Category Archives: Columns

Daring to question dropout logic [op-ed CCT 12 September 2007]

OK, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Real Life has sucked all the tourists back over the bridges. All the kids are rounded up and back in the school buildings where they belong. A recent back-to-school newspaper story focused on a young man who dropped out of Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School to become […]

July 20, 2012 – 9:59 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Getting from Cape Cod to Higgs boson [op-ed CCT 10 july 2012]

By now I guess we’ve all heard the news. The so-called “god particle,” aka Higgs boson, has been located. “Physicists Find Elusive Particle Seen as Key to Universe,” headlined the New York Times story depicting scientists toasting with champagne and breathing sighs of relief. They’ve been looking for this bad boy for decades. For those […]

July 10, 2012 – 6:15 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Our crazy climate change situation [op-ed CCT 26 June 2012]

The climate change situation we’re in gets crazier by the day. Like most people, I lack the educational background to check up on the validity of scientists’ worries about the climate future. But I can count and there seems no question that a strong consensus of those scientists expressing opinions and journalists following the issue […]

June 27, 2012 – 6:04 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The fallacy of underdog appeal [op-ed CCT [29 January 2008}

Go Pats! 18-0, the most wins in a season ever, and poised for immortality. Let’s hear it for the top dog. May the greatest get even greater. Doesn’t sound right, does it? Sort of immoral, like “May the rich get richer.” Most people say they prefer to root for the underdog. It just seems like […]

June 12, 2012 – 11:40 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wind turbines, climate change and sacrifice [op-ed CCT 12 June 2012]

There’s an intriguing battle raging right now as reflected in the pages of this newspaper. “Prepare now for climate change,” sternly lectures S. Jeffress Williams in a recent My View piece. “A consensus to harm citizens?” scolds Eric Bibler in another My View, referring to the wind turbine controversy in Falmouth. On the one hand, […]

June 12, 2012 – 11:15 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

A signed column about unsigned blogs [CCT op-ed 15 January 2008]

Suddenly, it’s all about blogs. A young fellow of my acquaintance, in his “it’s-a-free-country, isn’t it” innocence, posted a comment on a blog last year that got him in a bit of hot water. The sentiment, hyperbole common enough among those wishing for the removal of our current ruler for being a danger to humankind, […]

May 30, 2012 – 1:03 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Between the devil and the deep blue sea [CCT 29 May 2012]

Well, at least 50 or so of us feel strongly enough about the Pilgrim re-licensing issue to get their bodies there to protest, 14 to get arrested in civil disobedience. Aside from this intrepid little band, what are the rest of us thinking about the idea of letting the already decrepit 40 year old plant […]

May 30, 2012 – 8:10 am | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Truro’s Kline house controversy: what it boils down to [op-ed CCT 15 May 2012]

Four years in and counting, the saga of Truro’s controversial Kline house continueth. Quick recap: In 2008 building inspector Wingard issues a permit for the largest house in town at 8333 square feet. Neighbors immediately sue, putting the project in jeopardy, you would think, but nothing daunted, the Klines proceed full speed ahead. State courts […]

May 15, 2012 – 2:24 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)

The difference a voice makes [op-ed CCT 5 July 2000]

If I could start this with a few minutes of birds singing I would. Robert J. Lurtsema, host of National Public Radio’s “Morning Pro Musica,” died last month. And the world will not be the same because of how he lived in it. Yeah, I know, everybody changes the world in one way or another. […]

May 14, 2012 – 6:32 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

School bullying in a bullying world [op ed CCT 1 May 2012]

Presumably the heralded new movie “Bully” will soon be in local theaters, punctuating a period of heightened interest in this subject. Stopping the evil of bullying in schools has been one of the hot topics in the last couple of years. In Massachusetts a lot of the discussion was triggered by the suicide of South […]

May 1, 2012 – 6:58 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)