Category Archives: Commentary

The Audacity

12/10/2009 – 10:14 am

The need to address the co-option of Newsweek and the Washington Post was so strong last week that I left hanging President Obama’s decision to send 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize today, Mr. Obama spent a good portion of his speech addressing war in general and the Afghan war specifically. So, […]

By floegel | Also posted in Iraq Invasion | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

The Wrong Direction

12/3/2009 – 10:26 am

I’m back in Washington, DC this week; Tuesday evening I flipped on the radio to listen to President Obama’s speech on Afghanistan. Clearly, there are no good options available, but the choice Mr. Obama’s made seems worse than it needs to be. The Afghan war is an oil war. The connection is not as clear […]

By floegel | Also posted in Economy, Energy, Global Warming | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)

Home for the Holiday

11/26/2009 – 9:14 am

For some reason, all the bills came due this week. There were the usual end-of-the-month debts. Then there was the cost of the new heater, which is supposed to save money and give us a smaller carbon footprint in the long run, but has to be paid for up front. A day later, six month’s […]

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On New Hampshire

11/19/2009 – 8:18 am

I’m in Washington, DC this week. It’s warmer here than in Vermont, I feel overdressed. It’s autumnal, but in a mid-Atlantic kind of way. Monday evening I walked northwest on New Hampshire Avenue. The evening was balmy; the leaves were piled thick and dry along the gutters and across the sidewalks. The air was rich […]

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

The Edge of History

11/12/2009 – 9:31 am

I hate anniversary journalism, but the remembrances of the fall of the Berlin Wall this week got me thinking. I was in Chicago that week in 1989, watching the news in a hotel room as I rested my feet, which ached from walking all over town in new shoes. Never visit Chicago if you’re wearing […]

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Money Can Buy

11/5/2009 – 10:52 am

I know you’re sick of all the election analysis. Me, too. It was the off-est of off years and yet we beat it to death with talking and I don’t want to add to that. Except. I read New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent at least $90 million getting elected to his third term in […]

By floegel | Also posted in Electoral Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)

First and Last Words

10/29/2009 – 9:35 pm

There was a funeral here last week. Laura, a local midwife, died after struggling against cancer for years. Among those delivering eulogies were the parents of some of the children whose births she’d attended. One man told of his panic as he watched his child emerging blue from lack of oxygen. He said Laura intuitively […]

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