“What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.” — Thomas Paine A mile inland from Highway One, the Comptche-Ukiah Road becomes a two-mile straightaway traversing rolling hills of pine and huckleberry and…
Posts published in “Essays”
Skuntown/Willits — Mark Scaramella’s report on the County Supervisors August 3 meeting in Covelo was right on target — a reality-based, bullshit detecting analysis in a few concise paragraphs. The Mendocino National Forest has been…
Contrary to Thomas Wolfe’s dictum, you can indeed go home again. It’s just that there’s no guarantee home will be anything like the way you left it, if in fact it’s still there at all.…
I went to get my hair cut the other day in the town of Fortuna and waited ten minutes while the elderly barber finished buzz-cutting a young Mexican American. After the young man had exited…
One of Barack Obama’s campaign slogans as he ran for President two years ago was, “The change we need.” Unfortunately, for those in the Federal Criminal Justice System, this change has proven to be the…
When I got the news I was in Paris, sitting in the silver rain outside Notre Dame. We were filming a street performer dressed in flowing red robes and on stilts. Sort of like you,…
The Obama Administration’s treatment of its current majority ownership of bailed out General Motors and its standoffishness toward the pioneering but troubled ShoreBank, a community bank based in Chicago, are lessons in how the Big/Bad…
Last week, almost one year to the day after I purchased my latest vehicle, the odometer turned over to 30,000 miles. Well, it is a green display light that changed to 30,000 miles. Saying it…
“The truth is not ashamed of appearing contrived.” — Isaac Bashevis Singer The other night I caught the last 20 minutes of a spiritual talk show. My initial positive reaction to the guest speaker morphed…