Inconvenient truth

Published 12:01 am Saturday, September 3, 2011

The famously liberal state of Vermont is poised to ban all-terrain vehicles on state land. But ATVs have proved to be the only way to get food and medicine to areas of the state cut off by flooding.

It’s like feeding ribeye to a starving vegan, or wrapping a fur coat around a hypothermic PETA activist.

Class warfare: Travel troubleshooter Christopher Elliott hears a tale of woe from a Nebraska woman who says a Marriott hotel gave the room she had paid for to a “platinum” customer and moved her to an inferior motel. Elliott says that happens a lot in the hotel industry, which bends over backward to pamper its best customers.

Since unemployment remains stubbornly high, here’s a modest proposal: Label all Americans who have jobs “platinum citizens.” After all, politicians like to say government should be run like a business.

— Mark Carlson, Herald staff