Volume 268 | No. 17

Mon, May 6

2010—An imaginary bus bomb inspires panic in Portsmouth, N.H. 2010—A Londoner scamming from his parents’ basement gives The Invisible Hand of the Market™ jitters: the Dow drops nine pct. in five minutes. 1996—Former CIA boss William Colby, missing for nine days, turns up in Chesapeake Bay, dead but fresh-looking, 20 feet from where his canoe had been found eight days earlier. Verdict: a routine drowning. 1982—LAPD Chief Darryl Gates explains “some blacks [die in choke holds because] the veins or arteries do not open up as fast as they do in normal people.” 1978—In Chicago, First Lady Rosalynn Carter shakes hands with Polish Constitution Day …

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‘Scathing Indictment’ of Big Oil Lies Unveiled on Eve of Senate Hearing

by Jessica Corbett Two U.S. Congressional committees on Tuesday released a report that “provides a rare glimpse into the extensive efforts undertaken by fossil fuel companies to deceive the public and investors about their knowledge of the effects of their products on climate change and to undermine efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.” The report—titled “Denial, Disinformation, and Doublespeak: Big Oil’s Evolving Efforts to Avoid Accountability for Climate Change”—was released after nearly three years of investigation by the Democratic staffs of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and the Senate Budget Committee. “For decades, the fossil fuel industry has known about the economic and …

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Better Late Than Never

by W.D. Ehrhart My memoir Vietnam-Perkasie ends in the spring of 1968 with me drunk and passed out in the shower at Marine Corps Air Station, Cherry Point, North Carolina.  It is a fitting way to end the book because that was my mental state by the time I got back from the war.  And I stayed pretty well messed up for a long, long time thereafter. And for a long time, I felt completely alienated from the community I grew up in or the people I grew up with.  The perception was not entirely false, either.  The good folks of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, had proudly …

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Sun, May 5

1985—In Bitburg, Germany, Republican President Ronald Reagan lays a wreath at a cemetery full of Nazis. 1981—Bobby Sands dies of hunger in Maze Prison, defiant to the last. 1970—Jerry Rubin speaks at UNH. 1961—New Hampshire’s own Alan Shepard prays, “Please, dear God, don’t let me f__k up.” Prayer answered, he’s the 1st American in space. 1960—Gary Powers is a “civilian employed by Lockheed” piloting a “weather research plane,” says the U.S. 1955—U.S. TVs show a mock suburb complete with mannequins hit by a real nuke. The scorched, ragged figures are later displayed at J.C. Penney with a sign saying “This could be you.” 1945—The collier …

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Gaza: the Terrorist Factory

Dear Editor, On April 23, NPR reported on-the-ground observations from Gaza. [https://tinyurl.com/546e9ffz]. Rafah resident Ahmed Barhoum’s wife and 5-year-old daughter were killed when Israelis bombed his house. Saqer-Abd el-Aal’s wife and six children were bombed in their home. What happens when a man looses all his possessions, his wife, and his children? His future taken, he has nothing to live for, nothing to build a future for. Perhaps the only thing giving his life meaning is dedication to revenge and retribution. While Israel’s government contends it is destroying Hamas, it is also creating more enemies, dedicated, with nothing else to live for, to Israel’s destruction. …

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The Contortionists

Being ever disposed to find the good in less-than-optimal situations—how else did you think we’ve lasted this long?—we’re going to look for the bright side of the state of our justice system. [Several days later.] Hmmm…. The closest thing we’ve found is a firm conviction that our deepest suspicions had failed to plumb the depths of judicial depravity. More than three years ago we all watched a depraved megalomaniac and career criminal, who had somehow evaded the law long enough to take over a political party and then the White House, whip a mob into a frenzy and then direct it to overthrow the government—a …

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