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Posts published in “Essays”

Nowhere to Go But Up

Can anything be more dismal than prospects for any decent resolution of the Israel/Palestine issue? Seemingly not. The hopes of January, 2009, at the dawn of Obama’s presidency, are dead. Washington has now given up…

California: Epicenter of the Great Unraveling

When the Great Unraveling of the world financial system began in earnest three years ago, the the term “Wall Street” instantly emerged as the main shorthand for big business interests that pull the strings of…

Crime of the Week

Shortly after one last Thursday afternoon, 92-year-old Marie Cleveland of Redwood Valley cranked off a round from her .38 into the tire of an RV parked on her property.

The MCN Report

The history and highly unusual arrangement of Mendocino Community Network owned and operated by Mendocino Unified School District has come up for discussion recently among certain limited circles on the Coast. Since some people continue…

Bird’s Eye View

Greetings one and all. If you are sitting comfortably then I shall begin. How about a few birthday greetings, no doubt belated in some cases, for those celebrating a December birthday? Here we go, ‘Many…

The Truth Will Always Win

In 1958 a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: “In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.” His observation perhaps reflected his…

Robert Stamps at Kent State

In 1980 I was living in San Diego and I got a phone call from Andy Brody who was down in Mexico City with his girlfriend, Estrella. They were supporting themselves by teaching English. He…

The Summer of Smoke?

“The Summer of Love, protests to be civil and a rainbow of counterculture. Whether you started here or put flowers in your hair, grabbed a drum and hitched a ride on a painted minibus, Camel…

Slow Going

Five years ago, a few weeks before I made my move from Berkeley to Mendocino, I came within a few inches of being killed by a young man who was driving his pickup truck very fast while simultaneously using his mobile phone.

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