Monthly Archives: May 2011

Never Had an Eden

5/26/2011 – 10:21 am

Years ago, when I was a young reporter, an equally young colleague wrote a column endorsing a candidate in a Congressional race. That was against the rules; only the newspaper’s editorial board made endorsements and would not do so for some weeks. My colleague wasn’t fired, just banned from covering the rest of the race. […]

By floegel | Posted in Civil Liberty, Commentary | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Don’t Know Much About History

5/19/2011 – 2:37 pm

For my birthday, Adrienne presented me with a copy of John Thorn’s excellent book “Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game”. Among the things I’ve learned: – The rule allowing a batter to run if a catcher drops a third strike is one of baseball’s oldest (1845), pre-dating both […]

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Bin Laden Furor: It’s All Theater

5/12/2011 – 1:04 pm

The UK Guardian ran a story Monday about a secret deal between the US and Pakistan, reached in 2001, shortly after Osama bin Laden gave our troops the slip at Tora Bora. (Heckuva job, Rummy!) According to active and retired officials from both nations, if the US got a shot at bin Laden, they were […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary, September 11th | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Thousands and Ten Thousands

5/5/2011 – 2:08 pm

I have a friend who came back from serving in Vietnam 40 years ago. Shortly thereafter, his father, who owned a liquor store, was shot and killed during a robbery. The killer was African American. My friend’s family is white. “I used that for a long time,” he told me. “I’d say, ‘It’s OK for […]

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