Lawmakers reviewing the Fund for a Healthy Maine have been frustrated that staffers from the Department of Health and Human Services have refused to appear before their committee. Rep. Roberta Beavers, a South Berwick Democrat, was among those annoyed that DHHS staffers are not willing to discuss the fund with the Health and Human Services […]
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Liberalism cannot solve rioting on college campuses
College campuses are again in turmoil. According to The New York Times, “Racist, sexist and anti-Semitic incidents on and near college campuses from Dartmouth to Wisconsin to Stanford this fall have provoked worries by education and civil rights leaders that such acts are on the increase.” That wasn’t a story in yesterday’s newspaper. That was […]
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History is a fine teacher
NEW YORK — Henry Kissinger has noted that in his adult lifetime, the United States has fought five major wars and began each one with great enthusiasm and public support. But in all of them, Americans soon began to ask, “How quickly can you withdraw?” In three of these conflicts, he says, the United States […]
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Obama’s phony war on terrorism
WASHINGTON — Tell me: What’s a suicide bomber doing with a passport? He’s not going anywhere. And, though I’m not a religious scholar, I doubt that a passport is required in paradise for a martyr to access his 72 black-eyed virgins. A Syrian passport was found near the body of one of the terrorists. Why […]
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We share the same enemy: Intolerance
The eminent historian and public intellectual Niall Ferguson looked at what happened in Paris and somehow saw Rome. In his column for The Sunday Times of London, he conjured up Edward Gibbon, who wrote of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon said Rome fell to barbarians who “extended the promiscuous massacre to […]
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Paris attacks should bring changes
Many French people referred to the January attacks on the offices of French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and other sites as their 9/11. As awful as that time was, it was not a 9/11. Seventeen people died that day. The Sept. 11, 2001, assaults on New York and Washington left nearly 3,000 dead, having demolished […]
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War for the terms of modernity
Last week’s attack on Paris is the latest act of mass homicide and media grandstanding in the Islamist terrorists’ long war for the terms of modernity. That name frames the fight as a multigenerational struggle with very basic cultural, political and historical stakes. War acknowledges the military dimension; “terms of modernity” indicates that the cultural […]
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Shine on, Paris, shine on
“I believe the light that shines on you will shine on you forever … though I can’t guarantee there’s nothing scary hiding under your bed.” — “Father and Daughter” by Paul Simon. My wife has a bad knee and isn’t much for long walks, so that night after the Chunnel train had brought us over […]
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U.S. lacks leadership against terrorism
Just hours before the terrorist attacks in Paris last week, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, “Good Morning America” broadcast an interview with President Obama. In it, the president told host George Stephanopoulos, “I don’t think they’re gaining strength. What is true is that from the start, our goal has been first to contain and […]