Yearly Archives: 2010

Homer Simpson Wasn’t Available

2/5/2010 – 2:54 pm

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 […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Energy, Nuclear Energy | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Jimmy and the Chapels

2/4/2010 – 8:18 am

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, […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Not Measured By Length

1/28/2010 – 12:19 pm

In the autumn of 1987, I canvassed Kensington, Maryland on behalf of the US Public Interest Research Group. I was talking to citizens about acid rain. (Seems almost quaint now.) Canvassing’s a tough job. You get many noes for each yes and you have to keep a thick skin about you. At one house, the […]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Re-Creation Stories

1/21/2010 – 8:42 am

January sun was warm in Washington on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It caused me to slip the jacket from my shoulders as I walked on New Hampshire Avenue. There were no eviction piles of possessions along the curb this week, as there were in November. Instead, Christmas trees had been put to the curb, […]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Rick’s Tale

1/14/2010 – 1:30 pm

They say the classic Washington, DC career has four stages: Idealism, Pragmatism, Ambition and Corruption (a/k/a IPAC). Read a few DC biographies, you’ll see the pattern. I don’t have to name names. The exception proves the rule and one exception is my friend, I’ll call him Rick. (It’s his name.) Rick’s been in DC for […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Tagged | Comments (1)

Warmer and Wetter

1/7/2010 – 8:56 am

My new year began with snow. Thirty-three inches of it, the biggest snowstorm in 120 years of recorded weather history in Burlington. It began Saturday morning and didn’t stop until Monday morning. I shoveled and napped, shoveled and napped. We were supposed to attend a holiday party Saturday night; instead we gathered at the neighbors […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, Global Warming | Tagged , , | Comments (1)