“The Vietnamese national character is rapidly changing. Our value system is falling apart. Gangsters are making incredible fortunes on the black market.” – Professor Hoang Ngoc Hien, Hanoi intellectual, 1995 “We’re getting wonderful cooperation from…
Posts published in “Essays”
Every two weeks we try to review the Board’s agenda packet for interesting upcoming items. It’s not a particularly enjoyable task. But the entire point of the Brown Act’s requirement that agendas be posted in…
Bill Honig likes to tell one story, perhaps apocyphal, of the somewhat unorthodox settings for discussions about ‘Ramparts’ magazine’s finances. This particular time, he imagined that he felt some unmistakable pressure on him to consider…
If you retain sentimental notions of local government being responsive to local citizens, and if you believe your voice and opinions are taken seriously by Ukiah’s leaders, I want to smile and pat you on…
Sooo, didja hear I’ll probably be taking off early? Friday, maybe around 10? Or might be even earlier because we’ve got a long drive down to Drixel. It’s not too far from Bakersfield if you…
Just think of all the nervous energy coursing through all those kiddies lined up for this Sunday afternoon’s piano recital. And then think of all the victims of this ritual that came before and of…
It’s been a year since the mighty AVA shut down the print edition and reverted to digital only, here’s how my interaction with it has changed as a reader and writer. My M O for…