The tax code is complicated. It’s dense, hard to understand, and sometimes seems pointlessly convoluted. For the most part when we encounter confusing rules or loopholes we know they exist for a legitimate reason. The carried interest loophole, to put it succinctly, does not fall into that category. Carried interest gets its name from the […]

On the cross, Christ personified ultimate forgiveness. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Christ is forgiveness incarnate. Our responsibility to “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 13:14) requires us to practice forgiveness. Indeed, the failure to forgive is described by Christ in the most serious of terms. “If […]

At the beginning  of this month, the Bangor Daily News and Maine Public reported that the Heartland Institute had sent out 25,000 packets of “educational materials” to junior and senior high school science teachers, including many Maine teachers. Heartland’s ultimate goal is to mail 200,000 packets to teachers throughout the country. New Hampshire is no doubt on their list. The […]

With the discussion front and center regarding the future of the Affordable Care Act, I believe it is time to focus on the real issue that this debate needs to center on and that is the unaffordable costs of health care! Too much of the debate and discussions to date has focused on the insurance […]

Someone needs to come up with a more rigorous definition of “road trip,” because the internet is no help in the matter. Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite source for factually dubious information, describes road trips in vague terms, saying they typically occur over a “large land mass.” This is not useful. One could conceivably label Dwayne “The […]

“If your children are no better than you are, you have fathered them in vain, indeed you have lived in vain.” – Solzhenitsyn from “Cancer Ward” Actually, I am not satisfied merely if my children are better than I am, for I have set that bar rather low. At the very least, my goal is that […]

During a CNN presidential town hall last year, an 81-year-old man from Concord, New Hampshire, with phase IV colon cancer, Jim Kinhan, asked Hillary Clinton what she could do to “help advance the respectful conversation that is needed around this personal choice that people may make, as we age and deal with health issues or […]

During Lent, the 46 days from Ash Wednesday to the day before Easter, many Christians focus on giving up or doing without something. Not eating a favorite food or drinking a preferred beverage is common. So is not participating in an enjoyable activity or avoiding a bad habit. Over the years, I’ve given up eating […]

Clean water is important. I recently took a business trip to Tucson, Arizona, and I have to report that I was absolutely shocked by the poor quality of the tap water. It tasted like it contained ground-up chalk. I’m sure the water was “potable” and therefore OK to drink, and I did arrive home in […]

As a Fellow in Nevada U.S. Sen. Harry Reid’s office specializing in energy policy in 2001, Peter Winkour spent his days working on the Energy Policy Act of 2002, a 977-page bill that included tax legislation on renewable energy and would have created tens of thousands of jobs. Like many Hill staffers, he wrote legislation, […]