On September 6, 2001, I wrote about the hazards of transporting toxic industrial chemicals on railcars through urban areas. Two months earlier, a fire in a Baltimore rail tunnel burned for five days, sending a toxic cloud over the city. The point of my commentary that week was that we should avoid industrial [...]

On January first, I wrote that 2004 will determine whether American democracy will survive. I got some e-mail on that, people wrote asking if perhaps I was being too extreme, although some admitted they harbor the same concern. In the end, none of us hope it will come to that, but we’re afraid [...]

Two thousand four will be the year that determines whether American democracy survives. Although this notion has been growing for some time, two articles from the front page of Monday’s Washington Post confirm the diagnosis.
The first was headlined “Army Stops Many Soldiers From Quitting” and said the U.S. Army has issued a series of [...]