Two years to catch a bus

The Los Angeles Times still remains one of my favorite newspapers, but every day I have more doubts about its future. The story that catches my eye today is, once again, not about news, but about speculation about a possible future, in this case, $200 per barrel petroleum. The story seems to me to be intended [...]

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A Plan for World Peace

Most people think of peace as a state of Nothing Bad Happening, or Nothing Much Happening. Yet if peace is to overtake us and make us the gift of serenity and well-being, it will have to be the state of Something Good Happening.”—E.B. White, in his essay, Unity.
If you set aside the notion that world [...]

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Whose news?

Who owns news? And how much of it can be quoted as a fair “sample” and how much constitutes a rip off?
The Associated Press challenged Florida blogger, Rogers Cadenhead, for quoting AP content on his blog. They demanded he remove a number of posts on the grounds that they were a copyright infringement at their [...]

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Spitting–It’s not just for baseball anymore

Baseball players spit a lot.  I’m not a sports fan, and spitting is my primary mental image of the game of baseball, just as fistfights serve as my mental icon of hockey. Baseball players are known for unexplainable amounts of spitting, and even dedicated fans, who actually care about the score and the quality of [...]

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It’s not easy being green

 

Kermit the frog was right. It’s not easy being green.
I recently bought a stainless steel water bottle to replace the endless stream of plastic bottles I was taking to yoga class. I’m now some tiny percentage greener than before.  It’s not much, but, as the yogis teach, no good effort is wasted. I’m glad, because [...]

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United Airlines thinks it’s the boss of you

The Seattle Times reports today on the latest expression of insanity by United Airlines. “Starting Oct. 6, most United fares will require a one- to three-night or weekend-night minimum stay,” according to spokeswoman Robin Urbanski.
They’re saying, don’t try to leave the town you have travelled to until we give you permission. It brings a whole new [...]

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Things we never considered about gasoline

A friend at work told me about the dollar limits gas stations impose on purchases. He knows because he often needs to fill his thirsty 9-miles-per-gallon Chevrolet Surbuban. If you need a personal vehicle with a 6-liter engine you don’t have all that many choices, and a Suburban might look pretty good to you. The same is [...]

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News, journalism, and Joe Biden

I’m on Joe Biden’s email distribution, and I got a note from his wife about an article Elizabeth Edwards, wife of presidential candidate John Edwards, wrote as an op-ed piece in The New York Times in April of this year. I’ve been a Joe Biden supporter for a long time, and I wish he were the [...]

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Never wake a sleeping wine snob

One of the problems with criticizing wine snobs, as Los Angeles Times columnist Joel Stein knows, is that they have a lot of time on their hands and they tend to be defensive. In his column this week Joel directs his attention to the amazing range of scents and flavors wine critics claim they can [...]

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The Real Dirt on Farmer John

The Real Dirt on Farmer John is a delightful documentary about a farmer who wouldn’t give up. He failed twice, in a big way, and finally succeeded by doing something he thought would fail. This is a revealing study of failure and the path to eventual success.
Farmer John Peterson is a colorful fellow who likes to [...]

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