Author Archives: floegel

The March of Folly

8/16/2007 – 11:09 am

Historian Barbara Tuchman won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for The Guns of August, her magisterial study of how the European powers blundered into World War I. An early reader of the book was John F. Kennedy, who applied the lessons of that book to help the US avoid similar blunders during the tense days […]

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Unfit to Print

8/9/2007 – 10:58 am

When the history of the scandalous first decade of the 21st century is written, there will be more than enough shame to spread around. A fair dollop will land on the mainstream media. Consolidated, corporate-controlled and slaves to the bottom line, the American media is a feeble heir to the muckrakers of the 1920s, the […]

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President Jeb

8/2/2007 – 9:36 am

The past six and a half years have offered plenty of opportunities for reflection and regret and most of the “what if” scenarios played out have involved an honest election in Florida in 2000. But there’s a different “what if” scenario that might achieve the impossible – make us believe we’re not suffering the worst […]

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Victims of Oil

7/26/2007 – 10:24 am

The shop around the corner raised the price of sandwiches by a quarter this week. Although the housing meltdown is raising concerns that it may take the whole American economy down with it, prices are going up and the reason is the cost of oil. Oil, and therefore gas, prices remain at near-record levels. A […]

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It’s Not The Draft

7/19/2007 – 4:21 pm

Can you stand one further Iraq-Vietnam comparison?  They’re tiring, I know, but Iraq is tiring, Vietnam was tiring – exhausting.  The comparisons keep returning to mind perhaps because I keep trying to make sense of Iraq and there’s no sense to be made, just as there was none in Vietnam.  This comparison isn’t about Iraq […]

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We Laughed At The Time

7/12/2007 – 11:18 am

After cool and dry weather in May and June, the first two weeks of July have been hot and wet in Northwest Vermont.  Frequent thunderstorms send groundstrokes of lightning across Burlington and the keen of sirens can be heard through the open windows. The sirens always make my stomach tense.  I’m immediately distracted, irritated, unable […]

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Trouble in the Colonies

7/5/2007 – 11:53 am

The Fourth of July was cool and rainy in Vermont, as it seems to be with surprising regularity. I suppose that’s why my town sets off its fireworks on the evening of July 3rd, which was perfect for pyrotechnics this year. Fireworks finished, I had all day Wednesday to contemplate this year’s version of American […]

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