The announcement that Harriet Tubman’s image will replace that of Andrew Jackson on the twenty-dollar bill has outraged the racists and the Jackson defenders. (No link. It’s easy enough to find.)
Category: Politics
Our 51st State?
A recent road trip took me through the heart of the State of Jefferson, our 51st state. What’s that, you say? We have only 50 states? Read on.
Political Grandiloquence
Political campaign rhetoric has descended to a new depth with the 2016 presidential race. Or has it?
Back to the Future?
High-speed rail is coming to California. The $68.4 billion project – most expensive public-works in U.S. history – will transport passengers at speeds up to 220 miles per hour between Los Angeles and San Francisco, making the 500-mile trip in 2 hours and 40 minutes. California voters in 2008 approved a ballot measure authorizing $9.95 billion general obligation bonds. At that time the estimated cost was $40 billion.
Water Fight
California’s San Joaquin Valley produces 25% of our nation’s table food using 1% of the nation’s land. Grapes – table, raisin and wine – cotton, nuts – especially almonds and pistachios – lettuce, citrus, tomatoes are among the more than 250 crops grown in the area. Pretty impressive for what is basically a desert. But it’s using up what water it has available.
The Years of Robert Caro
I got hooked on Robert A. Caro when his first volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson was published in 1982. What I thought was going to be trilogy began with The Path to Power. I received it as a gift and was soon completely absorbed into it. Mr. Caro took me into the Hill Country of Texas, and made me feel what it was like to be a settler there and how that formed LBJ. The further I read the more I appreciated the painstaking research behind it.