Yearly Archives: 1999

Hardcore, Softcore, National Geographic

6/10/1999 – 6:01 pm

The one news item about the Internet the never seems to die is this controversy about kids and pornography. I may not be qualified to take part in this debate; I’ve never seen any porn on the web, I’m not inclined to go looking for it. I don’t think I’m missing anything though, porn is […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Race to the Bottom

6/3/1999 – 5:59 pm

I’m on the road this week, speaking to you from the foothills of the Blue Ridge, outside Washington, DC. I’m here for the annual training camp for human rights activists presented by the Ruckus Society. One hundred activists from four continents are spending a week sharing their skills and stories. There is no shortage of […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Rites of Passage

5/27/1999 – 5:53 pm

It was one week ago today that I flipped on the radio in the middle of a news report about another shooting at a high school. “Oh no, not again,” I thought. For the first time since the 70s, I started yearning for the end of the school year, except now I hoped there might […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

War is Hell

5/20/1999 – 5:51 pm

My favorite graffito is one I saw 10 years ago in Washington, DC. It was neatly painted on the brick wall of a abandoned house and read: “Real jobs for real wages. Stop the phoney war on drugs.” A decade later, that “war” is still being fought, with no end in sight. I’m not even […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Half a Tank

5/13/1999 – 5:49 pm

How long is forever? It’s the kind of question you might expect to hear in a metaphysics class or a bad love song, but neither of those venues is likely to produce a satisfactory answer. It often depends on context. When a president says “forever” he clearly means until the end of his term, after […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Ready, Fire, Aim

5/6/1999 – 5:47 pm

Here’s what I’ve been thinking about the war in the Balkans: If this bombing campaign ever made any sense, which is debatable, that time is surely long past. Our missiles keep hitting refugees in Kosovo and non-combatants in Serbia, and in one tremendous snafu, Bulgaria. On the other hand, how can we let the ethnic […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

A Man of Wealth and Taste

4/29/1999 – 5:45 pm

This week, let us consider the nature of evil, the human face Satan wears as he walks among us. No horns or tail, no goatee or widow’s peak, no pitchfork or scarlet jacket. No, I think Satan is serious and sober, righteous and mediocre. A churchgoer, a deep thinker, a man of best intentions. Satan […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (1)