So apparently, Jayson Blair’s biggest crime is not that he cheated and misled. It’s that he cheated and misled while black.That’s the unmistakable implication of much of the criticism that’s been leveled at the young man in recent days.Not that he doesn’t deserve condemnation. As you may have heard, Blair lied and plagiarized his way […]

Monday’s Supreme Court decision that has been interpreted as the go-ahead for Maine Rx must be an exceptionally bitter pill for the pharmaceutical industry to swallow. Especially since it was the industry itself that asked the bench to rule.It is not wrong to suggest it is beyond time the drug companies got a taste of […]

It is easy to be offended that any city councilor could summon the nerve to block the e-mail correspondence of a council colleague, based on sheer rudeness alone.While rude, it is also appropriate.Auburn City Councilor Kelly Matzen is exactly right to refuse to participate in what are essentially secret conversations among council members.Freshman Councilor Bob […]

The campaign against one of the greatest Americans ever continues. The Richmond area Boy Scouts have stripped Robert E. Lee’s name from their uniforms, title and logo.How sad, given that Lee’s life, and the maxims by which he lived, are exactly what the growing generation of boys in this country needs.Everyone knows why the Scouts […]

According to The New York Times (and did anyone ever think that phrase would be accompanied by a trapdoor of doubt?), fewer than one in three Americans think President Bush’s tax cut will cure the ailing economy.Fifty-eight percent think we should reduce the soaring budget deficit instead.Which suggests that with little prompting by congressional Democrats […]

Each year state bureaucrats grind $1 billion through a Dr. Suess-like behemoth and call it the school funding formula.The process is an albatross of inefficiency.And once touted as a national model of fairness, the formula no longer creates educational equity among the haves and the have-nots.In a report issued last week, the Maine Center for […]

Sen. Olympia Snowe should be congratulated for standing firm against an economic stimulus package pushed by President Bush and a majority of GOP senators.She was one of three Republican senators who voted against the Senate Jobs and Growth package because of a dividend tax cut provision that she terms “risky and highly speculative.”We applaud her […]

I worry more about Bill Bennett’s appetite at the dinner table than his appetite at the roulette table. Girth is considerably more lethal than gambling, but who’s counting?A lot of the people who criticize Bennett’s gambling, that’s who. You can bet they don’t have his physical health in mind. They want only to saddle up […]

One of the biggest surprises for the Bush administration in postwar Iraq has been the rise of Shia religious power.In southern cities and Baghdad slums, Shiite Muslim clerics have rushed to fill the power vacuum created by Saddam’s fall and the U.S. failure to provide postwar security. The latest example: Last week, the influential Iraqi […]

OK, you’ve just been in a car accident. Your car is crumpled, and you’re injured. Through the smoke you see firefighters with extrication tools coming to remove you from the wreck.If your injuries are not too painful, you may feel a wave of relief. Help is on the way.But before you settle into the neck […]