You will recall the famous line from the movie The Wizard of Oz, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” and how, until the little dog opens the curtain and reveals the fraud, Dorothy and her friends do, indeed, ignore the man behind the curtain and remain riveted on a false idol projected on a large screen obscured by smoke and fire. I remind you of this cinematic moment because it brilliantly captures the current cognitive conundrum confronting contemporary crusading consortiums, most notably the much-heralded occupiers of Wall Street.
Posts published in “Essays”
For months, all manner of signs and banners from throughout Arcata — particularly Northtown — as well as the Humboldt State campus, have been disappearing from their installed locations and, as it turns out, migrating…
Fox News Reporter Bill Schulz at a Occupy Wall Street Rally: Jesse, so Ray, your partner here, your… (Occupier named Ray): Comrade. Schulz: Your colleague, she’d seen the protests in Greece and Europe and elsewhere.…
It’s not quite up there with Schwarzenegger’s celebrated “fuck you” to Tom Ammiano, but Gov. Jerry Brown gets off a halfway decent zinger in a signing statement attached to his approval of Senate Bill 769,…
“You are the music while the music lasts.”— T.S. Eliot Long ago, in a time when records were big round vinyl things activated by spinning them on turntables while running needles through their grooves, when…
Conveniently enough there's a Wijn bar on Rustenburgerstraat now where you head left for the frazzled Bed and Coffee. By frazzled, I mean things have changed considerably at the cheap little non-hostel hostel in the…
PONTIFICATING DISGRACES To the Editor: We’ve all seen movies about the crimes and evils concocted in corporate and political boardrooms, most of the time based on agendas cooked up behind closed doors. We’re all a…
I’ve never had much time for “peak oil” (the notion held with religious conviction by many on the left here, that world oil production either has or is about to top out – and will…
It's funny because a week ago he told me his tooth was loose. I tried to wiggle it and shrugged since I did not find it offering any give whatsoever. He had directed me to…