A stalking horse, for hunters, is something of a moving blind. The idea is that the prey – often birds – would be startled by the appearance of a human, but not a horse or cow, so the hunter uses the stalking horse (“stalking cow” doesn’t have the same ring) to approach unseen, until the […]
In the last week or so (31 January, that is), all your 2011 sources of income were supposed to have sent you an accounting of how much you earned. Adrienne is better at keeping track of these things than I, but I have learned through the years to put my W-2 in the folder on […]
Happy Groundhog’s Day. The news reports that the various prognosticating groundhogs cannot agree on whether winter has or has not ended. Maybe they can’t agree on whether it’s started. I’m not sure human-groundhog communication is all that sophisticated. Yesterday was the Imbolc, the Celtic feast of pregnant ewes, a harbinger of spring soon to come. […]
Late in the day last Thursday, federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha ruled the Vermont legislature cannot intervene in the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant. In his 102-page ruling, Judge Murtha closely tracks the arguments made by attorneys for Entergy, the owner of Vermont Yankee. Entergy argued and the judge agreed that while […]
I’m on Rick Santorum’s side – in a narrow, limited sense. The former senator from Pennsylvania is not my kind of politician. There may be a few issues on which we agree, but I’m not inclined to seek them out. That said, Mr. Santorum meets the qualifications to run for president of the United States. […]
I’m starting to believe there’s a decent man inside Mitt Romney, screaming to get out. To my mind that’s the most logical explanation for Tuesday’s famous gaffe and several others. In a speech Tuesday, Mr. Romney said, “I like being able to fire people who provide services to me.” The context, which is important, was […]
Poisoning Continues, Now with Government Approval
Twenty years ago, as a young(er) toxics campaigner, I and many others worked to limit the effects of the industrial uses of chlorine. Short version: when we put chlorine in the front end, we get a host of pollutants out the back end that persist in the environment and cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive […]