The Rant

___________________ by Nickolas D. Kristof (N. Y. Times) KIEV, Ukraine — Here's a suggestion for President Bush from the protesters behind the democratic "orange revolution" here: Wear an orange tie. "If he wore an orange tie, people here would be crying," said Yuri Maluta, a protester from Lviv. "It would show that the American president supports democracy here." The request says something about the lighthearted and pro-American spirit on the streets. Since my father grew up in what is now southwestern Ukraine, I decided to come here to join my people - and I found that waging revolution has rarely been such fun. Young people enveloped in orange scarves, hats and ribbons alternately chant slogans for freedom, boogie to rock music, eat oranges, warm up and flirt at McDonald's, and disappear into their downtown "tent city" to make love, not war. The protest organizers have placed gorgeous young women in the vanguard of ...

Mount St. Helens Is Washington State's Top Polluter Washington state's top polluter isn't a pulp mill, a power plant or refinery. It's the newly awakened Mount St. Helens. Since the volcano began erupting in early October, it has been pumping out 50 to 250 tons a day of sulfur dioxide, the lung-stinging gas that causes acid rain and contributes to haze. At peak, that's more than double the amount from all the state's industries combined. Normally, the state's No. 1 polluter is a coal-fired power plant owned by the Canadian firm TransAlta. The plant churned out 200 tons a day of sulfur dioxide until regulators demanded $250 million worth of renovations, bringing the level down to 27 tons a day. Tough to get those kind of results from a volcano. "You can't put a cork in it," said Greg Nothstein of the Washington Energy Policy Office. Because the area around St. Helens is so sparsely populated, officials say they haven't hea...

The other day I saw a rebroadcast of a Catholic program that originally aired right before the election. Satellite has too many channels to choose from at 3 AM. Apparently, the interviewer, a lay woman and a priest were calling upon all Catholics to vote. While they never stated "Vote for Bush", it was clear from the issues they chose to make central to a Catholic's decision to vote, this was a call to vote for Bush. I remember when Catholics were largely democratic, not because of religious issues, but for their perception that social issues such as social equality, welfare, minimum wage, a fairer tax system, etc. were paramount. This was despite the fact that abortion has been legal here for decades. It appears that the Republican spin machine has successfully convinced many Catholics to abandon the teachings of their saviour in favor of the word of mortals like the pope and his bishops. Below is a commentary about an appearance by Jerry Falwell on Meet th...