares definitively that the only way to protect school children against a “bad guy with a gun (BG-WAG)” […]
LED billboards in Benicia? No thanks!
By Craig Snider I RECENTLY BECAME AWARE OF PROPOSALS to convert three billboards on Interstate 680 to digital/LED. These are the brightly lit signs that can be seen for miles while the display rotates from one ad to another. Anyone who’s driven to San Francisco in recent years has noticed this new advertising trend, which […]
Dennis Lund: The mandate of Obamacare: What can be done now?
“This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry — $70 billion a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance …” — Dennis Kucinich ERSTWHILE CONGRESSMAN AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE DENNIS KUCINICH saw right through the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, when he made the above statement on […]
Jerome Page: The skeptical road to catastrophe
MODERN SCIENCE IS A VAST INTERCONNECTED ENTERPRISE. Built into its structures and methods of functioning is the consistent principle that challenge may at times be extremely frustrating, but that all theory must be subject to challenge. What is far more than an irritation is the skeptical notion that theories of climate change developed over decades […]
The political cliff
By Lawrence Grossman REFLECTING ON THE “FISCAL CLIFF” THEATRICS in Washington and the public’s response, it seems clear that the vast majority of Americans believe the fiscal cliff is essentially about government’s failure to act responsibly. What really occurred, and it happened long ago, is that we went over a “political cliff” characterized by a […]
Dennis Lund: What would Jefferson think?
INSPIRED BY THE WORDS OF THOMAS PAINE, the new nation’s leaders sought to resolve grievances with the government to allow the citizenry to live free from tyranny, while remaining true to the concepts of civil rights and individual liberty. But James Madison, in his letter of October 24, 1787 to Thomas Jefferson, voiced concerns that […]
Robert Shelby: Firearm fundamentalism
CIVIL SOCIETY IS AT THE MERCY OF THE NRA, which has been a merciless enterprise. The so-called “National Rifle Association” is doubly misnamed: (1) the association is not backed by the nation, and (2) its interests are not confined to mere hunting rifles but include any and every conceivable kind of firearm, up to and […]
Treasurer’s Report: New year, new (and old) fiscal challenges
By H.R. Autz FIRST OF ALL, I WOULD LIKE TO WISH EVERYONE A HAPPY NEW YEAR. Let’s make 2013 a year with more peace on this fragile Earth. Late last year, we were all shocked at the sudden death of City Treasurer Bob Langston. He had won the election to become treasurer in November a […]