I’m worried, you’re worried, we’re all worried! In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve become a land of worried people. Not that we didn’t have worries before the Great Recession of 2008-09. After all, we suffered through the Great Depression, which by all accounts was far, far worse. We’ve worried our way through a mess of […]
Our View
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Tax holiday a red flag for Social Security
If Republicans had proposed temporarily cutting the Social Security payroll tax, Democrats would have thrown a fit. “What? Are you trying to dismantle our social safety net? Are you trying to kill the only program standing between millions of seniors and abject poverty?” And so it would have gone. But, since the chief Democrat himself […]
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Issues around WikiLeaks raises broader questions for U.S. and allies
The strange case of Julian Assange bears some reflection for us all. If you haven’t been paying attention, Assange is the Australian founder of the controversial website WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks recently released a barrage of classified communiques between various high-ranking U.S. military and State Department officials. The release of these documents, believed to have been leaked […]
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Short takes on the week’s news
The Bethel Water District will charge the Bethel Regional Chamber of Commerce $2,000 for water needed to construct a 149-foot mountain of ice in January. District officials say they can only waive fees for charitable or benevolent organizations. Board Chairman Brent Angevine was clear on this point, emphasizing that a majority of district trustees did […]
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Time to cut fed subsidy for ethanol
On the road to energy independence, we will go down some dead-end streets. When we do, we should have the good sense to turn around and go the other way. It now seems clear that growing corn to produce ethanol makes neither business nor environmental sense, and it’s time to gradually withdraw government support for […]
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Student’s docudrama shocks classmates, prof
It was, shall we say, totally sick. And not in good way. University of Maine student Dane Bolding walked to the front of his documentary film class Saturday with a live rabbit in a box. He threw a tarp over a table, took out a knife and announced that he would now skin the furry […]
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Conflicts mean some members should abstain
In case there is any doubt about it, the four Androscoggin County Budget Committee members whose family members or relatives could be affected by an upcoming vote should abstain. One of those members, Mark Samson, already says he will. The others should do the same. The vote involves a difficult issue, an attempt by the […]
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Most Mainers want to work but need opportunity
Since Black Bear Entertainment began advertising for job applicants for its proposed casino in Oxford, the group has received 4,200 inquiries. Which speaks, we think, to the overwhelming desire of most Mainers to be productively employed or to find a better job. That’s why we find it disturbing to hear people suggest that denying people […]
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Paying off their campaign debts now top priority
We’re not going to call it “business as usual,” mainly because a whole group of new congressmen just won election running against that. So let’s just call it “business as always” in the nation’s capital. The Washington Post has reported on how newly minted congressmen are already staging big-money fundraisers with lobbyists even before taking […]
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Soldier’s death raises questions about Afghan war
Athens, Ohio. Population 21,342. Beaver Dam, Wis. 14,983. Peru, Maine. 1,515. Quartz Hill, Calif. 9,626. Senoia, Ga. 3,720. Tell City, Ind. 7,473. Six small towns, stretched from one side of the country to the other, shared a common agony this week — the death of a young hometown hero. At Dover Air Force Base in […]