The Fortnightly Rant

The Fortnightly Rant for February 25, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 11, posted on Tuesday, April 15, 2011. About forty years ago, when Richard Nixon was scheming in the Oval Office and conscripted teenagers were fighting Commies in Vietnam and Ronald Reagan was threatening to unleash a bloodbath on protestors in California, there was an ongoing debate in certain circles about whether a Second American Revolution was approaching. Considering that nearly 100 kids were being killed every week in the war, and the National Guard was killing unarmed students in Ohio, the question was not entirely fanciful. Out of untold hours …

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The Fortnightly Rant for February 11, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 10, posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. What’s that you say? You thought the Vietnam War was over? Far from it — it’s just getting its second wind! Yes, incredible but true: die-hard conservatives* are itching to fight America’s most divisive Twentieth Century war all over again. And this time, by God, they’re planning to win! Ancient History Since a generation or two of our readers were born after it ended, let’s have a little refresher. The Vietnam War was the Great Patriotic Struggle that came before … let’s see …

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The Fortnightly Rant for January 29, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 9, posted on Tuesday, April 12, 2011. Friday, January 28, 2011 — The gavel that symbolizes control of the House of Representatives passed from the Democratic Party to the Republicans earlier this month, when the 112th Congress was sworn in — a thing that has happened only five times over the past century. The historical nature of this event made us wonder what a little research might reveal. Recent history, though, such as Newt Gingrich’s takeover in the 1990s, shed no light. Our answers came from a long time ago, …

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The Fortnightly Rant for January 14, 2011, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 8, posted on Monday, February 1, 2011. Finally, all the obstacles have been cleared away. Last year’s mid-term elections are history. The old Congress has disbanded. The new 112th Congress has been sworn in, and it has already begun doing the peoples’s business — or, perhaps, giving the people the business. Whoops! One slight kerfuffle marred the start of the session. As the swearing-in ceremony got underway on the House floor January 5th, two Republican members were AWOL. Pete Sessions (TX) and Mike Fitzpatrick (PA) were celebrating with constituents in …

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The Fortnightly Rant for December 31, 2010, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 7, posted on Sunday, January 16, 2011. Nothing lasts forever — including, mercifully, the year 2010. A single dismal occurrence can well represent a whole host of others that would be too depressing to list: Last January, our First Congressional District seat was occupied by the best Representative it has had in living memory. A few days from now, that post will be filled by a man who was already under an ethical cloud even before he won the Republican primary election. A more abrupt descent from the sublime to …

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The Fortnightly Rant for December 17, 2010, from The New Hampshire Gazette, Volume 255, No. 6, posted on Saturday, January 15, 2011. Recently President Obama struck a tentative deal with leading Republicans to resolve, for now, the contentious issues of tax cuts and unemployment benefits. At mid-week, the final depravities were still being negotiated. In broad terms, it appears that the Republicans will get most of what they wanted, namely, two years worth of tax cuts for everybody, according to their proper station in life, of course: big tax cuts for those with big incomes, and small tax cuts for those with small incomes. Republicans …

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