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Posts published in “Essays”

Learning to Love GMOs

That was the title of the NY Times Sunday Magazine’s cover story July 25 —an unrestrained endorsement of genetically modified foods. Jennifer Kahn, the writer, will never want for employment as long as the corporate…

The Intruder

I opened my door and saw a huddled form working on a project in my back yard. He was shaving a rock and had dragged a small pile of asphalt into the yard. Oh no,…

Who Made The 60s? The People Or the Celebs?

Who built the seven gates of Thebes? The books are filled with names of kings. Was it the kings who hauled the craggy blocks of stone? And Babylon, so many times destroyed. Who built the…

Assault On A Capitol Fourth

A quarter century ago Newt Gingrich, elevated to Speaker of the House by the 1994 midterm Republican landslide that followed on Bill Clinton’s first two years in the White House, loved to squawk about defunding…

Willits, Minus Traffic & Exhaust

I hadn’t been to Willits in a year or more, and when I drove through it a week ago it slowly dawned that the city looked different, and better. Way better. It’s gotten better than…

Where’s My Socialism?

For a variety of reasons I watch a fair amount of Fox News, which I’m frequently at odds with on issues and none more so than socialism. Its bad enough that nobody there seems to…

Anderson Valley Schoolhouses

“What Became of the Little Red Schoolhouse: Facts & Figures-Tales & Photos of Early Mendocino County” is 30 years old but it’s five volumes are a great resource for history trivia. The same information was…

Schumer Plays the Pot Card…at Last

The “Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act,” drafted by Ron Wyden of Oregon and Cory Booker of New Jersey, was introduced on July 14 in the US Senate by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The measure would…

Mendocino Outlaws: The Trial of Dr. Wheeler

The trials of George Gaunce, Harrison Brown, and John F. Wheeler promised to be the legal events for Mendocino County in 1880. Brown wanted his trial delayed. The district attorney did not, having chosen him…

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