Over Buying Food Means Wasted Food The latest news, after the war in Ukraine, is the 80 billion pounds of wasted food that Americans produce every year. 22% of the space in our municipal landfills is used to bury wasted food. 37 million cars would be necessary to produce the carbon emissions produced to grow wasted food. 242 pounds of food is wasted by or on behalf of each American […]
Netflix has removed this TV series, Servant of the People, directed by and starring Volodymyr Zelensky — yes, that one. And who was formerly known in English-speaking countries as “Vladimir.” I had seen this TV series before Volodymyr Zelensky became the president of Ukraine. When the election was announced, I noted that it was the same name, a coincidence naturally, probably a common name. Then I saw him sitting in […]
People are the source of all governmental power. —Barbara Jordan. 1976 Barbara Jordan vs Hillary Clinton Clips have been playing for the last few days of Hillary Clinton’s speech at the 2022 National Democratic Convention. Over and over. It’s nice to see her back out there again, but she has to do something with her voice. The harder she tries, the more it sounds witch-like. It’s not pleasant. I wonder where […]
I woke up this morning wondering, “Am I an anarchist?” Of all the things I might have awakened wondering, this would have never made the list. It took a second to remember what an anarchist was, and another to remember why I would be thinking about it. As usual, I had been awake at 3 am reading instead of sleeping. Following the Dawn of Everything, it was David Graeber’s history […]
Via Hendrix was 21, fresh out of college, and had found a starter job. Unlike her friends who had scattered to the outer boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn, she wanted to live in the absolute center of New York City. There are several neighborhoods that one person or another would consider the true dead center of New York City but Greenwich Village or more commonly the West Village or just […]
Ah. Memories of Florida. Building Collapses in Miami on June 24, 2021 After a lifetime of watching movies about the romance of living next to the ocean, I once spent 2 years in Florida. My memories of Florida are somewhat different than those of Johnnie Mathis. It was more like living in a front load washer than a romantic walk alone on a pristine beach silent except for the soft […]
In the early twentieth century, education was believed to be the best way to ensure a democratic society. Protecting a democratic society, even one controlled by the majority, requires an education policy that ensures access to the information and critical thinking skills sufficient to understand how to participate intelligently in local and national government and civic affairs. The freedom to choose is limited by the ability to understand. Similarly, we […]
My grandmother’s house was a white frame cottage, very neat and tidy, on the corner of two unpaved roads and with an outhouse in the backyard next to an apple tree. A rusted barrel was used to burn trash. The neighborhood smelled of burning coal all winter. To the west were acres of cornfields; to the east a block of 12 identical houses, six on each side of the street. […]
Well, not exactly depressed for no good reason. It’s the fifty-first day of my shelter-in-place sojourn for covid and I finished reading Sarah Kendzior’s Hiding in Plain Sight: The Invention of Donald Trump and the Erosion of America this morning. As a specialist, Kendzior explains the development of autocracies and kleptocracies and chronicles all the steps in Donald Trump’s rise to power. Good book but not an upper. Hiding in Plain Sight is […]
Watching the News Coronavirus Counting Game It will make watching the news worth it when there isn’t any. Which journalists have books on their walls? Or paintings? Or photographs? Or certificates? How many books by Stephen King can you count? By Rachel Maddow? About Trump? How many mix fiction and nonfiction? New and old? And do you see any old books? Percentage of unadorned white walls to bookshelves? Are certificates framed, […]
