Nature

Are human beings natural? Are cities natural? Is it natural to kill? Is it natural to ignore the suffering of strangers? What is the relation between ethics and nature? What should dictate the form that ethics take? How do we determine what's dictated by genetic predispositions? Should political decisions have anything to do with ethics?

What is the relation between happiness and contact with wild places? What is the relationship between unhappiness and intense urbanization? Why is there such a tension between industry and nature?

Under what circumstances is killing justified? What is the difference between killing a human being and killing a chimpanzee? Is there a difference between killing an infant and killing an aged person? Is it permissible to kill nonhuman animals?

Top of the pops

American Music Club "San Francisco"
The Band "Music from Big Pink"
The Beatles "Abbey Road"
The Beautiful South "Miaow"
The Clash "London Calling"
Elvis Costello "My Aim Is True"
Joni Mitchell "Blue"/"Hejira"
Randy Newman "Sail Away"
Prefab Sprout "Steve McQueen"
Jonathan Richman "Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers"
The Roches "Keep on Doing"
Rolling Stones "Beggars Banquet"
Rufus Wainwright eponymous

When it's late and I'm not quite awake

That's when there is faint music, a sense of longing, and the tug of recollections. I rouse myself, move to the front windows, look out on silent streets. And am wonderfully solitary.

Clementines

Some people know I love clementines. This is why Ken Olsen is a man I admire. He grows clementines and other things on his twenty acres in Lindsay, California.The clementines he grows are magnificent and I bought five pounds last Saturday from the woolly-haired guy who helps out at Ken's Ferry Plaza stand.

Ken educated me about the soft spots and the black spots one sometimes finds on his fruit. But I can't remember the details.

Crucifiction

I am back.