The End Is Near?

I don’t think the world will end in my lifetime — though it will end when I die — but maybe there was something to the fact that the Mayans’ calendar stopped at the end of 2012.* We humans are so messing up the earth that we might as well stop counting years going forward. [...]

In Memorium: Sean Bonniwell, The Music Machine

Sean Bonniwell, iconoclastic lead singer/songwriter of Los Angeles’ proto-punk garage band the Music Machine, has died of lung cancer in Visalia, Calif. He was 71. Though much of the great rock ‘n’ roll of the late 50s and early 60s were made by garage bands, early punks or lone renegades (think Buddy Holly, the great [...]

Happy Holidays

Films & TV We Grew Up With: April

OK, kids. Time for another trip down memory lane. Here’s a smattering of some films and TV shows making their way to DVD this month — films and TV shows that were part of our cultural landscape and influenced us as we grew up. So here’s to the start of a new monthly column. Dirty [...]

The Ernie Kovacs Collection

The Ernie Kovacs Collection On April 19, Shout! Factory will release a lavish six-disc set compiling the work of one of the greatest comics of the 20th century — Ernie Kovacs. This is a collection not to be missed. Here’s the press release: Featuring more than 13 hours of Kovacs’ original classic television content, unforgettable [...]

Father’s Day

Father’s Day Sunday was so very nice in Beverly Hills. The sun was warm, its rays sparkling through the swaying of the elm and eucalyptus trees. It smelled fresh and clean. Early in the evening I decided to ride my bike up to the post office  — about a mile away — and maybe cruise [...]

Capitalist Shibboleth #39: Land Is the Basis of All Wealth

While rummaging through some old file folders I found this advertisement; it appeared in the Los Angeles Times on February 24, 1970 –  while the Cold War was still raging.

File Under: The Rich Get Richer

Under the headline “Big companies are awash in cash as economy picks up,” The Los Angeles Times reported (March 24) that although many individuals, small businesses and even states have been devastated by the recession, many of the country’s biggest companies are “loaded with cash, thanks to deep cost-cutting that helped drive unemployment into double [...]

WellPoint: Profit at the Expense of Consumers

Under the headline “Lawmakers accuse WellPoint, parent company of Anthem Blue Cross, of profiteering”  in the Thursday, Feb. 25 Los Angeles Times, Richard Simon and Duke Helfand report that “Congressional Democrats on Wednesday accused the parent company of Anthem Blue Cross of putting profits ahead of policyholders, saying the giant insurer padded its proposed rates [...]

More About Anthem Blue Cross Greed

Earlier this month we wrote a post about the despicable actions of Anthem Blue Cross in raising their rates for health coverage. See Healthcare Costs on the Rise. Why? The Los Angeles Times has been vigilant in their coverage of the healthcare giant, and two articles in the Feb. 23 Business Section hit the nail [...]

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