My last article talked about the climate crisis as an example of market failure. “Free” markets in fact require a vast government infrastructure: Laws, enforcement, courts, established financial systems. And a system to rebalance extreme wealth inequalities. Homelessness results from a lack of the latter mechanism. Wealth begets wealth. This can happen directly as wealth […]
As a community, we sit days away from the certification of our recent mayoral and city council election and I wanted to take a few minutes to address my city: It was an honor and a privilege to serve as a catalyst for change and to truly hold to my campaign motto: “A New Day. […]
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This past year has been really tough (COVID-19, inflation, supply chain problems, etc.). However, when things get tough, it is exactly when we need to give thanks. Our Founding Fathers and great leaders understood that giving thanks and expressing gratitude matters in the face of adversity. It gives us hope, emotionally. Giving thanks for what […]
We may look at circumstances in our society and wonder how our leaders could be so inept as to let those happen. Immigration chaos, the 2008 financial crisis and widening entitlements to name a few. Perusing the Democrat Party tactics initiated in the 1960s by Columbia University professors Richard Cloward and Frances Piven can clear […]
Robert Muller, the deceased Santa Barbara resident and globally known United Nations official who many of us admired, famously observed: “Use every letter you write, Every conversation you have, Every meeting you attend,To express your fundamental beliefs and dreams…”. I was reminded of this wisdom as I pored over the numerous letters we received from our last […]
Bravery takes on many forms, some literal and some a bit more theoretical. But nuance aside, there is bravery in challenging the status quo, the “machine.” And believe you me, our local Democratic Central Committee (DCC) is a machine. Allow me to explain: Local party endorsements spring from the DCC, yet, because Santa Barbara is […]
Gwyneth Paltrow famously described her attempts to end a long-term marriage without acrimony as a “conscious uncoupling,” which she explained is a way that a couple can consciously choose to disengage with each other and go their separate ways. No matter what you might think of the talented Ms. Paltrow, or her brand of unusual […]
How would you feel if you lived with Multiple Sclerosis for more than half a century and, in an unrelated incident, suffered an organ failure that necessitated a new kidney donated by your son? If you were Bruce Corwin, you’d feel overwhelmingly grateful. Corwin was grateful to have survived everything life threw at him, grateful […]
Dennis McFadden, a respected architect and member of UCSB’s Design Review Committee, has resigned from the Committee in protest over the university’s proposed Munger Hall dormitory project. As a long-time Santa Barbara architect, community resident, and fan of UCSB, I am writing to add my objections to the Munger Hall “Mega Dorm” currently proposed for […]
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Many of you are probably familiar with one or more editorials crafted by New York Times columnist Charles M. Blow. While not as uniformly progressive as some would like, and never a doctrinaire conservative, he usually strikes a tone of being thoughtful, reasonable, and everything but alarmist. Hence, his column from October 17 stands out […]
MIT’s earth, atmospheric sciences department just cancelled a lecturer on climate because the speaker, at another venue and on a different subject, expressed an opinion arguing that universities are too obsessed with “diversity, equity, and inclusion” or DEI “which threatens to derail their primary mission: the production and dissemination of knowledge.” That cancellation actually proved […]
In Ken Burns’ documentary Baseball, he talks with Buck O’Neil, for whom baseball’s Lifetime Achievement Award is named. He played, scouted, and managed for seven decades. O’Neil was the batting and hitting champion of the Kansas City Monarchs in the 1930s and 1940s in the Negro Leagues in its heyday and a teammate of Satchel […]
“Let the Chips Fall Where They May Say” More and more I hear people say: “I hate politics.” But is it really politics we hate, or is what we hate the subversion of democracy by small groups of people who work hard to amass and hold on to power so they can determine who we […]
Roe v. Wade appears to be on its last legs. The current, radical Supreme Court sits poised to riddle Roe with Texas-sized exceptions or to overturn it all together. Ever since Roe was handed down on January 22, 1973, the press has been full of, and our national politics traumatized by, charges and countercharges concerning […]
