Judging from my email in-box and the occasional comment in this space, my essays have taken a surprising turn. It seems my efforts are worth alerting the authorities, at least according to comments from anonymous cowards who hide behind online…
by John Stassek Infallible A sliver of green and fertile earth, far from other lands. Poly- nesians settled long ago, and came to under- stand. Three days of labor, tilling the soil, could feed them- selves all year. Easter Island…
Kurt Vonnegut often described World Wars I and II as western civilization's first and second attempts, respectively, to commit suicide. He hinted at peak oil as our third attempt in his memoir, Man Without a Country, which was published shortly…
I presented in Austin, Texas, 9 January 2011 under the title, Durable Living: Preparing for Climate Change and Energy Decline. Free and open to the public, the event was sponsored by Design~Build~Live and Crude Awakening Austin, and attended by about…
A Christmas card from one of the in-laws was unintentionally soaked in irony. I'll skip the rant about celebrating Christ and mass, the two components of Christ's mass (i.e., Christmas) in which I don't believe, much less celebrate. And, too,…
I was enjoying lunch with a former student and long-time friend yesterday after walking across campus on a gloriously sunny day in the American Southwest. I mentioned to my friend the resurgence of "fashion" among young women -- women without…
When people tell me the dire messages about which I write don't resonate with other people, I struggle with a coherent response. Would you prefer continued overshoot on an overshot planet? Would you prefer we keep heating our overheated home?…