Health insurance rescission
I'm not sure that any version of a national health care system - existing, proposed by President Obama, or otherwise - is going to truly meet the needs of every U.S. citizen. As I've said about our approach to supporting…
Category consumer watch
Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth
Lierre Keith's The Vegetarian Myth is one of the most important books ever written about food and the sustainability of the human species. It is at once deeply personal, overwhelmingly provocative, and academically sound as it calls into question all…
Cutting the Grass
One of my recurring summer jobs, in addition to filling and unfilling the tubes of the Internets, is to adjust the height of the small vertically-oriented plant life that densely covers the land surrounding my house. Many people refer to…
The Torn-up Credit Card Application
Some people think I'm paranoid when I shred certain documents, or when I lock my doors, or when I dart erratically down the street to avoid giving the snipers a clear line of sight. But if you've ever needed convincing…
Fireplaces, kitchen supplies and Indian food, oh my
This weekend I had the opportunity to sample three local/regional shopping destinations that were all new to me: 1) The Fireplace Shop at 1000 North F Street in Richmond is an amazing little brick complex that showcases all that can…
Security FAIL
Two stories of security failure for this blustery day: 1) Apparently, all you have to do to throw off the facial recognition software that protects us from identity theft or worse, is smile: The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles is…
Review of Ready Made magazine
The "do it yourself" (DIY) movement is sometimes talked about as a new or emerging phenomenon, but when you reduce it to its essence - "people creating or repairing things for themselves without the aid of paid professionals" - it's…
Is eating locally produced food a bad idea?
In yesterday's Palladium-Item, editorial board member and local blogger Matthew Hisrich proposed that eating locally, and other kinds of localized consumption behaviors, might be ineffective, or even bad for us: [W]here does this drive for relocalizing come from? Perhaps it…
Buy Local press conference - at the mall?
It's not April first yet, so I couldn't really stop my jaw from dropping to the ground on this one: The Richmond-Wayne County Chamber of Commerce and the City of Richmond will be holding a press conference tomorrow afternoon to…
Soon they will chase us through the woods
I may have nightmares about it, but this is just amazing: