After thoughtful consideration of Benicia's financial difficulties, I modestly propose a solution that will solve our problems and make each one of us richer.
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The Ichster, who contacted me about boycotting Benicia, meets me at Rrags to explain his plan -- he's a man on a moral mission -- to get pay equity for Benicia's teachers.
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After not hearing from Ichbin Überwältigt for eight years, he calls me in the middle of the night to tell me he's boycotting the city of Benicia. Try pasting Ichbin Überwältigt into Google's amazing statistical translator, translate.Google.com.
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This column, published on 9/21/2010, is the first of my columns

With the semester newly started at Solano College, I consider grading papers, literature -- in particular ZZ Packer's "Brownies" -- and my students' need to write in order to think critically and silence hateful echoes.
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Not Published on Sunday,
11/4/2007

While some plolitical slogans may be as sticky as gum stuck to the sole of your shoe, where here I'm using the stickiness factor popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point, this catchy slogan may lead to less than desirable public policy.
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Published on Sunday,
10/28/2007

A card I received in the mail first freightened me, because the eagle had a very sharp beak, and then gave me hope that it might be an invitation to a party or a coupon to rid my house of rats. But it was none of these things.
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Published on Sunday,
10/14/2007

Capitalism exists to efficiently create profit while democracy exits to inefficiently create equality. Benjamin Barber argues that the latter is essential for the former to work for society rather than against it.
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Published on Sunday,
9/30/2007

In which I wonder how the nature of our consideration of others might have turned out differently if Jefferson and Adams had approached the Declaration of Independence with more care.
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Published on Sunday,
9/16/2007

Because the Astronomy instructor at College of Alameda vanished, I found myself studying solar systems and gallaxies when I should have been preparing my English lesson plans.
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Published on Sunday,
9/9/2007

Maya Strausberg's leaving the Herald reminds me of this column I wrote in 2001 about change. At the time a friend asked me if I had been high when writing it. He didn't say high on what, but if he meant high on the possibility of an ever-changing life until the day of death, then I surely was flying sky high.
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Published on Sunday,
8/26/2007

Could it be that the means to measure a good edcation have been there all the time since teachers have always given grades that are a resonable measure of performance?
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Published on Sunday,
8/19/2007

DeeDee Reynolds and her husband Ed own this haven for candy lovers, especially those who can't live without licorice.
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Published on Sunday,
8/12/2007

Getting mad and not wanting to take it anymore after trying to listen to President Bush's recent news conference, I calm my emotions by using RSVP Ethics to analyze the morality of our 43rd president.
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Published on Sunday,
8/5/2007

I claimed last week that what's missing from the discussion of our most complex problems is a clear and shared ethical language. This week, in an effort to address this deficiency, I propose a morality mnemonic, RSVP, that I hope will be a toolkit my English students can use to include ethics in their critical reading and writing.
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Published on Sunday,
7/29/2007

Something seems to be missing from our sense of who we are as Americans. When I watched Sicko, I found it missing when Michael Moore asked us to think about who we are and how we can allow so many in our country to suffer from lack of healthcare.
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Published on Sunday,
7/22/2007

In which I gripe about moral(e), student and environmental waste, and in which I promise, in next-week's column, to offer explications and actions.
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