In Percy’s corner
RE: “The Trouble with Percy”
12/28/00
I think this story is a sin and a shame. I also live on a ranch, save seeds, and grow organically — and I have all kinds of cross-pollination. I wish this could be controlled, but the wind is the culprit. I think Monsanto will win because our courts are biased towards big business.
Elizabeth Bisby
Republicrats want to forget
RE: “American Memory Deficit Disorder”
12/28/00
The reason we can’t remember anything is because there is no living “institutional memory” embodied in American institutions. Both major parties don’t remember. Both parties are more interested in running the here and now and don’t want anything to rock the boat. Only an organization with some kind of vested interest in memory (one that tries to plan for the future by looking at the past) would do this. That organization would have to be a political party based on the unions and the working class. It doesn’t exist on a large scale in the US right now.
The fact that the media are controlled by people with a vested interest in blotting out history in order to obscure the future is part of the problem.
Greg Gibbs
Minneapolis, Minn.
Fairness at last
RE: “How Bad is Bush for Blacks?”
12/28/00
Hopefully, once Bush has been sworn in he will take advantage of the Republican dominance and gut all federal affirmative action laws. It will be a relief to finally reach the ideal of equal protection under the law and eradicate state-sponsored racism once and for all.
Keith R. Jarvis
No Xmas cheer
RE: “Megawatt Christmas”
12/27/00
I think the unconscionable waste of power (and resources) perpetrated yearly by the consumerist bastardization of a formerly religious holiday will eventually come back to haunt all of us like Marley’s ghost. But what the hell, why not use up all the power while it’s here and let our kids and grandkids figure out what to do next? After all, there sure will be enough of them around; some of them might be smart enough to do the right thing, unlike their immediate ancestors.
Guy Brussat
More to the story
12/25/00
Thanks for the energy article. Very interesting and all, but there’s still more to tell.
NPR.org has a story on the regulated public power down in Los Angeles. No problems there. In fact, company officials for the LA utility gloat openly over all the money they’re making selling their surplus juice to the rest of us poor slobs — via PG&E and such — at monstrous mark-ups.
Noel
Using the system against the system
RE: “Major Bummer’s Totally Depressing Guide to the Holidays”
12/23/00
Would-be Amazon.com unionizers take heart! Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals is listed at the bargain Amazon.com price of $9.60.
Mark Worden
Environment vs. economics
RE: “Megawatt Christmas”
12/23/00
The California energy crunch and resulting higher prices for working Americans are results of environmental regulations. Due to those regulations, not a single electrical power plant has been built in California since the 1980s. Meanwhile, demand for energy has increased along with the population and the standard of living.
This is not progress. It’s pathetic that in the richest nation in the world, a handful of environmentalists can hamper the pace of development so dramatically. There has clearly been some loss of perspective in which hyperbole over allegedly dangerous conditions leads to a situation where there just isn’t enough juice to go around. Today, it may only be Christmas lights, but soon, it will be air conditioning, then refrigerators, then we’ll be living in wartime-like rationing system.
Paul Daly
