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Posts published in “Features”

The Working Stiff

It’s been eight years since his death, but I can still see him and hear him, a wiry, gray-haired, hawk-nosed man. I see him pacing restlessly back and forth behind the podium at union meetings,…

To Bra or Not to Bra

Recently I went to the doctor to have my annual mammogram. I not only had to endure the receptionist’s hype about women being victimized by men’s inventions, but I was also subjected to her obscene…

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…

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