Archive | October, 1998

Mark McGwire of the Saint Louis Cardinals was right. America did need the spectacle of his pursuit of major-league baseball’s single-season home run record. And much about what they needed culminated in St. Louis’ Busch Stadium on September 8th, when he hit his sixty-second home run this season to brake Roger Maris’ record of sixty-one [...]

There had been rumors all winter that the engineers were going to strike. Certainly we of the operating department had warning enough. Yet in the railroad life there is always friction in some quarter; the railroad man sleeps like the soldier, with an ear alert – but just the same he sleeps, for with waking [...]

In a largely partisan vote on Wednesday, the U.S. Senate rejected the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) against nuclear weapons testing, signed by President Clinton in 1996. The rejection has created a storm of criticism, warning of “international embarrassment,” damage to America’s status as a “global moral leader,” and the rebirth of the nuclear arms [...]

A coalition of 15 Feminist and civil rights groups recently descended on Capitol Hill. The issue? Why, the protection of our beleaguered president, of course. Leave him alone! Stop the impeachment process! Bill Clinton’s been good for women! Patricia Ireland, president of the National Organization for Women, said, “On balance, women have had an ally [...]

I’m not expecting a Year 2000 cataclysm. I’ve read a fair amount of literature on the subject, and it largely breaks down into two categories. In the first, you find sober discussions of the details with a conclusion that the problem is largely manageable. Any well-run company has already addressed the problem and is well [...]