Bloggers sometimes get an inflated sense of their own importance, but Zoriah is no ordinary blogger. He’s an experienced combat photographer who has been doing something unprecedented. He publishes from Iraq — and allows other bloggers to post his images. And he cares about what’s happening there. A few days ago he photographed the aftermathContinue reading “U.S. Marine Officials Oust Blogger/Photographer for Photographing Suicide Attack in Iraq”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Quote of the Year (religious)
"The opposite of the religious fanatic is not the fanatical atheist but the gentle cynic who cares not whether there is a God or not. The atheist is a religious person. He believes in atheism as though it were a new religion [as Dostoyevsky said]….according to Renan, "The day after that on which the worldContinue reading “Quote of the Year (religious)”
What the World Needs Now: New Paper Towel Dispensers
From King Kaufman’s often-hilarious sports blog for Salon: Every time I go into a public restroom, there’s a new device for dispensing paper towels. Sometimes you have to pull the paper towels out of a little round hole in the bottom of a cylinder. Sometimes there’s a lever to push or pull or bang on.Continue reading “What the World Needs Now: New Paper Towel Dispensers”
Rove Describes Barack — Or Does He?
Quote of the Day: Karl Rove was impressed with Barack Obama when he first met him. But now he sees him as a “coolly arrogant” elitist. This was Rove’s take on Obama to Republicans at the Capitol Hill Club Monday, according to Christianne Klein of ABC News: “Even if you never met him, you knowContinue reading “Rove Describes Barack — Or Does He?”
The End of Progress — in Poetry as in Life
A couple of years ago the poet Tony Hoagland published (here) an essay about the allusive nature of most modern American poetry, in which narrative — storytelling — had fallen by the wayside. Hoagland wasn’t happy about that, but he understood why it had happened. He quoted the great Carolyn Forche: Our age lacks theContinue reading “The End of Progress — in Poetry as in Life”
The Psychology of “the Mindset” that Got Us into the War in Iraq
As brilliantly defined by Prof. Andrew Bacevich, of The American Conservative: The Iraq War represents the ultimate manifestation of the American expectation that the exercise of power abroad offers a corrective to whatever ailments afflict us at home. Rather than setting our own house in order, we insist on the world accommodating itself to ourContinue reading “The Psychology of “the Mindset” that Got Us into the War in Iraq”
The End of 9/11 Politics?
Fortune: Mr. McCain, what do you think is the single greatest economic threat to the United States? McCain at first says nothing. He sits in the corner of a sofa, one black, tasseled loafer propped against a coffee table. We’re in the presidential suite on the 41st floor of the New York Hilton. McCain hasContinue reading “The End of 9/11 Politics?”
Obama on Ethanol: Supports Corn, Taxes Sugar Cane
For an enviro-type, it’s difficult if not impossible to support Barack Obama when he claims we should be giving ample taxpayer support to growing corn for ethanol, but should not allow Brazil to sell its sugar cane ethanol in this country free of tariff….even though sugar cane ethanol is a far more efficient fuel. That’sContinue reading “Obama on Ethanol: Supports Corn, Taxes Sugar Cane”
Missing the Fog
It’s been just insanely hot here in SoCal: 108 yesterday in Ojai. It’s times like this that I miss the fogs of the Bay Area, which sooner or later would always come in…the woodcut artist Tom Killion, who grew up in my neck of the woods, knows how to portray the wonders of that oceanicContinue reading “Missing the Fog”
What, Us Worry? (Accelerating CO2 Emissions edition)
In as roundtable discussion at the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, Ken Caldeira argues for a consideration of the need to geoengineer, despite the risks of such an effort. He cites an especially alarming study, Global and Regional Drivers of Accelerating CO2 Emissions, by Michael Raupach, with a particularly vivid graph. Caldeira writes: While we mightContinue reading “What, Us Worry? (Accelerating CO2 Emissions edition)”
Kit Stolz 