Yesterday, Greenpeace pulled another stunt: unfurling a banner at Mount Rushmore to send the G-8 a message about climate stage. Of course my impression of most Greenpeace activists is that most can’t read a book or map: did any of them realize that the G-8 summit was in Italy? (more…)
“Do you know the way to San Jose? They’ve got a lot of space . . .” – Burt Bacharach, sung by Dionne Warwick Okay, that song’s a bit dated. (more…)
Like millions of American boys, I spent a few years in Boy Scouts. I wasn’t a fan: I made some friends, but I found many of the adult leaders sanctimonious windbags, I hate the fascist youth uniforms, and disagreed with some of the indoctrination in the Scout handbooks. I admit I use the term “boy [...]
I love to travel. Well, not air travel–American carriers are atrocious, from their fight against security measures, horrific service, and filthy planes. Southwest and Virgin America have become our luxury airlines, while the legacy carriers have become Greyhound with wings. Sorry, that’s unfair to Greyhound. But I’m not taking the Queen Mary to Asia [...]
I cannot help but smirk when I hear big business wants government out of its way. The nasty truth is that business is all for regulations when the rules are in their favor. Changing the rules in favoring some industries often gives horrible results. (more…)
“Oil of coal, of course, is a fungible commodity and they don’t flag, ya know, the molecules where, where it’s going to, where it’s not, but and in the, in the sense of the Congress today they know our very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first.” No that wasn’t Tina Fey, [...]
Many in the environmental movement have taken views that are often unpopular and even ridiculed. Now I’m about to express a view that I’m afraid will make me about as popular as a triple bacon cheeseburger on a vegan menu. (more…)
“ . . . when it lifts him above mere appetite for wildness, ruggedness, and the feeling of mass and precipitous elevation, into a perception and love of the refined grandeur, the chaste sublimity, the airy majesty overlaid with tender and polished bloom, in which the landscape splendor of a noble mountain lies.” John Muir [...]
“I had some dreams they were clouds in my coffee, clouds in my coffee and . . . ” – Carly Simon, You’re So Vain, 1972 Pop culture had to sneak into this site at some point–well, it was going to wait a while, but Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett had to pass away [...]
I’ve been out of academia for a years, so I don’t give much thought issues such as, for example, gender roles. Maybe this is because my 150-plus page master’s thesis from years back looked at issues in every which way, except for gender, which was a no-no in the politically correct early 1990s. I should [...]