Columnists

Column: The Public Eye: Ten Maxims for a Liberal Foreign Policy

By Bob Burnett
Tuesday March 06, 2007

The catastrophic occupation of Iraq is evidence of far more than the incompetence of the Bush administration; it is proof that the conservative worldview is fatally flawed. As the forty-third presidency staggers to an ignominious finale, liberals must prepare not only to govern America, but also to proclaim a new vision. Liberal foreign policy should be based upon 10 elemental concepts: -more-


Column: Wired for Life

By Susan Parker
Tuesday March 06, 2007

At a dinner party last week I announced to everyone at the table that I needed a job. Soon. Very soon. My guests nodded in approval. They had professional careers. A few were mothers who worked part-time. One was a doctor, another a nurse. At the table were several writers, a scientist, and a union member. I was the oldest person in the room, and the most minimally employed. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Coots, Hawks and Gulls: A Day in the Food Chain

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 06, 2007

I’ve been birding in California long enough that new species are hard to come by. Every couple of years, something exotic may blow in from Siberia, but I’ve met just about all the natives and regular visitors. There are still surprises, though. Familiar birds—birds you think you know reasonably well—keep doing unexpected things. -more-


Column: Dispatches From the Edge: The Strategy of Destruction

By Conn Hallinan
Friday March 02, 2007

“The Supreme Lord said: I am death, the mighty destroyer of the world, out to destroy.” -more-


Column: Undercurrents: Oakland School District Land Sale Plans and Local Control

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Friday March 02, 2007

Given the almost universal community and political opposition inside Oakland to the proposed deal between State Superintendent Jack O’Connell and a group of east coast developers for the sale of the Lake Merritt-area Oakland school properties, it shouldn’t be surprising that there was almost universal relief expressed in Oakland with the announcement last week that the deal had been killed. -more-


East Bay Then and Now: Maybeck’s First House Was a Design Laboratory

By Daniella Thompson
Friday March 02, 2007

In March 1933, the Long Beach Earthquake destroyed 70 schools, and another 120 suffered major structural damage. The Great Depression was at its height, leaving 25 percent of the nation’s work force unemployed. Things couldn’t have looked grimmer, but one creative mind was busily churning out solutions. -more-


About the House: Confessions of a House Inspector

By Matt Cantor
Friday March 02, 2007

I have a terrible confession to make. I feel really bad about it, but it’s probably not going to change any time soon. I don’t care if your roof leaks. O.K., I know that I’m supposed to make a big deal about this sort of thing but I’m not going to. There, I said it and I feel a whole lot better. -more-