Soon, the United States may launch a war on Iraq.When it does, the combat veterans will return home to a hero’s welcome, and deservedly so.But many of them won’t be able to celebrate with a drink at a bar because the legal drinking age from Anchorage to St. Augustine is 21. And that is because […]

Prescription drugs are essential to life — the length of it and the pleasure of it.On Thursday, German scientists announced a new drug that appears to stop cancer by cutting off its blood supply. For anyone who has suffered through cancer, or fears being diagnosed with some form of this disease, the promise of a […]

Jimmy is just a poor white boy trying to make it in a black man’s world.To which the black men, some of them anyway, react with unbridled hostility. As depicted in the compelling new movie “8 Mile,” they brand him with names one can’t repeat in a daily newspaper. But for all that, perhaps the […]

There is an American business owner who has cost taxpayers $1 million in unpaid loans.Default might be excused once, or even twice, if the owner fell victim to economic disasters or the market fell under whatever he was peddling. But this particular owner cannot be excused. Neither can the loan guarantor: the Small Business Administration.Of […]

“There was no corner of the known world where some interest was not alleged to be in danger or under actual attack. If the interests were not Roman, they were those of Rome’s allies; and if Rome had no allies, the allies would be invented…. The fight was always invested with an aura of legality. […]

Information is a commodity, to be bought and sold.The speed and ease of technology has made the trading of information more convenient for businesses and consumers, and equally convenient for crooks.All electronic information is open to hacking, and there are plenty of unscrupulous people out there eager to take what they can. And new wireless […]

Marxists used to vow that capitalism’s “internal contradictions” would reach the point when the system would implode. “That’s when we make our move!” said the coffeehouse strategists.Struggling Democrats face a less easily parodied but more consequential contradiction as the debate on economic stimulus heats up. It’s the tension between the call by some Democrats to […]

Lest there be any doubt as to the political clout of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine, look no further than John’s Bridge.The bridge crosses Maine’s legendary Allagash Wilderness Waterway at the narrows, separating Churchill and Eagle lakes. Over the years, people have been allowed — or not allowed — to launch canoes from the land […]

I’m sure you’re just as relieved as I am at the news that Winona Ryder probably won’t be going to jail. I’ll bet you’ve lost sleep and appetite at the thought of her being traded around the prison yard for smokes.Well, we can all breathe a little easier. Though Ryder was convicted of one count […]