Americans give about 12 percent of their income to perfect strangers, meaning politicians and bureaucrats, with the cheerful, simpleminded optimism the strangers will save the money for their retirement.This is called Social Security, and why we fell for the scheme is anyone’s guess. But as if the program isn’t a big enough scam, we now […]

Is the United States going to war with Iraq to get its hands on Iraqi oil fields? Nearly everyone in the Middle East thinks so. So do some Americans.The theory is seductive. Iraq has the world’s second-largest oil reserves, with rich new fields to explore.It’s not just critics of an Iraq war who speculate about […]

Diet is a four-letter word, and treated with much the same disdain as profanity.We don’t like to diet because we like to eat. Not only is eating essential to life, it’s part of our social structure.The dreaded diet makes us feel like we’re sacrificing something valuable. It’s a lot of work. It can be expensive. […]

If you ever saw that picture of Emmett Till, you never forgot it.Not the one that shows a handsome brown teen-ager, hat tipped up slightly off his forehead. Not, in other words, the before picture.No, I’m talking about the picture that was taken after. After he went down from Chicago to visit family in Mississippi […]

History will cast President Bush in many roles. Some harsh and some kind. One that must figure prominently will be information cop.Never mind the Homeland Security Act and the new information databases being designed to track our purchases and movements in the name of public safety. President Bush seems bent on limiting information that had, […]

One of the beauties of the Internet is the occasional unsolicited e-mail containing a small gem of unalloyed truth.Once in a while, you get one that bears repeating.A succinct parable hurtling through cyberspace now clearly explains our tax system, and explodes the liberal myth that tax cuts are “unfair” because they “favor” the rich.The story […]

Silly Democrats! Don’t they see that answering the president’s phony economic stimulus plan with a dull old real one is a loser? Why, it’s downright sweet, the way they’re actually proposing a sensible stimulus with relief for low-income workers and strapped states. Since the White House is going to blast even tepid opposition as “class […]

When coal burns in Michigan, trees die in Maine.Sound fair?We don’t think so.Neither do the attorneys general of nine states, including all of New England. They are suing the Bush Administration for — they claim — illegally gutting the Clean Air Act.The 1970 federal law required coal-burning plants and other polluters to add modern pollution […]

The new year began sadly when Joe Foss died on Jan. 1.If you don’t know Foss, you should. He was the top Marine Corps fighter pilot of World War II with 26 kills, and he received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor, the Distinguished Flying Cross and other battle ribbons.An interesting […]

Intolerance. Acceptance. Hate. Peace. Fear. Balance. Violence. Tolerance. Anger. Hope.Tears.All of this, and more, will be in Lewiston Saturday as we rally for peace.We have endured several tumultuous months in this city, a time when hate has been unveiled and diversity celebrated. It has been wearing on us all.It started in early October when Mayor […]