Tag Archives: Peter Shumlin

Vermont’s Military-Industrial-Real Estate Complex

Vermont has an Air National Guard unit based at Burlington International Airport (BTV).  They fly F-16s.  The Air Force intends to eliminate some F-16 bases, keep others and convert some bases for use by the new F-35 warplane.  Burlington is the Air Force’s number one pick to base the F-35.  Why is that? It’s because […]

Keep Language Meaningful

Car owners in Vermont are required to have license plates on the front of their car(s).  There are exceptions.  In 2009, drivers could display a Lake Champlain 400th anniversary plate.  (The lake is actually much older, but it’s been 403 years since the white folks showed up and we tend only to celebrate ourselves.) Now […]

Syrup on Jambalaya

Strange as it seems, Vermont has much in common with Louisiana.  Both states have a relatively large city (Burlington/New Orleans) which in many ways dominates the state’s profile, but folks who live outside that city take pains to disassociate themselves from it.  (“Burlington is close to Vermont,” is the refrain here.) Each state has a […]

Look at Vermont

Look at Alaska. Senator Lisa Murkowski conceded the Republican primary Tuesday to tea party/Palin candidate Joe Miller. In conceding, Ms. Murkowski criticized what she called distorted and personal attacks against her by Mr. Miller in the campaign. For his part, Mr. Miller accused Mr. Murkowski’s campaign staff of illegally interfering with the recount. Look at […]

Nice to be Important, Important to be Nice

Not that you’d know it by the national media, but we had a primary election in Vermont Tuesday. Pretty exciting, but lacking in tea parties, billionaires trying to buy their way into office, wrestling executives and so forth. What we had was a five-way contest for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Our four-term (two-year terms) Republican […]

Joe Biden Date Night

Barack Obama is causing me trouble. Me, personally. The president and first lady are making a habit – a very public habit – of reserving one night a week for a date. Marriage maintenance is important for couples who’ve been together a while, especially if they have kids and the day job demands plenty of […]