Columnists

The coup in Thailand was treated by most of the U.S. media with profound confusion over what was at stake, coupled with a certain admiration at its bloodless efficiency. Photos of soldiers being handed roses and children posing in front of tanks were all the rage on front pages and the six o’clock news. But if the Sept. 19 putsch turns out to be the coup de grace for Thailand’s young democracy, a major culprit in the whole sordid business will be the International Monetary Fund (IMF). -more-

The recently-released Assessment and Recovery Plan Fourth Progress Report on the Oakland Unified School District by the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assessment Team (FCMAT) takes us into Alice-In-Wonderland/Bizarro world territory, friends. Concluding that the office of the State Superintendent’s office has messed up the Oakland schools for three years and counting without Oakland’s input, our friends at FCMAT continue to assert that this proves Oakland is not ready to run Oakland’s schools. The logic of that assertion escapes me, but it’s all perfectly legal and all built into SB39, the Don Perata-authored legislation that authorized the Oakland school takeover in 2003. -more-

In Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead, the only architect worth his salt is the individualist who tosses all historic precedents onto the trash heap. Published in 1943, the novel was a battle cry for the revolution of modernism, which was expected to take hold from then to eternity. -more-

Pete Veilleux wrote something to the California native-plant mavens’ mailing list the other day: “It’s October! Time for squirrel stomach pie—my memere’s specialty. She called it poor man’s toot cake.” -more-

The anniversary of the Loma Prieta is upon us once again and still so little has been done to prepare for our earthquake. That’s right. Loma Prieta wasn’t ours. It was in the mountains of Watsonville nearly 100 miles to the south. -more-

I tend to take house finches for granted, as I suspect most birders do. But there’s more to these ubiquitous little birds than meets the eye. -more-