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Posts published in “Essays”

Bird’s Eye View By Turkey Vulture

 Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comforta­bly then I shall begin. Well, they did it again! Yes folks, Gloria Ross, “The Bishop of…

For Howard Zinn: LaGuardia & The Truth About Marijuana

Howard Zinn greatly admired Fiorello LaGuardia and in the end the two men had important things in common. They grew up in New York City, two gen­erations apart, sons of immigrants. They both flew bombing missions for the U.S. Army -LaGuardia over Italy during World War One, Zinn over occupied France in World War Two- and then reconsidered the worth of those missions. They both spent their lives speaking for people whose voices hardly got heard.

Letter From Tuscon

Not all has been peaches and cream in Tucson, AZ this winter, I’ll tell you that much. About a month ago gray clouds obscured the…

Great Moments in Public Deliberation

Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Meeting, February 2, 2010. Agenda Item: Approval of Minutes. * * * Board Chair Carre Brown: I think the Clerk…

Josh & Conor — Home From War In Iraq

“I went down to the market

Where all the people shop

I pulled out my machete

And I began to chop

I went down to the park

Where all the children play

I took out my machine gun

And I began to spray”

This is a chant our young are taught to march to in our military today, and this is how two young veterans of the Iraq War begin their presentations to groups across the country.

I Punched Out The Rat Pack

It was the first 'oil crisis' and I was in high school and had my first VW bug. To control demand for gas, the policy was that you could only get fueled up on even or odd days, depending on your car license num­ber. I was plan­ning a trip up the coast, to Big Sur I think, and needed a full tank so parked my bug about tenth in line by a gas station on the coast highway in old CdM. I walked down at about 730am and got in, and the sta­tion opened and things proceeded in an orderly fash­ion, each driver filling up and the line moving up - until my turn came.

The Yorkville Screamer Unveiled

Sheriff’s Log, February 3, 2010: 5:43pm A Yorkville resident heard a male adult screaming for help off Elkhorn Road. The victim soon received emergency medical…

Oaky Joe & His Many Grows

This week, I wrote about "Oaky" Joe Munson--a former outlaw grower who "came down off the mountain," went legit and made medical pot his mission.…

Things Looking Up For Tall Timber

The North Coast’s biggest timber operator says the economy is looking up in tall timber country despite the state’s still sagging new housing and home improvement markets.

Who Really Won The Murray Case?

Guest Commentary by Susan Rush, Manchester There was no surprise, on my part, by the article which appeared in the Independent Coast Observer (ICO) by…

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