This was my first day in Ferguson, MO. It seems that the entire town is involved. There were maybe 1000 or so people out in the streets, but almost every car that […]
Juan Carlos Abdicates
The abdication of Spain’s King Juan Carlos and his replacement by his son, Felipe, reminds me of a joke that was told back in the ’80s: It seems there was a police […]
Putting Their Children at Risk?
In early April, the Kaufman family set sail across the Pacific from Baja California. On their 36 foot sailboat were mom and dad – Charlotte and Eric – and their daughters: Cora, […]
How the Brain Works, school work and socialism
An article in today’s Wall St. Journal sheds some interesting light on how decisions are made. According to this article, as they say “doing less is more”. It explains that the best […]
Conversation in a Seattle Coffee Shop
A friend of mine and I were sitting in a coffee/tea shop in Seattle this morning when a pleasant young couple with a baby sat down next to us. After playing with […]
Why I Like Oakland
A Sad State of Affairs
I am now in Seattle seeing what the Kshama Sawant campaign is doing. I just went to a meeting of some members of the International Association of Machinists. These are members who […]
Brainwashed
Uri Avnery is one of Israel’s most thoughtful capitalist commentators. Despite the fact that he is unable to see past capitalism, he often has penetrating commentaries on Israeli politics. This includes his […]
America the Paranoid
Yesterday, as I was leaving a parking space, I saw that my ticket had quite a bit of time left on it. (In Oakland, the parking meters issue a ticket valid for […]
Exchange with Global Warming “Skeptics”
As a sailor, I like to read the free sailing magazine published here called Latitude 38. While it has excellent coverage of sailing-related issues, the publisher/editor is somewhere to the right of […]