Category Archives: Posts

UNDERMINING THE MARIJUANA BALLOT VOTE

It’s surprising how tolerant we seem to be of all the tinkering with the people’s decision to legalize marjjuana. The ballot measure, passed by a convincing majority of 54% to 46%, is called a “law” in a recent AP article and yet state lawmakers (and police chiefs) are treating it like a very rough draft […]

January 16, 2017 – 4:26 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

One cheer for compartmentalism

Watching pro football is not like the ancient Romans watching gladiators killing each other in the coliseum. But it’s not so very different either. Especially now that we know the systematic, longterm, life-shortening physical toll taken on players. Nevertheless, I notice that I go on rooting for the Pats. A part of me shows up […]

January 9, 2017 – 3:01 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Cumberland Farms winning the battle vs. Wellfleet

Maybe it’s legal. But it’s wrong. And Bad. A company shouldn’t be able to ride roughshod over the wishes of a whole town. A few years ago, Cumberland Farms petitioned the Town of Wellfleet to enlarge the existing store on Route 6 and add a gas station. At a well-attended hearing, citizens were overwhelmingly opposed […]

December 28, 2016 – 10:18 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Kline settlement hastens death of the town

So the Kline house controversy is finally settled. For $3 million the new owners will get to live in the house after all, whenever they happen to be in town. According to the “Banner” story, “most of the selectmen appeared to have agonized over the decision.” The town had already spent a lot in legal […]

December 10, 2016 – 6:43 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

7.4 MILLION DOLLAR POLICE STATION OUT OF PROPORTION

The 7.4 million dollar re-build of the Wellfleet police station that is about to be rubber-stamped at a Special Town Meeting Tuesday is a quantum leap in police station infrastructure in a town whose population has for 15 years or so plateaued. All indications are that, if anything, the population will not rise in the […]

November 13, 2016 – 2:42 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Vote Cyr if you want Pilgrim closed ASAP and decommissioned property.

If you’re undecided between Julian Cyr and Anthony Schiavi, a more-reasonable-than-many- Republicans Republican, compare them on the issue of the closure of Pilgrim. There is no more pressing issue at this time than the need to close the decrepit Pilgrim now, rather than risk two more years of increasing dysfunction. (Not to mention the risk […]

October 28, 2016 – 3:11 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

DEMOCRATS: WHEN IN DOUBT, VOTE THE BRAND

I see from a recent poll that more millennials would rather see an asteroid wipe out the planet than either of the candidates get elected. Seems a little extreme. We hope that’s just the younguns’ way of saying what a lot of us are saying about voting holding our noses. A lot of us can […]

October 22, 2016 – 10:55 am | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged | Comments (0)

NEEDED: SINGER-SONGWRITER NOBEL

Life was Dylan-flavored in the mid-’60s, at least in the Bay Area where I lived at the time. Everywhere you went, it seemed, there was “Bringing It All Back Home” and then “Highway 66” on the turntable, or their songs on the radio, refusing to conform to the usual 2-3 minute-per-song format of the time. […]

October 17, 2016 – 1:36 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

HURRICANE TRUMP

Yet another revelation of a Trump nastiness. Another debate that in an ordinary election would  doom a candidate as certainly as if he had shown up drunk.  How does Trump shoot himself in the foot? Let us count the ways. Is it the complete lack of substance behind the inane bragging that he’s great, that […]

October 10, 2016 – 1:26 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged , | Comments (0)

THE ELECTION PROCESS: TRIAL BY ORDEAL

It’s been said before and I’m going to say it again: the presidential election process is a ridiculous, wasteful, abusive–and even repulsive—ordeal for candidates and citizens alike. Probably the most visible part of the pageantry of our democracy, it’s a prolonged, dehumanizing, often humiliating assault on the dignity of those we’d like to be able […]

October 3, 2016 – 2:18 pm | By Brent | Posted in Posts | Tagged | Comments (0)