by admin | Sep 6, 2018 | Books, Disaster, Floodplain management, Government, Homeless, Housing, Infrastructure, Natural Hazards, Transportation, Urban Planning, Water, Weather, Wildfire
We learn from disasters as we recover from them, but each disaster teaches slightly different things. Sometimes the lessons are significant and historic; in others, one community is learning what others already know or should have learned from their own past events....
by admin | Aug 25, 2018 | Activism, Blogging, Books, Careers, Government, History, National security, Politics, Public policy, Writing
Like John McCain’s assuredly final book, The Restless Wave, I read Facts and Fears: Hard Truths from a Life in Intelligence, by James R. Clapper, in large part because my wife bought it for me. The usual pathway to my desk for books I discuss in this blog is that they...
by admin | Jul 31, 2018 | Activism, Books, Climate, Disaster, Floodplain management, Geography, History, Housing, Journalism, Natural Hazards, Racism, Water, Weather, Writing
It has always amazed me how much time and energy has been wasted, particularly in the U.S., on the denial of climate change in the face of so much scientific evidence. Sea level rise is a directly measurable phenomenon. So are changes in precipitation patterns over...
by admin | Jul 18, 2018 | Activism, Books, Crime, Government, History, Journalism, National security, Politics
It is a dramatic and evocative scene. In The Two Towers, the second novel of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Grima Wormtongue, a spy at the service of the evil wizard Saruman, has gained control of the mind of Théoden, the king of Rohan, which is on the...
by admin | May 29, 2018 | Books, Christianity, Civil rights, Government, History, Racism, Religion
On May 10, my wife and I attended a matinee performance of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. Coming a month after the Easter evening (April 1) NBC broadcast of this ground-breaking rock opera by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber, it allowed some...
by admin | Mar 2, 2018 | Books, Business, Careers, Chicago, Economic development, Economics, Government, Public policy, Transportation, Urban Planning
We often hear from conservatives that the public sector is inherently inefficient, lacking the competitive pressures that drive innovation. A great deal of the evidence seems anecdotal, although it’s not hard to come by. The work of most public agencies is at least...
