Why do I mistrust Fox? Let me count the ways

Perhaps you are familiar with an old saying: Even a broken clock is right twice a day. I've found that maxim valuable as I wade through the recent hand-wringing and recrimination among journalists and their critics over the fact that most mainstream media were slow to pick up on the story of corruption at ACORN.

Liberals seeking release of two known terrorists

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?" — Alice in Wonderland

What we are led to believe by an often lazy and Obama-supporting big media, enabled by a deliberately ignorant public that lacks, rather than longs, for the truth, is not as it first seems. Take just one example.

Rediscovering Hathaway, Part III

To be elected to major public office in Maine, one does not have to buck the establishment. But it doens't hurt. Just look at the resounding popularity of our present U.S. Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Both frequently take positions — like on health care or other issues — off to one side of GOP leadership.

Tax reform tests the Constitution

Opponents of LD 1495, the Legislature's recent attempt at tax reform, say it is one more broken promise from the Legislature.

It is worse.

Will pressure split the Catholic Church?

Pressures on the unity of the Roman Catholic hierarchy and the most educated and informed laity in the Church's history appear to increase by the day. Where Pope John XXIII called for opening the windows of the Church to the contemporary world, as the Second Vatican Council promised, a hierarchy chosen for blind conformity is increasingly oblivious of the lives of the "People of God."

The breaking point cannot be far off.

A pragmatic look at Obama's pragmatism

"When John McCain said we could just 'muddle through' in Afghanistan, I argued for more resources and more troops to finish the fight against the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11, and made clear that we must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights," Barack Obama thundered as he accepted the Democratic nomination for president in Denver last year. "John McCain likes to say that he'll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell. But he won't even go to the cave where he lives."

Obama faces huge task in rallying global power

It was a week of stunning contradictions for Barack Obama.

The president was showcased on the world stage, at the United Nations and the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. He promoted grand plans for global partnership on a range of topics — from climate change to nuclear disarmament to setting the world economy right.

Destruction of America may come from within

If you are an enemy of America seeking her destruction, you would add to your pursuit of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons the undermining of this nation from within. You would do this largely through deception, putting on a peaceful face while subtly plotting ways to bring America down.

ACORN provides plenty of fodder for conservatives

Isn't it obvious?

If you believe you're the object of a witch hunt, the first thing you do is stop hanging around with witches. You'd think that'd be common sense, but then, the paradox of common sense is, it's not all that common.

Obama's address to U.N. a shocking show of naiveté

In his address to the United Nations, President Barack Obama did his best impression of a high-school sophomore participating in his first Model U.N. meeting, retailing pious cliches he learned from his ponytailed social-studies teacher.

Even Woodrow Wilson might have blanched at the mushy-headed exhortations to world peace and collective action better suited to a college dorm-room bull session or a holiday-season Coca-Cola commercial.

Country club etiquette trumps legislative results

The recent headlines about President Obama working to crush primary campaigns against Democratic incumbents would be great fodder for a canned column looking at hypocrisy.

Yes, it would be easy to read about the president trying to clear the Empire State's primary field for appointed Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and then pen a screed wondering how that squares with Obama promising to avoid "be(ing) the kingmaker" in local elections.

The broken economy theory

The "broken window theory" centers around the strategy that says to prevent vandalism, fix problems when they are small.

If a window is broken and not repaired in a timely manner, vandals are more likely to break additional windows, paint graffiti, or commit other crimes against that property or neighboring properties. If someone litters on a sidewalk and it is not cleaned that day, people will be more likely to throw their own trash there as well.

Tom Delay's dance move a brave, inspiring sight

"Do you love me, now that I can dance?" — The Contours, 1962

Well, no.

Stop the turbines

"You begin to feel like you're being used," a long-time Maine Audubon supporter and state legislator told me about the wind power movement in Maine. "There seems to be no real benefit to the people or communities of Maine."

What? We are being used? No benefit to the people of Maine? Won't wind power decrease carbon dioxide emissions and fossil fuel use, increase employment, while sending millions of dollars to the state government in taxes?

Leftist elite don't know what most Americans want

"They would not listen, they're not listening still,

"Perhaps they never will." — Don McLean, "Vincent"

Radio and TV commentator Glenn Beck was mentioned three times in separate opinion columns on the same day and in an article the next day in The New York Times, possibly a record for someone who does not hold elective office.

I found my heart in L.A.

Being a recent transplant from L-A, Maine, to L.A., Calif., I've learned a few things since my move:

1. Never take the 110 freeway. Ever. In fact, if you can avoid the freeways at all, you're better off. But, if you must, never try to get on the freeway downtown, because you'll be stuck in cranky, over-heated gridlock for hours.

If casinos help the economy, where's the proof?

The recent editorial (Insanity, or matter of time? Sept. 13) that made a renewed case for a casino in Oxford County ignores the facts.

Let's start with your main premise: a casino would be good for Oxford County, you claim, "because it could work" by bringing jobs and economic development to an economically depressed region of Maine.

Here's the problem: casinos haven't worked anywhere else to bring jobs and economic development, so why would a casino work for Oxford County?

No public option is no reform at all

A public insurance option would introduce some compassion, fairness and efficiency back into our nation's health care system. I have been a family physician for 25 years and I am aghast at the way my profession has been crippled by our nation's progressively more expensive and less efficient health policies.

Irving Kristol remembered for neoconservative ideas

"I am so nostalgic." That's the phrase I associate most with Irving Kristol, who died last week at the age of 89.

Obama can't delay decision on Afghan strategy

President Obama wants to postpone a full-scale debate over Afghan policy until Congress passes health-care reform.

Unfortunately for Obama, Afghanistan won't wait on health care. A debate on the direction of his Afghan policy is already brewing in Congress — especially over whether to send more troops.

U.S. appeasement policies please evil adversaries

When I was a kid, there was a bully in our neighborhood. He never picked on kids his own size and certainly not on anyone larger. Rather, he punched, pushed and kicked kids smaller and weaker than himself, especially those who refused to respond to his threats. Stirred by his adversaries' impotent responses, the bully felt free to slug anyone he fancied. Most kids tried to avoid him, thinking their demonstration of weakness might protect them from being hit. It never did. Having set themselves up as easy targets, the bully went after these kids first.

How quickly they forgot the lessons of Sunday school

"Thou shalt not bear false witness ..." - Exodus 20:16

Jim Wallis wants to take Glenn Beck to Sunday school.

On occasion, the Fox News host has spoken of his daughter, who was born with cerebral palsy. According to Sojourners, a faith-based organization Wallis co-founded and leads, Beck recalled last month how doctors warned that the baby, if carried to term, might never walk, speak or feed herself. That was 21 years ago and she is now a miraculous young woman who defied the dire expectations.

President Obama playing footsie with Russian bullies

If diplomatic pusillanimity was the aim, President Barack Obama's decision to abandon our current missile-defense plans in Eastern Europe must be regarded as a masterstroke.

With just one announcement, the Obama administration undercut two loyal allies, rewarded Russian bullying and diminished our ability to counter an emerging Iranian threat. If there were awards for self-defeating weakness, this move would deserve a Neville for Appeasement in a Perpetually Threatened Region.

Iran cannot hope to silence its many critics

The world's most gripping political drama is still playing out in Iran, where the vicious tactics of a hard-line regime have been unable to silence an unarmed opposition calling for reform.

A law to protect the press and public

The following editorial appeared in the Sacramento Bee on Wednesday, Sept. 16:

A U.S. Senate committee is considering a proposal to ensure that federal authorities exhaust all other means of gathering information before seeking to force journalists to reveal confidential sources. This is a good idea, not just because it protects journalists but because it protects citizens against an overly intrusive federal government and helps ensure that the public learns of government wrongdoing.