It is no wonder that for over two decades (half the duration of its statehood), Alaska has been home to a viable political party seeking independence from the Union. When one spends time here, one begins to notice the many ways that Alaska is ignored by the rest of the nation, unless, of course, oil is the topic of conversation. What politicians call a “bridge to nowhere” we call Ketchican’s bridge to the airport - crucial to the community’s long-term economic viability. They call ANWR a snow-covered void, we call it productive and diverse landscape from which people have subsisted for millennia. And the documentary that Ken Burns calls The War, I call a gross oversight of more than a year of Japanese occupation, of the territory’s role in the Pacific Theater at large, and most importantly, of the forced internment of 881 Alaska Natives by the United States government.

(more…)

Usually Christopher Hitchens is a bit heavy-worded even for me, but I’m right there with him on this one. Run Al… run!

Reprinted with permission from the July issue of the Ester Republic.

Remember when researchers told us that Big Mac sandwiches caused cancer? I was reminded of this recently when passing through the big-box retail district – I spied for the first time a sign in front of one of the many new construction sites bearing the familiar golden arches and the slogan “Here We Grow Again.” Now I don’t know about the rest of you, but let me tell you it is a relief to know that when I’m hungry and stuck on that side of town, so far away from the McDonalds’ on College (0.9 miles away), Airport (2.2 miles), or Geist (3.5 miles), that my choice will never again be limited to Carl’s Jr. (more…)

You might be surprised to hear that most scholars of social organization think that marriageis evolving itself out of existence, or at least out of its social relevance, replaced by things like cohabitation, civil unions and any number of other imaginable secular and non-secular configurations of households. Now maybe this is just a red herring meant to distract us from how relatively slow the academic community has been to join this important yet contentious social discussion (Think of same-sex marriage as the climate change of the social sciences). But can we really sum up all the emotion and debate over this evolving ‘institution of marriage’ into what is really no more than a disagreement over the definition of terms? Yes and No.

The No: Lots of people want to define marriage, but is there or has there ever really been a universal definition? (more…)