Tues, Dec 19

2020—Loser: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!” 2007—A fire breaks out near “Dick” Cheney’s office. Probable cause: spontaneous inhuman combustion. 1998—As Bill Clinton is being impeached for some hanky-panky, Speaker-elect Bob Livingston resigns to cover up a bit of his own. 1997—Real headline, N.Y. Times: “C.I.A. Says It Has Found No Link Between Itself and Crack Trade”. 1974—Norris Cotton finagles a bill giving New Hampshire’s senior Senator the right in perpetuity to commandeer Daniel Webster’s old desk. 1946—The Viet Minh begin kicking the French out of Indo-China. 1944—Primarily due to bad generalship, two-thirds of the 106th Infantry, comprising 8,000 …

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Mon, Dec 18

2020—Dolt #45’s lame duck brain trust holds a boozy, shouty, six-hour sedition-fest in the White House. 2019—Donald Trump is impeached. 2005—“Not only can we win the war in Iraq,” says George W.[MD] Bush 962 days after Mission Accomplished, “we’re winning the war in Iraq.” 2004—“America’s Most Wanted’s” John Walsh says he most wants brothers Jahbir and Alfonso Fowle. 2000—“If this were a dictatorship,” says George W.[MD] Bush on CNN, “it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator.” 1996—G-Man Earl Pitts is arrested for moonlighting for the KGB. 1972—Richard Nixon begins Operation Linebacker: 12 days of B-52 strikes against …

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Sun, Dec 17

2010—Street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself afire, thereby igniting the Tunisian Revolution and the subsequent Arab Spring. 2006—Bill Kristol predicts on “Fox News Sunday,” “Barack Obama is not going to beat Hillary Clinton in a single Democratic primary.” 1998—Impeachment pending, Bill Clinton wags the dog: half the Pentagon’s cruise missiles explode in Iraq. 1967—“I know this beach like the back of my hand,” says Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt, before disappearing in heavy surf. 1960—A U.S.A.F. C-131 hits a Munich steeple, then falls onto a trolley. All 20 on the plane die, along with 18 in the trolley and 11 on the street. 1953—The NLRB …

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Remembering Governor Voldemort

To the Editor: A 6th housing forum was held at St Anselm’s on December 8, 2023. The Free State Project is supposed to stand for freedom. So why would they want to impose draconian zoning changes on our towns? Jason Sorens is the founder of the Free State Project and part of the “Center for Ethics in Society” at St. Anselms’s. In partnership with New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority and the N.H. Office of Planning and Development, this group was the creator of the “Zoning Atlas,” a tool that helps target towns that do not favor high density construction. Why would a supposedly Catholic college …

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I Pledge Allegiance…

by W.D. Ehrhart Way back in 2006, a few years after the 9/11 attacks, I was teaching at the Haverford School for Boys. Our a cappella choir, the Notables, was hosting a companion choir from a school in Denmark, and each choir member hosted a Danish boy. One morning, one of my students told me this story: He and his Danish guest were driving to school when the Danish boy asked Neal if the day was some sort of holiday. Neal replied that it wasn’t. The Danish boy asked, “So why are there so many American flags all over the place?” The American flag has …

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Dubai Is a Fitting Host for the Climate Circus

By Sonali Kolhatkar In January 2023, nearly a year before the latest United Nations climate conference began, there was deep concern and alarm over the head of one of the world’s largest oil companies being appointed president of the COP28 summit. The climate talks taking place in December 2023 were hosted by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and overseen by Sultan Al Jaber, a man who happens to be in charge of the UAE’s national oil company Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. It’s a fitting illustration of an old idiom that the fox is in charge of the hen house. Al Jaber’s appointment was such …

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