Charlotte Dennett believes that the State Attorney General should be at the forefront of finding a way to bring the person responsible for the deaths of young Vermonters, George Bush, to justice. The law to do this is clearly laid out in Vincent Bugliosi's book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder.

He writes this in the midst of the so-called debate over the so-called plan to bailout the Wall Street financial institutions mired in a demise of their own making. By now, the bailout will have long passed, and the heavy, sinking truth of its failure might well be rearing its tragic head. Recession. Depression. Whatever it is, it’s going to hurt, and he’ll feel it, too.   

In "Get read, get set, start kindergarten," a San Francisco Chronicle reporter quotes educators bemoaning the fact that half of San Francisco kindergartners aren't ready for the rigors of school. Rigor is their word, definitely not mine.

I first heard the term “Transition Town” spoken by peak oil activist Richard Heinberg at the end of his talk in Montpelier last April. The words “Transition Town” struck me powerfully. “Ah! The End of Cheap Oil need not mean sudden, dystopic collapse. Yes, our future lives will be local lives, and, if we embrace this change as opportunity NOW, we can transition our communities to a life that is ‘energy-lean, time-rich, less stressful, healthier and happier.’” Right here, among the hills of home.     

Thanks to Seven Days, Vermont's liveliest alternative weekly newspaper, for giving Bill McKibben (arguably Vermont's most prominent intellectual) a platform to hold forth on Vermont independence this week. in his "Independence Fray" article.

I could spend time quibbling with some of Bill's observations here. To name but three:

1. His selective re-telling of the winter 2007 SVR/LOS brouhaha and Mr. Odum/GMD's role in it...(no comment - time to move on.)

So he finds himself on the cusp of another July 4th and all its strange customs: Parades built on the back of cheap petroleum, night skies polluted by the small explosions of fireworks, kegs and coolers brimming with pallid domestic beers, grills stacked high with chickens who never set foot on the soft, brown earth during their short and brutish lives. And somewhere in there, perhaps, for some (and especially after a few PBRs), a swell of patriotism.   

by Rick Gordon

BIG TOP REVIEW - Smirkusology: The Science of “Circus Smirkus”

I’ve always liked the circus, and, like many, have considered running away to join it from time to time, as the old adage goes.

For those who haven’t seen Vermont’s very own “Circus Smirkus,” it is a unique one-ring show, featuring teenagers trained at the Greensboro-based circus camp in all kinds of Big Top-related activities – juggling, clowning, tumbling, and hanging by various parts of one’s body from all manner of contraptions suspended from the top of the tent.

An update on an old poem, with apologies to W. H. Auden.

(To JS/07/M/378 In place of a marble mounument, this data is warehoused at the
Business Roundtable and at NEA Headquarters)

She was found by the U. S. Department of Education to be

One against whom there was no official debit side,

And all the reports on her conduct agree

That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, she was highly qualified,