Category Archives: Civil Liberty

Crazy Like a Fox

6/2/2011 – 8:22 am

I admit having a morbid fascination with electoral politics, the way some people feel about slasher movies. Even so, the Sarah Palin bus tour is too gruesome and I must avert my eyes. Democrats are said to be happy with the antics of the former half-term governor of Alaska. The hype around Ms. Palin chokes […]

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Never Had an Eden

5/26/2011 – 10:21 am

Years ago, when I was a young reporter, an equally young colleague wrote a column endorsing a candidate in a Congressional race. That was against the rules; only the newspaper’s editorial board made endorsements and would not do so for some weeks. My colleague wasn’t fired, just banned from covering the rest of the race. […]

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Don’t Know Much About History

5/19/2011 – 2:37 pm

For my birthday, Adrienne presented me with a copy of John Thorn’s excellent book “Baseball in the Garden of Eden: The Secret History of the Early Game”. Among the things I’ve learned: – The rule allowing a batter to run if a catcher drops a third strike is one of baseball’s oldest (1845), pre-dating both […]

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Thousands and Ten Thousands

5/5/2011 – 2:08 pm

I have a friend who came back from serving in Vietnam 40 years ago. Shortly thereafter, his father, who owned a liquor store, was shot and killed during a robbery. The killer was African American. My friend’s family is white. “I used that for a long time,” he told me. “I’d say, ‘It’s OK for […]

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Stop Making Sense

4/28/2011 – 10:55 am

Yesterdays’ Wall Street Journal carried an op-ed attacking Barack Obama for a draft executive order which would require businesses contracting with the federal government to disclose their owners’ political contributions over $5,000. One of the authors is John Yoo, who famously wrote memos authorizing torture for the Bush administration. So, on one hand, Mr. Yoo […]

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Faster Than Ever

3/31/2011 – 4:19 pm

It’s supposed to snow tonight. It’s supposed to snow tomorrow, tomorrow night and into the middle of Saturday morning. Except during the warmer, mid-day hours tomorrow, when it’s supposed to turn to rain and then back into snow. Spring snow is not unusual around here, but tonight’s will probably carry radiation. It’s been dry since […]

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Too Late Smart

3/10/2011 – 5:41 pm

The envelope arrived Tuesday. The dreaded envelope, the one I knew was coming and containing the invitation to join AARP. It hasn’t happened yet but yes, I will soon turn 50. Like KFC, AARP is now just a set of initials. The initials used to stand for American Association of Retired Persons, but in 1999 […]

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