Columnists

Unnatural Enemies

By Joe Eaton
Tuesday March 29, 2011 - 12:37:00 PM
Adult male tricolored blackbird: endangered but unprotected.

One of the recurring dilemmas of conservation biology is whether, and how far, to intervene in predator-prey relationships: in particular, what action is appropriate when an endangered species is being eaten to extinction by a more common one. That question has come up with raven predation on desert tortoises in the Mojave, golden eagle predation on island foxes on Santa Cruz Island, California gull predation on western snowy plovers and least terns in the South Bay. -more-


Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libyan Wars and the California Tradeoffs

By Ralph E. Stone
Sunday March 27, 2011 - 08:38:00 PM

The United States national debt exceeds $14 trillion and is climbing. Nearly 14 million Americans are unemployed, about 2.2 million in California. Americans continue to lose homes to foreclosure. Public health, education, social services, and police and fire departments are facing cutbacks. Yet, we can spend more than $1 trillion dollars in wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Yes, if we bomb and strafe Libya, we are at war with that country. Greed, uncontrolled corporate power, and our addiction to foreign oil have led us to perpetual war, and economic and moral decline. -more-


Dispatches From The Edge:The U.S., Oil & the Libyan War

By Conn Hallinan
Saturday March 26, 2011 - 03:14:00 PM

Cynicism is not a healthy sentiment, and as the late Molly Ivins pointed out, it absolutely wrecks good journalism. But watching events in the Middle East unfold these days makes it a pretty difficult point of view to avoid. -more-


Deconstructing America’s Nuclear Cult

By Bob Burnett
Saturday March 26, 2011 - 03:10:00 PM

The August 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki both ended World War II and precipitated the United States’ 65-year-long addiction to nuclear power. In the light of the catastrophe at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi facility, it’s time to reconsider America’s lethal habit and our cult of atomic energy. -more-


On Mental Illness: Persons with Mental Illness and Cults

By Jack Bragen
Saturday March 26, 2011 - 03:21:00 PM

At least in young adulthood, it seems common for a person with a mental illness to seek answers to the predicament of being mentally ill. This leads to a vulnerability to cult followings, since their spiritual teachers usually claim to have all the answers to life’s quandaries. -more-


Senior Power: Japan Elders News, continued

By Helen Rippier Wheeler
Saturday March 26, 2011 - 03:28:00 PM

Here is information from Rikuzentakata, which is part of Iwate Prefecture, one of 6 that constitute Tōhoku ("northeast")region. It is abstracted from "Hope for missing fades in Japan; elderly hard-hit" (Associated Press Online, March 17, 2011): -more-