The U.S. Supreme Court will come back in a couple of weeks, and it will again be making politically charged decisions on whether laws passed by Congress are allowed by the Constitution. Such decisions are among the most controversial it makes. They give the Court a power greater than Congress, which makes the laws. This […]

Being of the compulsive persuasion, I’ve long realized it’s only by the grace of something “out there” that controls such things, that I don’t drink booze. It is not that I am a crusader against alcohol or anyone who likes to have a nip now and again. It’s simply that I cannot abide the taste […]

The Gathering Place (TGP) is a unique community. Our guests are of all ages: older people living on Social Security or a pension, some just scraping by and some pretty comfortable; aging hippies; bold young men and women, school dropouts, college graduates, musicians, fishermen, veterans, retirees, artists, new Mainers, people traveling through, and people who’ve […]

I used to think the gold standard for American health care reform would be a “universal” or “single-payer” system similar to Canada’s, where everyone is covered, there are no bills to consumers and government directs spending to providers. Canada’s system is called Medicare. It started when our Medicare did, in 1965, and became nationwide by […]