Froma Harrop: A jerk and his job may soon be parted

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Published
October 16, 2021

Froma Harrop: A jerk and his job may soon be parted

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for a private employer to get rid of a worker deemed bad for business, he or she can. Such appears to be the fate of Jon Gruden, who resigned as the Las Vegas Raiders football coach after a trove of racist, sexist and homophobic utterings came to light.
Published
October 16, 2021

Bob Neal: The Countryman: Powerful men behaving badly

The missing element in Jon Gruden's behavior, as in the behavior of millions who post lies and rubbish on the internet, is responsibility. To quote Peter Parker, a.k.a. Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility." Gruden had great power as a head coach and TV analyst. He needed to show some responsibility. He didn't.
Published
October 15, 2021

Austin Bay: Biden’s Afghan debacle: Questions future historians will ask

Would threatened mass military resignations have given pause to an administration rife with credentialed mediocrities convinced of their own genius? Would they have reconsidered their "perception driven, political optics" Beltway strategy, accepted the horrible facts and acted to stop an impending debacle?
Published
October 14, 2021

Cal Thomas: Defining education down

Cutting a gifted and talented program and not requiring kids to read, write or do basic math flunks the test of what education is supposed to mean and limits a child's job and career opportunities. That is a form of child abuse.
Published
October 11, 2021

Fall foliage flopping: How climate change is dulling and delaying your leaf peeping

Predictive maps based on historical and current weather data show peak season will occur in mid- to late October over much of the eastern U.S. this year, but climate change is expected to keep nudging these dates backward in the coming decades. Through the Second Century Stewardship Foundation, Stephanie Spera, an assistant professor at the University of Richmond, is analyzing fall foliage changes at Acadia National Park on Maine's Mount Desert Island.
Published
October 11, 2021

America’s 50,000 monuments: More mermaids than congresswomen, more Confederates than abolitionists

Of the 50 historical figures most frequently honored with a monument, only three were women: Joan of Arc, Sacagawea and Harriet Tubman. Tubman, the only one of the three who would have called herself American, was born enslaved and was not considered a citizen until she was in her 40s.
Published
October 11, 2021

The climate crisis is spawning weird ideas to fix it. They might be all we have.

A team led by Jan Langbein, an animal psychologist at the Research Institute for Farm Animal Biology in Germany, has proposed training cows to use a toilet. In a recent study published in the journal Cell, 10 out of 16 calves were successfully trained to urinate in a "MooLoo," a designated area of their pens.
Published
October 10, 2021

Rich Lowry: National divorce is a poisonously stupid idea

The practical obstacles are insuperable, and the likely effects would be very unwelcome to its proponents. If an insufficient patriotism is one of the ills of contemporary America, then a national divorce would prescribe arsenic as a cure. It would burn down America to save America, or at least those parts of it considered salvageable.
Published
October 10, 2021

Cal Thomas: The Pandora papers

The Pandora Papers, "an expose of the financial secrets and offshore dealings of dozens of heads of state, public officials and politicians," writes CNN, could not have come at a better time for congressional "progressives" who are seeking to win over enough Democrats to pass the massive Biden-Pelosi $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill, which is loaded with enough pork to infect the nation with financial trichinosis.
Published
October 10, 2021

Anna Kellar: Lessons learned from Maine’s redistricting process

Ultimately, Maine should not be ashamed of its redistricting process, but it should not celebrate it as the pinnacle of democracy and representation either. By entrusting map drawing to politicians and limiting time for public feedback, there is a question as to how well the new district lines truly serve the public interest. As a state that avoids the worst of redistricting, we should continue to ask ourselves how we can do better.