Press "Enter" to skip to content

Public Citizen

Ubu Trump

In 1895, Alfred Jarry's play entitled Ubu Roi (The King Ubu) was performed in Paris for its first, and until very much later, its last time. Public reaction to the farce was so extreme that a riot ensued. Jarry, who never wrote another play, had... Continue

In love with the glow

I grew up in the glow of TV. It was black and white until I was perhaps ten years old, and color television after that. Color television actually was a big deal, once. My childhood shows were foolish affairs mostly, quite amateurish by today's standards.... Continue

Body, Mind and Universe

A great deal of attention has been paid to the workings of mind, that curiously self-conscious and often self-absorbed entity we take to be who we are in the world. The widely-held presumption is that mind is an emergent function of brain, and therefore, mind... Continue

Game Over

By the measuring stick of capitalism, Donald Trump has won the game. He has attained the pinnacle of American business success, namely power; his finger on the nuclear button, Donald Trump is now the most fearsome businessman in the world. He has vanquished all enemies... Continue

The Pseudo-Science of CEQA and an EIR

An Environmental Impact Report (EIR) responds to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), legislation intended to asses and address the environmental impacts of large developments, such as air-quality, construction debris and dust, noise and other factors. It takes only a few minutes reviewing the EIR... Continue

Capitalist Morphology

Morphology, the study and comparison of form, is one method used by scientists and naturalists to classify plants and animals into Genus and Species. By determining physical structures as unique to a particular organism, one species of organism can be differentiated from other members of... Continue

America’s Angry White Men

Much is being made of the angry white men of America, men who have lost jobs, lost wives, and have lost hope. That lost hope has been replaced with anger - anger at women, at minorities, at immigrants and politicians. It's a troubling and complicated... Continue

Sex and male aggression

The Trump campaign unleashed a torrent of news stories about sexual harassment and abuse of women by men. As Rebecca Solnit points out in her book of essays on the topic, "Men Explain Things to Me," male aggression against women is a long-standing feature of... Continue

My high school reunion

I recently went back east to attend my 50th high school reunion. I've attended other reunions; the 20th and the 40th, so I've had contact with some classmates over the years. This time, however, quite a few former students showed up who have never attended... Continue

Just Sayin’

TRIGGER WARNING: I'm about to go all Jungian on you. If actualizing your archetypes causes you difficulty, you might choose to stop reading here. Are you in touch with your inner Ares? Donnie Trump sure is. And Hillary's inner Athena? She'd be nowhere without it.... Continue