Steven Emory Butcher, the man who while burning trash, set off the longest-burning wildfire in recorded California history, was sentenced Monday to 45 months in Federal prison and fined $101 million. Butcher is not just homeless but mentally ill. It's easy to mock the absurdity of the fine, but in a typically excellent Slate pieceContinue reading “Your Fine: $101 Million. Payable: Forever”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
From Asher Durand, courtesy of the New York Historical Society, which has put up what looks like an astounding show of drawings called Drawn By New York: Six Centuries of Watercolors and Drawings. As Christy Weir, Mayor of Ventura, CA., likes to say…"There's nothing greener than a tree."
How You Feel When You Think of the Climate
As the ever-quotable Tom Friedman of the New York Times points out, Bush has left Obama with two ginormous deficits; one economic, the other related to climate. In an interview, Friedman said: We basically did nothing for eight years, and in fairness to Bush we didn't do much in the eight years previous, either, toContinue reading “How You Feel When You Think of the Climate”
Tea Fire Burns Through Westmont College into Montecito
A fire started yesterday afternoon in Santa Barbara has already burned through Westmont College down into Montecito, consuming between 80-100 homes. Initial news reports are fragmentary but not reassuring, and the pictures are alarming. Here's a first-hand account from Ray Ford, of the Santa Barbara Independent, and a picture from a resident, Justin Fox, whoContinue reading “Tea Fire Burns Through Westmont College into Montecito”
Understatement of the Year
Well, it's almost December 2009, time to start considering some candidates for understatement of the year. Here's one from the veteran team at the McClatchey Newspapers: Economic Summit Unlikely to Burnish Bush's Legacy I thinking they're messing with us. (To see the full pathetic story of the lame-duck Bush, go here. Pic from corps.man]
P.J. Cracks Back on the Right
Truly funny people can make you laugh (or at least, smile) even when they offend. P.J. O'Rourke is one of those people; horrendously wrong on numerous issues, but still funny. And this week he cracked back on his own beloved "conservative" movement, big time, in the Weekly Standard, in a piece poignantly termed We BlewContinue reading “P.J. Cracks Back on the Right”
What Lifts Us Out of Ourselves Helps Us Believe in the Future
Have been reading through a collection of short pieces by the great Rachel Carson, called Lost Woods: The Discovered Writings of Rachel Carson. Turns out Carson wrote the liner notes for a recording of Claude Debussy's La Mer, and subsequently was asked to give a talk on the connection between the arts and the naturalContinue reading “What Lifts Us Out of Ourselves Helps Us Believe in the Future”
Monsters in the Wilderness: the GOP Regroups
Paul Krugman is not just a Nobel Prize-winning economist. He's also a writer with real power and economy — one of the best columnists in the country. Here's an example, from a Wednesday post: ….for the past 14 years America’s political life has been largely dominated by, well, monsters. Monsters like Tom DeLay, who suggestedContinue reading “Monsters in the Wilderness: the GOP Regroups”
The End of Something Old, the Start of Something New
David Brooks, I owe you an apology. After your fervent support for the misguided and mismanaged war in Iraq, I thought you had become a neocon. Your seemingly mindless support of the re-election of Bush in 2004 was the final straw for me. But perhaps I spoke too soon. Since 2005, Brooks has been expressingContinue reading “The End of Something Old, the Start of Something New”
Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?
Four weeks ago in Southern California, Santa Ana winds threatened to drive two fires in Simi Valley — the Porter Ranch and the Sesnon Fire — on a path through the sun-baked hills towards the ocean. But instead of building in strength and destructiveness, as the winds often have in the past, the Santa AnasContinue reading “Global Warming: Good News for California Coast?”
Kit Stolz 