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Posts published in “Essays”

Wagner v. The Machine: The Met’s New “Das Rheingold”

For all its much-hyped and massively expensive high-tech stage machinery, the Metropolitan Opera’s new production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold seems sur­prisingly underpowered, as if so much money and mental power went into the behemoth contraption…

The Sissy Left: Wimps Can’t Win

When did the American left become such sissies? We are shocked, shocked! We throw up our hands in horror, cowering behind prissy words like “divisive” and “sex­ist” and “uncivil” and “inappropriate” when frothing-mad homophobic Republican…

19 Reasons to Vote Yes on Prop 19

Prop 19 is a regulatory approach we can live with. The purpose is to mainstream marijuana thru limited adult legalization and local control. That means cities and counties can decide their own rules regarding taxation.…

Print & Save: How to Vote in November

We recommend NO votes on all incumbents, beginning with Jerry Brown who, after all his years in government, is an incumbent of the ultimate officeholding type, much like Wes Chesbro and Mike Thompson here on…

Kent State: The Day That Was

The Kent State Truth Tribunal this weekend heard testimony from forensic audio scientist Stuart Allen that establishes clear orders to shoot live ammunition at unarmed protesting students by the Ohio National Guard. The tape also…

Los Angeles, 1938

My grandmother was as happy to see me as I was to see her. We hugged and kissed each other and we both cried a little. But after we settled down and talked for a…

Two Nobel Prize Winners

(I don't know where the AVA gets all those great quotes, but a couple in here made me think of them, though perhaps you've seen and used them already.) It was on this day in…

Farm To Farm

If the Giants had played host to the final two games of the playoffs, the National League Pennant series might still hang in the balance because of the deluge that swamped northern California over the…

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