Free speech in a free country means we can criticize public figures because they’re, well, public. It’s almost a duty that goes with the territory. The criticism may be unfair, exaggerated and purely partisan, but open debate usually enables everyone to sort everything out, by listening closely to the words as a guide to the […]

About half of the people informally polled in the Twin Cities early this week didn’t know what blood-alcohol level constitutes criminal drunk driving. That’s better than the 70 percent of people polled nationwide who didn’t know. But does any of this really matter?Do we have to know the exact booze-to-blood reading that defines drunk driving?It […]

Americans are good people.Somalis are good people, but they are being demonized by the National Alliance and the World Church of the Creator as part of a propaganda campaign.With just a little effort, any group of people can be made to seem less than human. Few of us would want to attack or harm another […]

The Maine Department of Transportation must “justify” development of bicycle trails in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties because MDOT uses federal funds.That’s backwards.MDOT should have to justify not developing trails with every major project.Martin Rooney, MDOT planner, presented an overview of upcoming transportation projects in the tri-county region last week. A number of people from […]

“Never apologize, Mr. Pennell, it’s a sign of weakness.”So remonstrated Captain Nathan Brittles with a shavetail lieutenant of the U.S. cavalry in “She Wore A Yellow Ribbon.”About now, Mr. Trent Lott, the veteran senator from Mississippi, might wish he had thought about the fictive horseman’s sage advice. To your enemies, apology is appeasement.Sen. Lott, everyone […]

Now he tells us! Al Gore has been scooting from George Stephanopoulos to Judy Woodruff to Jon Stewart telling everyone about his new revelation: The time has come for an American version of a single-payer health care system that would cover our 40-plus million uninsured.He’s right that Democrats need to take their ambition out of […]

November was national Homelessness Awareness Month. It hardly got noticed. Nearly as invisible as about 1 million homeless people living in this nation.The holiday season may seem an odd time to launch an effort to increase awareness of homelessness, but it isn’t. Homelessness doesn’t take a holiday. In fact, the stress of the season often […]

I’d be happy to give Trent Lott the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, there isn’t any.As you’ve doubtless heard by now, the presumptive Senate majority leader stuck his foot in it last week at a party for Sen. Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday. Referring to Thurmond’s 1948 bid for the presidency, the Mississippi senator declared:“I want […]

The idea of “total information awareness,” or TIA, has come under fire lately. And for good reason. This new system for intelligence gathering could backfire and lead to a repetition of the intelligence failures America experienced prior to Sept. 11, 2001.TIA is a Pentagon program designed to build a large-scale counter-terrorism database from myriad sources, […]

You may not realize it, but Turkey has had quite enough of your attitude. And Brazil also has issues with you. In fact, the whole world is less happy with you than it once was.That’s the gist of a new survey published by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. You can […]