Category Archives: Columns

Wind power: flawed technology, tough trade-offs [November 2010 / CCT]

The battle over wind energy has reached a whole new level of ferocity now that turbines are being proposed for or built in actual backyards. For years opponents of industrializing Nantucket Sound argued that the logical and much less controversial place to put wind turbines was on land, since it was already developed. But that […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:49 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

WikiLeaks: can we handle the truth? [December 2010 / CCT]

WikiLeaker Julian Assange probably deserves the Prometheus of the Year award, as you can tell by how determined the world’s powerbrokers have been to hustle him offstage, unplug him. As has been widely noted, he is in hot water not for telling lies, but for making available the truth. (You remember the truth: that which […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:44 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Regionalizing neither inevitable nor necessarily better [April 2010 / CCT]

Currently regionalization is being considered on the Lower Cape on two fronts. The towns of Wellfleet, Eastham and Orleans have been meeting to discuss the possibility of merging their police departments. Meanwhile a committee in Provincetown considers bussing the town’s children an hour or two each way to the Nauset district in Eastham and Orleans. […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:39 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Affordable architecture is not an oxymoron [May 2010 / CCT]

One of the warrant articles at Wellfleet’s recent town meeting asked citizens to spend to restore a mid-20th century cottage with architectural creds, one of a number with which the town is blessed. The money would come from the Community Preservation Fund and it seems an appropriate use to preserve our architectural past. Those present […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:34 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Afghanistan: No we can’t [June 2010 / CCT]

Ok, the proximate occasion of this column is the firing of the general in charge of our Afghanistan adventure. But that fraught mountain region has been in the media for all kinds of good news, bad news. June 14 headline: “Afghanistan at a turning point …Nation sits on $1 trillion in mineral wealth.” Good news, […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:31 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Warm spots in Wellfleet’s winter [January 2010 / CCT]

Most Wellfleetians have an affinity for the picturesque desolateness of our off-season. Which is not to say that in a chilly, snowy January we don’t appreciate the occasional warm spot. On Main Street, the logical place to look for signs of life, we have, let’s see… The Wellfleet Marketplace continues to provide a steady pulse […]

December 1, 2011 – 12:25 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

The Impartiality Fallacy [August 2009 / CCT]

In two big news stories of recent weeks—the Sotomayor confirmation hearings and President Obama’s reaction to the arrest of a black Harvard professor– a key player was a concept: the concept of impartiality. It and its various siblings (“unbiassed”, “neutral”, “objective”) are among the most misleading words in the language. Some years back Sotomayor said, […]

November 30, 2011 – 7:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Tiger Woods: not just another lousy husband [December 2009 / CCT]

Seems like everybody’s got New Year’s resolutions for Tiger Woods. How this bad boy should mend his ways. Get his priorities straight. Drop the swing coach for a marriage councilor. For what doth it profit a man if he is voted Athlete of the Decade but screweth up his marriage? Not since the peccadillos of […]

November 30, 2011 – 7:05 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

New stuff in an old town [April 2009 / CCT]

When summer visitors arrive back in Wellfleet from their winter vacations, they’ll find lots of new stuff in town. We are a good deal spiffier than when they were last here. There’s the new fire station of course. Big and complex, sitting proudly out by Route 6, thumbing its nose at the very idea of […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:58 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

NStar spraying: reasonable doubt [August 2009 / CCT]

It was a classic confrontation. The utility company NStar came to Nauset Regional High School in Eastham August 12 to present the rationale for their scheduled herbicide spraying of the power lines right of way through outer Cape towns. Over 100 citizens showed up to object. There was an array of experts (including reps from […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:52 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)