Some news stories are said to have traction with the public. These are said to have “legs.” This story has arms. Firearms, to be clear; eleven of them, including five handguns. Fewer than would be required to, say, annex the Crimea–but still eleven more guns than were on the street before supporters of acting sheriff […]
Four years ago, deep in a recession and in the face of prevailing anti-incumbency, Tulare County Supervisor Steve Worthley won re-election by only 109 votes. “There was a tremendous amount of negative publicity,” Worthley said, “primarily engineered by the Visalia Times-Delta. We were in their paper practically every week.” But Worthley also credited his then […]
For countless thousands of years, humankind has run, jumped, swam and thrown things all in an effort either to procure food or else keep from becoming it. Walking upright, in fact–and all the activity that allows–is a signature characteristic of our species. I would even argue that we appreciate athletic excellence not merely for competition’s […]
On the first day of high school physics, our teacher chalked T.A.N.S.T.A.A.F.L. onto the blackboard. He then turned to us, pointed at what was obviously an acronym, and asked if anyone knew what the letters stood for. We were all clearly stumped, so he offered a hint. “It’s the first rule of physics.” When this […]
In the circular firing squad that is today’s Republican Party, Speaker of the House John Boehner has finally unveiled his outrage at the myopic short-term tactics of fractious far-right interest groups — tactics that have not furthered the party, but ironically ensured that, in some races at least, a republican cannot even be elected. Here’s […]
From the Monterey shale under our very feet to the Bakken formation beneath the Great Plains, the United States is riding high on an almost incalculably huge pool of oil that new technologies and methods of extraction now make accessible. In fact, recent reports indicate that these vast reserves might outstrip those of the rest […]
Now that the Tea Party has taken its ball and gone home, leaving the government of the United States in shutdown, we sadly must all admit that, while awful, this closure is far from the worst thing to befall us. OK–perhaps “befall” is inaccurate, in that it implies something happening to us, when in reality […]
To tolerate in silence and endure these freakin’ bigots is itself akin to violence– let’s cork these leakin’ spigots. Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on the first of January, 1863, in a time vastly more difficult than we endure today. We call it the Civil War. This year, merely droning, President Obama declared June […]
In Strawberry Canyon in days of yore, our sturdy eleven could run up the score. But now a wanion hangs over our fellows– and not even Heaven can make gold out of yellow. Football is back–particularly for me, college football. Perhaps nowhere else in American sport is there so ballyhooed and comprehensive a tradition. This […]
The surrounding greenery a proscenium to this view, from my feet upward: tan, green, cobalt, grey, white, sky blue. A rippling, sun-dappled sea offering the sudden flash of a tiny breaker dashing spray upon jagged rock. The horizon, azure, flat as a razor beneath pale roiling cloud where, momentarily, the partial arc of a rainbow […]