The Health and Human Services Department, the County’s largest department, still has a $600k deficit for CalWorks, a $170k deficit for In-Home Supportive Services and a $1.3 mil shortfall in Mental Health — almost all…
Posts published in “Essays”
The large demonstrations at the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin are driven by a middle class awakening to the specter of its destruction by the corporate reactionaries and their toady Governor Scott Walker. For years…
Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. Lets’ start off with my current favorite topic: Egg News. I find myself continuing to rave about the delicious and large free-range…
The seventh-grade classroom fell silent, before I noticed it and then it was too late; the teacher was standing over me and all the other kids were staring. Some were smirking. “Give me that little…
Everybody has their horror story about unions. “Of course, he's union, so you can't get rid of him,” is the usual punch line after a story about some guy who wouldn't lift a finger to…
Few things are more entertaining than defenses of the indefensible, as was proven by the charge of the lite brigade into the blathersphere earlier this month to defend the honor of the United States’ National…
Although very rusty, I'm range-qualified on the M-1 rifle, .30-caliber carbine, recoil-less rocket-propelled anti-tank weapon (bazooka), .30- and .50-calibre machine guns, M-2 flamethrower, Thompson “Tommy” submachinegun (beloved of Dillinger-era movies), and the Browning M1911 automatic…
“The poet’s only responsibility is to write fresh lines.”--Charles Olson With all due respect to the organization known as Poets & Writers, I have always felt that if there’s no poetry in the writing, who…
From Washington DC we hear brave talk about Uncle Sam leading the charge for democracy across the Arab world, and thus restoring himself to high esteem in Arab eyes as something other than the sponsor…