Columnists

Dispatches From The Edge: A New Cold War?

By Conn Hallinan
Thursday July 03, 2008 - 10:02:00 AM

Military alliances are always sold as things that produce security. In practice they tend to do the opposite. -more-


Undercurrents: The Measure of Leadership Is Not Running Somewhere Just Because the Crowd Is Going That Way

By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor
Thursday July 03, 2008 - 10:03:00 AM

Some years ago, my brother and I and a friend were in Los Angeles at the opening of Che, the Omar Sharif movie that was considered by some to be favorable to the late Cuban revolutionary leader. L.A. had a large Cuban exile community that was not so sympathetic to Che, and so we had to walk through an angry picket line to get inside the theater. The movie itself went off without a hitch until the climactic battle scene in which Che was killed. During the gunbattle on the screen, someone inside tossed a couple of smoke bombs into the crowded seats. -more-


Wild Neighbors: Building a New Tree for the Birds

By Joe Eaton
Thursday July 03, 2008 - 10:18:00 AM

Some people follow soccer; I follow taxonomy. A slower game, but it has its regards. -more-


When Building, Think Ahead To When Repairs Are Needed

By Jane Powell
Thursday July 03, 2008 - 10:15:00 AM

Recently I have been doing a few repairs to my back porch, which has required taking it apart in places to replace various structural members which are rotting. -more-


About the House: California is Burning

By Matt Cantor
Thursday July 03, 2008 - 10:17:00 AM

California is burning down. This is the real Shock and Awe. As of this writing, there are over 1,300 fires burning in the state and nearly a third of a million acres have burned. Since I’m not good with acres, I decided to convert this to square miles. At 640 acres to a square mile, this means that close to 500 square miles have burned. Again, I’m not that good with areas so I like to find something to compare this with. The city of Los Angeles is about 500 square miles. San Francisco is less than half that size. Imagine, two San Franciscos have completely burned down in this recent spate of fires. We’ve currently got over 17,000 fire personnel working on fighting these fires, over a thousand engines in the field, three hundred bull dozers cutting fire breaks and 85 helicopters (mostly dropping water on these many blazes). -more-