I wonder how many people in this country, or the world for that matter, really think we will make any kind of a strong financial recovery without coal and oil? Our manufacturing plants and all of our industries, as well as our small businesses need an ample, dependable and reasonably priced supply of coal and oil, as clean as possible, preferably from the U.S. Wind, sun and battery needs to continue to be developed. I wonder, though, how many windmills, solar panels and batteries would be required to run a car manufacturing plant, along with the tires, glass and steel necessary - once, all very successful; once all very successful in this country. Pollution you say? Are you saying China, North Korea, South Korea, India and Iran, etc. are running their manufacturing plants without coal and oil? Our coal and oil would be used much cleaner in this country. Pollution you say? Ours would be cleaner and doesn't all pollution go into the same sky? ...more

November 22, 2009

I was only half-listening as my wife rambled on about her day in the classroom. She's a good teacher - a very good teacher - but she cares too much about her third-grade students. At night it makes it difficult to get in a few words about my job. ...more

November 15, 2009

Flying high above a treacherous stretch of the Himalayan Mountains during World War II, Ken Prescher remembers cockpit temperatures dipping to minus 30 degrees - or worse. ...more

November 11, 2009

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett had some sage advice for Washington the other day. ...more

March 15, 2009

It's always great to see the stock market come back from the dead. But I am deeply worried that our political system doesn't grasp how much our financial crisis can still undermine everything we want to be as a country. ...more

March 13, 2009

the day after Morrison would have turned 65 - he appeared in The New York Times in two obituaries: his father's and that of the owner of the Los Angeles club, Whisky A Go Go, where Morrison's band, the Doors, got its big break. ...more

December 13, 2008

The Tribune gave the front page of the Views section on Dec. 6 to the anonymous "Matthew Alexander," who did not use his real name for security reasons. I wondered why. It struck me that Dec. 7 would be the 67th year since the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. ...more

December 10, 2008

With smoke still billowing from the torpedoed ruins of the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor, Thomas Griffin's B-25 group took off from its Oregon base to search for Japanese ships or submarines along the West Coast. ...more

December 8, 2008

On this day 67 years ago, the warm shallow waters of Pearl Harbor were set ablaze with the oil of sinking ships. ...more

December 7, 2008

For another generation, today's date brings up many of the same emotions as Sept. 11 does to this one. ...more

December 7, 2008