Category Archives: Commentary

Clinton’s Vietnam

3/2/2000 – 4:52 pm

Do you remember the Domino Theory? Do you remember strategic hamlets and destroying the village to save it? How about napalm and Agent Orange and the Christmas bombing campaign? It all seems pretty stupid now, doesn’t it? How could have been so convinced we were right? What could we have been thinking? It’s easy to […]

By floegel | Comments (0)

Pork Barrel Politics

2/23/2000 – 4:54 pm

I have a confession to make: I love pork. I eat pork at least once a week. I had pork chops for dinner on Monday and leftovers for lunch Tuesday and they were delicious. I acknowledge there are any number of ethical and philosophical arguments against eating meat and I agree with many of them, […]

By floegel | Comments (0)

Hitler’s Highway

2/17/2000 – 4:58 pm

I like living in Burlington, I just hate driving here. I have never encountered a group of citizens less familiar with the rules of the road than my fellow denizens of the Queen City of Lake Champlain. Yes, they’re even worse than the fabled bad drivers of Boston. At least in Boston, the intentions of […]

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Bishop Attacks Queen

2/10/2000 – 5:00 pm

According to the legend, St. Valentine was a bishop in what is now Italy back in the days when the Romans were killing Christians. He was beheaded on February 14th, which became his feast day. In the middle ages, people began sending love letters – or Valentines – on this day because folk wisdom held […]

By floegel | Also posted in Catholicism, Civil Liberty | Comments (0)

Low-Grade Special Effects

2/3/2000 – 5:02 pm

Last September, I was sitting on a bench on the University of Vermont’s campus green when the sprinklers suddenly turned on. No, I wasn’t soaked, but I sat and watched what looked like jets of water shooting out of the lawn. I thought of the Bible story of Moses and Aaron bringing forth water from […]

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But Is It News?

1/27/2000 – 5:04 pm

If you plugged into the news last weekend, you may have seen that there was something of a revolution in Ecuador. The president, Jamil Mahuad, was ousted and the vice president, Gustavo Noaboa Bejarano, was installed in his place by the military. Didn’t seem like much a of big deal in the U.S. news media, […]

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Free Tibet

1/13/2000 – 5:05 pm

I’m on the road this week, calling from Sebastian, Florida, on the Atlantic coast. I’m here with the Ruckus Society at a training camp for Free Tibet activists. Half of the students at the camp are Tibetan exiles, the other half are college students on break. The students learn to plan direct actions, strategic campaigning, […]

By floegel | Also posted in Civil Liberty | Comments (0)