Author Archives: floegel

Parody Instead of Disaster

9/17/1998 – 2:25 pm

Vermont held its primary elections last week, and the contest for the Republican nomination for senator was a curious one. The campaign pitted a Republican who is not from Vermont against a Vermonter who is not a Republican. The first, Jack McMullen of Massachusetts, is a millionaire businessman with no experience in politics. He’s owned […]

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A War We Can’t Win Against an Enemy We Can’t See

9/10/1998 – 2:23 pm

We are now one month into our war against terrorism and everything is – for now – pretty quiet. This war has been predicted to run for decades, so I suppose we can’t expect an embassy bombing or a cruise missile attack every week. The embassy bombings, in Nairobi and Dar Es Salaam on August […]

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The Most Effective Union

9/3/1998 – 2:21 pm

Monday is Labor Day, occasion for that last big barbecue of the summer and opportunity for pundits to make their annual assessment of the state of labor today. Since I’m something of a low-grade pundit, please indulge me while I jump into the fray. I can’t say if unions are getting weaker or stronger, but […]

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Enough to Make You Sick

8/27/1998 – 2:19 pm

History moves in circles and cycles. That’s why it’s important to study history, because through the study of history you can learn to recognize your current place on the cycle and better anticipate what might be coming next. Sometimes you even meet the same people over and over. Seymour Hersh has a new book out […]

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Burmese Days

8/20/1998 – 2:17 pm

My friend Jed Greer was among the 18 activists arrested in Burma last week for passing out pro-democracy pamphlets. I got a call from our friend Kenny right after the arrest and kept a worried eye on the phone and the e-mail until Friday, when I heard Jed and his colleagues has been released. Proximity […]

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For the Want of Two Bytes

8/13/1998 – 2:15 pm

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost. For the want of the shoe the horse was lost. For the want of the horse the rider was lost. For the want of the rider the battle was lost…” and so on. We don’t rely much anymore on horses, horseshoes or horseshoe nails, but […]

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Only 25 Cents More

8/6/1998 – 2:13 pm

It’s not unusual for me to have old ideas rolling around in my head, and this week I’ve been thinking about usury. Strictly defined, usury is the practice of charging exorbitant interest on loans. At various points in history, the act has been considered sinful, criminal or merely poor taste. My informal polling indicates few […]

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