I am not losing any sleep over reports that U.S. Sen. Susan Collins won’t be supporting my campaign for re-election to the Maine House of Representatives. Apparently, her abrupt decision was triggered by my use of the phrase “war on whites” in an email blast opposing passage of Sen. Roger Katz’s LD 1492, “An Act […]
Op-Eds
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Condemn behavior that diminishes women and men
Another startling revelation in the news. Another accusation, admission or denial of sexual abuse. There is dizzying awe at recent, vile revelations of gender inequalities, assault and sexual discrimination among celebrities, politicians and public figures. We learn only now the depth of the horror that has existed for decades in social silence. Of course, it […]
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America withdraws as the Middle East burns
NEW YORK — There’s a lot to be optimistic about today. In almost every part of the world, economies are growing and war, poverty and disease are receding. But then there is the Middle East. Syria remains a collapsed country; more than 5 million of its people have already fled. Yemen is now the site […]
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Despite the Olympic glow, half of Korea remains in darkness
WASHINGTON — Watching the media fawning over the North Korean delegation at the Pyeongchang Olympics, I recalled a picture that my old boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, kept under the glass of a table in his office — a satellite photo of the Korean Peninsula at night. At the bottom, awash in light, is […]
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Less government handouts makes for more personal responsibility
There is a war that has lasted longer than the one in Afghanistan. It is the so-called “war on poverty,” launched by President Lyndon Johnson during his State of the Union address on Jan. 8, 1964. While the poverty rate dropped from 17.3 percent to 11.1 percent in the ensuing decade, it has remained between […]
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If I were a Republican . . .
When Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980, George Will, a conservative columnist for the Washington Post, wrote that Reagan had won because Republicans had ideas and Democrats had none. That column was a dope slap. I had thought of Republicans as stick-in-the-mud do-littles and Democrats as people who thought up ideas, workable and not. […]
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There's something fishy going on here
Dear Michael D. Cohen, Esq.: So you’re the one who paid Stormy Daniels to shut up? According to The New York Times, you claim to have forked over $130,000 during the 2016 campaign to Stephanie Clifford, a pornographic film “actress” who performs under that name, in exchange for her promise not to talk about having […]
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It's time to wake up
“You can’t wake a person who is pretending to be asleep,” says a Navajo proverb. After seeing the sad, offensive spectacle of Democrats playing Easter Island statues at the State of the Union address, even 75 percent of CBS viewers were finally awakened. The remaining 25 percent are pretending. Alarms were ringing long before the […]
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Nothing in the Constitution prevents sensible gun rules
By Cass Sunstein Bloomberg View The use of the Second Amendment, to block consideration of sensible gun control measures, is a national disgrace. And conservatives themselves have explained why this is true. For decades, conservatives have objected to the use of constitutional provisions as a political weapon, insisting that controversies should be resolved in democratic […]
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Will the Olympics go bust?
WASHINGTON — Whatever the virtues of the Olympics, economics is not one of them. As we enjoy this year’s winter games in South Korea, we ought to ponder the possibility that the Olympics will one day price themselves out of existence. It will cost so much to host the Olympics extravaganza that no one will […]