Yearly Archives: 2004

On Account of Sex

3/11/2004 – 9:59 pm

The proposed Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage is starting to look like another of George W. Bush’s announcements that we’re going to the moon, or Mars. The right-wing religious portion of the American public got its knickers twisted, so Mr. Bush read an insincere statement into the tee vee cameras, walked away and that […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

The Good Soldier

3/4/2004 – 6:55 am

In January, I wrote that 2004 will be the year that determines whether American democracy survives. The statement was more prophetic and carried broader implications than I realized. Democracy has been killed in Haiti, the semi-island nation in the Caribbean and American fingerprints are all over the corpse. President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was hustled out of […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Day In and Day Out

2/26/2004 – 9:42 pm

One day last week – Wednesday, February 18 – 60 leading scientists issued a joint statement accusing the Bush administration of repeatedly distorting scientific information and abusing the scientific process to further its political goals. The next day – Thursday, February 19 – a scientific panel assembled by the Bush administration announced that it is […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Democracy One-Oh-One

2/19/2004 – 12:13 pm

There’s an old saying about paybacks; if you want proof of its veracity, cast a cold eye toward Iraq. Through most of Iraq’s history, the nation was dominated by Sunni Muslim Arabs, to the detriment of Kurds in the north and Shi’ite Arabs in the south. Although Sunnis account for only 20 percent of Iraq’s […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

The Wrath of Khan

2/12/2004 – 9:36 am

I’ve developed a thick callus over my sense of the absurd through the years, but now and then something cuts right through and exposes the raw skin beneath. My flesh has been laid bare in recent days by the surreal nonchalance attending the revelation that Pakistan’s top nuclear scientist has been out peddling history’s most […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Bush Knew

2/5/2004 – 10:21 am

Abraham Lincoln, whose 195th birthday is coming up, is remembered as a moral force in American history. He was also a shrewd politician. He was in shrewd mode when he said, “You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Zero to 9-11 in 30 Seconds

1/29/2004 – 11:12 am

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 accidents. On […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)