Unsolicited commercial junk e-mail, or “spam,” is a huge problem. Especially the porn; I have to shoo my kids out of the room when I check my e-mail. But junk legislation offered up to presumably solve the problem can make things worse.Touted at an unsolicited press conference this week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., proposed legislation […]

I am sick and tired of the Africans.Sicker and more tired than I am of people trying to sell me home loans, ink cartridges and easy money-making opportunities. Sicker and more tired than I am of receiving newsletters I never requested from groups I care nothing about. Sicker and more tired than I am of […]

When journalists write about taxes, you ask three things: Do they understand math, do they understand government, and do they understand human nature?Nearly every column published about income taxes is pregnant with the bromidic liberal myths of our age: taxes are too low, the rich get unfair tax breaks, tax cuts will increase deficits.And that […]

Assessinga drop instandardsAfter an exhaustive public process, with backing from the Legislature, the Maine Educational Assessment was initiated in 1985.Now, with no formal public input whatsoever and no legislative directive, the Maine Department of Education is scrapping half of the test – dropping assessments of social studies, health and visual and performing arts altogether – […]

AUSTIN, Texas – The sour joke is: “Of course we know the Iraqis have weapons of mass destruction. We have the receipts.” At this point, the administration would probably be delighted if it could find the WMDs the Reagan administration gave Saddam Hussein. At least it could point to some WMDs.This is a “what if […]

DangerousdisregardNinety-eight percent of parents do not believe their teenager has consumed alcohol in the past 30 days.Thirty-eight percent of teenagers report drinking alcohol during the past month.That’s a 60 percent discrepancy in reality.Teenagers are drinking. Parents don’t know it. And merchants are selling booze to kids.A four-month undercover operation found that stores in Androscoggin, Franklin […]

Let us spend a few moments contemplating naked chicks.Naked Dixie Chicks, to be exact, meaning the country music trio from Texas whose Natalie Maines has become more famous for something she said than for anything she ever sang. If you’re not familiar with what she said, well … Welcome back. And how are things on […]

Nature builds and destroys. The evidence is all around us, in streams and rock formations. In fields and forests.The Old Man of the Mountain, a strong and defiant rocky profile protruding from a mountain in Franconia Notch State Park, was considered the enduring symbol of New Hampshire. It collapsed last week, victim of years of […]

J. Michel Patry, who is seriously ill, is handing over the reins of his beloved Creative Photographic Art Center of Maine to a new director. His commitment to the city of Lewiston, to students of photography and to his fellow veterans must not go unnoticed.Patry was subjected to heavy public criticism last year when the […]

Study ofcelebrityThe first step in creating a new national park in Maine’s North Woods is a feasibility study. That, “Restore: The North Woods” got right. What it got wrong is the makeup of the committee that will consider feasibility.Christopher Reeve once flew over the North Woods in a private plane, which is why he’s been […]