Editor: Cannot thank the Town Dandy enough for the “Pay Dirt” column. More bedrock analysis of our bureaucrats and the pretend democracy will pay much higher dividends than whether Sarah Palin ever wore a bikini, or what Obama’s pastor had for lunch. One item I’d like to add to the Supervisors’ pay raise issue. Loretta […]
Letters + Opinion
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Alt Vice
Editor: As a novice to national politics, like Ms. Palin, you can imagine my excitement to hear of your six-part series on “The Other Candidates for President” (“Alt Prez,” Journal passim). After reading your final article of the series, however, you can also imagine my disappointment that my (Humboldt County-based) candidacy for vice president, behind […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
What, Me Worry?
Not everyone reads the New York Times. Some people skip the San Francisco Chronicle, don’t listen to National Public Radio and are too busy putting their kids to bed to watch the network or cable news. They get their news from their local newspaper. What a nice world those people lived in last week. In […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Unconcealed
There’s been a lot of feedback on last week’s cover story, and particularly on the cover of the paper itself ("Pistol Packing People," Sept. 25). In case you missed it, the story was about people in Humboldt County with permits to carry concealed weapons on their person. The graphic on the cover was composed out […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Alt Prez
What good can ever come from a bunch of third-party idealists running for President? A lot, actually. Because while you may forget about these alternative candidates even before the election, their best ideas live on and just might change society. Democrats and Republicans generally like change only as a slogan and avoid the actuality whenever […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The T Bill
Boom! Early Tuesday morning there was a blast heard ’round the Humboldt County Courthouse, that drab epicenter of local political life. The shock waves reverberated along the invisible tendrils that extend from the belly of the octopus, reaching into the homes and headquarters of various players and factions about the county. Measure T had been […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Those Damned Mexicans
Editor: So sorry to see the usually reliable Hank Sims degenerate into a cursing, bitching partisan on the issue of illegal immigration and the enforcement action at the bulb farms (“Town Dandy,” Sept. 11). As demonstrated in a statewide referendum (Prop. 187), and every opinion poll ever taken, the public does not support the open […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
See the Slaughter
Editor: Thank you for the article on Wild Chick Farm, which hopefully encouraged people to consider the oft-overlooked fact that the consumption of meat and animal products is based on the daily slaughter and evisceration of sentient beings (“Table Talk,” Sept. 11). May I suggest that everybody who bases his or her diet on such […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Other Candidates for President
The most exciting experience you can have as a voter is the write-in. It’s the only opportunity in the entire electoral process when you can actually call a shot. You get to customize your ballot. Maybe you’ll be taken off to the side and led to a small table, people in line wondering what you […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Pay Dirt
Over the weekend, the American economy fell deeper and deeper into what many were calling its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Another major Wall Street investment bank failed; yet another was rescued at cents on the dollar. Everyone turned to look at the insurance sector, watching for the next big collapses there. Venerable […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Fast Forward
Editor: While it may be easy to cast “The Sonoma Gang” in a negative light, it becomes a little more awkward to realize that any modern non-Native American who has a stake in this society must be a beneficiary of such things (“The Sonoma Gang,” Sept. 11). Unfortunately, the majority of our culture’s customs are […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The Other Candidates For President
It’s the rare alternative candidate for President who can lose horribly and still attain third-party glory and national fame. And that’s the Spoiler. It doesn’t get any better than that for an independent or third-party candidate. Knowing he or she can’t win, he sneaks up in a tiny paper boat, rams a hole in the […]