Category Archives: Commentary

More War Than We Bargained For

1/2/2003 – 3:11 pm

Happy New Year. There seemed little cause for merriment Tuesday evening; flawed as 2002 was, few of us were happy to see it give way to 2003. Nearly all of us expect this to be a year of war, the only question is: how many? Just as Washington was dissolving for the Christmas holiday, Defense […]

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An Upright Man

12/26/2002 – 9:22 pm

Seeking solace from the over-commercialization of the holiday season, I opened the Bible to refresh myself with the story of the homeless couple and the unwed mother giving birth to her child. Instead of the traditional Christmas story in Luke, I read the book of Matthew and the character of Joseph, often cast as a […]

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For the Record

12/19/2002 – 9:20 pm

For good or ill, public life in America will henceforth not be the same. The last ten days have witnessed a remarkable exodus of newsmakers from the civic stage – Bernard Law, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore and Trent Lott. Mr. Lott, the Senate Republican leader, is not gone yet – not physically gone, but politically […]

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Christmas Bogus

12/12/2002 – 9:17 pm

The holiday season is here and President Bush is evidently feeling merry, because he’s distributing bundles of cash – our cash – to his political appointees. No, that’s not right. The holiday season is here and we just found out President Bush is handing out bundles of cash to his friends. In truth, Mr. Bush […]

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God Bleess Amreca

12/5/2002 – 9:15 pm

As I pulled into the parking space, I noticed a traffic sign on the curb was decorated with graffiti. Someone had taken a black marking pen and scrawled “God Bleess Amreca” across the bottom of the white rectangle. I shut the engine and stared at the sign. God Bleess Amreca. Poor spellers of the world, […]

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Fowl Play

11/28/2002 – 9:12 pm

Each year since 1947, the president of the United States ceremonially pardons a turkey in the week before Thanksgiving. This year President Bush, returning from Europe and Russia, intended to head directly to his ranch in Crawford, throwing a shadow of confusion across the turkey ritual. It’s difficult enough to get a nervous bird to […]

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Don’t Bet On It

11/21/2002 – 9:10 pm

Television stations from the New York side of Lake Champlain carry New York State Lottery commercials. Actors sing and dance and flash the big numbers in this week’s jackpot. One commercial even features a man talking about how much fun it was to play and lose. New York State has Off-Track Betting and several casinos. […]

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