Thanks to the Senate’s report on CIA torture, Americans should now realize that there was nothing “enhanced” about the Bush administration’s so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques.” These tactics were more than just cruel and degrading ”“ they were also harmful. Far from providing intelligence that saved lives, these techniques produced unreliable intelligence. And they’ve associated our […]

The Times Record of Brunswick, Dec. 23: A student from Bowdoin College is fatherless after the shooting of two New York City police officers who were sitting in their car the Saturday before Christmas. The alleged shooter left an Instagram post that said he was going to shoot a couple of cops in retaliation for […]

This should be the best of years for the Republican Party. It holds its largest majority since 1928 in the U.S. House of Representatives. It controls the governor’s chair and both houses of the state legislature (there’s only one in Nebraska) in 24 states. If you add up the popular vote for House members across […]

The month of January is named after the Roman god, Janus. He is the god of transitions, gates, doors, endings and beginnings, and time itself. He is depicted with two faces ”“ always facing forwards and backwards at the same time. That is a good way to enter any new year, remembering what we learned […]

Change. I hate it. And like other hermits and shut-ins, I can readily reference movie quotes to adequately sum up my feelings on the subject. In this case, the movie is “Clerks,” a 1994 indie flick from writer/director Kevin Smith, a poop joke-loving, puerile filmmaker with a penchant for arcane Star Wars references and bestiality […]

Regarding the article “Church-based institutions ponder same-sex benefits,” I would have to say that institutions don’t “ponder” anything. It takes a thinking human to ponder. So, what exactly would it be that this human, the head of an organization, would ponder? Well, the long and short of it is that he or she would decide […]

President Obama has long advocated closing the U.S. terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He likely would have done it long ago, had Congress not stopped him. Now, however, Obama is not in the mood to abide by anything Congress says. And he is again talking about closing Guantanamo. The result could be an ugly […]

I never make New Year’s resolutions. Number one, the turning of one year to the next has never struck me as particularly significant in any way. Moreover, other than tradition, it isn’t clear to me why a decision to do something new or better or to somehow improve my behavior should be linked to the […]