03/12/1998

Confinement Under Stress

Last week, there were stories in the newspaper about the growing number of hate groups in America. The experts found this unusual because unemployment is low, the economy is chugging along and the book of conventional wisdom says a poor economy is required for hate groups to flourish. Unable to account for this turn of events, the experts blamed it on the Internet.

This week, the papers are full of stories about an imminent vote by Sierra Club members on whether the club should lobby the government to restrict immigration.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
03/05/1998

You Could Look It Up

As I’m sure you know, Oprah Winfrey won her civil suit last week, when a Texas jury decided she has the right to speak her mind on the subject of beef. The cattlemen’s lawsuit was initially brought under the auspices of the Texas “veggie libel” law. News stories about the Oprah trial noted “veggie libel” laws were passed by several states in the wake of what the newspapers called “the Alar scare of 1989.”

Oprah won her verdict on February 26, the ninth anniversary of the “60 Minutes” report on pesticides that touched off the so-called “Alar scare.” In those nine years, American chemical companies have spent millions of dollars trying to convince us that “60 Minutes” and the Natural Resources Defense Council cooked up a hysterical hoax about a harmless chemical called Alar. Let’s spend a few minutes looking at Alar to see if “veggie libel” laws could have applied even in that case.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/26/1998

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, Don’t Recruit

Most law schools require applicants to write an essay about why they want to be a lawyer and most applicants scribble away about justice and the rule of law elevating human society from the swamps of savagery. If their sentiments are sufficiently lofty, the applicants are accepted into law school and the professors begin to systematically disabuse them about every notion they ever held about justice or the rule of law.

For a case in point, let’s visit the Vermont Law School, where recruiters are visiting campus, hoping to scoop up eager legal minds. Vermont Law School has a policy that forbids on?campus recruiting by employers who practice discrimination. The state of Vermont has a law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations. And yet, in the past few weeks on?campus recruitment has been conducted by an employer which openly discriminates against gays and lesbians ? the United States Army.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/19/1998

Gulf War Syndrome

It seems the time has come around again for another military misadventure in the Persian Gulf. Nobody wants this, the politicians and the pundits all say, but what can we do?

Saddam Hussein will not allow UN weapons inspectors to look at certain locations in Iraq. Bill Clinton cannot stand by and let this affront pass, so he sends warships and planes to the gulf. But this is a U.S. military action, we are not doing this on behalf of the UN. Kofi Annan still wants to talk, as do most of the nations whose stake in this is much higher than America’s. And as long as we’re wrapping ourselves in UN weapons inspectors, how’s about the U.S. paying up our billion or so dollars in delinquent UN dues? What if Saddam said, you can come see my sites when you pay up your dues? What would we say then? If that happened, at least one good thing would have come from this ridiculous situation.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/12/1998

The Letter of the Law

I was in Montreal last weekend; it was my first visit in many years. I found a city still half-buried in ice from last month’s storm. Everywhere, streets and sidewalks carried glaciers four to six inches thick. Some homeowners were attacking with sledgehammers and chisels, cutting the ice into blocks and stacking them against the walls of their houses. Downtown, workers with ropes tied around their waists sent tons of ice and snow crashing from the rooftops into the streets below.

Everyone I spoke with was in high spirits; yes, they agreed the ice storm was terrible, but there was no point moping about it. In the old city, right on the St. Lawrence, the municipal ice rink at Basin Bonsecours was crowded with locals. It was a wonderful display of defiance and resiliency. If life sends you ice, put on your skates.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
02/05/1998

The Year of the Oceans

In the Chinese zodiac, 1998 is the year of the tiger. Those who put their faith in the zodiac believe children born this year will have certain tiger-like qualities. For those of us already born and raised, this may be a good year to act like a tiger – to hunt with stealth, to attack boldly.

Nineteen ninety-eight is the United Nations’ Year of the Oceans. This designation is also a kind of zodiac, a bureaucratic zodiac. Like other zodiacs, this bureaucratic zodiac is concerned with prophesying future events, but there are few good omens for the earth’s oceans. By naming 1998 the Year of the Oceans, the UN is playing the part of Marley’s ghost to warn Ebenezer Scrooge – in this case, us – that the only way to avoid unhappy consequences is to take action now.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)
01/29/1998

No Side Worth Taking

I’m not happy about this. I had intended to speak this week, as always, about the environment or freedom of information or equality in education. But I can’t. Like everyone else, my thoughts this week have been pre-empted and pre-occupied by conjecture about what the president may or may not have done with an intern, what can be proven and what might happen next.

I’m not going to take sides on this issue, because there is no side worth taking. None of the participants are covering themselves in glory.
Continue reading »

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)