Category Archives: Columns

Catalan Independence: Does size matter?

What are we citizens of the United States making of the Catalan threat to make Spain smaller? Our own country was founded in secession; a continuing part of our politics is the tension between the two terms in the name of our country, the union and the states. What do we think about Brexit? Or […]

November 20, 2017 – 3:09 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Medicare-for-all and the New Democratic Party

I never thought I’d see the day: “Urgency grows for single-payer health system.” The front page headline of this newspaper on July 19th. The story went on: “With polls showing a majority of Americans holding unfavorable views of plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, the conversation about replacing the current system with […]

October 30, 2017 – 3:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Sorry, no solution to mass murder of citizens

My wife and I have (also) been “dodging bullets” recently. Just a year before Maria devastated Puerto Rico we and our partners sold our house there, saving us a worrisome secondhome owner connection to that huge mess. Earlier this year we spent a few days on the very coast south of Oaxaca, Mexico where that […]

October 21, 2017 – 9:59 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

The importance of distinguishing between two kinds of work

Were any glasses raised on Labor Day to toast workers or work? It seems to me that the holiday is about work in name only and mostly about the end of summer. Robert Frost wrote a poem about two different sorts of labor: labor to make money vs. labor of love. It depicts the poet […]

October 16, 2017 – 12:40 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Charlottesville: which side are you on?

One good thing to come out of Charlottesville and Trump’s reaction to it is some consciousness-raising (to use that old 60s phrase) about violence. As someone posted on facebook : “Violence in behalf of white supremacy. Violence against white supremacy. Get the difference?” There’s a bit of hypocrisy in the huge outcry against Trump. His […]

September 1, 2017 – 10:18 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (1)

Corporate siege of the Outer Cape intensifies

The front page of this newspaper recently featured two Outer Cape stories: an update on the Herring River restoration in Wellfleet and Truro, and Dollar General’s determination, despite a lot of local opposition, to put one of its 13,000 big box stores in Eastham. The Cape Cod Commission has decided to weigh in on the […]

August 18, 2017 – 1:47 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Looking for a Trump scorecard (A DOW for the rest of us)

I’m wondering what you Trump supporters are thinking about GOP attempts to replace Obamacare. Polls and several special elections have shown that through all of what look (to a lot of us) like insurmountable troubles Trump remains teflon to much of his base. Shortly after the Comey firing I emailed a local Trump supporter with […]

August 4, 2017 – 2:54 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Holding these truths

Here’s a patriotic column for the fourth. In confused and stressful times like these, in which the word “government” has become a curseword, it’s good to go back to the earliest moments of our founding and refresh ourselves with the basic logic of the American enterprise. In fact, our own democratic government is, in theory […]

July 20, 2017 – 1:54 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Trump as capitalist-in-chief

Opponents often see what they consider Trump’s ill fit for the presidency in terms of psychological sickness. Some imagine that, suffering from such dire-sounding conditions as “narcissistic personality disorder” or “attention deficit disorder” or maybe a version of Asbergers, (and what about those symptoms of dictator envy), he may not last long in the job. […]

July 4, 2017 – 3:22 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The fallacy of “media bias” (Part 2 of 2)

The fallacy of “media bias” is playing a large role in the current national crisis. Newspapers like to claim objectivity (fairness, balance). It serves their interests to be seen as above the fray, the “paper of record.” But clearly, given the wide range of political flavors newspapers and other news sources come in, there are […]

June 11, 2017 – 3:14 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)