Yearly Archives: 2012

Who Else is Peeing?

4/26/2012 – 4:30 pm

Every morning, I get out of bed and first thing, relieve my bladder.  This is neither unusual nor restricted to the middle-aged and above crowd.  What might be unusual (probably is), is the question that so frequently comes to mind in that moment: Who else is peeing? Let me be clear up front, I’m wondering […]

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Accountability

4/19/2012 – 2:19 pm

What is a reasonable cost for a conference for 300 civil servants from across the western US?  Airfare, food, lodging, conference facilities, speakers, prep, etc., etc.  From the news stories, it’s clear that $823,000 is way too much.  Next year’s conference, I’m just guessing, will be substantially less extravagant, so let’s say $300,000.  That means […]

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

The New Cigarette

4/12/2012 – 7:29 pm

I fly on a fairly regular basis and these trips always begin with a 6 a.m. flight, which means the plane boards around 5:30.  Because I’m a frequent flyer, I always board in Zone 2.  I’m not frequent enough to qualify for Zone 1, but I’m still among the first on the plane, which gives […]

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Al Gore’s Igloo

4/5/2012 – 3:18 pm

This is the fourth installment of my New Year’s pay more attention to the weather resolution.  It was hard to wait until the first of the month, given the summer-like heat Vermont experienced a few weeks ago.  When a late-winter storm hit Washington, DC in 2010 (I was on one of the last planes out […]

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Missing the Connection

3/29/2012 – 1:26 pm

What if I wasn’t me?  How would the world look?  I guess it would depend on whichever skin other than my own I stand in. I’ll give you an example.  The other day, remembering my youth, I realized synagogues – Temple Beth David and Temple Emanu-El – stood on two of the four corners of […]

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Still the Story of America

3/22/2012 – 12:49 pm

The story of America is the story of race.  It has been since a couple Germans grafted the name of an Italian navigator onto the continents in the middle of the last millenium.  That it is still the story of America (especially the United States of) is evidenced by two stories in the news this […]

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How to Lose Five Dollars

3/15/2012 – 2:02 pm

Beware the Ides of March.  I just thought I’d say that.  How often do a) the Ides of March fall on a Thursday, the day I usually post here and b) I actually remember it’s the Ides of March? Less than a week until the end of winter and it’s warm and sunny, supposed to […]

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