Here is a new poem — an experiment in form, my first villanelle.
Anyone care to comment?
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Voucher hypocrisy
Bret Schundler jumps into the voucher hypocrisy pool, dismissing stats that contradict his claims and call into question his proposals.
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Is this blackmail?
I got this from a non-reader who apparently reads my column. (Yes, that is as contradictory and convoluted as it sounds.) I thought I’d share:
Being tempted to re-subscribe to the Packet, I checked on line today to see if Hank Kalet is still writing his tedious, unoriginal and redundant column. Alas, it is still there and – as always – there was nothing I would not find on the New York Times’ op-ed page. Truly, can anyone possibly care to hear his opinion of a law passed by Arizonans to deal with Arizona problems?
A deal: I’ll re-subscribe when you focus exclusively on local issues, which seems to be the mandate of publications like the Packet, Press, Post, et al.
Keep in mind that the column this week used the Arizona immigration law to get at something larger and included comments from Princeton’s Maria Juega, of the Latin American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which seems pretty local to me.
In any case, I’ve noticed a trend over time: People never complain about the editorial page unless they disagree. But instead of responding to the argument made by a particular editorial or column, they complain that it doesn’t belong in the paper in the first place.
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Three reasons this is a bad idea — and a fourth that makes it seem good
Three things you need to know about this story:
1. The county had to balance its budget, though I can’t for the life of me figure out how cutting the open space tax does it.
2. All of us could use a tax cut during this climate.
3. Cutting the open space tax is downright short sighted. The reason is that these kinds of measures often prove to be far less temporary than initially claimed.
There is a fourth issue to consider, as well: Cutting funding for open space will hit us down here a the southern end of the county pretty hard, because most of the remaining open space and farmland is in five or six towns. If the county does not have the money, the land will not be preserved — and you can do the rest of the math (while you are sitting in the traffic created by the development that occurs on property that can no longer be preserved).
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
Dispatches: ‘Papers please’
This week’s Dispatches focuses on the Arizona immigration law.
- Send me an e-mail.
- Read poetry at The Subterranean.
- Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.
