Category Archives: Commentary

Consent of the Governed

9/21/2000 – 11:38 am

Welcome to the future. Are we having fun yet? Or maybe it’s the past, I’m not really sure which. I watch the news and believe I’m seeing events futurists predicted a few decades ago. In the next moment, I’m wondering what historians will be writing about us 50 years from now. Here’s what I’m thinking: […]

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Asinine Projects

9/14/2000 – 11:35 am

In the past few months, I’ve noticed the New York Times putting little tags on its stories. If the story is about the election, the tag might say “The Candidate” or “The Ad Wars.” Last week, on a story tagged “Enforcement,” the Times headline said, “CIA Is Said to Find Iraq Gives Contracts to Nations […]

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Agree to Disagree

9/7/2000 – 11:32 am

Labor Day, as we’ve heard so often this week, signals the traditional beginning of the fall campaign season. The operative word is “traditional.” A “traditional” campaign season is something I think about the same way I think of “an old-fashioned Christmas.” Something that existed many years ago and is nearly forgotten. Maybe Grover Cleveland versus […]

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For the Public Good

8/31/2000 – 11:29 am

“Pro Bono Publico” means “for the public good” and in our age the phrase is used to describe work attorneys perform for free. The phrase is Latin, not as an attempt to put on airs, but because the concept of Pro Bono Publico dates to the Roman Republic, when citizens of wealth and standing were […]

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Sooner or Later

8/24/2000 – 11:26 am

The afternoons can still be sultry, but the evenings, nights and mornings are cool. Autumn is approaching, and while these days always bring a touch of bittersweet nostalgia, there’s an upside, too. The onset of cool weather means we in Vermont probably won’t have to deal with West Nile Virus this year; we’ll probably get […]

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Same As the Old Boss

8/17/2000 – 11:23 am

The Democrats are in Los Angeles this week, trying to get their story straight. Bill Clinton sucked up all the oxygen in the early part of the festivities and it was clear Al Gore couldn’t wait for Elvis to leave the building. With all due respect to George Bush, junior, Bill Clinton is the man […]

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More Than One Way to Abuse Authority

8/10/2000 – 11:20 am

It’s nice to be right, but there are downsides. A few weeks ago, I was worrying out loud about the police departments in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, about how they would respond to activists exercising their First Amendment rights outside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Although police in Philadelphia generally got high marks from […]

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