QCounty Archive

A Modest Proposal

dbadtke — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:17:08 +0000

Benicia.Patch.com article by Dave Badtke

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.
Read the Article

Icky Speaks Up For Teachers

dbadtke — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 04:12:16 +0000

Benicia.Patch.com article by Dave Badtke

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.
Read the Article.

Ichbin Boycotting Benicia

dbadtke — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 01:55:18 +0000

Benicia.Patch.com article by Dave Badtke

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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Getting Small Things Write

dbadtke — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 22:01:44 +0000

Benicia.Patch.com article by Dave Badtke

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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Sticky Voting

dbadtke — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 22:53:07 +0000

NOT a Benicia Herald Article by Dave Badtke
After Benicia Herald Editor Les Mahler was fired and Assistant Editor Oliver Symonds quit, this article was not published on Sunday, November 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. Read the Article

The Metonymic Voting Life

dbadtke — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 20:55:57 +0000

Benicia Herald article by Dave Badtke

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. Read the Article

Capitalism in a Box

dbadtke — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:34:18 +0000

Benicia Herald article by Dave Badtke

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. Read the Article

Unfortunate Initial Conditions

dbadtke — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 05:14:54 +0000

Benicia Herald Article by Dave Badtke

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. Read the Article

Semester Riff

dbadtke — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 22:04:28 +0000

Benicia Herald Article by Dave Badtke

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. Read the Article

To Change Or Not To Change

dbadtke — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:02:56 +0000

Benicia Herald Article

Maya Strausberg’s leaving the Benicia 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. Read the Article