Category Archives: Commentary

What Do You Know?

1/6/2000 – 5:09 pm

For the past few months, I’ve been reading stories about German companies making reparation payments to the people they used as slave laborers during World War II. About 10 million people were forced to work in Nazi-era factories, often under deplorable conditions. The list of corporations which used slave labor reads like a German Fortune […]

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Christmas at the Automat

12/23/1999 – 2:47 pm

I’d like to share a personal Christmas tradition that dates back over 20 years. I was in high school. One of my teachers, A.P. Bechner, a Manhattan native, would give an annual speech he called “Christmas at the Automat.” Automats are now a thing of the past. The automated cafeteria first opened in Philadelphia in […]

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Who Should Get What

12/16/1999 – 2:48 pm

I’ve got a stack of catalogs on the floor beside my desk. They’ve been coming for months, but a few weeks ago, I thought instead of recycling them immediately, I’d make a stack beside my desk – not that I need another one of those – but to see if I could detect some sort […]

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What Happens Here

12/9/1999 – 3:06 pm

What happened last week in Seattle – and more significantly what didn’t happen – was a great example of direct democracy. By taking the streets and raising their voices, protesters set a stumbling block in the road toward an unaccountable, unelected world government by multinational corporations. Congratulations to all who participated peacefully. Now get ready […]

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

Are There No Prisons?

12/2/1999 – 2:51 pm

“God bless us, every one.” Is it that time of year? Again? Already? Now that it’s December, Adrienne is spoiling for me to rent the 1951 British version of “A Christmas Carol,” with Alastair Sim. It’s a good movie, I’ll admit, but “A Christmas Carol” was written in 1843. Of what relevance could anything Charles […]

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

Walking to Canada

11/25/1999 – 3:08 pm

Happy Thanksgiving. It’s a day for traditions, every family has them – turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie, going to church, watching football, visiting, playing cards in the back room, perhaps. How about a walk? I know any number of people who go out to stretch their legs and get a lungful of bracing air, either to […]

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Brave New Twinkie

11/18/1999 – 3:10 pm

The Burlington paper, the Gannett Sunday rag, says that for the 14th time in the past five years Burlington – or Vermont – has made the national list of “best places to live.” Really? Well, we’ll see. Vermont’s number one industry is tourism, so it’s no surprise that when the list-makers stop by for a […]

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