LARS BLACKMORE Posts

January 30, 2012

The Grand Poobah of the Vermont Chapter of Boys R’ Us, The Most Reverend Bishop Matano, joins in the sanctimonious groan over the recent Health & Human Services ruling that private health plans must provide basic family planning coverage.  “[…] this grave matter, […] strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of…

January 30, 2012

The Grand Poobah of the Vermont Chapter of Boys R’ Us, The Most Reverend Bishop Matano, joins in the sanctimonious groan over the recent Health & Human Services ruling that private health plans must provide basic family planning coverage.  “[…] this grave matter, […] strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of…

January 6, 2012

I confess, I’m not quite up to date on the intricacies of Catholic bureaucratic minutiae and HR etiquette. I know Dolan now gets to wear a totally wicked hat (not that he’s really lacking in that department), and that he’s eligible to help pick the next Popenfuhrer when Ratzinger shuffles off his mortal coil. But…

December 19, 2011

Norwich, December 19th, 2011 Dear Sirs, I am writing in reference to our order #778443 of August 17th for one (1) New England Standard Winter (SKU 11442-3), pre-paid, with free delivery to our area guaranteed no later than December 15th. After our initial conversation you were kind enough to send us a sample, which arrived…

December 10, 2011

So sad to see this happen now and again. Peter Welch, who otherwise has been on quite a roll lately, just voted along with a massive majority of his fellow members of the House of Representatives to keep secret the deliberations on the Department of Defense Authorization Bill. This is the rather sizable allowance given…

December 7, 2011

Remember the crying we all did a few months ago when Borders Bookstores went bankrupt nationwide? Me neither. A stay of execution for our independent book stores before we all switch over to e-books, and one less soulless retailer on “death row” in West Lebanon. No great loss.  But shortly after the last shelf had…

December 7, 2011

Remember the crying we all did a few months ago when Borders Bookstores went bankrupt nationwide? Me neither. A stay of execution for our independent book stores before we all switch over to e-books, and one less soulless retailer on “death row” in West Lebanon. No great loss.  But shortly after the last shelf had…

December 5, 2011

Prishtina Hostpital is a dodgy place to be, especially if you´re sick. But for Kosova´s prematurely born babies a regular checkups at the hospital after discharge may well be the singlemost important factor for increased chances of survival. Prishtina hospital is the biggest in the rural region known as Kosova to the Albanians and Kosovo…

December 5, 2011

The images went around the world. In August 1995 convoys of civilians ­ mostly elderly people and children, walking along the roads of Yugoslavia under the scorching sun. By then, Balkan fatigue had made most western observers oblivious to the real meaning of yet another mass exodus of refugees in the Balkans, and few seemed…

December 5, 2011

Kosova is a mess. Not just politically, but physically. Crossing a muddy stream in a small village near the Macedonian border a local guy points to the plastic bottles, rusting metal and other junk floating along with the current. “See this stream?” he asks me rhetorically. “When I was a child not so long ago…