So you're a Foucault fan, are ye? But which type of parrhesia do you adhere to? To quote the Frenchman: "There are two types of parrhesia which we must distinguish. First,there is a pejorative sense of the word not very far from "chattering" and which consists in saying any or everything one has in mind without qualification. This pejorative sense occurs in Plato, for example, as a characterization of the bad democratic constitution where everyone has the right to address himself to his fellow citizens and to tell them anything – even the most stupid or dangerous things for the city. This pejorative meaning is also found more frequently in Christian literature where such "bad" parrhesia is opposed to silence as a discipline or as the requisite condition for the contemplation of God. As a verbal activity which reflects every movement of the heart and mind, parrhesia in this negative sense is obviously an obstacle to the contemplation of God. Most of the time, however, parrhesia does not have this pejorative meaning in the classical texts, but rather a positive one. "parrhesiazesthai" means "to tell the truth." But does the parrhesiastes say what he thinks is true, or does he say what is really true? To my mind, the parrhesiastes says what is true because he knows that it is true; and he knows that it is true because it is really true. The parrhesiastes is not only sincere and says what is his opinion, but his opinion is also the truth. He says what he knows to be true. The second characteristic of parrhesia, then, is that there is always an exact coincidence between belief and truth."

"If this is the future of journalism, I'm truly sad." I agree. This is a scandal. Who ever heard of a newspaper or magazine publishing a humorous first-person essay?

I like this article. More of its kind, please. How would one pigeonhole it? Business reporting?Science writing? "Look what new frontiers are opening up in your backyard" type stuff? Let's say all of the above. Kudos.

Hey libs, remember how great our "socialist utopia" was? Eight years of Bush, the Younger. Eight years of Bill "The era of Big Government is dead" Clinton. Four years of Bush, the Elder. Eight Years of Reagan. Gee, I wish we could have that back again.

A lot of the current problems stem from the partial closure of the County's mental health crisis center. I'll pass along a rumor I heard. I got it second-hand, but my source got it from a couple of doctors who run the mental health system in Sac. The County has already decided to re-open the crisis center, but they are waiting for a while so that they don't look like complete fools for closing it down in the first place. This won't solve every problem, of course, but at least when people are dumped they are dumped at the crisis center, not the streets.