03/11/2010

Proof / Not Proof

Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) was raving on the floor of the House yesterday. “We’re talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We’re talking about war and peace, $3 billion dollars, a thousand lives and no press? No press?”

Mr. Massa is the recently resigned congressman from New York who may or may not have groped staffers. That question has gotten plenty of new coverage. The debate over the war in Afghanistan – as Mr. Kennedy complained – gets virtually none.

He’s got a point. Our infotainment news culture has lost its way. The mainstream media has forgotten how to edit – that is, to determine what’s important and what’s not. Where Ms. Massa’s hands have been will affect the future of almost no one, while young Americans face – and too often embrace – death half a world away.

A few weeks ago, when Washington, DC was hit by serial snowstorms, much of the yahoo media (I’m looking at you, Fox News and increasingly, at you, CNN) declared – along with the some of our stupidest members of Congress – that it proved global warming was a hoax dreamed up by Al Gore and the environmental groups.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Global Warming | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
03/04/2010

Phorced to be Phony

“You don’t blow a bunch of cash in Vegas when you’re trying to save in college.’’

It’s not me saying that, it was Barack Obama, last month. Good advice, but as is often the case when you’re president, it landed him in hot water, so two weeks ago he went out of his way to praise the city and encourage people to visit and spend sums of money smaller than the college fund.

“Let me set the record straight – I love Vegas, always have,” he said. “Love Vegas. Enjoy myself every time I’ve got an opportunity to visit.”

There are a few verbal “tells” there. Just as George W. Bush mangled his words when he spoke about things he didn’t seem to care about – poor people, education – but never slipped when canceling international treaties or threatening small nations, so Mr. Obama says “let me be clear” or “set the record straight” when he’s about to be insincere. He also tends to drop the first person singular noun and begin his truncated sentence with the verb when he’s BS’ing.

It’s an occupational hazard and an irony that the leader of the world’s only superpower can’t express too many opinions in public, lest he have to grovel before some hypersensitive constituency. Our sense of “victim entitlement” has really hit overdrive when the president has to go out of his way to praise Vegas as a wholesome place to go lose your money.
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By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)
02/25/2010

When the People Lead…

Vermont’s a small state with a so-called “citizen legislature.” Our legislators don’t have staffs and offices, they have desks in the House or Senate chamber. The committee rooms are small, sometimes people testifying have to wait in the hall until it’s their turn to speak; there’s just not enough room inside.

Our legislators all have other jobs – they’re farmers and business people, professors and attorneys. There’s a law on the books that says a person cannot be fired from his or her day job because she or he is attending to legislative duties. Wealthy professionals are over-represented in the Vermont legislature, but show me a legislature where they’re not. All in all, I think we do pretty well.

Still, I sense an unvoiced inferiority complex when it comes to our legislature. We have New York just to the west and Massachusetts to the south and while we all thank good fortune every day that we are not those states, there’s a certain junior varsity air to the whole undertaking.

So what? The point of a legislature is not offices and staffers or worse, to provide a space for lobbyists to hang out all the year through. The point is to make good government and then go home. That’s what the Vermont legislature does in 16 weeks (more or less) each year.

Yesterday, the Vermont Senate, on a vote of 26-4, became to first legislative body in America to close a nuclear power plant, Vermont Yankee, which is owned by the Entergy Corporation of New Orleans, Louisiana.
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By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary, Energy, Nuclear Energy | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)
02/18/2010

The Strange Case of Amy Bishop

Amy Bishop, the University of Alabama professor who is alleged to have killed three and wounded three at a departmental staff meeting last week, presents a strange case.

It’s strange her husband told reporters he didn’t know she had a gun – until he remembered he’d accompanied her to a shooting range several times in recent weeks.

It’s strange the Bishops were questioned in a 1993 case in which a bomb was planted in one of their Harvard professor’s houses. (No one was ever charged with a crime in connection with the incident.)

It’s very strange that Ms. Bishop’s brother died of a shotgun blast 1986, a blast delivered by Ms. Bishop. The official story (until this week, that is) was the shooting was an accident. This was Ms. Bishop’s story, corroborated by her mother. Ms. Bishop supposedly was trying to unload the weapon, with which she was unfamiliar, when it went off – once into a wall, once into a ceiling and once into her brother. He died of the wound.
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By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)
02/11/2010

Quid Pro Coal

You’re hearing more and more voices on the left (including this one), saying Barack Obama can’t get behind initiatives and really make things happen. Health care reform and banking regulations are two frequently cited examples.

It’s not universally true. There are times when this administration moves with surprising speed and efficiency. Just last week, President Obama put a task force on a 180-day deadline to figure out how to “overcome barriers to the widespread, cost-effective deployment of CCS within 10 years, with the goal of bringing 5 to 10 commercial demonstration projects on line by 2016.”

And I’ll bet he gets – if not his lofty goal – at least a big, thick report with plenty of recommendations for subsidies, because… Oh right, you may not know what CCS stands for. It’s “carbon capture and storage.”

The idea is that through the miracle of technology, we can capture the CO2 that would otherwise be emitted from the burning of coal and pump in deep underground, where it will never leak out into the atmosphere, thus allowing us to continue using our plentiful coal resources without worrying about global warming.
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Electoral Politics, Energy, Global Warming | Comments (0)
02/05/2010

Homer Simpson Wasn’t Available

In the deep winter of New England, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant is leaking radioactive tritium into the groundwater.

This is bad timing for Yankee’s owner, Entergy of Louisiana, because the Vermont legislature is currently considering Entergy’s request to extend the 38-year-old plant’s license to operate for another 20 years. (Vermont is the only state in which the legislature has the power to intervene in a nuclear plant’s license.)

Even Governor Jim Douglas, who has been an unabashed Entergy supporter until now, demanded the firing of Entergy Vice President Jay Thayer. Mr. Thayer swore under oath that Vermont Yankee has no underground pipes. Then it was discovered that the tritium was leaking from – underground pipes. (Still a friend to Entergy, the governor has also called for a “timeout” to allow the corporation to rebuild the people’s shattered trust. After all, you wouldn’t want to decide whether or not to go ahead and get married after you catch your intended in bed with your best friend, you’d want to give it time to rebuild trust.)

It’s unclear at this point who is the dog and who is the pony in this dog-and-pony show, but Entergy did get rid of Mr. Thayer. (Which is not to say he was fired. He was placed on “administrative leave” pending investigation, which means he goes on vacation until this whole thing blows over; when he returns with a tan, he’ll be sent off to tell whoppers about some other Entergy facility.)
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Energy, Nuclear Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
02/04/2010

Jimmy and the Chapels

Matt’s cab pulled to a silent stop on the pre-dawn street Monday. Fifteen minutes early, every time. I hoisted my duffle bag and brief case onto my shoulder and out the door I went.

In the cab, Matt was ready to bubble over. He’s a recent convert to Facebook and through the online social network, he’d been found by friends from Jackson Heights, Queens he’d lost touch with some 45 years ago.

“I was in a doo-wop group back then,” he said. “We were all in doo-wop groups. It didn’t keep us off the streets, but it did keep us out of trouble.”

Matt’s group, a quintet, was Jimmy and the Chapels. “The name never made any sense, but it sounded good.” The Jimmy in the group was Jimmy Spinelli, who now tours with the professional doo-wop group The Duprees.

“I sang bass and baritone and occasionally I’d get off a tenor piece, but mostly bass and baritone,” Matt said. “Jimmy, of course was the best. He was born with a cleft palate and when he spoke, you could hardly make out what he was saying, but when he sang, it was crystal clear. Singing was the therapy back then. And he had a great voice, just a great voice.”
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By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Comments (0)