Over the last year, I’ve become increasingly annoyed with those who want to tell me how to enjoy my water. Only a few days ago, a ban on single-use plastic water bottles took effect in Concord, Mass. At about the same time, the University of Vermont outlawed the sale of such containers on its leafy… Read More
Category Archives: Business
Whole Foods And ‘Fascism’
I have watched with amusement the reaction to Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s recent denunciation of Obamacare as fascist. Here’s the comment he made during a recent NPR interview when asked by Steve Inskeep whether Obamacare was socialist in nature: Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of… Read More
Ronald Reagan: The Original Class Warrior
Got into an exchange on Facebook about this photo on a previous post. I have to laugh at the Tea Party Patriots sticker opposite the Reagan Conservative sticker. If a young Ronald Reagan burst on to the scene today, he would be denounced by the Tea Party. Don’t forget that for all of his accomplishments,… Read More
Powell Right In The Kisser
In the face of persistent ridicule from his wife, Jackie Gleason’s Ralph Kramden was known to bluster, “One of these days, Alice. Pow! Right In The Kisser!” Of course, the gentle bus driver had no intention of making good on his threat, but he went on record as objecting in the strongest terms. And we… Read More
Blumey To The Rescue
What would we do without Dick Blumenthal? Just when we thought we’d gotten rid of him — banished from Hartford and consigned to the polished halls of the U.S. Capitol — Blumenthal reminds us why his camera-mugging tenure as the state’s attorney general was so profoundly irritating. In the state of Connecticut, where they almost… Read More
Malloy’s Priorities: Education and Booze
As you can imagine, I follow Connecticut politics fairly closely, but I must admit I was caught off-guard this week when Gov. Malloy first let it slip to CTNewsJunkie that he fully supports the concept of allowing retail alcohol purchases on Sunday and that he intends to send a proposal to the legislature this year. You… Read More
Going Postal
Inspired by the lengthy list of angry postal workers who shot at the boss, the headlined phrase above is an expression denoting an act of vengeful violence against an oppressor in the workplace. But in a few years, “Going Postal” could take on quite another meaning: going totally bankrupt; begging for a bailout; grasping at… Read More
CL[A]P Trap
Is it possible for a major U.S. corporation to have a worse couple of months than Northeast Utilities, parent company of — I can’t even say the words — Connecticut Light & Power? First they get hit by Hurricane Irene at the end of August, causing enormous damage to the grid, prolonged power outages and intense… Read More
Cuomo-Malloy: Peas In Different Pods
Yet more evidence that Andrew Cuomo has hit the ground running and is doing a commendable job of governing what is, in some ways, an ungovernable state. Tom Dudchik’s CT Capitol Report (the closest thing we have to the Drudge Report in Connecticut) this morning carried a linked headline proclaiming “High tech to invest $4… Read More
Whither Labor?
Click here for my latest for CTNewsJunkie.com: “Whither Labor? Withering on the Vine?” What kind of future does organized labor have in this country and in Connecticut specifically? I don’t think it’s particularly bright and the unions themselves are partly to blame. Too often there is a failure on the part of public sector workers… Read More