War, Politics, and Life by Bruce Maulden
Raining like a mad dog up here on California’s northern coast, and in the pre-dawn hours, cold as shit. And on this first day of spring, weather is screwed. And so is the world — the French are hunting for a crazed killer, Mexicans are seeking more killers of police investigating headless bodies, Iraqis are…
Flowers blooming early — spring ain’t til next Tuesday: “My nightmare now is this weather,†Japanese ambassador to the U.S. Ichiro Fujisaki said at press briefing today at the National Press Building. “What are we going to do if all the cherry blossoms bloom before we start [the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival]?,†he said.…
After growing up in the tornado-infested deep South, ugly weather has always scared-the-living-shit out of me — my dad’s mother always pitched a wailing fit when the wind started howling, crying about how we’re all gonna die. After time, this display of anti-bravado made a big impression on a naive little kid trying to grow…
A small instance of a humongous and worsening situation: The decline in the chipmunk’s genetic diversity occurred in the relatively short span of 90 years, demonstrating the rapid threat changing climate can represent for a species, a UC Berkeley release said Sunday. The shift of the living due to a warming environment poses a danger…
In case you didn’t know already, this is the last evening of 2011. And if you didn’t have your collective head up your collective ass, you know the past 12 months have been shitsville. “There are a lot of reasons not to elect me.” — Mitt Romney, last September Beyond tomorrow, the Iowa caucus crap-shoot…
A few days ago, I put another $20 worth of gas in the old Jeep, and this time the pump price had dropped six cents since the last gas-station visit, down to $3.83 a gallon for regular. Although prices here in northern California have dipped a bit, it’s still freakin’ high compared nationwide — the…
Last night on CBS News, an interview with US Defense head Leon Panetta took place on what’s called “the doomsday plane,” a modified Boeing 747, termed an E-4B by the miltary, and tricked out with a shitload of science-fiction-sounding gear to aid in evading a Judgment-Day scenario. Panetta’s blubberings as usual were nonsensical, but the…
Today 70 years ago one of the landmark events of world history — the Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor — a horror-hole episode leading to a massive worldwide war which killed 2.5 percent of the planet’s inhabitants or about 60 million people. Europe had been at war for a couple…
Most scientists identify as Democrats (55 percent), while 32 percent identify as independents and just 6 percent say they are Republicans. — Pew Research, July 2009 Reality conception doesn’t require the brains of a rocket scientist, but one does need some kind of brain, and maybe a brain that’s not so flat. Take Mitt Romney…
COP17 — the latest UN climate summit opens on Monday in Durban, South Africa, and what’s the action status to combat the way-greatest, quickly-coming threat to humanity? “They’re on the edge of a mess,” one experienced delegate told BBC News, “and they may not be able to resolve this mess.” The above-mentioned ‘mess‘ is a…