Author Archives: floegel

World War Policy

3/22/2007 – 10:33 am

The Iraq War turned four this week.  In a few more weeks, it will have lasted longer than the Civil War, moving it into third place in the “longevity of American wars” category, behind only the Revolution and Vietnam.  When the war started, the Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said, “The war might last six […]

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Pardon My Skepticism

3/15/2007 – 11:07 am

On March 5, the New York Times published a front-page story called “Oil Innovations Pump New Life Into Old Wells.” Getting new oil from “played out” wells was the thrust of the piece; as the price of oil rises, it becomes worthwhile investing new money into old wells. The article also indirectly took on the […]

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Unbearable

3/8/2007 – 10:43 am

“I can’t imagine a world without polar bears,” the woman said. She was standing at a microphone in an auditorium at the Department of the Interior Monday night, delivering a comment on the Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal to list the polar bear as a threatened or endangered species. The Bush FWS was not being […]

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Go Along, Get Along

3/1/2007 – 11:51 am

Twenty-some years ago I was a newspaper reporter covering the courts in a rural county (population 50,000) in Western New York. People there were politically and socially conservative and had great faith in law enforcement. Defendants who went to trial were usually convicted. I remember one acquittal in four years. Defense attorneys counted themselves fortunate […]

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North America Goes South

2/22/2007 – 12:27 pm

I think it all goes back to NAFTA.  The 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, was supposed to increase prosperity throughout the continent, instead brought economic insecurity to U.S. workers and a meltdown in Mexico.  The low-wage, assembly line jobs never got to Mexico; they left the U.S. and went skipping over the ocean to […]

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Skin Cell, Jail Cell

2/15/2007 – 11:12 am

As a word person, I resent the violence politics does to the English language.  It’s been going on for decades and it gets worse all the time.  The best-known recent example is the USA Patriot Act, which in fact is a vehicle for stripping the rights away from law-abiding citizens.  A new entry to the […]

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Gifts of Love

2/8/2007 – 9:51 am

It’s crunch week for American men. Payback time for all that lounging on Super Bowl Sunday. Valentine’s Day is less than a week away. Adrienne, bless her heart, does not expect me to take part in this bizarre mating ritual, but many men in America are expected to get out there and spend gobs of […]

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