Author Archives: floegel

You Could Look It Up

3/5/1998 – 1:22 pm

As I’m sure you know, Oprah Winfrey won her civil suit last week, when a Texas jury decided she has the right to speak her mind on the subject of beef. The cattlemen’s lawsuit was initially brought under the auspices of the Texas “veggie libel” law. News stories about the Oprah trial noted “veggie libel” […]

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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Recruit

2/26/1998 – 1:24 pm

Most law schools require applicants to write an essay about why they want to be a lawyer and most applicants scribble away about justice and the rule of law elevating human society from the swamps of savagery. If their sentiments are sufficiently lofty, the applicants are accepted into law school and the professors begin to […]

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Gulf War Syndrome

2/19/1998 – 1:26 pm

It seems the time has come around again for another military misadventure in the Persian Gulf. Nobody wants this, the politicians and the pundits all say, but what can we do? Saddam Hussein will not allow UN weapons inspectors to look at certain locations in Iraq. Bill Clinton cannot stand by and let this affront […]

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The Letter of the Law

2/12/1998 – 1:27 pm

I was in Montreal last weekend; it was my first visit in many years. I found a city still half-buried in ice from last month’s storm. Everywhere, streets and sidewalks carried glaciers four to six inches thick. Some homeowners were attacking with sledgehammers and chisels, cutting the ice into blocks and stacking them against the […]

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The Year of the Oceans

2/5/1998 – 1:29 pm

In the Chinese zodiac, 1998 is the year of the tiger. Those who put their faith in the zodiac believe children born this year will have certain tiger-like qualities. For those of us already born and raised, this may be a good year to act like a tiger – to hunt with stealth, to attack […]

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No Side Worth Taking

1/29/1998 – 1:30 pm

I’m not happy about this. I had intended to speak this week, as always, about the environment or freedom of information or equality in education. But I can’t. Like everyone else, my thoughts this week have been pre-empted and pre-occupied by conjecture about what the president may or may not have done with an intern, […]

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The Corporation Next Door

1/22/1998 – 1:31 pm

A few weeks ago, there were a number of stories in the Vermont papers about plans by an International Paper pulp mill, on the New York side of Lake Champlain, to generate energy by burning tires. This news did not please anyone in Vermont. International Paper already dumps liquid waste into the lake; the discharge […]

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