Category Archives: Commentary

Damned (Vermont) Yankee

8/29/2013 – 2:56 pm

In yet another blow to the mythical “nuclear renaissance,” (unicorns, anyone?) Entergy Corporation announced Tuesday that Vermont Yankee, its troubled Fukushima-like nuclear plant on the bank of the Connecticut River in Vernon, Vermont will close in late 2014. This is a victory for activists who mounted a four-decade campaign of resistance to the plant, since […]

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Scene of the Crime

8/15/2013 – 10:18 pm

I didn’t post anything last week, my apologies.  I was visiting family in Florida, didn’t bring my laptop, thinking I’d try to post from my smart phone.  Fail.   Specifically, I was in Seminole County, which was still recovering from the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin trial. I wanted to get a feel for the place before I […]

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Bearing Witness

8/1/2013 – 8:42 pm

The world spins faster.  This is not necessarily a good thing.  Some days I attend a video conference while my phone(s) ring, texts come in (teletype sound effect), calendar beeps, multiple Skype messages make moist Skype noises.  I think, this is how the world will end: everything moving faster, overwhelming the individual until society throttles […]

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

Off-Label Police State

7/25/2013 – 7:35 pm

You’re familiar with the concept of “off-label” use (and abuse) of pharmaceutical drugs, right?  A drug is developed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration for one use, but soon after either doctors or the patients themselves use it for other purposes. Perhaps the most famous – and perhaps frequent – current example of […]

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Summer Heat

7/18/2013 – 1:25 pm

All through May and June it rained.  Biblical rains last 40 days and 40 nights; ours lasted 60.  The roof leaked, the basement flooded, the dry side of the basement flooded.  By the end, it wasn’t just me with seasonal affective disorder. May and June 2013 was the wettest 60-day period in Vermont in 100-plus […]

By floegel | Also posted in Global Warming | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Flood of July

7/4/2013 – 3:04 pm

The little ones ran through the back yard last night with sparklers in their hands, screeching with delight and anxiety.  It’s a rare for their parents to allow them to hold anything on fire.  Monty the Saint Bernard stood among them, panting, somehow seeming in charge of the situation. The teenaged girl had long since […]

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A Day in the Life

6/27/2013 – 9:17 am

I’m in DC this week.  I hit the streets early Tuesday, before the heat of the day came on.  I stuck in my earbuds and shuffle served up A Day in the Life, one of my favorites Beatles’ songs.  I like it because it strikes me as a wedding of John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s […]

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