The back lawn was knee-high before the Fourth of July, and the garden hose, which I’d snaked out along the grass weeks earlier, was as good as buried. I went down on all fours, searching with my fingers through clumps of greenery — darkery, considering it was 10 p.m. A fool’s errand. But then I […]
Jack Bradigan Spula
Posted inNews & Opinion
Predatory loans: on borrowed time?
In the late 1980s, when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura teamed up for the film Predator, America was deregulating and otherwise fantasizing its way into economic trouble. Soon enough, ordinary working people spied some monsters among the dollar signs. One was called consumer debt, with credit-card marketers getting top billing. There are stealth predators, […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Farm bill: mostly fertilizer
With the recent passage of the Farm Bill — a monster package of federal subsidies covering the next six to 10 years — Congress has shoveled billions upon billions of dollars, largely where they aren’t needed. The conservative American Farm Bureau Federation is pleased, however. “Prompt implementation of the Farm Bill is imperative,” says […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Full of holes
Now that spring is breaking out, what’s not to love about “Clear Skies”? One thing, maybe: George W. Bush has slapped the term on his latest attempt to sell Americans on “market-based” environmental cleanup and the virtues of fossil fuels. Nothing new here for Bush; he let oil and markets rule the big skies […]
