This is a campaign year, full of political promises. The economy will be an issue, though it’s loaded with common, though dubious, beliefs. To start, it is true that the economy is better than during the recession. Employment has largely recovered. In Maine, the Portland/ South Portland jobless rate is 3.1 percent, an impressive level […]

A t the bathroom where I work, the toilet lids are made by a company called Sexauer. I’m not OK with that. Obviously, the good folks at this fine crapper supply company didn’t name themselves “Sexauer” to intentionally gross people out. If that had been their goal, they would have called their outfit “Poopums,” or […]

Out here on the edge of the national forest, in the cattle-ranching, timbercutting, deer-hunting Arkansas county where I live, this Ammon Bundy guy looks like the Al Sharpton of cows. His publicity seeking has created a media pseudo event of a particularly modern kind. Can anybody doubt that the feds could more efficiently resolve the […]

Many of today’s journalism stars rose to prominence by writing exceptional blogs that broke some important national and international stories. When you stand alone as a journalist, your own conscience must be the judge of your ethics. Most get it right on their own. Others don’t, sometimes in spectacular fashion. However respected they become, these […]

Establishment Presidential Candidates Battle to End Flirtation With Outsiders.” That Wall Street Journal headline sums up the race for the Republican nomination less than a month before the Iowa caucuses. Most political analysts, including us, have long predicted that once GOP voters got serious, once they focused on the importance of their decision, they would […]