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Posts published in “Essays”

‘Food Sovereignty’ In NorCal: A Conversation With Raj Patel

Raj Patel's first book, Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, can be read as a ten-chapter exegesis on the ills of global capitalism, as manifested by its gut-wrenching stranglehold over…

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

To live.  Sounds easy enough in practice.  Wake up.  Eat.  Work.  Play.  Love yourself.  Love people around you. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. "My parents told me if I went to college, got married and had kids,…

Great Moments In Public Deliberation

Date: March 15, 2011. Location: Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Meeting, Ukiah. Subject: The Mendocino County Museum’s declining budget. * * * Board Chair Kendall Smith: Well, I believe— Supervisor John McCowen: Madam Chair. Smith:…

In The Midst Of Fukushima

Americans read the increasingly panic-stricken reports of deepening catastrophe at Fukushima Daiichi, speed to the pharmacy to look for iodine and ask, “It’s happened there; can it happen here?” They already know it can, and…

Tooch Colombo, The Last Great California Hunter

Tooch Colombo isn’t like me, most of my friends and family members. When he wants to eat meat he doesn’t go shopping at Safeway or Whole Foods. At the age of 75, he goes for…

Is College Worth It?

While president of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson asked a group of alumni a provocative question: Would Abraham Lincoln have been a better president if he had been college-educated? Wilson answered his own question with a…

My Encounter With Augustus Owsley Stanley

In 1967, there was a concert in Pittsburgh, with the Grateful Dead, the Velvet Underground, the Fugs and me, playing the part of a stand-up satirist. There were two shows, both completely sold out, and…

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