Sarah Palin: The most divisive woman in America

Harry Truman gave them hell. Sarah Palin gives them agita.

The Associated Press unleashed 11 fact checkers on her new book, "Going Rogue," for a thoroughly tendentious critical examination. Newsweek, the influential liberal magazine of opinion, published a cover piece damning her to the outer darkness, balanced by another piece damning her to the further-outer darkness. The conservative-leaning New York Times columnist David Brooks called her "a joke."

Sammy Sosa: I hope you are happier living in a new face

Dear Sammy Sosa:

Are you happy with yourself now? Are you more confident and self-assured? When you look in the mirror, do you like yourself better, now that you are white?

As you know, photos taken of you at an awards show earlier this month have the whole country talking. Last time we saw you, you were a brown man from the Dominican Republic, star slugger for the Chicago Cubs. Now you are white, facing the camera with a complexion strikingly reminiscent of Dracula's.

Decision to try terrorists in U.S. is dangerous

The Obama administration has chosen the wrong New York venue to try five co-conspirators in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. Instead of a Manhattan courtroom less than a mile from the site of where the World Trade Center stood, the government should have chosen the Bronx Zoo, because a zoo is what will be created when this terrorist trial is held.

Reducing the deficit isn't really a priority

Let's say you're a congressperson or tea party leader looking to champion deficit reduction — a cause 38 percent of Americans tell pollsters they support. And let's say you're deciding whether to back two pieces of imminent legislation.

Are you listening to me, Barack? This is your heart talking now

"Hey, Barack. It's me, your heart. It might be all the White House pickup basketball games or the imminent prospect of nationalizing American health insurance, but I'm feeling better than ever.

"Well, at least since the primaries. Remember those students fainting at your campaign events? They'd stand there for hours to get a glimpse of 'the one they'd been waiting for.' Then, BAM! Down they'd go! That was awesome and HILARIOUS!

A test of our tolerance, restraint

 The massacre at Fort Hood will likely lead to backlash against Americans of Islamic faith and Arab descent, and test the limits of this country's capacity for religious and ethnic tolerance. A lot is riding on how well we exercise restraint.

U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George Casey summed it best when he commented in a recent television interview, "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse."

Maine must reduce its oil dependence

With gasoline at a little less than $3 per gallon, Maine sends 9 percent of its domestic product to foreign countries. At $120 for a barrel of oil and gas at $4 per gallon, it's 12 percent. At $150 per barrel for oil and gas at $5 per gallon, it's 15 percent. The International Energy Agency expects the percentage of domestic product consumed by oil to double by 2030. With energy at 30 percent of Maine's domestic product, Maine is uninhabitable.

Power of life and death too awesome for human hands

They killed a killer last week.

I kept waiting to feel something when news came that John Allen Muhammad had been executed in Virginia. As a staunch opponent of capital punishment, I wanted some nugget of remorse at the knowledge that the government had taken his life.

But Muhammad's 2002 sniper attacks hit close to home. He terrorized millions of people in the greater Washington area, where I live, made us fear to gas up our cars, walk in parking lots, wait on buses, made my grandson scared to go trick-or-treating, even wounded a friend of my youngest son.

Diversity seems to be a one-way street

Government and military officials have issued statements since the shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that have nothing to do with the reality of what occurred, what is occurring and what our enemies would still like to have occur all over the United States. Listening to them leads to the conclusion that these people were handed talking points because they are all saying pretty much the same thing; that we shouldn't jump to conclusions, stereotype or give in to paranoia.

On price, wind power cannot compete

This is in response to comments made by Angus King that appeared in the Sun Journal on Oct. 23.

I agree with Gov. King. Maine needs more electric generation, both for the technical and economic efficiency it can bring and for the dispersed economic development in rural areas it can induce. However, wind power, is not how to do it.

Plotting independents' vote a useless endeavor

It is the duty of every pundit to be all-knowing on what the recent elections mean for the future of American politics. They may have only three dots to connect — and two dots may have been state-level contests mostly about local issues — but the confident ones plot detailed maps of political change.

Media uncomfortable tackling Muslim soldier's motives

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who killed 13 of his fellow soldiers in a rampage at Fort Hood, is a most unlikely victim of post-traumatic stress disorder.

He never experienced any combat-related trauma. He had never even been deployed overseas. Yet, he had barely stopped shooting his victims in cold blood, chasing the wounded to finish them off, when the media rushed to their copy of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders."

Who will stand for the Muslim-American soldiers?

A sampling from the Web: "Why are these Muslim invaders allowed to carry on freely in this country ... protected by outreach, Obama, and PC mental illness?" "Simply put, most Muslims in non-Islamic countries have an evil axe to grind and a scurrilous hidden agenda." "Muslims should be deported from this country! They offer nothing to Americans!"

Fanatics will use any method they can to win

By now, the script should be disturbingly familiar. Whether in the Middle East, or increasingly in America, a fanatical Muslim blows up or goes on a shooting spree, killing many. This is quickly followed by "condemnations" from "Muslim civil rights groups," such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). We are then warned by the president and some newspaper editorials not to jump to conclusions, or to stereotype. Yasser Arafat wrote this script, which he used with great success throughout his bloody career as a terrorist.

We are what we trade and how we trade it

Trade and globalization — when not referencing blockbuster sports transactions or raucous street protests, debates over these abstract terms can give Ambien and Jack Daniels a run for their money as a cure for insomnia. Of course, that's the problem — the rules governing what we buy and sell are now playing such a decisive role in almost every major policy that we're falling asleep at our peril.

Democrats' mandate takes dive in state elections

On Nov. 3, the fairy tale died. The election results in Virginia and New Jersey dismantled the self-satisfied, just-so story that Democrats have been telling themselves about last year's election.

A different kind of drug abuse

There comes a moment when you realize you've crossed over into another "demographic," when it hits you that you're no longer as young as you think you are, or as young as you feel. You discover that while you may think you're 39 years old, the world knows you're, well, not.

There's no surer confirmation that you've crossed over to the other side than when the television shows you watch feature advertisements not for fast cars or high-tech gadgets, but for pharmaceuticals.

What are we building all this parking for?

For many, the impression of downtown Lewiston is the infamous "dirty Lew." The days of more bars, head shops and adult bookstores than you could shake a stick at, along with blighted buildings, decaying mills and a rotten river, made for an unpleasant introduction.

With the grittiness, hard work and pride that put Lewiston on the map over a century ago, local leaders put together plans to turn the page on Lewiston's decline and make it a viable urban center for the 21st century.

Making healthy parents, one-by-one

My first interaction with Advocates for Children was as a parent, not as a pediatrician. When my children were young, I had the good fortune to attend AFC's Parenting Matters conference. Of all the parenting interactions I have had, Anthony Wolf's keynote speech at that conference was the most helpful and influential for me.

A father, a daughter and a clash of cultures

We don't know why Faleh Hassan Almaleki came to this country in the mid-'90s, and it's unlikely he'll be able to tell us anytime soon. He's in jail in Maricopa County, Ariz., at this writing, in lieu of a $5 million cash bond. It hardly seems far-fetched, however, to suppose he emigrated from his native Iraq for the same reason immigrants typically seek these shores: America promises opportunity and freedom.

But one wonders if he truly knew the meaning of the words.

Morass of mixed messages

No wonder the electorate is confused, because as a "political animal," I was baffled at some of the results of some of these referendums. (Athough others made perfect sense, though.)

The following are the outcomes and my take on them.

1. Yes on 1 was really not a surprise, after speaking with real folks in our town and around the state. Traditional folks came out in force because marriage is a religious tradition, not becuase they are bigots. As stated in my previous article, core values are core values and not intolerance.

Good, bad and a 'no brainer'

1) I was disappointed but not all that surprised by the outcome. This is a civil rights issue, voters of our great county don't have a favorable track record of supporting the premise that "all men are created equal." It may be the time to take the issue of same-sex marriage to the state courts.

Leftists won't admit errors about dangerous regimes

On Nov. 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was pulled down to the consternation of leftists, who still had faith socialism could work with the right leaders, and to the delight of conservatives, who believed that socialism and communism guaranteed mutually-shared poverty.

Two years later, the Soviet Union crumbled. Soviet communism might not have endured for 70 years had it not been for enablers in academia, religion and journalism. Lloyd Billingsley has written about them in "The Generation That Knew Not Josef," as in Stalin.

Flight plans disrespectful to Western Maine

Western Maine's unspoiled environment is easy to admire, but challenging to live in, especially in tough economic times. Still, this rugged landscape has inspired self-sufficient entrepreneurship for over two centuries. Today's fast-paced world appreciates a sport-filled landscape, scenically worthy of university sabbaticals. Residents know our economy depends on our ecology.

Young, educated Iranians making their voices heard

Iranian students have been engaging this week in Round Two of their street-level struggle for reform. Round One took place last June, when young people protested the fixed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.