I cried tonight. Literally just broke down and balled. Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left drove me to tears. I spend my life fighting conservatives but when I have to fight a fellow progressive who just doesn’t think things through, that hurts big time, enough to make me cry. You see Jeralyn is just giddy about having saved a few dollars this holiday season by shopping at Amazon and even more thrilled about having earned $50 in Amazon affiliate sales. She’s happy and I am despondent. I live my values and it’s not easy. It costs money to live my values. I don’t buy Chinese goods period. I shop locally. Apart from Costco, I don’t shop at big box stores. And I don’t shop on-line. We vote every day with how we spend our money. By shopping at Amazon you are destroying your own Main Street and in particular one of the pillars that I believe critical to the cause of liberty, the independent book seller. Since Amazon went public in 1998 (something my employer at the time helped to underwrite), half of all bookstores in the country have closed their doors. With every door closed, it’s more voices silenced. Two years ago, I lost Acorn Books on Polk Street and I grieve its loss. Thankfully, I still have Aardvark Books, Books Inc, A Different Light and City Lights.

Down on the peninsula in Menlo Park, there is Kepler’s Bookstore and it’s a bookstore I know very well because I have spent countless hours browsing or attending lectures when I was a student at nearby Stanford. It’s where I first heard Noam Chomsky speak, where I first listened to Howard Zinn give a lecture. In short, Kepler’s provided me an invaluable political education. I can’t even fully express what Kepler’s means to me. But here’s what it means to the affluent communities of Menlo Park and Palo Alto.

For 53 years, Kepler’s Books has been one of the nation’s premier independent bookstores, famous for its outstanding author events, knowledgeable staff, and its broad selection of books, magazines and gifts. Its commitment to the local communities it serves has helped define the cultural identity of the Menlo Park, Atherton, Palo Alto, Redwood City and other San Francisco Bay Area communities that have seen such exceptional growth in the past five-and-a-half decades.

Kepler’s was founded in May 1955 by peace activist Roy Kepler. The store soon blossomed into the cultural epicenter it has always remained. It attracted loyal customers from the students and faculty of Stanford University and from other members of the surrounding communities who were interested in serious books and ideas. The Grateful Dead gave live shows there early in their career, and they, along with folk singer Joan Baez, often appeared at Kepler’s sharing ideas at the bookstore with local community leaders.

In 1980, Roy’s son, Clark Kepler, took over the management of the bookstore. Kepler’s evolved along with the local community, and in 1989 moved to Menlo Center on El Camino Real, literally at the heart of Menlo Park. As a community hub with varied, high-caliber author events, the bookstore attracted many bestselling writers, local authors and national leaders. Kepler’s was known for the breadth and depth of its inventory, often carrying books that were hard to find elsewhere, and for the talent of its buyers to choose to showcase books that would later become “sleeper” national bestsellers. Kepler’s stood apart from its competitors.

In 1990 Publishers Weekly named Kepler’s “Bookseller of the Year.” However, by 1996, it was clear that the bookselling business was being completely changed by the emergence of large discount warehouses and Amazon.com. These changing economic conditions affecting independent bookstores nationwide, and the concomitant internal business problems, caused Kepler’s to close its doors on August 31, 2005–briefly. The local community responded with demonstrations. Thousands gathered on the expanse of what is now known as “Kepler’s Plaza” to express support and protest the loss. Weeks later, with community investment, a flourishing Literary Circle Membership Program and a revived sense of Kepler’s place within Silicon Valley, the bookstore re-opened in October of 2005.

Today Kepler’s has once again evolved with it communities and remains a household word in the daily lives of its fiercely loyal customers. It is still a vibrant cultural center, not only offering a vast array of books and continuing its stellar author events but it now also serves a burgeoning population of children and families and has developed a community partner program without equal. A new generation, quite a numerous one, is growing up at Kepler’s youth author events in the store, at the schools, in the parks; and they value what this bookstore brings to their families. The bookstore has also developed a reputation in the past three years as a destination for unique gifts that mirror and target local interest and trends. This new market has been quite successful for Kepler’s. Although there continue to be enormous challenges facing independent booksellers such as Kepler’s, the strength and caring of the local community, and Kepler’s increased commitment to it, is keeping this well-loved bookstore alive and thriving, and continuing to adapt as it heads into its second half century.

Kepler’s is located at 1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, and the phone # is (650) 324-4321. There is free parking in an underground garage.

Supporting the legacy of Roy Kepler and the on-going efforts of Clark Kepler to bring countervailing opinions to the fore is part of it what means to me to be a progressive. Enriching Jeff Bezos is hardly a worthwhile societal goal. Think before you shop. Thanks to Kepler’s voices and opinions that otherwise may not have gotten a hearing got a hearing. All Amazon cares about is a bottom line. Diversity of opinion isn’t one of its values, but it’s one of mine.

More below the fold on Roy Kepler, one of my heroes, a teacher and a friend. (more…)

The New York Times is highlighting in an article the efforts of the Passivhaus Institut of Darmstadt, Germany in building an energy efficient home. From the New York Times:

Architects in many countries, in attempts to meet new energy efficiency standards like the Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design standard in the United States, are designing homes with better insulation and high-efficiency appliances, as well as tapping into alternative sources of power, like solar panels and wind turbines.

The concept of the passive house, pioneered in this city of 140,000 outside Frankfurt, approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies.

And in Germany, passive houses cost only about 5 to 7 percent more to build than conventional houses.

Decades ago, attempts at creating sealed solar-heated homes failed, because of stagnant air and mold. But new passive houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side by side with clean, cold air coming in, exchanging heat with 90 percent efficiency.

“The myth before was that to be warm you had to have heating. Our goal is to create a warm house without energy demand,” said Wolfgang Hasper, an engineer at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. “This is not about wearing thick pullovers, turning the thermostat down and putting up with drafts. It’s about being comfortable with less energy input, and we do this by recycling heating.”

There are now an estimated 15,000 passive houses around the world, the vast majority built in the past few years in German-speaking countries or Scandinavia.

The first passive home was built here in 1991 by Wolfgang Feist, a local physicist, but diffusion of the idea was slowed by language. The courses and literature were mostly in German, and even now the components are mass-produced only in this part of the world.

The industry is thriving in Germany, however — for example, schools in Frankfurt are built with the technique.

A passive house is a building in which a comfortable interior climate can be maintained without active heating and cooling systems. The house heats and cools itself, hence “passive”. Learn more at the Passive House Institute.

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This from a progressive?

While retailers are drowning in their sorrows over disappointing Christmas sales numbers, Amazon is cheering. It had its best season ever.

I’ve been touting Amazon as having the best prices since November. It’s now the first place I go online when looking to buy anything.

TalkLeft readers must be doing the same. This is the first month I’ve taken in more than $50 in affiliate sales from Amazon. Please keep them coming, and thanks to all of you who bought from Amazon through our links.

I think the best buys are in DVD’s, electronics and books.

Jeralyn Merritt of Talk Left has just pissed me off royally. She has some nerve calling herself a liberal encouraging people to shop at Amazon instead of Main Street. How many jobs did you cost the American economy this holiday season there Jeralyn in your quest to save a few pennies? How many state budgets did you impair by avoiding sales taxes? Honestly Jeralyn do you not think things through?

One of the foundations of our democracy is, I think, an independent book trade. Well, Jeralyn, you might note that since 1998 when Amazon went public almost half of independent bookstores have gone under and about one-third of independent music stores have closed. Are you proud of this? Think before you spend. Support your local businesses. They put more back into the economy than Amazon ever will. Live like a progressive don’t just pretend to be one on a blog. Yours is a race to the bottom. I won’t ever join you there. This blog will never ever seek to gain financially and sell out one’s principles.

Jeralyn I’ll remind you that I’m a former Wall Street Analyst who covered Wal-Mart and as such it was my job to visit Wal-Marts across this land of ours. When I strayed away from the big box highways on the edge of town and ventured into the small towns I got to see the other side of Wal-Mart, its impact on these small towns, the devastation of small businesses, the mainstay of our economy. It’s people like you that are responsible for this wreckage. For $50 in affiliate sales pieces of silver, you’re willing to sacrifice jobs on Main Street. Your shopping patterns have consequences beyond your pocketbook. The job you save may be your own.

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Taher el-Noono, a spokesman for Hamas, speaks to reporters in Gaza.

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Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the rocket fire that had descended upon Israeli settlements in the Negev in recent days. Israeli retaliation so far has killed more than 200 — the highest one-day toll in an Israeli military operation against Palestinians in decades. According to the New York Times, Israeli military officials said the airstrikes, which went on into the night, were the start of what could be days or even months of an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel. The operation might ultimately include ground forces, a senior Israeli security official said.

In response, leaders of the militant Islamist group Hamas are promising a third Intifada.

More from Haaretz.

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