“You going to watch the State of the Union?” I asked a friend Tuesday. “I’m going to listen on the radio. I want to hear it, but I don’t want to have to look at him.” Understandable, but by only listening, my friend missed the key to the speech. Viewers might have missed it, too […]
I needed to talk and write about my experience in the flood zone when I came home from the gulf coast in October 2005. I fell into silence after a few weeks, because words were unequal to the experience, but the experience stays with me. One reason is simply the horror of the devastation visited […]
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss? George W. Bush announced his next phase plans for Iraq to the nation last night, sending “over 20,000” additional troops, many of whom will be dispersed in Baghdad neighborhoods. On its face, Mr. Bush’s plans seems likely to increase the pace of American casualties, unless all […]
The sun had just set on New Year’s day when Adrienne and I decided we needed to take some candles and go downtown. The news had earlier reported that the 3,000th American had died in Iraq on Saturday, 30 December. We knew there had been a frequent, if not daily, vigil from 5-5:30 p.m. in […]
If you’re a long time reader of these commentaries, you may have noticed the recurrence of a limited repertoire of subjects – the Iraq war, global warming, the evisceration of civil liberties in the U.S. and peak oil. As detrimental as I believe the administration of George W. Bush has been to life on Earth, […]
I suppose a bit of melancholy is appropriate to the dark, bleak days of December. That, and the solstice, are probably the reason the ancients decided to celebrate the Yule holiday when they did; with wisdom born millennia before the invention of psychology or the identification of Seasonal Affective Disorder, they knew we’d need a […]
Smoke and Mirrors
Tomorrow’s an important day. It is when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the first section of its Fourth Assessment Report. There will be no surprises: global warming is getting worse and it’s clear that our actions are responsible. Today, the Washington Post reports that the IPCC will state that in the increase […]