Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published in “from the archives…”

The Cruelest Months

Spring is in the air, and like a toe-tapping number from Englebert Humperdink the effect of the fledgling sun and crocus balm is to coax us mortals into passionate, beautiful malevolence.

Crack Up: The CIA’s Latest Whitewash

“This has been the most extensive investigation ever undertaken by the Inspector General's office [in the CIA], requiring the review of about 250,000 pages of documents and interviews with over 365 individuals. I am satisfied…

Anatomy of a Blackball

Stop me if I’m whining, but as long-time readers are aware, quite a number of local tax funded agencies and quasi-public agencies avoid placing advertising with the AVA. That’s how they get their revenge. They…

My Lai Massacre: The Shame That Survives

On March 16, 1968, US soldiers killed 504 Vietnamese villagers on March 16, 1968. The 30th anniversary in 1998 was an opportunity to to give Americans a warm glow. The warmth came of course from…

Anti-Smoking Expert All Wet

What do you do when you have to say, “I’m sorry”? If you’re the professor who holds the anti-smoking chairmanship at the University of California, San Francisco, you say it in small print, duck under…

Shaved, Crushed, Cubed & Block

Epiphanies happen. Just this weekend I was plastered to the sofa and watching the Olympics when it hit me: its all about ice, and not just these silly overhyped games played for the benefit of…

Global Village Idiots

I’m finally, and fully, tele-connected. My satellite TV gives me access to over 100 channels of programming, and my computer is now part of the worldwide web. With one machine or the other, I can…

Bye-Bye Bypass?

The Willits freeway bypass funds at risk? Oh, boo-hoo-hoo. Has the experience of thousands of small towns, hundreds of cities, tons of pollution, lungs full of poison, shortened lives, lost community and peace of mind,…

-