I even had my own moment in a high-tech military jet fighter. Every day, literally hundreds of ordinary Americans – people just like you, except that they are imaginary – ask me: “Dave, are you running for president again?”As you can imagine, this is a very difficult question, and I will not be able to […]

AUSTIN, Texas – This is a gross scandal. The Center for Public Integrity has a stunning study out on the concentration of ownership in telecommunications. The even more stunning news is that the Federal Communications Commission, which theoretically represents you and me, is about to make all of it even worse. And behind this betrayal […]

BAGHDAD – They are everywhere in the Iraqi capital, the young men and women of the U.S. armed forces, patrolling the streets in humvees in tandem with newly rehired Iraqi policemen, directing traffic, and blocking key streets.They are guarding banks as Iraqi children peer into tank windows. Soldiers are shopping in groups of three or […]

A message of conviction is fine; a message of gassy ideology violates civility rules. From now on, anyone planning a college commencement will have to consider the Chris Hedges problem. Hedges is an anti-war activist and New York Times reporter who gave an unusually grating anti-war speech at the Rockford College commencement in Illinois.Few speakers […]

Thoughts at large:• You have to give the French one thing: at least they didn’t throw rocks and stage anti-American protests after we liberated them in World War II.• Why, when dogs are put out back, do they spend their whole time wanting to come in, and when allowed in, spend their whole time wanting […]

This is the sentence that triggered all the commotion:“Toni Morrison’s genius enables her to create novels that arise from and express the injustices African-Americans have endured.”It was a sloppy sentence, but never mind the syntax. Does the sentence contain an error in grammar?The experts who posed that question last October at first thought the correct […]

Last week the House was all set to routinely pass a bill that would raise traffic fines – infractions like speeding, failure to stop for a red light, uninspected motor vehicle and so on – by 10 percent.Rep. Lois Snowe-Mello, R-Poland, had a role in stopping that from happening.Earlier this session the bill came out […]

Pressure to hire underqualified applicants seems to be on the rise. A stuffed moose made an appearance a while ago at the big New York Times staff meeting (held in a Broadway movie theater) to deal with the uproar over the fraudulent reporting of Jayson Blair, the young black Times reporter who has resigned. To […]

Time to start planning that annual ritual – the sacrifice of your sanity. Summer vacation season is almost here, and if you have kids, you know what that means! It’s time to put them up for adoption.No, sorry. I mean it’s time to start planning your family summer vacation. This is your chance to escape […]

WASHINGTON – Here’s how Maine’s members of Congress were recorded on major roll call votes in the week ending May 23. HOUSE Wildfires, logging Voting 256 for and 170 against, the House on May 20 passed a bill (HR 1904) waiving environmental rules so that commercial logging in national forests can be increased to control […]