Vacation Over

Yes, we're writing the print "Inside Track" column today. It'll be out Wednesday morn.

The two-week "vacation" is over for this Vermont weekly newspaper columnist. Thank god. Been going a little nutso in the modern world of cyberspace. In fact, I'm getting a wee-bit tired of computer life in general. It's been 10 years since the first Mac. Am I the only one who's sick of it and longs for the good old days?

In fact, for the last week, this blogger's got a new routine. I've been deliberately going out and purchasing an old-fashioned hard copy of The New York Times and grabbing a seat at a coffee shop. There I hold the newsprint up in my two hands and turn the pages one at a time. A little shine of ink on fingers. Ah!

It's been a positively refreshing experience and I've found many fellow-caffeinated travelers eager to chat. Happy to break the ice. After all, it hasn't been the best of times, has it?

In fact, I'll admit it! The last six years in America have marked the worst of my little 57-year-old life experience. No question about it. Am I the only one?

And things have been "heating up" in more ways than one. The liars and crooks have been running the U.S. government with a free hand, and running the country and Planet Earth's environment into the danger zone.

But, finally, the bad guys are starting to fall!

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld's gone at long last, and Bolton, that temper-tantrum of an incompetent U.N. ambassador, too. The Bush-Cheney regime unravels before our eyes.

In these 21st Century times when the truth is excruciatingly inconvenient, do we not need, more than ever, to tell it?   

Vermont's congressional delegation certainly has, and did, with a unanimous "No" vote on Dubya's fateful, deceitful, 2002 Iraq War Resolution. Big Lie #1.

Well, the times appear a-changing. A new Democratic Congress takes office the first week of January. Republican V.P. Dick Cheney will be swearing in Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Can't wait.

The tide may be turning, folks, but, let's face it -  this battle has only just begun.

See you in coffee land, eh?