Category Archives: Columns

The official end of non-summer [October 2009 / CCT]

There were a lot of big news stories over the summer, but surely one of the most memorable will turn out to be the story of the summer itself, or rather the lack thereof. Probably the average temperature was only a few degrees below normal, but we are sensitive creatures and a small deviation from […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:49 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Eliminate our moat? Or widen it? [October 2009 / CCT]

The ongoing nuisance of the Sagamore bridge repairs got an interesting reaction from one writer of a letter to this paper: fill in the dumb canal.; it doesn’t serve much of its original purpose anyway and eliminating it would solve the perennial bridge problem. But clearly the canal has long served another function than the […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:45 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged | Comments (0)

Healthcare too important to be run for profit [June 2009 / CCT]

The scandalous statistics have been widely publicized for many years: U.S.: first in the world in per capita healthcare expenditure, 36th in quality of healthcare ( from 2000, last year the World Health Organization published figures) well down the list from many countries, such as Cuba, we would consider Third World. We also know that […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:39 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Revolution plays to subdued Cape audiences [December 2009 / CCT]

Revolution came to town for a while–in the form of a movie, Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: a Love story.” It spent two or three weeks amongst us and then it was gone. For a revolution it didn’t cause much of a stir. In fact, after seeing it, I was amazed equally by the audacity of this […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:35 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Over-throwing a debilitating self-image [April 2009 / CCT]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The famous beginning of the Dickens novel about the French revolution applies well enough to our own times. What’s “best” about the current economic mess? For one thing, the refreshing outrage over obscene salaries and bonuses, being reminded that greed is not a […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:29 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Afghanistan: no country for young men and women [November 2009 / CCT]

In this season of thanksgiving, you know what I’m thankful for? I’m thankful my cannon fodder-age son is not inclined to serve his country in Afghanistan. It must be the worst thing in the world to lose a child in a war of dubious necessity . We say about the increasing numbers of casualties returning […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:20 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Seashore park misbehaving at the pond again [June 2009 / CCT]

It’s pond season again. I walked over a couple of days ago on the warm Memorial Day, thinking to test the waters—actually, my mettle—and found the latter lacking. I waded out through the yellow pine pollen scum that had blown against the lee shore and stood there kneedeep thinking over the possibility of full immersion. […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:13 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Healthcare initiative having trouble with liftoff [July 2009 / CCT]

It is indeed strange when you have to go back 40 years to get back to the future. When men bouncing on the moon looks quaint. Fact is, that first moon trip is more ancient to kids today than the Model T Ford was to baby boomers when we were young. Some pundits are calling […]

November 30, 2011 – 6:07 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Wellfleet town meeting: doing the after math [May 2009 / CCT]

OK, on the premise that Wellfleet, as a canary in the coal mine of contemporary regulatory America, is of interest elsewhere (a parochial premise, I know): our recent town meeting. Much of the first night consisted of rubber -stamping budget items which in most cases most citizens didn’t know enough about to either approve or […]

November 30, 2011 – 1:56 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Is pig heaven hell on groundwater? [November 2009 / CCT]

Recently Judy and Fred Tesson applied for a permit to keep 10 pigs on their half acre lot in Wellfleet. A neighbor, a part time resident, had complained in a letter to the board of health about the proposed pigs’ unpermitted predecessors , describing vividly “eight large pigs wallowing …in mud mixed with urine and […]

November 30, 2011 – 1:50 pm | By Brent | Posted in Columns | Tagged , , | Comments (0)