Category Archives: Commentary

Plausible Ignorance

4/21/2005 – 11:13 am

Politics makes strange bedfellows of us all, which is why I commend UN Ambassador-Designate John Bolton for his recent service to our nation. This commendation is, of course, indirect and is merited only because Mr. Bolton’s confirmation hearings shed such light on a particular mode of operation within the Bush administration. Mr. Bolton’s nomination is […]

By floegel | Comments (0)

Black Flag

4/14/2005 – 11:45 am

April is usually an unpleasant month in Vermont – cold, gray, muddy. This year (so far) it has been anomalously warm, sunny and dry. I took advantage of the weather to bicycle along the lakeshore Sunday afternoon, slowly picking my way along the crowded recreation path. Frisbees and soccer balls flew through the air; children […]

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Abolitionists

4/7/2005 – 3:02 pm

Around the time the pope died Saturday, I was sorting through various letters of charitable solicitation. A word in the epistle from Citizens United Against the Death Penalty stopped my eye: abolition. Anti-death penalty advocates are, by definition, abolitionists – they’re trying to abolish the death penalty. The word “abolitionist” in America, however, connotes pre-Civil […]

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

Have a Banana

3/31/2005 – 11:04 am

There’s an old joke about a mountain guide who tells his climbing party: “Watch your step on this ledge, if you slip you’ll fall 400 feet. If you do slip, however, look to your right, you’ll never see a view like that again in your life.” We are all of us stepping along a ledge […]

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Judgment Day

3/24/2005 – 11:35 am

The front page of the Washington Post’s web site last night carried a story about a technical mishap at Fox television that caused some votes on “American Idol” to be recorded incorrectly. As a result, Fox will air an extra hour of “American Idol,” with – darn! – more expensive ad revenue. The top story […]

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Nothing Gold Can Stay

3/17/2005 – 9:01 am

This week marks the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, another dreary reminder that the Army is bogged in quagmire and there seems to be no way out. George Bush, when asked about this will grip the presidential podium on both sides, assume that misty, far-off gaze and say, “At least the Iraqi […]

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Filibuster Bolton

3/10/2005 – 2:04 pm

Hardly a week has passed since the November election without the publication of an analysis piece about the possibility of Senate Republicans invoking the “nuclear option.‿ The “nuclear option‿ refers to a showdown over the use of filibuster to stall a handful of George Bush’s nominees to the federal courts. The filibuster is a practice […]

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