Category Archives: Asides

Cowards, Every One of Them

A week ago, I asked how bad political discourse can get in this country.   Discouraged as I was, I hadn’t seen this coming.  Perhaps – despite everything my family and friends tell me – I’m too optimistic. Last week, Republicans who hope to be president stood silently by as their constituents cheered for the […]

Tomorrow’s News Today

Since the beginning of the Fukushima Daiichi crisis, the one source that has had the news before any major outlet reported it has been Fairewinds Associates of Burlington, Vermont. Fairewind’s principal – nuclear engineer Arnie Gundersen – has posted a series of video updates, explaining what is happening inside the crippled reactors and what we […]

Ask a Stupid Question

The presidential commission on the BP oil spill seems to be fulfilling the task of all such blue-ribbon commissions: ask the wrong questions, draw the wrong conclusions. The commission’s general counsel, Fred Bartlit, burst across the media Monday with his claim that he could find no cost cutting leading to the April 20 blowout and […]

Purple’s a Fruit.

The grapes really came in this year. They’re ripe now; reminding me that nature has its own schedule, regardless of what I else I think I have to do. So I was out early this morning, cutting clusters, hoping to get some juice pressed before the day’s (previously scheduled) activities began. The sun was just […]

You Can Hide, But You Can’t Run

Now that BP’s jury-rigged contraption to contain its massive Gulf of Mexico oil spew has failed, the company’s only resort is to continue pumping massive amounts of dispersant into the water near the wellhead, in an attempt to – what exactly? The dispersant goes by the trade name “Corexit.” It’s supposed to be a pun […]

Worst. News. Ever.

This item popped up, briefly, on the front page of the Washington Post’s web site yesterday afternoon. By this morning it was on page A4 of the print edition. I found it using the search function. If you haven’t clicked the link above, it will take you to a story about the United Nations Environment […]

Edward Moore Kennedy 1932-2009

I’m on vacation on Cape Cod this week, the first relaxed visit I’ve had here in 35 years. My cell phone died Monday and I scoured the web looking for a store where I could replace it. The only one on the cape is in Hyannis, so I got in the car this morning and […]