Increasingly, most of the news accounts I read are peppered with warnings that the United Statesis headed for financial disaster... I saw Senator Joseph Lieberman on the TV last Sunday saying that the serious problem inAmerica now is that partisans are driving the agenda...Now we have reports from Afghanistan that, during interrogation, American soldiers flushed theKoran down a toilet...With the death of John Paul II... there has been on TV and in the newspapers a great deal of talkabout the importance of religion in public life...I was in Washington a few days ago and walked down along the tidal basin to see the cherrytrees in bloom...Scientists at a leading research university recently announced the completion of a project thathas been underway for years to perfect a device that can detect the flow of muons... The faculty at Harvard University have delivered what the Boston Globe calls a "stunningrebuke" to university president Lawrence Summers...I was glad to read an article in this month's Harper's Magazine by Kathie Dobie about whathappens when a soldier runs away from the army...There's a medical development underway in America now that's full of potential trouble...There was an interesting article in the New York Times a couple days ago, by Cornelia Dean,about the teaching of science in the public schools...Today we have the inauguration of George Bush for his second term. As a consequence we'llhear dozens of comments...I've seen several cartoons and columns lately arguing that 2005 is going to be a disaster. It'shard to imagine that it could be worse than 2004...A few weeks ago, I started a new page on my web site titled "Using 'Family' as an Adjective."It's devoted to examining the arguments of those who...Bill O'Reilly and other right-wing pundits are making a big stir over what they say is aliberal-secular attack on Christmas...Thanksgiving is a curious holiday...an acknowledgment of all our blessings, the goods of life,so to speak...I spent the last two weeks before the election in Florida. Never before have I been as awareof the difference...A debate is developing over whether state governments should take person who committeda crime...I heard that an associate thought I was wrong to say that people who haven't yet made uptheir minds...In the presidential debate tonight the American people face a big problem...Most Americans, caught up in what is probably the most intense political campaign of ourera, haven't paused...Mr. Reagan's funeral produced a great deal of commentary about Alzheimer's Disease... More and more frequently I hear assertions, particularly from persons of a right-wingpersuasion, that the United States should have declared war...Recent events in the prisons in Iraq have revived an ancient discussion...My daughter recently had her first baby. And the advent of this child.....Looking over some figures about how the black vote is likely to divide in this year's... One wonders whether high-ranking American military officials...I just returned from a trip to Chicago, where I met my new, and first, grandchild...I was invited yesterday to go to Lyndon State College... The topic I was asked to addresswas the cost of war in the modern age....The Passion of the Christ, which opened in movies houses all around the nation...The Howard Dean campaign has highlighted a problem...Since this is the first day of a new year my thoughts seem naturally...Word and Image of Vermont
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