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Posts published in “Essays”

Sports Notes

Even though I wrote in this column that the SF 49ers made a mistake seven years ago when they chose Alex Smith #1 in the entire NFL draft over Cal’s Aaron Rodgers, I didn’t believe…

The Legacy Of Al Davis

When I was doing my book tour for Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love, I always had a joke in my back pocket about Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis that never…

Protesting 101

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.

Arcata Student Sign Swipers Nabbed

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 Tries To Prank A Wall Street Occupier

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.…

Gov. Brown & Mountain Lions

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,…

What Lasts?

“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…

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