You had to become an “honorary white.” That was the status South Africa used to bestow upon black performers from the United States who visited the apartheid regime. The O’Jays, Tina Turner, Ray Charles and Eartha Kitt were among those who received that designation, allowing them access to hotels and restaurants from which black Africans […]

Wonks can be useful people. Having studied the deep innards of public policy, wonks are essential to constructing programs that can function as desired. They help write complicated laws. But whereas wonks may know all the parts that make a clock work, they are usually not good at selling the clock. You need marketers for […]

WASHINGTON — I got hacked. It was scary. In this age of cybereverything, we all live in dread that we’re going to be somehow attacked by the internet. Nearly everyone seems vulnerable. The internet is changing how we work, play, socialize, shop — and what we love and fear. We’re all exposed to its excesses, […]

Here’s how The Southern Poverty Law Center defines a hate group. It is, they say, “an organization that — based on its official statements or principles, the statements of its leaders, or its activities — has beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics.” That definition […]

The phrase “America, Love It or Leave It” has a pedigree dating back at least to the McCarthy Era. In the ’70s, the phrase was employed again against those protesting America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The left has its own version, vowing to leave the country if a Republican is elected president. They rarely […]

During a recent television interview, a Portland reporter appeared surprised to hear that African asylum seekers had been arriving in Lewiston for years. He was also unaware of the fact that during the past four years, African asylum seekers made up, on average, about 83% of all new immigrant arrivals processed by Social Services. Though […]

You often hear that in these polarized times, Republicans and Democrats are deadlocked on almost everything. But the real scandal is what both sides agree on. The best example of this might be the defense budget. Last week, the Democratic House, which Republicans say is filled with radicals, voted to appropriate $733 billion for 2020 […]