Yearly Archives: 2003

The Fourth Outcome

9/18/2003 – 12:14 pm

The scariest thing I heard last week was a radio interview with Princeton economist and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. Mr. Krugman said the federal deficit is growing so large and so quickly that one of three potential outcomes is nearly inevitable.
Outcome one – higher taxes. It’s fairly certain George W. Bush [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Two Years later

9/11/2003 – 12:12 pm

Today is the second anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center and many Americans will be visited again by the familiar but unwelcome tightness in the stomach, the perceptible acceleration of the pulse. The sound of an airplane passing overhead seems to jump at our ears. People are solemn [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

In For a Dime

9/4/2003 – 12:10 pm

Here’s more good news for the American taxpayer: Tuesday’s Washington Post reports that not only are foreign nations reluctant to send combat troops to Iraq, they’re now resisting the notion of sending money to help rebuild a nation that becomes more ravaged every day.
Since the bombing of its Baghdad headquarters two weeks ago, the UN [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

The Holy Grid

8/28/2003 – 12:08 pm

And in those days, a great darkness fell across the land and blackouts were many and the beer in all the taverns did grow warm. The ancient pipeline ruptured and spilled its precious liquid on the sands of the Arizona desert and the lines at gas stations of the southwest grew long and all [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

No Way Out

8/21/2003 – 12:05 pm

Tuesday was not a good day. The Burlington morning newspaper waved a banner headline announcing IBM, the state’s largest employer, is cutting 500 jobs here. A chart accompanying the story showed IBM Vermont added 2,000 jobs during the eight years of the Clinton administration and every one of those jobs has disappeared in [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Poor Man’s Atomic Bomb

8/14/2003 – 12:03 pm

There was a long, detailed story in Sunday’s Washington Post about how government weapons experts kept telling the White House there was no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program, even as the White House was telling the opposite to the rest of the world.
What if the situation was reversed? What if experts from [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Left of What?

8/7/2003 – 12:00 pm

I suppose I should have a colorful Howard Dean anecdote, but I don’t. When he was governor here, the newspapers would run a photo of him every year, ceremonially tapping the first sugar maple. His blue blood was betrayed by his choked-up grip on the hammer; obviously a man not used to swinging [...]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)